Turns out caster of magic wiki exists, but in a very sorrow state. There are only a few pages, some just copied from MoM wiki and contain factual errors (like saying that halflings can build barracks). There was a comment that halflings can not build it... I just edited the page to correct it.

While CoM manual is nice wiki could be a more approachable representation of information. For example the page on Giant Spiders could contain not just raw stats, but also give advise on how to counter them in nodes, how to counter them in opponent wizard's army and how to use them effectively.

What pages are of higher priority for creation? Also we need to agree on a process to review the correctness of the page.

I know that life is supposed to be bad at mystic creatures, but this one at least on paper is too bad.

If I understand the description correctly it removes all bonuses from levels (ouch, white wizard likely has levels). Also bonuses from mythril or magic weapons or not.

Since we lose the flat bonuses from HP units with lower figure count should be the intended target.

Let's try Griffins. Two figures,  18 atk, 9 def, 12 Res, 20 health... No to hit bonuses... first strike. This is somewhat better than non-arch angels in raw stats. Without the support bonuses. On a very rare spell.

Let's try war trolls. The result is not quite hydra level.

And white wizard is unlikely to have survival instincts and land linking.

What are the cases where you would rather use destiny than buff experienced units?

Here we go, my first reporting thread. I am excited but very, very nervous. For the benefit of my dedlurker and anyone trying to understand why I might do silly things, here's my background.

• This is my very first multiplayer experience in Civ4, and really my first competitive multiplayer in any game really.
  

• Most of my single-player Civ4 experience has been on Epic speed on very large maps (i.e. long, slow games with so much room to expand the early limit is economy, not other players). I expect to be constantly tripped up by the differences.
  
• I've lurked non-posting around RB sporadically since the very early days. I think PB8 was the first game I followed in detail and boy was that a good game to pick. If I have any idea what I'm doing, it's from following along with much better players than I am.
  
• I love to tinker and understand things, so I'm happy to sim or plan something if it's important enough
  
• I also want and need to keep games in their proper place in life, so I don't want to go overboard with elaborate plans for everything, especially when my plans would probably be half-baked to start with due to inexperience.
  

1. Play regularly, fair, and firmly until the end. No throwing the game away, no kingmaking, no cheese. If I get run over by Knights, fight until the end and be gracious about the loss.
   
2. Learn how to be a tough out. I'm naturally inclined to buildery play, so the challenge will be to build enough units not to get run over as the obvious target, and be in position to take advantage of an attack window if I have one. But building too much military commits you to an attack since it ties you down with maintenance, so I will have to find the right balance.
   
3. Learn how to report in a way that's interesting to read and interesting for me to write, so I am comfortable with the pace and time commitment of reporting but hopefully the readers can be entertained.
   
4. Gain some experience on the typical settings used here
   
5. Not be first to die? Maybe actually do okay?
   

My first MP game here at RB is the PB72.

"Exclusive" for newer/green players, I fear, I have to much experience for this.
I played a few games over at civforum.de.
4 Games completed (and survived in 2).
2 more games are still active. The first game is in turn 11, but I don't expect to survive long in the other game. You can defend win fights with (PRO) longbows against rifles, but...

So, this shouldn't be a "Plemo" scenario.


To the game:
Close to Home

NoHuts
NoEvents
NoVassals
NoTechTrading
NoCityTrading 1 city per deal
NoUnitGifting
No Spies

simultaneous Turns
Monarch difficult
Score on
Citycount is visible
No barbs
War warriness on

Coinflip to decide settler races
Random block to decide leader and civ.

Supderdeath has offered himself as dedlurker for me. Thanks you for that.

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civ password is bandraw

I watched Sapher's playthroughs on YouTube and decided to make a few threads about stuff I learned. 

One important lesson I learned is when customizing your wizard it is important to not focus excessively on your strength, but to also cover your weaknesses.

For example in the Draconian speedrun the idea was to use adamantite bowmen to clear nodes early. Draconian bowmen are strong, but some weaker players would pick red books for flame blade and white books for more buffs. Sapher instead picked two death, two nature and 3 sorcery. Sorcery would eventually give magic immunity. Nature gives earth lore. Death is for drain life. In early game draconian archers are strong enough to clear many lairs, an option for fully buffed army of 9 bowmen who can clear 6x great drake lair is not too important.

Another Sapher's game that illustrates this principle is troll game. The idea is to use trollish regeneration for early conquest. The game was in Dos version so he only picked two life books for endurance. The rest is to cover for weakness, for example against unrecoverable unit destruction with spells like resist magic.

There are many ways to apply it. For example for hero strategy pick tactician that helps when your heroes are in danger rather than warlord that makes your heroes even stronger when they are safe.

There are some cases where fully maxing advantages can be helpful because it breaks some important threshold (elven cavalry first strike min maxing to one shot phantom beasts for extreme lair farming speed), but more often than not what will have more impact on the overall success of the playthrough is how well you deal with what you are weak against, not how fast you farm what you are good at.

With max number of opponents and normal size the map is huge. By the time you reach your remote enemy you want to start a new game so badly.

Nodes with many behemoths are coveted for their treasure often containing green spell books and retorts. The guards are formidable opponents though. What is your approach to such lairs?

The game is so much more fun when you can make a big mistake and still win. And if you do not play something completely overpowered there is still some challenge.

It's been too long. We should try to at least one game this year.

My suggestion would be classic+1.40o patch (seems to work for me!), Impossible, strongish race, no major variants (something simple like Psilons but can't move tech sliders would be fine) but I'm open to anything that comes with clear, unambiguous install instructions (death by modmod confusion is the sad but pervasive fate of so many games these days).