[Spoilers] Honest Cyneheard inherits the purple.

[Cyneheard]

Abraham Lincoln was born in the Purple Log Cabin, and named Heir after the fall of the Komnenian Dynasty in 4000BC. He was lauded for his philosophical musings, and his charisma was legendary.

Achievements of his realm included the expansion of the Hippodrome of Constantinople, and the creation of First Remodeled Cataphract Division, known best for its great victory over ***REDACTED***.


*Note: Some historical errors may exist in this document. Please see appending posts for the true story of Abraham Lincoln, founder of the Cyneheard Dynasty of Byzantium.

[Cyneheard]

Some links:
RBPB5 Demographics
Cyneheard T0 WorldBuilder Save

More links may come later? Not sure.

My city list:
Springfield (Founded T1)
Lafayette
Indianapolis
Cincinnati
Xenia
Columbus
Mingo Junction
Yellow Creek
Allegheny City
Freedom
Cleveland
Erie
Buffalo
Rochester
Albany
Troy
New York
Jersey City
Newark
Trenton
Philadelphia
Paoli
Harrisburg
Wilmington
Baltimore
Washington D.C.


----------Original Post Follows-------------

Thought I'd have some fun with bad history, Civilization Style.

Ok, time to think about my leader and civ.

I don't think we're in BtS anymore, Lurkers.

Lincoln (Phi/Chm):
Philosophical:
+100% GPP
Double-speed universities

Hey! Look! Something we didn't change!

Charismatic:
+2 happiness (OH YEAH!)
-25% XP costs

And a trait that's been buffed. Not needing Monuments for the +happy is much nicer later when I've got alternate sources of culture. Also, this works very nicely in the capital, where I'll be able to get a nice, big city (and slaving is weaker, too...if you can't afford to 1-pop whip constantly because of the happy cap), and can either run early scientists or keep on whipping constantly.

Byzantium:
Myst/Wheel (Going to be odd)
Hippodrome:
Theater replacement, +3 culture, +1 happy, +1 happy from horses, +1 happy per 5% on the culture slider.
So at least +1 happy, +2 if I have horses but no dye.
Cataphracts:
11 Str knight replacement, NOT IMMUNE TO FIRST STRIKES

And here we find a nerf. Cataphracts are only 11str, not 10, so they're less likely to own the field of other units. This also decreases the value of a Guilds rush significantly, as Cataphracts are less likely to own the field. Between the New Paper and Cataphracts being less godly, I'm not sure what my best plan of action is. Beelining one or the other is likely; I've got a Phi leader in a TT game. If I don't beeline something, I need a very good reason, and Paper provides two non-trivial economic boons: +50% Known Tech bonus (hey, that matters! Means backfilling will save me a fair amount of gold/beakers as well), and of course TECH TRADING...but can't trade those earlier techs. More thoughts later, I have things I need to take care of.

[Cyneheard]

And before I forget:

Ceiliazul - Louis XIV of Egypt
Plako - Mao Zedong of Spain
Commodore - Tokugawa of Zulu
Cyneheard - Lincoln of Byzantium
Dazed/Scooter - Stalin of Vikings
Pindicator/Regoarrarr - Bismarck of Ethiopia
Azza - Shaka of India
Yuri - Kublai Khan of Netherlands
Krill - Brennus of Aztec
BrickAstley - Suleiman of Sumeria

[Cyneheard]

Opposing Leaders and Civs, Part I of II

1) Ceiliazul - Louis XIV of Egypt

Cre (Loses Cheap Libraries)/Ind (Unchanged) of Egypt (Agri/Wheel, Obelisk, War Chariot, unchanged)

Cre and has a UB that's a Monument. Oops. Otherwise, I'd expect him to go Worker --> Henge and open Myst --> Mining --> Bronze. He may still rush for the Oracle, but a repeat of my PBEM4V opening REALLY requires Phi to work most effectively. He's still got War Chariots BUT the fact that he has to go Hunting --> AH to get horses and be able to improve them slows down a WC rush.

2) Plako - Mao Zedong of Spain
Oh boy. This leader's...uh...a bit different from before. Sort of.
Mao (Exp/Pro):
+2 Health
+35% Worker and Work Boat Production
Double-speed Harbor and Grocer
Double-speed Granary and Walls
CGI for Archery and Gunpowder units
Spain:
Conquistadors are the same (cuir replacement, get defensive bonuses, +50% vs. melee)
Citadels (no longer provides defense against bombardment; all castles lack this feature now) still provide the key +5XP for siege

Mao is (mostly) better than before, but he doesn't get cheap Citadels. Still, I'd rather have quick workers for the early snowball benefits. This is going to be a VERY fast leader, except that he's got Myst/Fishing for a godawfully painful opening. Unless he has water, in which case he's in amazing shape with a quick workboat due to expansive's boost on even 3h of production, which should be trivial.

3) Tokugawa of Zulu:
He's the BtS version of Shaka, only half-Cre instead of cheap workers.
Agg:
The same...but barracks aren't. They're 60h and get +1 culture.
Pro:
Double-speed Granary and Walls
CGI for Archery and Gunpowder units
Zulu: Agri/Hunting, but Hunting now gives Pastures, but no scouts.
The Ikhanda is unchanged, so it's a straight -20% maintenance buff, which is nice but a slow benefit. However, I expect he'll be spamming Ikhandas everywhere for border popping. Under the Krill school of thought, though, Monuments suck, and until you're building units and expensive cities, a "monument" that comes with +3XP and -20% maintenance isn't any better than a straight monument. So it's a bit of a trap UB in the earliest stages of the game.

Still, Shaka/Zulu is strong in BtS if it's a war-friendly map. And I think the free-culture-for-faster-workers trade is a fair one. Hopefully we have enough land that we're not petrified of Zulu rushes before axemen are online.

4) Dazed/Scooter: Stalin of Vikings
Agg/Ind is essentially unchanged, and we didn't screw with the Vikings directly, but Fishing/Hunting is a bit stronger now that it has more food attached to it. He gets a little bit of everything:
Fast Ships
Agg Berserkers
Ind

But they do so many different things. Don't know what to expect, and Scooter/Dazed will likely throw some curveballs at somebody.

[Cyneheard]

Opposing Leaders and Civs, Part II of II

5) Pindicator/Regoarrarr - Bismarck of Ethiopia
Exp is hit hard, Ind unchanged, Ethiopia not directly affected (well, Hunting's better). THIS is where I expect to see Worker --> Henge, Myst --> BW opening (starts Mining/Hunting), especially if he gets an animal start. He's the favorite to get Henge, and +25% Culture isn't shabby (saves 2t off of initial border pop, and helps with border wars later). That combo works rather nicely IMO.

6) Azza - Shaka of India
Agg is a little better, thanks to the Barracks change
Exp, well, we've been over this. BUT +35% workers is nice in this situation.
India got hit with the nerf hammer:
Myst/Wheel is slower (ARGH, I have to deal with that one too)
Fast Worker is 2-move + Mobility, which doesn't do much early (sorry, unavoidable without increasing the cost, which is hard to do without making India into a BAD civ)

I'm not too scared of this pairing, although India softens the Exp nerf significantly. Azza's pasting in PB7 was unavoidable; I don't see how anybody could've reacted in time to survive well (sure, a different set of plays leads to an extra archer and therefore you don't die right away...but four axes can still choke you to death). He'll probably be a little more cautious this game, but as my past can attest (really, PBEM4V), playing overcautiously can be just as deadly.

7) Yuri - Kublai Khan of Netherlands
Agg/Cre of Agri/Fishing Civ That Doesn't Matter For 5000 Years
Agg Barracks provide cheap culture...that a Cre leader doesn't really need. Instead, he gets to pay a little extra for the privilege of having barracks, and doesn't get cheap libraries to help himself out. Um, yeah, Kublai got screwed over a bit. However, I expect this map to care about water, so late-game, he's going to have some potency if he's not dead yet.

8) Krill - Brennus of Aztec
Spi/Cha, well, Spi is the same except civics are different, and Cha is strictly better b/c it doesn't need Monuments for Happy #2. Oh, and Aztec for Jags (NEED COPPER, we've got Zulu, Egypt and Aztecs roaming around, chariots and archers aren't going to cut it).

And here's where the SLAVERY nerf gets absurdly interesting. Since a one-pop whip is unaffected, you want to whip for one pop as often as humanly possible. Since Krill's Aztec, that means, every 5 turns. Oh, and he's Spi, so if he times his whips perfectly, he can spend only half his time in slavery and half of it in the significantly-improved Caste and Serf civics (Caste by the workshop boost, Serfdom got a pile of boosts as it sucked in Ancient Age games). Oh, and if Krill wants to stack whips, he's got an extra 2 happiness to do it in. Cha leaders don't mind the slavery nerf nearly as much as long as we one-pop whip everything.

9) BrickAstley - Suleiman of Sumeria
Phi/Imp (Imp's better: +60% settlers, cheap Custom Houses for shits and giggles, but whipping's worse, so the 4 --> 2 pop settler whip works out about the same for Imp; chopping is a tad stronger)
Sumeria: I like Imp Sumeria over Org Sumeria, since cheapening an already cheap courthouse isn't that much of an advantage, and an Imp player is going to get more leverage out of the Ziggurat than a non-Imp player.

Phi/Imp is a bizarre leader to play: Imp feeds horizontal growth, but you probably want one city to go vertical and run specs for Phi. So he's going to have an interesting early game, no idea how he's going to play it. Agri/Wheel for expensive techs to start, although I think Agri/Hunting is the New Agri/Wheel, since it means ALL FOOD is available from T0.

[SevenSpirits]

[Cyneheard]

2 dry corn and more forests than I know what to do with.

EVERY SINGLE TILE is forested except the corn. EIGHTEEN FORESTS.

*Wishes I was India right now*

Still, WOW.

Tech path is hella obvious if opponents/presumed lack of horses/iron don't interfere:
Agri --> Mining --> BW --> Pottery --> Writing --> MATH. There's no way 18 forests will be gone in that time. WB time is required to figure out if I'm going worker-worker or not. And that's assuming I settle in place; I think I actually want to move to the plains hill E SE and trade 1t of movement for 3t on the worker.

[Cyneheard]

Correction: 87 of my settler/warrior could be unforested. DARN. "Only" 17 forests.

[Cyneheard]

So, in an ironic twist of fate, right now I'm frustrated about a lack of access to the CFC forum because of a database error.

I want to check the lightbulb preference list, as it's pretty clear that as Lincoln of Byz I'd benefit from a lightbulb plan that got me a fast Guilds. But it's hard to plan out that path when the only list I know of is unavailable.

So, that'll have to wait. I'm going to play out my opening on the PH (assuming no hidden tiles of value) and at the starting spot, and see where I am around T40 or so. There's enough forests and food that it's not a big deal that I can only see half the PH start.

[SevenSpirits]

I've got it quoted in my 29 thread.