[SPOILER] And now for something completely different: DaveV is Hannah

[DaveV]

Edited-in rant: I figured that if I used the official Monty Python channel, the advertising revenue would go to the right guys, and the videos were unlikely to be taken down. Silly me, now all my video links are broken  .

Other players begone, or you will be smashed by a giant foot descending from the sky!

[DaveV]

[DaveV]

[DaveV]

[DaveV]

After playing several test games on unedited Torusland maps, I found myself consistently expanding to the point of economic stagnation before I could revolt into City States. So my picks were based on avoiding that problem:

1. Hannah of the Lanun (Fin/Rai/Ins): on a watery map, the Lanun are the best at creating an early economy, thanks to their ridiculously overpowered 4/2/6 pirate ports (5/2/6 on fresh water). I did *not* request the inland seas setting to power up this pick; I just think that setting results in the most interesting maps (islands, more real distance between players).

2. Flauros (Fin/Cre) of the Calabim: Vampires come so late now that they're almost irrevelant, but Flauros has my two favorite traits, Moroi for turn 70, and Governor's Manors by turn 100.

3. Rhoanna (Fin/Exp) of the Hippus: possibly even more likely to expand into bankruptcy, but Fin ameliorates that a little. Hippus are scary enough to keep rushers at bay.

4. Beeri (Fin/Ind) of the Luichirp: good worldspell, faster mud golems. Several decent living units are available to augment or replace the slow-as-erosion golems.

The field:

Everyone got their first choice:

Auro: Mahala of Doviello.

DaveV:  Hannah of the Lanun.

superjm: Varn Gosom of the Malakim.

Cairo: Cardith Lorda, Kuriotates.

A very interesting group. Aurorarcher (Exp/Rai/Ing) will be extremely dangerous early; I hope he's far away from me. Mr. Cairo (Phi/Exp/Ada) has the very solid Centaurs and super Kurio cities; I hope he gets sucked into the builder trap. superjm (Spi/Cre/Ada) is playing one of the other civs I considered; I hope he's not left alone to roll out a bunch of super priests.

Edit: since my Monty Python theme has attracted at least one reader unfamiliar with the Fall From Heaven (FFH) Mod, I'll give a quick summary of the mod: each civilization has many unique features, there's a ton of back story, and magic is more powerful than weapons. Priests and adepts can cast spells which become increasingly powerful. Each religion has unique spells, units, and benefits. Each civ has a unique unit, usually with the Hero promotion (gains 1XP per turn, up to 100 XP). Each civ also has a World Spell, which can only be cast once per game. Erebus in the Balance (EitB) is a mod of FFH, meant to correct some of the more egregious bugs and imbalances.

More information on the civs:

Aurorarcher with the Doviello. Aurorarcher is an experienced player, and has won several PBEMs. The Doviello are a Barbarian civ, which means they suffer -10% research but start the game at peace with the barbarians (but not with animals). His world spell is Wild Hunt, which has no prerequisites and gives him one wolf for each unit he has. The wolves will have a move of 2 and a strength of (unit strength / 2) + 1, rounded down. He starts the game with one unique unit, Lucian, an axeman without the Hero promotion. The second unit, The War Machine, is available at Machinery, which is so late that it's unlikely to make any difference. His leader is Mahala, with Expansive (All hammers spent on settlers are doubled. Since early settlers are built mostly with food, not as strong as it sounds), Raiders (Free Commando promotion for all units), and Ingenuity (half price unit upgrades, +50 starting gold).

Mr. Cairo with the Kuriotates. I think this is Mr. Cairo's first EitB game. The Kurios were made famous by Pocketbeetle in the first FFH PBEM. They get a limited number of cities (3 on a Standard map), but each city can work three rings of tiles instead of the usual two. His world spell is Legends, which gives +300 culture to all his cities (A good way to pop the third ring once he has all three cities down. Also, a good way to be very annoying as a close neighbor). Again, he has two unique units, Herne at Warhorses and Eurabatres the dragon at Divine Essence. Too late to make a difference, and much, much too late to make a difference. His leader is Cardith Lorda, with Expansive (see above), Philosophical (+100% GPP), and Adaptive (can swap Expansive for another trait every 75 turns).

superjm as the Malakim. superjm is another experienced player, but I don't think he's won a game. The Malakim are flavored as a desert civ, and receive +1 commerce on desert tiles. Their wold spell is Religious Fervor, which gives one priest of the current state religion in each city. The unique unit is Teutorix, available at Blasting Powder, a very late game tech (do you sense a trend here?). His leader is Varn Gosam, with Spiritual (no anarchy, free Mobility and Favored promotions on Disciple units), Creative (+2 culture per city), and Adaptive (can swap Creative for another trait every 75 turns). Culture is hard to get, so Creative is a very good trait. Spiritual fits nicely with his world spell.

DaveV as the Lanun. I've won a couple games with the overpowered vampires, but have had unimpressive results with other civs. The Lanun are a water-themed civ: they get +1 move on their ships, and +1 food from water tiles. Their workboats can build an improvement on water tiles. The world spell is Raging Seas, which does potentially fatal damage to everyone else's units next to an ocean tile, and also has a chance to wipe out improvements next to ocean. It's not available until Optics, though. The unique unit is Guybrush Threepwood, available at Iron Working. The leader is Hannah the Irin, who is Financial (+25% gold), Raiders (see above), and Insane (traits switch randomly).

[DaveV]

The password: It's

[DaveV]

Reserved...

[DaveV]

The game is afoot! I built my first city on the first turn and on the starting tile:



Before settling, I ran my settler around to the west and south to expose a few more tiles.

A good capital location: two pirate coves and a fish. I can put a third cove to the west, but only after I build a port on that body of water (or a canal city). I'm on a river, for an eventual Deruptus, have decent production, and an early happy resource. Not the usual plethora of riverside grassland and floodplains, which makes my water tiles even better by comparison.

I took the screenshot before renaming the city. My (obvious) theme is Monty Python sketches. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do an alphabetical progression, since I thought it would mean having a capital named Albatross! or Attila the Bun. Then I remembered Argument Clinic, one of my favorite sketches.



The settings page:



Pretty much what was requested. Mouseover (which I didn't get in my screenshot; I'm out of practice), showed something like 846 land tiles. Standard map size means slower teching and cheaper cities than my Small map test games, which is probably in my favor.

I have a pretty good idea for my next few city names, but suggestions/speculations are welcome.

[haphazard1]

Fun naming scheme. Looks like a pretty nice capital. Good luck!

[DaveV]

Turn 2 rolls around. I could have played in the last 10 minutes of my lunch hour, but wasn't paying close enough attention to my email. Instead, I played fairly early in my evening window; I hope it's early enough for everyone to play.

Game news: everyone but Mr. Cairo settled; I guess he's looking for the perfect spot for his three-ring capital. I'm glad to see that Aurorarcher didn't move halfway across the map for a Lucian rush, but I'd also hate to see a Centaur rush from Mr. Cairo.

My scouting units exposed a few more tiles, nothing too exciting. This time I remembered to do a score mouseover, though.