[SPOILERS] 3 Players, 1 Civ, No Clues - Tatan, Nakor, and Serdoa are Darius of Rome

[Tatan]

Why don't we have a thread yet?!

Well, I guess my name goes first, then! :neenernee

[Tatan]

Okay so some preliminary strategic planning.

We are Darius of Rome.

Traits
Financial: +1 commerce on tiles of 2 or more commerce
Organized: -50% civic upkeep, double speed Courthouses, Factories, and Lighthouses

Unique Stuff
Praetorian (replaces sword): +2 str, costs a few more hammers
Forum (replaces market): +25% gpp

Starting Techs
Fishing
Mining


In other words: awesome!
We have one of, if not the best, combinations in this game. The obvious strategy is to Praet-rush someone, steal their stuff, use Org's cost cutting to keep economy somewhat intact, and then use Fin to bounce back to tech parity (only with us having much more land than the next guy). And no matter what, we still have an extremely relevant UU, esp. for Always War. The real issue is actually that other people know this, and we will almost certainly have to face down a rush/choke of some sort by our neighbors. I compiled a short list of especially dangerous neighbors, in loose order of potential danger:

1. Sunrise - Genghis of Egypt [War Chariots, and from an MP guy! ]
2. Team FFH: Ichabod, Ilios and DaveV - Hannibal of Mali [Skirmishers are tough SOBs to crack when they park themselves on that forest just outside your cap]
3. Team bounty hunter: Lewwyn - Boudica of Korea [Boudica is always nasty, and Lewwyn is notoriously aggressive]
4. Spacetyrantxenu - Mao of Native America [Dog Soldiers seem like a great foil for Praets, though that might make him less likely to be afraid of us]
5. Catwalk - Shaka of Aztec [Agg Jaguars are nasty chokers, though he would still need beat us to IW by a fair amount in order to get the leg up]

More opponent analysis later when I get around to it!

[Tatan]

Also we need a catchy team name and a naming theme.

Team TaKorDoa?
Team Triple Rainbow?
Team Those Other Guys?
Team Inconspicuous?

[Nakor]

Good to see our threat! I would have named it: "How to mess up a winning combination".

Darius is indeed one of the best leaders in this game due to being one of the three financials in a NTT game. And Organized isn't to bad if you could have gotten Protective as well.
Cheap courthouses will help us to keep all those cities we manage to take with our Preats... :neenernee

And Rome... what can you say... if we weren't Darius or another good leader... Rome always tends to fall behind in the late game, but now...

All we have to do is survive!

Now let's see what the map gives us before we make great plans, but I think we might want to go for an early IW... well, what more can we say at this point. There are some interesting enemies, but we'll get into that once we meet them or once we have more time.

[Nakor]

And let's put this here as well:

Sunrise is Genghis (AGG/IMP) of Egypt (Wheel/Agriculture, War Chariot, Obelisk)
Plako is Mehmed (EXP/ORG) of Netherlands (Fishing/Agriculture, East Indiaman, Dike)
TEAM FFH Hannibal (CHA/FIN) of Mali (Wheel/Mining, Skirmisher, Mint)
Slowcheetah Wang Kon (FIN/PRO) is of Inca (Mysticism/Agriculture, Quecha, Terrace)
Nakor, Tatan & Serdoa are Darius (ORG/FIN) of Rome (Fishing/Mining, Praetorian, Forum)
Team Googly is Louis (IND/CRE) of Carthage (Fishing/Mining, Numidian Cavalry, Cothon)
Pindicator is Lincoln (PHI/CHA) of China (Agriculture/Mining, Cho-Ko-Nu, Pavilion)
Mack and Seven are Justin (SPI/IMP) of Germany (Hunting/Mining, Panzer, Assembly Plant)
Lewwyn is Boudica (CHA/AGG) of Korea (Mysticism/Mining, Hwacha, Seowon)
Catwalk is Shaka (AGG/EXP) of Aztec (Mysticism/Hunting, Jaguar, Sacrificial Altar)
Xenu is Mao (EXP/PRO) of Native America (Fishing/Agriculture, Dog Soldier, Totem Pole)
Team Nyan are FDR (IND/ORG) of Ethiopia (Hunting/Mining, Oromo Warrior, Stele)
ASMonkey is Hatty (SPI/CRE) of Mongolia (Wheel/Hunting, Keshik, Ger)
Moogle is Peter (PHI/EXP) of England (Fishing/Mining, Redcoat, Stock Exchange)
Yuris is Joao (IMP/EXP) of Persia (Agriculture/Hunting, Immortal, Apothecary)
HitAnyKey is Brennus (SPI/CHA) of Ottoman (Wheel/Agriculture, Janissary, Hamman)
Azza is Washington (EXP/CHA) of Viking (Fishing/Hunting, Berserker, Trading Post)
Meiz is Gandhi (SPI/PHI) of Khmer (Hunting/Mining, Ballista Elephant, Baray)

[Serdoa]

I saw this subforum like 10 minutes after its creation but I told myself "No, wait for the team-captain" - whoever that is of you two - "to open our thread, you are only the commander and general!"

That said, lets look at our leader/civ and see how good we are at waging war:

[SIZE="5"]Darius of Rome [/SIZE]

That is kinda... interesting. Leader-traits first:

[SIZE="3"]Organized[/SIZE]

• -50% Civic Upkeep
  
  The Civic Upkeep is determined by # of pop, # of cities, difficulty and of course if you are ORG or not. If someone is really interested here at civfanatics it is explained for version 1.52. In short, Monarch difficulty is having the final cost-modifier still at 0.95 (Emperor, Immortal, Deity would be 1). That makes this part of Organized at least somehow useful.
  
  
  
• Courthouse +100% Production
  
  This could be potentially very helpful in an AW game which does - as far as I remember the settings - allow spies and all missions except change civic and change religion. Especially if we have to keep up with 17 other civs. Keeping some EPs on a target we want to attack and using a spy to strap a city of its defensive bonuses to hit it with a quick 2-mover (read 4-mover) stack.
  
  
  
• Lighthouse +100% Production
  
  Probably not really all that helpful on a Pangaea. But that depends strongly on our start (inland or coastal?), nearby resources and if there are any islands created which we can inhabit. Anyhow, as of now thats probably the weakest part of the Org-trait for us in this game.
  
  Oh, another idea. We start with Fishing and Mining. If we ARE coastal, we might want to scout as fast as possible and if there is enough coast to inhabit go BW->Sailing->Masonry->GLH.
  

[SIZE="3"]Finanical[/SIZE]

• +1 commerce on tiles with 2 or more commerce
  
  Well, obviously that means normally cottages. I don't think AW will change to much about that apart from that we want to specialize our cities even more then normally and try to not throw cottages at every grassland simply because we can. Also depending on the start Pottery might be a priority.
  

Next: Starting Techs, UU, UB

[SIZE="3"]Starting Techs[/SIZE]

• Fishing
  
  Good if we start near seafood. Not needed if we start inland. IF we start coastal, we might want to build a workboat or two to help with circumnavigation. Sure a Pangaea isn't really needing that, but there WILL be coastal cities of our opponents. 3-move (read 6-move) galleys are no fun.
  
  Of course, if we start inland, then this tech is probably useless for nearly all the game.
  
  
  
• Mining
  
  We can grab BW first if there are some forests around. Probably the best starting tech. Not much more to say honestly.
  

[SIZE="3"]UU and UB[/SIZE]

• Praetorian
  
  Well, great. Or not. If we don't have Iron we will still be a target despite not having anything to defend with. If we have Iron we of course can wreak havoc. Still, having played PBEM25 I am not that impressed with them anymore. Especially without Agg they will miss the needed punch to really be scary. I'd rather see them as a nice addition to get but nothing I would beeline in any case. Only possibility is if we somehow get Theology early and can make them 2 promo C1,S1 Praets. But in multiplayer I honestly prefer faster troops over stronger ones.
  
  
• Forum
  
  A market which gives +25% GPP. Nothing to write home about but at least half Parthenon so not too bad either. I am not sure it does have any kind of real synergy with... anything. I guess we can generate some GAs a little bit quicker, thats certainly a nice thing.
  

All in all, I don't think we have that strong a leader and civ like some seem to imply in the tech-thread. Sure Fin is better then Pro, but so is every other trait. And Org is normally found on the lower part of the desired trait-list. Especially for an AW-game I am not sure how good Fin/Org is really. It surely sounds like builder-game... which most AW-games at RB seem to be anyway, but I am not sure if that will hold true for an 18 player AW Pitboss with several newer members.

As for Rome itself: I don't understand why people consider it strong? Praets are only nice with Agg imo and the Forum is nothing special. Honestly I think we could have gotten a worse civ of course (Germany is even more useless for example) but there are several much stronger civs out there as well.

Conclusion: Average leader, average civ. Lets hope our land is a little bit above average to make up for that

[Nakor]

Always a good idea to downplay your hand, Serdoa!

[Tatan]

I saw this subforum like 10 minutes after its creation but I told myself "No, wait for the team-captain" - whoever that is of you two - "to open our thread, you are only the commander and general!"

We have a team captain?! Seriously, though, I was thinking in case of actual disagreement on major decisions we would just put things to a vote.

Lighthouse +100% Production

Probably not really all that helpful on a Pangaea. But that depends strongly on our start (inland or coastal?), nearby resources and if there are any islands created which we can inhabit. Anyhow, as of now thats probably the weakest part of the Org-trait for us in this game.

Oh, another idea. We start with Fishing and Mining. If we ARE coastal, we might want to scout as fast as possible and if there is enough coast to inhabit go BW->Sailing->Masonry->GLH.

You forgot about double-speed Factories, which speaks volumes about its usefulness. Also not sure about GLH, it's risky with FDR in the game and will only provide at best +2 commerce per coastal city.

As for Rome itself: I don't understand why people consider it strong? Praets are only nice with Agg imo and the Forum is nothing special. Honestly I think we could have gotten a worse civ of course (Germany is even more useless for example) but there are several much stronger civs out there as well.

I... disagree.

Forums are pretty useless, but I really like Praets. They have an edge on axes (8 str vs 7.5 str unpromoted) and furthermore aren't vulnerable to chariots like axes are. Basically we shouldn't have to worry about any major attacks after we get them because everybody will be looking for an easier target. A nice potential strat would be to do an early raid with a handful of Praets to hurt/cripple someone, and in the mean time tech up to Construction for a massed cat/Praet invasion.

Maybe I'm being optimistic, but I like our combo. Besides, there have been too many builder games on RB recently, let's go punch someone in the face!

[Mist]

Your start

[Tatan]

So, where should we move the scout and warrior?

For scout, the obvious choice seems 1NE, then on to one of the plains hills. For warrior, 1SE I guess.

With only the cow for food, moving seems attractive.