[Spoilers] Commodore as Washington of the Mongols

[Commodore]

So, first of all, question: How many boards would the Mongols horde if the Mongol hordes got bored?

Read past this point, other players, and you make Mr. Mongol sad.

[Ceiliazul]

So, first of all, question: How many boards would the Mongols horde if the Mongol hordes got bored?

I'm stealing that line.

Well, a fresh start, hmm? I've a super secret plan:

Can you handle it?
[Spoiler]
Research bronze working!

[/spoiler]

[Commodore]

Research bronze working!

Never! You see, the super secret plan is to beeline horseback riding and archery and make nothing but gers, keshiks, and settlers. Ever.

Or, I could post the actual plan. And I will. Just once I get time, working late tonight. Meanwhile, input from the very beginning. What are your takes on the picks/players, Ceil? I've already begun rubbing it into Gaspar's face that I've got a better ded-lurker than he does.

...the suspense....

[Commodore]

'aight, well, let's see what we've gotten ourselves into here. I'm going to try to explain this one with a little less Realms Beyond jargon than my last thread, to make it a little more accessible to someone familiar with Civ 4 but not with the community lingo.

First of all, there's me.
Commodore (Distractable, Opportunistic) playing Washington (Charismatic, Expansive) of the Mongolians (Hunting, The Wheel)



So, after swearing to not take another hunting start, I took another hunting start. Mongolia has weak starting techs and a fairly decent unique unit (UU) in the Keshik, which ignores terrain penalties while moving and has a 20% added withdrawal chance. The real appeal here is the Ger, a stable that gives +4 XP to every new mounted unit...which is the threshold for the second promotion for Charismatic leaders. So shock (+25% versus melee units) is achievable without sinking production into barracks, a huge advantage in a rush situation.

That's the military side of things at first blush, but what about the economy? Well, Exp is a very strong early game trait, when granaries are going up everywhere (+100% production) and workers need to be pumped (+25%), and although it's not worth it just for the happy, Chm does mean a +2 higher happy cap, which is also very strong in the early game. It does require building a monument, which means that I'll be wanting Stonehenge very badly. Not only will it mean border expansions, but each monument is an extra happy as well. The happy means whipping is much more efficient, the cheap granaries mean whipping is efficient earlier...Washington is a fine REXer, too, not just a warmonger.

So the plan here is twofold. First off, I'm not planning on rushing anyone unless I see someone running a farmer's gambit really hard. However, making other players build a few extra spears in nervousness...would be a fine outcome. If I do attack anyone early, Ceil, I think your suggestion is actually a great idea. With barbs on, 1xp is early to farm. I'd like a little core of shock axes (+3 from barracks) to hit anyone massing spears or holkans expecting horses. Flanking-promoted keshiks do make dandy catapults though, for high-withdraw rate weakening attacks first.

Secondly, I'd like to use the security of a warmonger combination to REX hard and fast, hitting the whip early and often for a faster expansion rate than anyone else. If I have fewer cities after turn 50 then anyone other than the imperialistic Twinkletoes, please hit me. Once I have a strong core, guilds is the logical next step, as with theology (no vassalage needed!) I can churn out 3-promotion knights, which are hard even for pikes to stop. Middle-ages knights and early industrial-era cavalry are when I'd prefer to do most of my warring.

Of course, my opponents will be doing there best to make those windows as short as possible...

[Commodore]

Next up we have Twinkletoes (Brittle, Esoteric) playing Julius Caesar (Imperialistic, Organized) of the Holy Roman Empire (Hunting, Mysticism)



Well, here's the one who'll be out Rapid Expansion (REX)'ing me, if all goes according to his plans. TT has a bit of a reputation here at RB, due to his early poor play and rapid caving distorted the outcomes for the other players, particularly the outspoken and popular scooter. He's since made a real effort to improve, and seems to be doing far better, but he's still lacking a certain killer instinct. He's friendly and I think we can get along quite well.

His plan, obviously, is to expand fast with cheap Imp settlers and use Org-cheapened rathauses to make it dirt cheap. I expect Stonehenge to look mighty fine to him, but as he's a lock for one of the early religions, I actually think he might opt for missionaries to provide his culture, using early Organized Religion (which Org makes cheaper) to build them. During the middles ages he'll probably build quite a few landsknechts, which counter any knight push I have...although China's Cho-Ku-Nus in turn counter them. TT is the rival I'm worried about the least, although, like everyone else here, he is still much more experienced at MP warfare.

Although not as aggressive as Gaspar and Mackoti...

[Commodore]

Next is Gaspar (Paranoid, Clairvoyant), playing Isabella (Expansive, Spiritual) of China (Mining, Agriculture).



This is a by-the-numbers excellent selection by a strong player. There's not a lot of synergy here, but China's starting techs are the best in the game, and in a Financial leaders ban game Izzy is one of the best, with all the previously listed benefits of expansive and spiritual, which allows quick switching of civics, particularly from slavery for whips to caste system for artists to pop borders, a strategy massively featured on RB after Sulla Locke's informative thread on his pitboss usage of spiritual.

Gaspar is great at reading people and eerily accurate often in his predictions of what other people are thinking. We get along pretty well, chatting from time to time about various and sundry things. His weakness is that his predictive powers are accompanied with severe paranoia in these games, as he thinks all possible futures look grim, and every possible way things could go wrong will.

I expect good, solid play on Gaspar's part here, coupled with excellent reporting and good, if not incredible, diplomacy. His UU and UB as China, however, mean that I am doing something wrong if I, as Mongolia, am threaten by them.

[Commodore]

Finally we have Mackoti (Enigmatic, Aggressive) playing Pericles (Philosophical, Creative) of Maya (Mining, Mysticism).



Mackoti is hard to get a solid read on, as he is not a very strong English speaker and rarely updates his threads. What we do know is that he loves building the Pyramids, running an excellent specialist economy in each game he plays, and that he is good at warfare, backing up that strong specialist play with the aggression and experience you'd expect from someone who's won two of the last three games he's played.

The strategy for Pericles is hardly earth-shaking. Use creative to make cheap libraries. Run scientists. Get Great Scientists. Bulb/Academy/settle him for even more beaker goodness. For all that, its predicable, though, this is going to be pretty strong. The Pyramids, enabling Representation, are an important build, but easy enough to do either with determined chopping or early Metal Casing -> on to a forge and a great engineer to rush them. Mayan holkans would mean all kinds of trouble for me if I was going to try something daft like a keshik rush, but I'm not, so they won't.

[novice]

I love your opponent analysis!

[Commodore]

Thanks Novice! Now watch me be completely wrong.

In other news, first turn, played! Holy freaking lush start, Batman! The water to my east in the fog is salty, which means every one of those lake tiles can be made into 3/0/2 tiles with lighthouses. The start whispers seductively to me that hunting is a good starting tech. It's a liar, of course.



A hill forest deer means I'm putting 7 hammers into the worker already, and the worker ought to finish the same time Agriculture finishes. This is going to be a fun capital to play with, lots of food for whipping and plenty to chop too. Stonehenge is going to be pushed for here, probably.



Demos aren't particularly interesting at the moment. We're all working the same tile, just with others researching with prerequisites.



Thus far, looks like one worker, grow on warrior, another worker, then settler. After agriculture I'm thinking probably mining -> BW, then pottery to get some river cottages maturing and a cheap granary ASAP.

Anyone care to guess theme based on the capital? Caution, it's extremely nerdy.

[Commodore]

A bit more map exploration. I'm in the upper-right corner, is how I think I can take this being the max up and right I can order my scout to go.



928 land tiles, or 232 per player, which seems like a lot to me, but tell me if I'm missing something there.



And here's the settings:



Nothing too unexpected. Tropical means a lot of jungle unless Bob's been handcrafting a lot...which given our extremely edited start, isn't hard to believe. Medium sea level is actually a ton of land for four players, which means 2-mover horse units will be more valuable. Which is nice. If all this land truly is available, it means that TT's pick is a lot more viable if he can fully devote himself to the REX.