[PB79] End of the beginning?

[coldrain]

First Pitboss, if playing a couple of assisting turns doesn't count.

[Dreylin]

Checking in.

Any thoughts on what combos you're interested in playing?

[coldrain]

Welcome! Your help will be greatly appreciated.

I don't have anything special in mind yet. Some of the traditionally weak traits or civs in vanilla BtS could be fun to try out in CtH.

[greenline]

Your start:




Tiles within the fat cross of where the settler is will not change. I would not recommend simming based on tiles outside of the fat cross, as those may change during final map revisions.

[coldrain]

Thanks Greenline! A rich start for sure. I'd assume that everyone gets a forested banana and plains hill plant at start. Hmm, not sure if I want to rush animal husbandry first with only cows. Gut feeling says to go bronze working first, especially if I plan to chop a work boat. I'll probably set up a test game to try different starting approaches. Maybe a civ with agri + mining or fishing + mining?

I think method for determing leader/civ will be snake pick, but I haven't seen the player order yet.

[Dreylin]

If you're thinking of a Fishing start, I wonder if Workboat first makes sense? After 6turns you'd have a 5fh tile to grow/build the Worker on while also getting the additional commerce?

[coldrain]

If you're thinking of a Fishing start, I wonder if Workboat first makes sense? After 6turns you'd have a 5fh tile to grow/build the Worker on while also getting the additional commerce?

I made a quick test and workboat first while working the forested banana seemed to be a decent approach. Grow to size 2 in five turns and finish WB on turn six. Then train a worker at size 2 while working fish + banana.

Interestingly, CtH allows to build a workboat straight away without fishing, so I don't have to necessarily pick a fishing tech civ. Speaking of leader/civ, I was rolled to start the snake pick and chose Lincoln (PHI/CHA) as first pick. I thought about what combination I wanted to play as during the weekend, and came to the conclusion that I really wanted to try CHA. That double speed production bonus to monuments and colosseums is a nice boost, especially if combined with UB of some civ. I was less sure of what secondary trait to pick, but improved PHI or PRO or AGG looked like something I'd like to try. 

Ended up choosing Lincoln, as I want to improve great person planning/usage with PHI and that leaves many possible civs as great UB choices on the way back. Mainly I'm looking at these options:

• Egypt with Obelisk (monument). Agri + wheel.
  
• Ethiopia with Stele (monument). Hunting + mining.
  
• Native America with Totem pole (monument). Fishing + hunting.
  
• Greece with Odeon (colosseum). Fishing + hunting.
  
• Maya with Ball court (colosseum). Myst + mining.
  
• Babylon with Garden (colosseum) Agri + wheel.
  

So I'm guaranteed to get one of these as a choice after everyone else has made their picks. I'm also open to taking something completely different, that would benefit from excessive bulbing, like Korea for Seowon (university) or the like. Best starting techs would be some combination of agri/fishing/mining as I'm not planning for early religion, bulbing can easily grant me one later if needed.

[civac2]

These numbers can't be right. You need 8 turns to grow to 2 with the banana. Did you set your test game to Quick speed?

[coldrain]

These numbers can't be right. You need 8 turns to grow to 2 with the banana. Did you set your test game to Quick speed?

Good catch, I indeed played the test with quick speed. I copied the settings for EitB games by reflex

I'll test again with standard speed to see if growing to size 2 is a good approach, or build a WB with max hammers.

[Dreylin]

OK good, I was wondering about that as my mental test had a 6t workboat working max hammers. I don't think it's worth using the Bananas to grow and build; that feels like it would be slower than max hammers or worker first.

Also worth noting that even though you can build the WB without Fishing you still need to have the tech in order to build the nets and work them so you would have to start with Fishing for a WB-first start to make sense.

I like CHA a lot based on PB75; I was also Babylon there but didn't get much chance to use the Garden before Ginger came in with the roflstomp. I had put a few in and it felt like they were making a difference - especially in my super-sized capital.

PHI is a trait that I don't have a lot of experience with, mostly because I don't have faith that I can plan ahead enough to really take advantage of it: it feels like a trait with a mid/low baseline worth, but a lot of potential upside. One thing I've found with SPI in my idle game was that I had more great people bobbing around because I could change civics whenever I wanted and didn't need to time anything for the Golden Age ... but again I didn't really plan for them so haven't made best advantage.

Will be an interesting combo to follow and maybe I'll build some more faith in my own ability to take on PHI and make it work!