[SPOILERS] HitAnyKey's Thread for the Jumbled Masses of Crap within his Brain

[HitAnyKey]

So, yeah....this is where it'll all come to pass.....
























So don't look if you are playing.

[Krill]

HitAnyKey

[TheHumanHydra]

Good luck, HAK.

[HitAnyKey]

THH, any chance you are not yet spoiled by the other threads and would at least be willing to help me with my snake-pick?

[Cheater Hater]

Sounds like someone wants a ded-lurker--and I want something to distract me from my PBEM58 disaster

I've also been interested in the Tides of War mod, especially the reinvention of AGG/PRO, so any suggestions I would give would be biased towards one of those options. This start doesn't seem like the best for either of those though--AGR seems especially bad since you only have a farmed floodplain and the fish that benefit. PRO might actually be decent though--you have two plains hills to mine not counting the sheep (which you'd probably pasture) and the starting hill (which you need to stay on in order to Lighthouse-boost the fish, unless you want to settle the floodplain--and you don't get 3 food in that case if I remember correctly, and the city's a lot worse in that case), and you have use for both workers and workboats. The ample riverside tiles also makes me want Financial like always (since this nerfed version still works well), so Wang Kon seems like the best first choice--however, you're really late in the order, and Wang Kon seems like one of the strongest leaders in this mod overall, so we need alternatives.

Other obvious choices include Willem (Creative didn't really get nerfed at all) and Hannibal (Charismatic seems good, especially if you want to grow cities). One personal combination I would want to try to push the mod is Qin--Industrious seems better with Metal Casting's cost decrease, and combining that with Productive seems really good, especially if no one else is Industrious. One thing I don't really like is the new Expansive--it doesn't have must other than Granaries now, and if I'd really want them I can replicate some of its effects with either AGR or PRO.

Civs I'm much less sure about--obviously we want Fishing, but I don't know what to get other than that. Maybe Fishing/Mining, going BW first since we wouldn't need Agriculture or Animal Husbandry vitally to improve our position? Of course, that plan's a lot better if we're Productive.

Edit: I forgot workboats don't require Fishing in this version of the mod--that means we don't need Fishing and would just research it first--we could go with Mining/Wheel to get some extra beakers, since we're going to Pottery quickly anyway.
I also forgot the main reason Financial is a nerf--you don't get the boost on water tiles anymore (unless you get Colossus--score a point for FIN/IND). I still think it's a good trait (better than the RBMod version at least), but keep that in mind, and bump up some non-Financial combos like PRO/CRE.

[HitAnyKey]

Sounds like someone wants a ded-lurker--and I want something to distract me from my PBEM58 disaster

I've also been interested in the Tides of War mod, especially the reinvention of AGG/PRO, so any suggestions I would give would be biased towards one of those options. This start doesn't seem like the best for either of those though--AGR seems especially bad since you only have a farmed floodplain and the fish that benefit. PRO might actually be decent though--you have two plains hills to mine not counting the sheep (which you'd probably pasture) and the starting hill (which you need to stay on in order to Lighthouse-boost the fish, unless you want to settle the floodplain--and you don't get 3 food in that case if I remember correctly, and the city's a lot worse in that case), and you have use for both workers and work boats. The ample riverside tiles also makes me want Financial like always (since this nerfed version still works well), so Wang Kon seems like the best first choice--however, you're really late in the order, and Wang Kon seems like one of the strongest leaders in this mod overall, so we need alternatives.

Other obvious choices include Willem (Creative didn't really get nerfed at all) and Hannibal (Charismatic seems good, especially if you want to grow cities). One personal combination I would want to try to push the mod is Qin--Industrious seems better with Metal Casting's cost decrease, and combining that with Productive seems really good, especially if no one else is Industrious. One thing I don't really like is the new Expansive--it doesn't have must other than Granaries now, and if I'd really want them I can replicate some of its effects with either AGR or PRO.

Civs I'm much less sure about--obviously we want Fishing, but I don't know what to get other than that. Maybe Fishing/Mining, going BW first since we wouldn't need Agriculture or Animal Husbandry vitally to improve our position? Of course, that plan's a lot better if we're Productive.

Thanks for chiming in, and I'm glad to have a ded-lurker finally.
With this start I am definitely settling in place. Being on a PH, able to lighthouse a Fish pond, and be right on a river....it's basically a no-brainer.
And yeah, I do believe I definitely want to try for a civ with Fishing. I'm actually leaning towards also starting with Mysticism, since with being able to get out a WB quickly for the fish, I would think/hope I could get to a religion before most others. And I do tend to like getting a religion when I can. And the only option for that is Spain, but I have a feeling it may get picked before I can grab it. Unless people go for their leaders first, since I'm near the top for getting second pick done before others.
As for leader, that's where I'm more at a loss. I do tend to like Financial as well, and if I'm aiming for a quick religion, the slight boost to economy might be a good idea. I'm still trying to understand in what way it was nerfed. What do I need to worry about regarding the new Financial?
So if Wang somehow hasn't been picked, he might be my best choice. Otherwise I do like Willem & Hannibal as choices. I also like Spiritual often times, so might even consider Mansa.

[HitAnyKey]

For Civ's other than Spain, at first glance my favorites seem to be Roman (Fishing/Mining), Carthaginians (Fishing/Mining), Japanese (Fishing/Wheel), & Portuguese (Fishing/Mining). And maybe in that order of how I like them.
I'm also tempted by your suggestion of Qin, since I do like chasing wonders and Industrious & Productive would help with that. :P

[Cheater Hater]

Don't forget my edit--in TOW we don't need Fishing to start the workboat, though we still need it to work the fish. That also explains the main Financial nerf--water tiles don't get the boost anymore (in addition to the boost just coming later).

What do you like more about getting a religion: the culture or the happiness? I've generally been against going for religion (not wanting to base a lot of my game on a coin flip), so I'd want to know what you like about it.

I don't know what to think about Spiritual--it's the only trait to actually stay the same (Industrious got a boost from Metal Casting's cost reduction, and Organized got a little worse due to the new maintenance setting). I think I like it more than ORG, EXP, AGR, and IMP for this start, but I don't know how good it is beyond that.

Civs seems a lot more uniform in this mod--the two power civs got nerfed (hard in the case of Inca, and somewhat for India), and the most worthless became somewhat relevant. As such, we could probably end up picking Civ first if all the power leaders we're considering (Wang Kon, Willem, Hannibal, Gilgamesh, Qin, maybe Mansa) are off the board, since we'd only lose out on one more leader off the board.

One thing I'm wondering is what you think of Agricultural? I get that it's probably good if you start in the desert full of floodplains and/or have three food resources that would qualify, and it obviously is bad here since we only have one meaningful food resource, but, say, is it good if you have two food resources?

[Cheater Hater]

Well, the picks so far haven't quite been going as I expected--let's look at them and see if there's anything we're missing:
Khmer: This one surprised me from the start--War Elephants got weakened to 7 strength; are Ballista Elephants worth it at this point--and with the first pick no less?
Tokugawa: This seems like a "push the mod" pick, since Toku is the only person with both new traits. I think this is probably fine if you have enough food resources and plains hills.
Boudica: This one is interesting, and makes sense--more food for your cities, and the extra happiness lets you actually support the extra population. If you have a start that supports it, this seems really good.
Egypt: Another early civ pick, and one that seems really odd, especially considering the nerfing of the War Chariot (that SevenSpirits was unwilling to back down on no less). I mean, you certainly aren't picking Egypt for the Obelisk, right?
Napoleon: ORG/CHA? This one surprised me a bit, but does having more population impact civic or city costs? That would be a synergy, but as I mentioned, I feel like Organized got slightly weakened.
Willem: Well, there's one of our power picks gone--surprisingly late actually. We're guaranteed to get one of Wang Kon/Hannibal/Gilgamesh/Qin(/Mansa) at this point at least, though I still hope Wang Kon somehow makes it to us.
Russia: Russia seems like a good pick, since of the three civs to have a unique brought forward, Russia is the only one where the other unique was still relevant--and the new Research Institute seems really good to boot.
Charlemagne: Imperialistic is a trait I didn't really cover so far in the various pieces of the overview, mainly because I didn't consider it at all--it got a bit of a buff with fast markets and banks, but I still don't like it that much--still, if you're going to use it, pairing it with the extra hammers of PRO seems like a good move, so you can spend as little time building food-eaters as possible.
(more to come as picks get made, and I'll eventually do a full synergy post)
Ragnar: The standard FIN/new trait like we were planning with Wang Kon--this is really making me think I'm undervaluing AGR overall, but I really don't think we can pick it with this start.

Edit: Are you around HAK? We're on deck, and Wang Kon's still on the board. I don't want to make the pick unless you give me permission to (since you're still the player and I'm just a ded-lurker), and I have no clue who you'd want if Haram takes Wang Kon--Hannibal I guess? Or are you going to be tempted by Qin?
Edit 2: Now we're up, and probably are going to hold up the process a bit, unless you magically show up. One notable observation from the picks so far is that there's no Industrious so far--but the three civ picks mean there's still four other leader picks after us, so I wouldn't want to pick Qin based purely on that fact.

[HitAnyKey]

I'm here now. Just finished dinner and starting to review stuff right now. FYI, if you wanted to open a chat with me on Gmail I'm this username there.