[Spoilers]BaII shows you how to be a Pro Gamer

[BaII]

Lim Yo-Hwan is one of the most successful pro gamers in the history of StarCraft: Brood War. As the most popular StarCraft player with a fan club of more than 600,000 members and a DVD compilation of his greatest games released in South Korea, he is widely regarded in e-Sports as an iconic figure. Because of his long dominance during the rise of StarCraft’s popularity in South Korea, BoxeR earned the title of The Emperor within the StarCraft community.

[BaII]

Now that we have our space filler, we can take a look at my starting position.


From what it looks like, I am going to be settling on spot, as there is no place where I can settle to gain access to all 3 food resources. Carthage could be a nice choice here, as they start with fishing and mining, so I could quickly build a work boat and then go into Bronze working to start chopping those forests, however with such a meh UU and UB I don't think I will be likely to pick him.

The Vikings here would not be a bad idea, as they would start with Fishing and Hunting. So I could easily camp the deer tile, and get a work boat for the fishing tile. If this is also a water based map I could get some decent use of the Trading Post. With the use of a Sirian Doctrine ofc.

[BaII]

MY PICKS-Zara Yaqob(Cre/Org) of Ottomans

With being last in the snake pick, I had to take some one of the weaker leader's. With Creative trait i will be able to save a lot of hammers from having to plant down those expensive monuments. Monuments cost me a total of 30 hammers, let's say I plant down 5 cities. I have would have saved about 150 Hammers from having to plant down those monuments. Those 150 hammers could have gone into Workers, Granaries, Warriors(for HR purpose), some sort of military to deal with the barbs, or even more settlers for cities. I picked up the Org trait for some mild synergy between Organized and Creative.

Now for the Ottoman's pick, I get the decent UU of the Janissary. The only thing Janissary's don't get a bonus against is other muskets at that point, so they make a decent attack force. However the real reason I picked the Ottoman's is for their amazing UB. This is one of the best UB in the game, providing me with 2 extra happiness resources, so even if I am short on happiness resources, I will not be at a major disadvantage.

I will talk about the other civ picks once they are all done.

[Sisu]

Why did you pick Ottomans?

[BaII]

sry about that, I accidentally posted my post before it was fully done.

[Sisu]

I picked up the Org trait for some mild synergy between Organized and Creative.

Curious - what synergy are you talking about? It seems like Org's effect is entirely orthogonal to Creative's.

[BaII]

Organized allows for a higher science slider with the cheaper civics, and Courthouse. I could run a higher science slider. With the cheaper library, I could get more beakers from being able to research faster. Although this combination is obviously inferior to Wilhelm with his Financial Creative combination. However he is banned for obvious reasons.

[BaII]

Thoughts on other's Civ/leader choices (this post will get updated until all the teams have picked)

Nakor/CFCJester - Pericles of Egypt
I find this to be a really Odd combination. If you have a Creative trait wouldn't u not want to build Obelisks although you might get some use by getting out a Great Prophet from running the two Priest Specialist's, but it just seems like a total waste. However, Egypt has amazing starting techs. With the Wheel and Agriculture. They could immediately go for Pottery and start cottaging some of their land to try get out to an early GNP lead. The War Chariot is one of the more powerful UU they are right under Praetorian, and Cataphract. I really don't see them doing an early rush, as they seem to be more a builder team. In Pitboss 2 Nakor looked more like a builder from his ingame actions. Most likely they are going to be using them as a deterrent to prevent early aggression against them.
Summary:They will be using their early game tech's to get off on a strong start, and use War Chariot's as a deterrent from aggression. Although this does not mean they definitely will not rush.

Sian - Huayan Capac of Carthage
Looking at their starting Techs, the have fish at their start. Since they took fishing as a starting tech. A Nubian Cavalry has some great potential for rushes, as it does bonus damage versus melee. The comparable strength value is 7.5-8 in the spear's favor. We would want WE to counter this, however WE are banned for being overpowered :P. Cothon is just a meh UB. I mean no one is raving over an extra trade route. However them taking Huayan Capac is much more of a concern. Especially if he manages to land the Colossus, greatly increasing his income. Cheap forges are decent, as well as getting the very powerful Financial Trait, which is very useful in a self research environment.
Summary: They probably have seafood resources in their start. They have a decent UU and a poor UB. However they landed a very powerful leader than can carry them to victory.

Merovech/WarriorKnight - Isabella of China
Well, only reason to really pick China is for their powerful starting techs. I believe this is the most versatile combination you can have for starting techs, however their UU and UB are not the best. The pavilion is a very situation UB, and has little uses outside of a few specific cases. Such as a cultural battle and a Cultural Victory. Outside of those, it is generally useless. Their UU is slightly better but not by much. 2 first strikes are not bad, as well as their ability to do collateral damage. However the effects of the Cho Ko Nu is just so meh IMO. Their leader Isabella is decent with Expansive. Expansive is just a good all around trait, with that double speed Granary's. Spiritual is a powerful trait. This trait is most notable for switching to Nationhood/Theocracy and start drafting units, then switching into something else. However there are other uses of the no anarchy, I've seen some interesting uses out of it, however this requires skill on the players part. Both of the team members are decent at the game and they can make good use out of it
Summary: Spirtual is a very powerful trait if used right, which I am pretty sure these players can do. Lack of a good UB and UU will hurt them.

Serdoa/Ichabod Darius Sumeria
I probably stole the civilization they wanted :P. Given that our starting techs are the exact same that is. Now the vulture is a ok UU as it does the same does to melee's as axes. But if you throw in a Combat 1 Shock, it will get higher odds, as it has a greater base strength to multiply off of. I would rate it slightly below the Janissary. However the real probelm is their "useless" UB. It is the exact same thing as a courthouse except it can be built at Priesthood instead of Code of Laws. This is one the less powerful UB in the entire game. As 99.9% games will you need to build it at Priesthood instead of researching up to code of laws. Still though even with the -30 hammers, I feel like that is still a waste. You already have cheap Courthouses from Organized. Do they really need to be cheaper . However they landed one of the top notch trait combinations. for this game. Darius is IMO the best techer civ 4. With his Financial Organized traits. As they are the only 2 traits that directly affect how much commence you are going to get, which will be turned into beakers.
Summary: Not so great UB with a ok UU. Could try to rush someone with his vultures. However there powerful leader is going to most likely get a tech lead.

To Be Continued in the next post (was starting to take up too much space)

[BaII]

Thoughts on the Civilizations continued from the previous post.

Mehemmed II of Mongolia
IMO this is one of the weaker combinations in this game. The Mongolian's have a okay UU. It is pretty much an impi that requires horses rather Bronze or Iron. They are excellent pillagers, and whipping out a stack of these to pillage your opponent is really scary.
Mongolian UB is one of the better UB. As it provides +4 Exp rather than the standard 2. Which is a 100% increase. However this is much better to be paired up with Charmastic as the end total of exp is +7 with the barracks in place. so you only need to win one more battle to get the exp needed for that crucial 3rd promo instead of the several other battles you need to do. Mehemmed is a decent leader with Expansive and Organized. It will allow for some REX as you can prevent economic down fall by simply whipping out those courthouses. Then cheap Granaries allow for smaller cities to get up and running with the extra food. They start with the hunting and the wheel. So likely there is Deer over at their start. They might also want to go for early pottery for some cheap granaries.

Elizabeth of England
Although this is unrestricted leaders they chose to run a restricted leader. England starts out with decent start techs of Fishing and Mining. Chances are there is fish over at their start. Their UB isn't that good IMO as it only increases their gold output by 15% which is only a 30% increase. I generally don't build many banks, and generally I don't see most people building banks regardless. So regardless I don't think they can get good leverage out of their UB as most of the time the regular building is not being used. Their UU the redcoat is a very powerful unit IMO. They destroy every other unit in the Renaissance period but better. I have also heard the Grenadier extra attack bonus against rifles is does not work against redcoats which is infuriating. What makes it worse is that they come out at the perfect time. They only cost 1 pop to draft and this is generally at the point where the game is decided once and for all. So they can easily tip the balance in favor of the person who has it. Elizabeth is an amazing leader in this self tech game. Financial is obviously one of the best traits to have in this game and along with philosophical trait for the cheaper universities is critical. As a Bureaucracy+Academy+ Oxford is just insane. Getting that Academy up faster along with Oxford will simply do fabulous stuff to your research. So while they landed a okay civilization, they landed themselves a very powerful leader.
Summary:They will most likely hit their strongest point during the Rifle Age with an earlier Oxford and redcoats, they will have a huge advantage, played out correctly will most likely break open the game.

[BaII]

Turn 1 I moved the Settler over to the Grassland hills so I could get the wheat in range. As I do not have fishing to hook up those fish.