[SPOILERS] Kurumi & wetbandit serve you Hannibal's Breakfast Cocktail (of Persia)

[teleh]

Let's Go, Ghostbusters!

[teleh]

Hello, empty chamber. I shall write some words upon you so that those who enter henceforth may have something interesting to ponder.

Okay - so hi, I'm teleh. I don't have any experience with MultiPlayer Civ. I'm not a particularly inspired Civ player. I know next to nothing about micromanagement (but ahm learnin, hyuk), generally go way too light on military, and would probably rather make a stupid semi-controversial comment to provoke reactions than say, decide on turn timer settings.

That said, I'm an avid Civ fan and have played ever since the first iteration. Casually, SP, and in glumps over the course of my life. When Civ 5 contracted a game-breaking bug, through the course of my investigations into how to get it fixed, I came across Sulla's pages and eventually ended up here.

Amazing. So many fantastic threads explaining Civ4 strategy, I became sunk in lurking and started playing a lot more SP Civ. (Obviously this will be quite helpful to the situation at hand :P no dry comments about SP having no bearing to MP, please!) Waited and waited and waited for another PitBoss to open up to shout "Yes, Me! I'm In!!" at, and eventually got tired enough of waiting...

I'm in an interesting phase of Civ skills development right now. I know 'enough' but not really enough, if you take my meaning, and am going to be outclassed on most levels by the other players in this game. Surviving the early game will be the first challenge. But we shall see what overall strategies can be adopted to prevail, for I am here to WIN!

Enough of me - nice to meet you, chamber wall, and on with the game!

[teleh]

So... Hannibal of Persia.




Not bad... I guess? Relative goodness will have some bearing upon what the traits of the other playerleaders are. Check that out in a moment.

Starting Techs:


The choices I make on what to research early, and in which order, and the risks I am prepared to take, will likely be the most important factor of this game. This presents itself straight up, in flashing neon.

Unique Unit:


The security blanket of the early era for me. If I want it, I'll need Horses (Animal Husbandry and the resource itself), and The Wheel. The wheel early is a gimme for Pottery (Granaries and Cottages esp) and saving Worker movement points. This is probably the way it'll go but it depends. Bronze Working and Slavery are already a tech behind relative to anyone starting with Mining. I haven't sandboxed before but will probably give it a crack when I see the start.

Unique Building:


Hmm.. well it saves on Aqueducts if the healthy is needed at Guilds-time.

[teleh]

Team Alpha Teleh is Hannibal of Persia
Molach is Kublai Khan of Rome
Team ʥ Sisu is Huayna Capac of Russia
Team 1 Oxphenbutazone is Gandhi of Netherlands
Team 2 BaIIkuro is Joao of Portugal
Team SpaceBrickNowhere is DuGaulle of Byzantium
WilliamLP is Mehmed of Arabia
Azza is Augustus of China
Retep is Asoka of England
Team Suttree is Fredrick of France

teleh - Hannibal of Persia........... - Financial / Charismatic....... Hunting / Agriculture....... Immortal / Apothecary
Molach - Kublai Khan of Rome.... - Aggressive / Creative......... Fishing / Mining.............. Praetorian / Forum
Sisu - Huayna Capac of Russia.... - Industrious / Financial....... Hunting / Mining............ Cossack / Research Institute
Oxy - Gandhi of Netherlands....... - Philosophical / Spiritual..... Fishing / Agriculture........ East Indiaman / Dike
KuroBaII - Joao II of Portugal..... - Expansive / Imperialistic.... Fishing / Mining.............. Carrack / Feitoria
BXB - De Gaulle of Byzantium...... - Industrious / Charismatic.. Mysticism / The Wheel.... Cataphract / Hippodrome
WLP - Mehmed II of Arabia......... - Expansive / Organised....... Mysticism / The Wheel.... Camel Archer / Madrassa
Azza - Augustus Caesar of China.. - Industrious / Imperialistic.. Agriculture / Mining........ Cho-Ko-Nu, Pavilion
Retep - Asoka of England............ - Spiritual / Organised......... Fishing / Mining............... Redcoat / Stock Exchange
Suttree - Frederick of France....... - Philosophical / Organised.. The Wheel / Agriculture.... Musketeer / Salon
(sorry about the formatting but ahm vurrah sick of MyCode)

I think that's accurate. 2 Financial and 2 Charismatic Leaders and a pretty good spread of traits. I dodged a bullet not getting Mysticism as a starting tech because I would probably not be able to resist trying to get a religion. Same goes for the Landsknecht stack of doom ("express telehvator to hell: the landsknecht theory" or similar was another spoiler thread idea).

Not looking too bad though overall - and I breathe a huge sigh of relief that there aren't a bunch of early UUs to be choking with there (in fact I have the earliest. Could think about some early conquest there with my plans to overbuild military anyway). The Praetorian, however, may yet have its moment in the sun. WHEW, no Impi!! Now to balance that up I am expecting my only Turn 0 settling option will be seafood. But bring it on - we'll roll with it!

[teleh]

Seriously though, I hope we get a map... any map(!).. before everything which characterises this as a 'knewb' game is expunged-by-vote. Except of course the knewbs.

However, with the Pitboss Pitbosses & PBEMs Every Single Game Commodore's either playing in or helping with... it might take a mite more time than my palpitating spleen insists it should.

[teleh]

So.. Prospectively a Large map, 10 civs. Searching for the dimensions says 104 x 64, which works out at roughly an 11 tile by 6 tile zone for each player.

This looks about the same as the SP game I'm mucking around with at the moment, somewhere between 10 and 18 tiles between each start location. Warrior first or worker first is my concern, as no one has a starting warriors, but could one be built and swagger into my cap before I could get a defender built? And adequately fortified?

Eg., Someone settles plains hill and for some unknown reason (an Exercise in Hate perhaps?) decides they'll work a plains hill forest for a couple of turns. That's 5hpt by my reckoning, which means a 3-turn warrior on the board, early. Start of turn 4 it's beelining to my cap, estimated arrival time T14. Sheesh.

Say I start with only an unimproved 3 food resource (or a plainshillforest) and decide, it's worker-first time, sportsfan! That's 3fpt+1hpt and takes 15 turns to finish the worker (or 12 if settled on a plains hill). Add a theoretical 4t warrior to that and it's turn 19 or 20 before even thinking about fortification bonuses. Risky business.

Anyway, off to the War Academy

And I'll just get in first. I know these things probably make you guys vomit every time you see them due to overuse.

Actually, I won't even do it. Let's just say it was 'SAW THE PLAN' 'SHIT' and you can fill in the blanks.

[Commodore]

Well, that's the usual risk; we almost always go worker first anyway. Usually it's fine, particularly with scout starts.

[teleh]

'Usually' being the operative and the hugest fear for me. I don't want to kill the game for myself in the first few turns by building an 8t warrior, but if the situation were flipped and I could spit out a 3t warrior it might be worth it.

E: Actually, probably not. If I could spit out a 3t Warrior that means a 12t Worker as well without the 3t delay.

[Merovech]

Going warrior first usually means a long and slow economic death. The only time that I would think about it is a completely fishing start with a non-mining, non-fishing civ, and maybe with a mining, non-fishing civ, but worker w/BW + chop out workboat works well there.

[teleh]

Can't have that.

I think even with a 'close to worst case' scenario it works out okay. Most of the stuff I've read at RB hasn't even *discussed* going warrior first, usually it's Worker > Worker > Settler FTW