[SPOILERS] Novice forgets to log out

[novice]

Who knew Excel could do your macro too!

Thread title history:
Until 2013-7-9: [SPOILERS] Novice hits the Macro button
Until 2013-8-23: [SPOILERS] Novice beelines Mysticism
Current: [SPOILERS] Novice forgets to log out

[novice]

The setup discussion was a bit rushed perhaps...

The win button is the one with the Pyramids symbol on it, right?

[novice]

So, what leader is best for starting with Myst/The Wheel?

[Commodore]

So, what leader is best for starting with Myst/The Wheel?

Sid would recommend either Justinian or Saladin.

[Merovech]

Ugh. Why would you want to start with Myst/The Wheel?

[Commodore]

Ugh. Why would you want to start with Myst/The Wheel?

[novice]

I think Louis (Cre/Ind) and Cathy (Cre/Imp) are the best leaders for this setup. I expect them to be taken when the pick gets to me, though.

If I were to pick Byzantium, which seems crazy, frankly, with their starting techs, I'd want a leader that could delay bronze working and/or pottery. In other words, grow to the happy cap and work hammers. So Imp/X, perhaps. Imp/Ind synergizes on hammers (can run hammer economy with Ind, getting economic wonders, failgold, and cheap forges), Imp/Spi allows a late slavery revolt but doesn't feel very synergistic otherwise, you really need fast starter traits with the Byz techs. Imp/Cha lets you work another mine, and gives your Phracts a third promotion more easily. Although realistically most units will be built with 2xp or 5xp and Cha doesn't really matter. Well, I suppose you could stick with 2xp builds and get a second promotion with 4xp after your first combat.

Ind's also potentially good for getting to guilds sooner, but the point of Byz isn't really getting to guilds ASAP. If you're getting guilds ASAP you don't need Phracts. The point of Phracts is that they're unstoppable when you do get them, but only if your empire is strong enough to build them. The best defense against Phracts is to make sure you don't get them, so you really need to play normally or even conservatively prior to guilds. Incidentally, Imp's GG boost is good for turtling.

Which traits are left to discuss? Phi, Pro, Agg, Org. I don't think I'll pick any of those, we'll see though. The kid that's keeping me up to post this is requiring the iPad now.

[Commodore]

You would have won the last couple games handily if you'd been able to keep those early cities. Clearly, Pro.

[SevenSpirits]

You would have won the last couple games handily if you'd been able to keep those early cities. Clearly, Pro.

Don't be silly. Novice and Pro are antithetical.

[novice]

So what went wrong in the setup (lack of) discussion? I wanted to try some new leaders, so banning Fin and Exp achieves that. With Cre being the number one pick we should have banned Pyramids too though, because we risk some players falling out of contention early due to a lost Pyramids race.

The other part was the picking before seeing the starts thing. I wanted this because I felt the "sim out to victory before even seeing the first save" thing was getting a bit old. But this heavily favours picking safe starting techs, which goes against the desire for variety. I think we should have banned all Agri/Wheel civs and China.

The upside with being last in the snakepick is... not much. If all the others pick Cre I can probably pick Cha and get Stonehenge. No matter though, I've actually started to enjoy playing from behind, less pressure that way. A Byzantium pick just plays right into that philosophy. I still think it's a really questionable pick, but it could be fun to see just how much of a handicap their starting techs are.