Civ/leader pick

[Lord Parkin]

So, now that our forum's private, it's time to get down to business.

Firstly, a reminder what our start looks like:

We might be settling 1N-1NE of the Settler. Link: Discussion of where to settle

Bear in mind that we're LAST in the turn order in a sequential turns game... so if we're going to finish any wonder or Liberalism/Music/etc on the same turn as someone else, we'll always lose it.

From the way the discussion is going, it seems possible we'll be first up in the snake pick... i.e. we may have to choose either civ or leader first. It's still not clear yet whether we're doing an elimination round first or choosing from every available civ/leader.

Here are the civs with animal UU's, which would go well with our team theme.

Elephants!
Khmer - Ballista Elephant

Camels!
Arabia - Camel Archer

Horsies!
Byzantine - Cataphract
Carthage - Numidian Cavalry
Egypt - War Chariot
Mongolia - Keshik
Persia - Immortal
Russia - Cossack
Spain - Conquistador

Of those the strongest are probably Khmer, Byzantine, and Egypt. Runners-up would be Mongolia and Persia. Other good civ choices are India and Inca, in terms of raw power.

Leaders that were mentioned as seeming "animal-ish" in one way or another:

Monty - Agg/Spi
Huayna - Fin/Ind
Pacal - Fin/Exp
Sury - Exp/Cre
Catherine - Cre/Imp

Most of the leaders with the Financial trait are good in terms of raw power. Probably don't want to be non-Financial with tech trading off, unless everyone else is non-Financial too.

I'm personally a Huayna fan... gotta love that Fin/Ind.

[Azza]

Having Deer in the capital, as well as starting with a warrior and scout, makes a Hunting pick feasible IMO. Khmer gives us access to 1 tech BW and 1 tech AH, both of which I reckon we'd want ASAP. I think we definitely want FIN + something, and we can certainly get a good leader no matter what there.

[Lord Parkin]

Yeah, I was just about to post about Hunting being viable due to the map maker starting us with both a Scout and Warrior. (Commodore, I presume both of those will remain for all teams regardless of the picks? So everyone has 1 Warrior and 1 Scout regardless of Hunting or not?)

Starting techs that are good based on what we can see:

Hunting
Mining

Starting techs that are average:

The Wheel
Mysticism

Poor starting techs:

Agriculture (maybe unless paired with Hunting for fast AH)
Fishing (assuming we settle 1S of the Deer)

[Commodore]

Yes, everyone starts with both a scout and a warrior, in the positions shown.

[Mortius]

Do we know the final settings? I mean particulary difficulty and map wrap? It will greatly influence our leader and especially civ choices.

[Mist]

Prince / Toroidal / 52x52 tiles. All civs start on one continent, other landmasses accessible both pre and post Astronomy.

[Lord Parkin]

And Standard size, right?

[Mist]

Yes.

[nabaxo]

If we're first in the pick, we should go India, then take Capac on the way back.

[Elkad]

I'm liking Khmer, or maybe Egypt.

Leaders, I'm undecided still..