So yeah.

Picks:

Decius of Calabim
Beeri Bawl of Luchuirp
Jonas Endain of Clan

So yes, I'm hoping to get to play with magic.

Map details to be posted below.

NO PLAYERS!

I wonder what the odds is for me actually updating. Depends a whole lot on if anyone is willing to admit to ded-lurking as that'll give me a reason to do it regulary

Miguelito said he'd dedlurk this

Opening up my thread.

This will be my first PBEM, so it ought to be interesting. It seems to be more or less similar to a PitBoss game without having to worry about double moves, but instead having to worry about a player reloading and replaying turns in order to try to get a better outcome in battles.

Seems like a lot of effort to me.

I haven't messed with the Creative trait in any multiplayer game yet, and since Krill asked for feedback about it, I may give it a try this game. With only 4 players, there should be a lot of options available. Leader-wise, I'm thinking about Cathy, with her CRE/IMP traits to get those settlers out faster. I'm also thinking about Zara/Augustus and their CRE/ORG, which also seems like a strong combination -- cheap libraries and cheap courthouses? Yes please! Lots of good civ options with that combination of traits.

Civ choice will, as always, depend on the start, so I'm going to wait to see that before I start thinking seriously about them.

Gibberish gibberish gibberish...

















































... spoilers ahead and all that. No players beyond this point, lest you see what cannot be unseen!







With that out of the way, let's proceed. This is my first thread like this, I've been a silent lurker up to this point on RB but my love of Fall From Heaven and the thrill of competition finally drove me to propose this game (after realizing I was too late to join the last PBEM).

I will be entirely honest: if I win this game, it will be because the other players made horrendous mistakes and/or all killed each other and forgot about me somehow. I have zero competitive Civ4 multiplayer experience. This will be my first game of this nature. Thus, I am going to try to keep a low profile whenever possible. But not such a low profile that my neighbors decide I'll be easy to invade (hopefully).

I'm not a total incompetent, however. I cut my teeth on ye olde Civilization. On DOS. Good times.

I'll always remember my first game of Civilization because I had built my second city and was pretty excited about it. Then, in a storm of cliches, I met my first neighbor! And his tank. Several turns later I had been wiped out by the AI and thoroughly chastised.

Since then, I've played Civilization pretty religiously. It's probably telling that one of my favorite installments in the series was Civ II: Test of Time, specifically the fantasy game setting where you could travel between the different layers of the world (underworld, undersea, surface, cloud world) and there was a mildly obscure victory condition involving a bridge to Midgard or something... which leads us to Fall from Heaven, another great fantasy setting.

Despite all those turns logged, I've never gotten around to a multiplayer game that wasn't me and a couple friends/siblings playing hotseat. And we never really fought each other since we could see the other person's moves. So while I understand Civ pretty well, I have no instinct or experience at multiplayer warfare. One of my primary goals for this game will be to get some practice in the "C & D" department, figuring out what my opponents are doing and hopefully not getting blindsided too badly. My secondary goal will be to survive long enough to have a decent army and get some practice in MP warfare. Preferably with lots of fireballs.

So, a quick introduction - this game is being played with EitB v11, and the map is being made by Kragroth using a Torrusland base. Settings are in the setup thread if you want particulars. Going forward I will try to explain my decisions in some detail, both so that if there are any glaring errors in my thinking I can look back in shame on my foolishness, but also because hopefully I'll do a few things right in this game and some fellow lurkers will learn from those and my well documented mistakes. And then maybe they'll join in on a game of their own, and repeat the glorious cycle. Or laugh silently to themselves in the lurker thread as my civ fumbles around in the dark. Either way, someone's having a good time.

Without further ado. I submitted my picks as the following:

1. Dain the Caswallan, of the Amurites
I've never used Dain, but I really like the philosophical attribute and I enjoy the Amurites' special units tremendously. The extra fast GP generation combines very nicely if you run the pacifism civic early on, and since the Amurites are geared towards using magic that means quickly getting to Knowledge of the Ether. Conveniently, you pick up a lot of things that give you Great Sage points along the way, like the Elder Council and Libraries (both of which are sped up by Philosophical). So the synergy is great.

Furthermore, the arcane trait gives all my adepts two promotions: mobility and potency. Mobility is dependent on having Horseback Riding, though (correct me if I'm wrong?) so it's worth it to pick up that tech before building my adepts. Potency makes them gain XP faster, which is required to get them up to level 4 so they can become Wizards, the Amurite UU that replaces Mages. They all start with the Spellstaff promotion, which lets them cast twice in a turn at the cost of losing the promo (they break the staff... and apparently the Academy of Magic only gives you one of those ever.)

So if I get my top pick, the game plan is to hook up my initial resources and then tech HBR and beeline KotE. Secondary priorities will be to found either Runes of Kilmorph (for the money, to get more tech) or failing that to try and pick up Fellowship of Leaves. Both are good for the Amurites, and my high-level strategic plan is really just to play for time. The longer I wait, the stronger my mage armies will become and the more Great People I can spawn.

2. Cardith Lorda of the Kuriotates
This was my second pick because it works well with my default strategy, which is to turtle up and build vertically (remember that first game of Civ? Well, that works slightly better with the Kuriotates than with the Babylonians). Also a philosophical leader, Cardith has the extra advantage of being expansionist for extra fast granaries and settlers. So the Kuriotates come out of the gate quite strong, and are very flexible in terms of being able to concentrate on a particular area and excel at it. Their special ability is that their cities can work an extra ring beyond the second, so their traditional BFC has an extra three tiles on each side. The downside is that they can only build a limited number of cities (dependent on map size) with all additional cities being "settlements" that produce no buildings/units and never grow.

The Kurios have unique horseman replacements, centaurs. There are a variety of them, starting with Centaur Archers. They are slower than horses, but make up for it by being able to receive defensive bonuses. The additional mobility over foot troops helps with defending the mega cities.

Lastly, this leader has the adaptive trait, which allows the Philosophical trait to be changed to any other trait at certain intervals depending on game speed. I believe it's 75 turns on standard speed, but I may be wrong. I'll double check if I don't get my first pick. The beauty of the Kuriotates is their flexibility, in my opinion. They can do almost anything well if they focus on it, their only weakness is that they cannot produce a lot of units quickly since they have a limited number of productive cities. Since this is my second pick, I'll detail strategic thoughts if for some reason I end up with them.

3. Flauros of the Calabim
I honestly do not expect to end up with my third pick, but if for some reason my other two picks are taken them you can always default to vampires! Flauros is Financial and Organized, great traits for maintaining a large empire and large armies of blood suckers. The Calabim are a blast to play, but I put this down as my third pick because they're an inherently aggressive civ and like I said, I want to keep a low profile.

A little later on this weekend I'll start to take a detailed look at the competition and hopefully find out what leaders/civs will be played in this game. My goal is to keep this thread updated consistently (at least 2x/week) and to provide some amusement to anyone who happens to follow along as I likely run to my death at the hands of my far more experienced competitors.


P.S.
My only question is this: what's the best way to post screenshots from the game?

More properly whom, but people who correct whos to whoms are, universally, asses.

So...who here thinks the newbie will be the Second Coming of the The Black Sword?

Other players, keep out!

My new mascot, the Huntress: