[PB59] Lazteuq worries for the endangered lurker species

[Lazteuq]

(No PB59 Players)
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Password is ion

With so many people tied up in their own player threads, who will be left to demand blood?
Actually, I'm think it will be fine, there are plenty of potential lurkers left. 26 threads is a lot of reading, but hey, people lurk the 52-player civforum games, so who am I to say? I'll probably change the title later.
Seriously though, I fear the turn pace will be horrible.

My only priority for this civ+leader pick is to try new and fun stuff. This game will be wild, and I have no expectation of even doing well. I think I'm noticeably less skilled than probably 80-90% of the players who signed up. So I might as well at least make it fun.

Here are some thoughts about traits. Of course I'm at the mercy of RNGesus for the options, but I just wanted to write some stuff down anyways:
-Spiritual is a fun trait that I should definitely play more often. The serfdom buff makes it more attractive as well.
-Organized will be nice on a map this big. I've been wanting to play ORG more as well. I think I've underrated it in the past. Kinda boring though.
-Imperialistic: I don't really understand this trait. I know it's pretty good, but I've hardly ever played with it.
-Aggressive: Probably fun, especially for a chaotic large game. If I want to play it any time, now would be a good opportunity!
-Charismatic: Similar to IMP, I also don't understand it very well. Might be fun.
-Protective: I've been pretty satisfied with Protective in PB56. I'm really unsure how Protective scales with map size, if at all. In a game with lots of experienced players, the extra deterrent value would be nice, but that's not a very fun way to think...
-Expansive: Not sure what to say. I guess fast Granaries are pretty great, but it's not very interesting.
-Financial: Not very interested. I used to play singleplayer with it a lot, but I don't really care for it. Makes me think: how wet will this map be?
-Creative: Also not very interested. I've played with it a lot, relying on it as a crutch. I don't need the crutch as much now, I think I've gotten better at city placement and tile sharing.
-I think Industrious is very questionable with this many players. I don't think I'll want to even try for wonders. IND is basically a failgold generating trait in my eyes. I guess IND means you don't need Currency as urgently.
-Philosophical: I definitely like the trait(I've played it in both my games here so far), but I haven't leveraged it very well. Especially in a game where wonders will be tough to get, I think I should avoid PHI.

[Lewwyn]

Your first Civ choice: Persia


Your first leader choices: Montezuma, Hatsheput


Starting screenshots will be posted in a couple days. You may wait to finalize a choice until then. You may reject or accept any of these choices. You will have a max of 2 more choices of civ and a max of 4 more leaders.

[Lazteuq]

Huh, 2 spiritual leaders. I got what I wanted! Hatshepsut is probably stronger, but I'm more interested in playing Montezuma.
I want to lock in Montezuma now, but I'll wait on the start to see if Persia's Agri+Hunting is good.

[Lewwyn]

Here is the starting screenshot. Let me know when you've decided whether to lock in either the civ or leader or what you'd like to reroll. Confirm in the next two days please. I will be rerolling for everyone that rejects either civ or leader or both once I have all confirmations for this round of selections.

Your start:

[Lazteuq]

Thanks, Lewwyn. This is an interesting start. I do want to lock in Montezuma of Persia.

[Lazteuq]

I messed around in Worldbuilder and decided to probably go fishing-mining-BW.
The alternative is AH-mining-BW. Both should give a settler on T31, but the fishing route will reveal copper earlier, so I should be able to send that settler toward copper. If I go worker first, he actually ends up with nothing to do for like 6 turns before I can start chopping.
I think spending a turn moving to the jungle sugar is probably worth it, because that's +1 food surplus forever, and it speeds access to the fish, without really losing any quality of land.
I'm really valuing early copper, because it's a reasonably tight map full of good players. Also I have Aggressive, so axes and spears are even better. I can probably go a long time without Archery.
I'll probably chop for the second worker, as the capitol grows back to size 4.
Of course, if a neighbor decides to send an early warrior they can completely ruin my day. That's just a risk I'm going to take.

[Lazteuq]

Turn 5:

I'm going to send my scout south and west next.
There's some pretty nice land to the north, but also jungle. A good natural border chokepoint I think.
I'm definitely not the only person who settled on Turn 1. I won't bother reading the demographic tea leaves any more now, I'm sure other players have already done some nice analysis.

I'd like to do some early aggression with axes and spears, probably involving cheap early barracks. Immortals are cool too, but I don't expect my neighbors to build many archers unless they're Protective.

To leverage Spiritual, getting early Monarchy and Code of Laws is important. Then I can start freely swapping in and out of Caste and Serfdom. Because Serfdom and Caste both incentivize farms over cottages, I think I'll build a lot of farms.

I still haven't built a world wonder in a pitboss game, but this probably isn't a good time to try. That stone means I can at least farm some nice failgold though.

With only 7 religions on a map this big, I have no guarantee of being able to use the cheap temples from Spiritual. I'm certainly not going to research anything religious myself until after Bronze Working and Animal Husbandry are done. With an early push for Monarchy, I suppose I might get Judaism. Not a good thing to plan on though.

I need a city naming theme.... maybe endangered species?

[Lazteuq]

Turn 13:

Capitol has grown to size 3, and I'm apparently the only player on the whole map to do that! That makes me seriously question my choices. I hope a later-than-average settler is worth knowing where copper is before sending him out.
Growing to size 3 doesn't feel too bad since I have so many 3foodhammer+1commerce tiles.
My plan hasn't changed yet: Still going for T17 work boat and T30 settler whip. Next tech after BW is probably AH.

It's pretty empty out there, I still haven't met anyone! Barbarian animals are definitely not an endangered species.

[RefSteel]

Hi there!  I'm not dedlurking this one, but even as one of those endangered global lurkers, maybe I can contribute something in one of my few chances to post here...

I need a city naming theme.... maybe endangered species?

In case it helps, here's an alphabetical selection of some endangered (and Critically Endangered and a couple "merely" Vulnerable) species:

Amur Leopard: https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/amur-leopard
Black Rhino:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/black-rhino
Chimpanzee:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/chimpanzee
Dugong:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/dugong
Elephant:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/asian-elephant
Fin Whale:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/fin-whale
Gorilla:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/gorilla
Hector's Dolphin:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/hector-s-dolphin
Indus R Dolphin:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/in...er-dolphin
Javan Rhino:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/javan-rhino
Killer Whale:  https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/killer-whale
Leatherback:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/le...ack-turtle
Marine Iguana:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/marine-iguana
Neophocaena:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/ya...s-porpoise
Orangutan:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/orangutan
Pangolin:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/pangolin
Red Panda:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/red-panda
Snow Leopard:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/snow-leopard
Tiger:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger
Ursus maritimus:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/polar-bear
Vaquita:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/vaquita
Whale Shark:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/whale-shark

(Just 24 examples here, but of course there are many more, and that might be enough for awhile even if you take this list straight.  Also, I admit that I'm a little biased:  I like dolphins quite a lot.)

[shallow_thought]

In the interest of being cheerful, perhaps a list of species that have  been successfully brought back from the brink? Not that I'm sure there are enough for a game of Civ IV ...

Although a post by Ref is a start .