[PB48] TBW

[TBW]

My password is "ape".

[Cornflakes]

Starting screenshot:

   

Anything outside the BFC (including corner tiles) is subject to change on a final balance pass.

[TBW]

Two seafood resources tells me that it would be a good idea to pick a Fishing civ. I'm leaning towards either America because I want to see if Armories are as good as they seem from the description and Portugal, because Feitorias are basically a counterfeit Colossus and if the game gets to the point that I'm building Customs Houses, they'll be a big boost, especially since I know there are at least some islands and a lot of coasts available on this map. Minutemen with CHA + Armory would have the option of Guerrilla 3 (50% withdrawal chance) or Woodsman 3 (2 first strikes + Medic in one promo) without any experience civics; caravels would be ocean-capable galleys, which would be more useful on a map that isn't a pangaea but will still be handy.

If I go America, then I want an AGG leader, ideally Boudica for AGG/CHA because that would give me 2 promo horses/archers/rifles/tanks (if the game gets to a point where tanks are relevant) with just a barracks. If I had to pick between AGG or CHA due to Boudica being taken, I'd take CHA because building 60 hammer barracks isn't terribly oppressive and having the early 2 promo bonuses on non-melee units would be more valuable. My backup leader choices would be Hannibal (/FIN, definitely helpful on a map where you start with 2 coast seafood) or Washington (/EXP for cheaper workers/work boats and a bunch of cheap buildings)

If I go Portugal, I'll take a FIN leader, either Pacal (/EXP), Darius (/ORG, cheap courthouses + civic maintenance), or Ragnar (/AGG, city maintenance + 30 hammer barracks). We'll see what the other picks look like on this one. I'm glad I've only got one person between picking my civ and leader.

[TBW]

PICK EVALUATIONS
I still don't know the players here well enough to have any useful insight about their playstyles or skill levels, but I can still evaluate their picks.

Raskolnikov
Bismarck (EXP/IND) / India (Harappan Granary / Urukku Pikeman)
The only IND leader in the game, he'll pick up a lot of wonders and get his Moai/Forbidden Palace/Epics up faster than anyone, which will be a big boost. Harappan Granaries are +1 happiness and 45 hammers instead of 60, and since you'll have granaries in every city as your first building it's like having a Chinese knockoff version of the CHA trait. I haven't played deep enough in PB46 to know how truly effective Urukku Pikemen (8 str + 100% against mounted) are compared to normal pikes, but I suspect they're able to effectively blunt any two mover attacks until cavalry so he's going to have a big midgame window where he's effectively invincible, unless he ends up in trouble with France's musketeers and/or GKC's AGG praetorians.

GeneralKilCavalry
Shaka (AGG/EXP) / Rome (Forum / Praetorian)
My PB46 combo, which did not go very well because I couldn't figure out a way to scrabble an empire together out of the deserts and plains I had for territory, but I suspect it'll go much better on this map. Shaka is a great leader for Rome, especially on a map where everybody's probably going to start with coastal seafood resources so getting that workboat out will be important. AGG praetorians, with experience, are viable city attackers all the way from when they're researched up until riflemen start showing up, so whoever starts next to him will likely be very willing to ally with his other neighbor. The GPP bonus on forums isn't a huge bonus; you'll definitely get use out of it in your National Epic city but it's not going to do a lot for you in other cities you would normally put markets in.

Mr.Cairo
Catherine (CRE/IMP) / France (Salon / Musketeer)
CRE gives him good early border pressure and frees up hammers that would have gone into monuments or barracks to pop borders, and he'll be putting those hammers into cheap settlers with IMP. He doesn't have a lot of great bonuses besides that. A boost to libraries is nice, but it's not a double hammer boost, and I don't think customs houses are going to be important on this map. Salons are observatories that also grant you a free specialist, which will be a good boost when he starts building them because Representation will be right around the corner. Musketeers are two mover musketmen, which lets them fill a niche as escorts for knights as well as the earliest two movers that can bypass city walls. A solid pick all around.

Superdeath
Joao (EXP/IMP) / Inca (Terrace / Quechua)
Superdeath was clearly thinking the same way I was on leaders and went for the economic choice over the military choice. Inca gives you a pseudo-CRE boost with cheap granaries that have +1 culture, but I don't see a lot of utility in quechuas as warrior replacements. The 100% against archers is only going to come into play if you're warrior rushing someone who already has archers or getting archer rushed by somebody, and you'll have axes available around turn 40. Then again, I got rolled by Inca in PB46, so I shouldn't be underestimating it as a pick.

Gavagai
Sitting Bull (PHI/PRO) / Native America (Totem Pole / Tracker)
PRO Native America is an obvious choice, he'll be really hard to knock out of cities until knights and, assuming he doesn't fall far enough behind that someone has knights before he has longbows, it'll take cuirs and cavalry to uproot him. On the plus side, he doesn't have any major offensive boosts, and picking PHI/PRO with a civ that has archer boost signals that he's planning on playing a more pacifist game and aiming to stay out of wars until he's used GAs and Great People to tech his way ahead of everyone else. Winning a war when you're at tech parity is very difficult and defenders always have the advantage, especially with PRO meaning you have to have overwhelming numbers to crack open walled cities.

[TBW]

T0-2:
I'm scouting right now and my initial land looks a lot better than my PB46 steppe did. I'm taking screenshots but my home internet's upload is choked down to dialup speeds with 7%+ packet loss right now and I can't successfully upload any of them, but I am taking them and I'll post them when my internet's in better shape. I'm definitely glad Civ 4 is a game from when dialup internet still existed and my downstream is working fine so it's no problem to take my turns, though making moves is about as laggy as giving directions to a moon lander right now.

[TBW]

T5:
Looks like everybody except India finished a tech this turn. I assume everybody either took Mining or a food tech, and I would have expected India to finish one of the baseline food techs this turn since they didn't start with one, but maybe they're going straight to Bronze Working. After my borders popped, I swapped from working my grassland cow (3f1c) to working a grass hill forest (1f2h) tile, so I can get my work boat out faster. This slows down the pop growth I'd be getting from going work boat first by a couple turns, but gets my boat out as fast as possible and leaves me working the maximum food surplus I can get with this start, so I think that's worth it. I'll have 5 food fish + 3 food cow at 2 pop, with the commerce to get me through Bronze Working a turn or two quicker from the fish as well. Work boat -> worker -> warrior -> settler is the plan right now, with Bronze Working -> Hunting -> The Wheel on the list for techs. As long as BW and Wheel are in my first 4 techs and I have copper hooked up by T30-35, I'll be in good shape.

[TBW]

In regards to the map layout, I'm assuming we're working with something that's vaguely circular, starting with player 0 at the 6:00 position and putting players in order going clockwise at roughly 2 hour intervals with me, player 3, sitting at 12:00. I still don't know anything about the spacing between players but it makes sense to me that I'm on top of the map based on my capital's coastline.

[TBW]

I've decided that my name theme for this game is going to be a very topical one: diseases. I have renamed my capital from Washington to AIDS.

[TBW]

T11:


I'm apparently the only person who went workboat first. Right now that's put me in the crop yield lead, but the EXP guys will be getting their worker out next turn so that won't last forever. My worker's only going to take 8 turns to come out and I feel like worker + coast fish at T20 is a pretty good spot to be in, with chops I shouldn't have any trouble getting my second city settled around T32 or so. Gavagai made contact with me this turn, but I don't know if his scout encountered my scout or my capital this turn, not that it really makes a big difference right now.

[TBW]

Greetings from the Moomin Federation of Independent Lighthouses!

We recently spotted your scout and have determined that opening channels would be mutually beneficial. This message was composed to that end. As our great ancestor Sitting Bull once said "Would it be politically correct to offer you a peace pipe?"

Best regards,
Irismono, head of diplomatic relations for MFoIL

Alright. I'm down with doing some schlocky roleplaying here. You gotta have fun with these kinds of things.

Greetings from the Disease Empire! We agree that opening lines of communication will be something that aids us both in the future, and hope that we have a fluid exchange of messages in the future.

Regards,
TBW