sticks and BRicks will break their bones! {spoilers}

[BRickAstley]

And words can't hurt us cause this is always war, and we have no time for words.

[Commodore]

Nice, I like the implication of the title. This, or something 90, 180, or 270 degrees rotated, is your start:

[Bigger]

I'm going to ded-lurk the two of you. Which only means, as thestick should be aware, that you have an extra cheerleader =).

Brick, how are you as a builder? imo, thestick is a good tactician but may need help with the economy. I wish I had stepped up more in pbem35, as I'm much better at that then warfare. oh well.

I like the start. I guess we move the warrior 1 E to make sure, but should be clear SIP.

[BRickAstley]

Yeah, settle in place.

Bigger question is what civ and leader we picks. I've started skimming the 34 vets game threads for advice on this smaller type of map and all, besides stay away from EXP.

[Bigger]

is this the same map as 34, or just a similar mirror map?

It depends on your strategy, i guess - what are your short term/long term goals?

Phi or Agg could be useful, depending on what your goals are.

[BRickAstley]

Long term goal is win. Question is how to do so.

I might be crazy but I'm flirting with the possibility of going Phi/something. It would be new for me, idk about thestick, but it's a different playing style, is stronger in a small map compared to Fin, and would likely throw our opponents here off.

In which case, what would go along with that. Spi for the civic swapping easily? Agg for make people sweat? We could go Phi/Agg Rome and make everybody go all scaredy from our AGG Praets.

Also for turn order for the pick, I would say go second. Since thestick is technically in charge though, wait for him to claim that.

[BRickAstley]

Also: going first to grab an IND to make ourselves the wonder favorites could work too.

[thestick]

Heh, I was thinking the exact same thing for the title. Welcome aboard, Bigger! Time for yet another disaster to unfold.

That assessment of me sounds about right. For some reason, I always put off building an economy until it's too late. Also, for some reason I undervalue Great People and Wonders. (see: only getting 1 Great Person playing as a Philosophical leader) I also underrate Spiritual for some reason.

Why do you think we should go second for snake pick?

Main question in my view is how hard on the War vs. Economy spectrum we want to lean.

Sumeria/Rome/Greece would be good for war UUs, off chance of Native America. The usual suspects of China/Ottomans/India/Inca for fast starts.

Creative is probably a top trait, it works well with both warring and peaceful expansion. War traits will probably be useful. Maintenance per city will be be terrible, but I doubt we'd want Organized. Not too sure of much after that.

[BRickAstley]

Second just seems like a nice position. Also makes sure that we see whoever is so greedy that they want first pick, so that we can respond to their strategy. It's not really a big deal I don't think, other than we need an idea of what we wanna do, and how focused or reactionary we will be in our picks.

So, do we want to try and do Phi right? I could see, say, a Ghandi pick to super-power our way through the GP strategy, and then save civ pick to either compliment that, or pick somehting defensive if we get a crazy military threat. I personally like the long-term-looking type of pick here.

[Bigger]

well you'd need to play to our strengths. I like the idea of philosophical, but thestick isn't good at maximizing it, and tbh I'm not very good with philosophical either - more of a cottage spammer. But this seems like a great map for it if we can utilizie it - Brick, how good are you at running a monk economy? If you are going w/ ghandi that is what you'd have to do.

SPI/AGG could work too, w/ egypt or rome or the byzantines.