If you have better suggestions how to make MAHALA from cool words to name the thread, feel free to suggest...  

Thoughts on the pick to follow.

So I started to try summoning strategy on master. Death should have the easiest start. Perhaps I should try a monochromatic, but I can't see mono-death beating a myrran life, so decided to add in sorcery:
5 death 4 sorcery, spellweaver, conjurer, halflings
Black Prayer+black sleep is pretty much where I put my mid-game hopes.

Game has started out weird. I started alone on a big continent, and had 10 cities by peaceful expansion (2 taken neutrals). 3 gems and 3 gold, so I have 100+ gold surplus (one gem just depleted!). Took a high men neutral, and placed high men into 3 military spots (all with coal, one mithril). Lycantrophy was up soon, so after ~12 ghouls, I started with mithril werewolves.

I am now about to kill the first AI. Still only met 2 AIs even though I explored most of the map. Starting to think there is 2 on myrror.
Sss'ra, aggressive, mostly life some chaos. Soon to die. Life klackons are nicely undercut by ghoul poison. Fortress strike is giving me headache. Will take dozen turns still until black prayer plus FM nagas, which should do it.

The other AI I met is mono-life Ariel, on high elves with guardian and a whole lot of other retorts. Not warlord, though. She has been surprisingly slow to expand, although is expansionist. Or maybe I just grew fast as death than I have used to with buffed city units, and her high elves are slow. I could either try to take her on asap, or focus on breaking towers after sss'ra falls. Elves can overcome poison, but if I can get dispel wave she shouldn't be that much of a threat in the late game. Except for angels I suppose.

Other two AIs identified due to globals:
Horus & Kali. This should prove to be a sorcery cluster***k! And of course Aura of Majesty is up, so if they are both on Myrror most certainly they are allied. I think dispelling waves + fortress strike with heroes is what I need to bank on. No dispelling wave in my spellbook, though, so somehow I need to gain that.

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!

https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/86...v/dw86lrq/

Darrell

My horsebowmen seems to have sharpshooter when accompanied by the sage hero.

Ok so here are the screenshots of the map. I am unable to add iron or horses for some reason. If there is any one that know how to help in that regard please let me know.

Would it be possible to have create artifact treated as an uncommon spell for an Artificer?  So it shows up earlier?

I have to admit I am pretty please with Fire Giants.

The early-mid to mid game potential of Fireball and their Magical Ranged attacks is nice.

I do think they seem a bit weak against multi-unit ranged attacks.  Maybe 5 Defense is a bit low.

Or maybe give them the Big Shields it would help a bit without making them stronger in melee combat.

Although thinking about it this really is a buff to them being the aggressor.

Civ's to rank:

France, Egypt, Aztec, Brazil, Greece (Pericles), India (Gandhi), Kongo, Norway, Spain, America

My ranking (with 1 highest rank, 4 lowest):

1. Kongo: 

Yes it's my old favorite and normally not a very strong option, but with Rome, Skythia and Sumeria eliminated, the Ngao Mbeba may be the strongest Early UU left in the pack: A swordsman that doesn't require Iron, is faster through forests and rainforests and takes arrows like they aint no thang.

The Mbanza is strong as I have already outlined in my pbem7 thread, it is effectively an improvement that turns weak 2/1 flatland forest/rainforest tiles into 4f/4gold tiles that you don't need to work (this is also why I count it as a +4 food improvement, since you don't need to pay the normal 2 food for a pop working) that also gives you 4 housing and can be spammed. People use this thing wrong constantly by only building them when they lack housing, once you get Guilds you should immediately start the process of turning every flatland bush tile into Mbanza's 

The boost to GWAM points from Theatre Squares is much stronger without Russia sniping away all the early Great Writers.

2. Greece (Pericles):

With the change to Agoge Hoplites are now a stronger option than ever.  I'm also interested in showing the potential of the Acropolis, which has been sadly lacking in the previous Greece games. 

3. India: 

Additional War Weariness is a deterrent for aggression while the Elephants are a great way to get into some fighting of your own. The Step Well and religious bonuses are strong economically.

4: Aztec: 

Eagles are very nice since you can farm workers from city states for a long time. The extra happiness and the happiness combat bonuses also scale really well into the late game.

The Pregame Show

Back in the PBEM saddle, this time in Newbies’ Paradise.  Let’s see what I’m up against.

Opponents

RFS-81: Don’t know anything about him.
rho21: Don’t know anything about him either.
Japper: Watched his play in PBEM 4, planning & play in PBEM 7 and have no idea what he was doing in PBEM 5 because Krill never really got up there until Japper was mostly eliminated from play.  His planning seems to be like my military escapades. 
Suboptimal: If you haven’t, read my PBEM 6 reporting and you’ll see why I list myself here.

Objectives

1) Be competent with my military
2) Be better at growing my cities’ population.
3) Killmore than three enemy units in this game (see also: Objective #1)
4) Make it to Turn 100 (see also: Objective #1)

Civs

Our pick list: America, France, Egypt, Brazil, Kongo, Greece/Pericles, Aztecs, Spain, India and Norway.  One of the reasons these civs are generaly ignored in PBEMs so far is that you’re going to wind up ignoring some or all of your civ’s abilities or uniques because of the nature of MP vs. SP.  Another issue is that for some of these civs (Spain, America, France) the abilities and uniques kick in very late in the game.  So, what to do?

In looking at this list, two stand out above the rest….

Brazil

The only civ with adjacency bonuses to districts right out of the gate.  The plan would be to do early Campuses and build the economy (like I did with Australia in PBEM 6) or try to go for an early religion and take it from there with Jesuit Education, DotF and Wats.  Which start I take would depend on what the map gives me.  One thought here is that if I could get a faith-heavy start I could try to see how Warrior Monks work....

Aztecs

Build a few Eagle Warriors for city-state conquests and to farm a couple of builders to start the game.  Get them promoted to make poor-man’s swords then go find a player to harass.  Wouldn’t need Encampments at the start either, since Eagle Warriors aren’t boosted by Great Generals.  Builders to build districts later on and the +1 CS bonus for luxury hookups.  Bonus: a player than has been historically inept with his military going full Monty will give the others something to attempt to comprehend.

After these two the pickings get murky.  My initial musings were France and Kongo…

France

Pure simplicity.  No early uniques to chase down so I can just focus on nuts and bolts.  The Flying Squadron would let me see what my opponents were up to with their policies (found that out about diplomatic visibility in PBEM 3) and the spy at Castles has me very intrigued.  Of course, I’d have to survive long enough to tech that far.  

Kongo

The plan here is to try to be Archduke-lite: found a second city, get an Encampment or two up, upgrade warriors to Ngao Mbeba and go find something to kill.  Early districts would be Encampments and Campuses.

But what of the others?

America

There’s the +5 CS when on your home continent and slightly faster accrual of legacy bonuses.  Has anyone figured out if the legacy bonuses ever really matter?  Everything else comes late, like Atomic Era late.  If the game gets to that point I think we’re all going to be more concerned about nukes than P-51’s.  The +5 combat strength could be useful early on.

Egypt

Well, since my look at this civ in PBEM 3 they’ve dropped the cost of the Maryannu Horse Archer.  That doesn’t change the fact that it replaces the Heavy Chariot at almost twice the cost and upgrades into Crossbows instead of Knights.  This civ also needs international trade routes to get any sort of civ-based bonuses and while the production bonus to riverside districts is nice I still can’t figure out how this civ could work in an MP setting.

Pericles’ Greece

The hoplite and the additional wildcard slot for policies is nice.  However, +5% culture per city-state you are suzerain of is….beyond useless when the “smart play” is to conquer city-states.  I also haven’t checked to see if the addition of anti-cavalry units to the policy cards is for R&F or the base game.

India

Stepwells are a good improvement for growing cities early or in places that lack fresh water.  The free faith from Satyagraha is nice but dictates a religious game for it to be of any use.  The doubled war weariness for opponents is nice, too.  As for the Varu, well, in the PBEM 3 pregame they were my biggest concern.  A little smarter and wiser (Editor: yeah, right ) and well, I don’t know.  They’re 50% more expensive than a horseman to build, upgrade into tanks and are slower moving on the battlefield.  I suppose in formation they’d be a nightmare, but are they worth it?

Norway

A unique unit that is weak on defense and strong on offense but expensive to build, coastal raiding and other naval goodies and a religious building that provides extra production to bonus sea resources.  All this on a map that probably won’t require naval units.

Spain

Most of the abilities don’t kick in until the Renaissance Era.  The +4 CS vs. civs of other religions is nice and Conquistadors could be quite potent with a religious unit in tow.  It would be like France in that the first three eras would be pure simplicity, but with a religious start.