Cornflakes 83 Blunders

[Cornflakes]

Pindicator is Hannibal (FIN/CHA) of Portugal (Feitoria / Carrack)
Cornflakes is Kublai Khan (AGG/CRE) of Mongolia (Ger / Keshik)
Commodore is Catherine (CRE/IMP) of Persia (Satrap Court / Immortal)
Krill is Washington (EXP/CHA) of Native America (Totem Pole / Tracker)
Thoth is Justinian (SPI/IMP) of Maya (Ball Court / Holkan)
Yuris is Shaka (AGG/EXP) of Ottomans (Hammam / Janissary)
Dreylin is Lincoln (PHI/CHA) of Carthage (Cothon / Numidian Cavalry)

[Cornflakes]

I didn’t really lurk PB80 so this dive back into RtR will be somewhat on the back foot compared to the returning players. My favorite change of RtR was the slavery nerf, which has now been rolled back to base BtS since this is random Civ/leader selection I’ll hold my analysis until seeing the picks.

I will comment on the advanced start though. I did some experimenting before a previous advanced start game, probably the first advanced start pitboss on RB. As long as the starts aren’t at minimum distance, the settleable area is actually as much as 3 tiles outside the initially revealed tiles. The catch is that you can only settle on tiles that are revealed by purchasing a city (as opposed to the “reveal tile” buy) AND the normal 3-tile minimum settling distance applies. The extra starting range outside of the initial vision is something that is not obvious at first glance and may not be understood by everyone. Of course this all involves steeling into the fog … but if the starting region is barren, this can open up additional options. Creative gets a stealth buff in that the 2nd ring of culture reveals an extra ring of settleable tiles, whereas non-creative only get that extra territory if the tiles are on hills.

Buying the first pop in each city has the addition benefit of filling half of the food box. Unfortunately pop cost 33g and therefore with our limited budget we can’t get a 2nd worker and 2 pop, unless we get a trait discount on the workers.i really like the limited 120 discretionary budget because that gives about a 30 turn boost to the start without a large enough budget to make for an obscene amount of options. Basically 1 extra worker and [a granary] or [pop and an improvemen] or [2 improvements], possibly adjusted based on traits.

[Cornflakes]

We are Kublai Khan (AGG/CRE) of the Mongols:

   

Initial thought: Lots of green, decent forest ... but where be the hills?

[Cornflakes]

I’m quite pleased with Kublai. I haven’t played AGG in a while so it will be a nice change. It will be a great help vs the barbs. The maintenance discount helps especially in the early game expansion phase with keeping the economy moving forward. And that synergies with CRE border pops, which in addition to the expansion boost also aid in classical raging barb defense with the culture defenses. Mongolia I’m indifferent towards.in a classical era start, HA are too early to make a big difference so I see the Keshia more as a supporting role in a knights or maces attack. But depending on the situation they could make the difference between forking and sniping a city before it can whip an extra spear. But in this version of RtR, pikes are much easier to reach so their window of usefulness is reduced. UU do is nice but still requires both XP civics to get to the 3rd promo without CHA.

[Cornflakes]

I’ve made my decision on how to spend the 120 discretionary points:
Worker - 60
Sheep pasture - 24
Clam nets - 30
Extra - 6g starting gold

One worker in the 2nd city, worker + scout + archer in the capital.

   

WHY THE OCEAN FISH ONLY REACHABLE BY SETTLING HORSE That would have been a nice bonus if that had popped up in the fog 1E

There were not resources at all to make settling into the fog in the north even remotely tempting, so I just went with the 2 best cities that I could get now.

[Cornflakes]

Initial plan:
Both cities will start 15-hammer units, scout at the 2nd city and warrior at the capital. I will be able to swap tiles to sync growth to size 2 with enough hammers to complete their respective unit after 7 turns (EOT6). The two workers will improve the horses and corn, then each chop one forest into settlers in both cities. The settlers will be 10-turn builds including the chops, both completing EOT16. The workers will have 6-7 turns to road towards each of the cities. Given all the green and the river in the north I'm confident that I'll be able to find two adequate city sites for cities #3-4 (both settled before T20). Since AGG gets maintenance discount and I have the CRE border pops to grab 2nd ring resources I'm aiming for rapid expansion this game.

I also have extremely limited options for improvements around both of my first two cities. There is only 1 bare hill to mine, and no bare riverside grassland to cottage. I won't have lumbermills unlocked for 25 turns even if I choose Metal Casting first, and therefore the workers will only be able to chop or road after they each improve their one resource. In RtR the real barbs don't start showing up until T40, and scouts get heavy bonuses vs. barbs so I'm content with the 2 scouts, 1 worker, and starting archer to screen for the initial two cities. Then after the 17-turn scout/warrior > Settler sequence I'll probably push a couple chariots out ... how many will depend on the lay of the land, barb busting needs, and neighbor proximity.

Also as I was doing a final bug-check for my combo I only just realized that the Mongolian Ger requires Archery instead of HBR. This means that Chariots can benefit from Ger at the start of the game, and for non-CRE Mongolia the Ger is a nice boost as an alternative to the Monument for popping borders.

[Cornflakes]

Slight change of micro. I was wondering if I could make use of the bare grass hill and grow a 3rd pop into a mine. Turns out I can indeed grow the capital to size 3 without delaying the settler at all. The first unit I build there will be delayed by 2 turns, but I can make up the lost time by working 2 extra foodhammers on the settler build.

Oh, and I’m not planning to adopt Slavery at the start. May pick it up when the first 2 settlers are on the move, or might not even take it at all.

[Cornflakes]

Some more initial thoughts since we have a few days until this gets hosted:

Pindicator is Hannibal (FIN/CHA) of Portugal (Feitoria / Carrack)
Portugal's UU looks sad in this mod since the base caravel can also transport any units, although it does get an extra movement compared to the Caravel (still only moves 2 tiles through ocean though without 4XP + Education for Nav1). CHA happiness would be nice at this start, and I'd take RtR FIN any day over CtH FIN. UB is late, expensive, and given the buffs to specialists in the mod it is likely to see little use (there definitely synergy with FIN, but it is too little too late). I'd like to see Portugal buffed, and the UU makes sense given the sensitivity of the naval system to upset. Push the UU earlier in the tech tree (paper?), and half the cost.
Leader
Civ

Cornflakes is Kublai Khan (AGG/CRE) of Mongolia (Ger / Keshik)
Civ is OK, might give an edge in warfare at some point, but going in I'm treating is mostly blank. I love Creative for flexibility in dotmap and securing a favorable land front. The library production nerf is sad in RtR, but the observatory production buff as compensation makes Observatories now much better than Universities (buffing Astronomy, and nerfing the Oxford University and Colossus). AGG grants any civ an additional UU: the Maceman. Macemen get 25% city attack bonus in the mod, and AGG maces already get positive odds on anything less than longbows/crossbows. One of my early scouting goals are to explore the avenues for peaceful expansion, the ascertain the proximity of my neighbors, and assess their vulnerability to a Maceman rush. A lot depends on the lay of the land. I've rolled a few maps while testing the settings and the results are highly variable, from blobby Pangaea to a narrow snaky continent what wraps around the entire east/west axis.
Leader
Civ

Commodore is Catherine (CRE/IMP) of Persia (Satrap Court / Immortal)
See my comments above about CRE, IMP is buffed with maintenance discount similar to my AGG but gets settler discount and GG bonus compared to my C1 promo. I like both. Satrap Court gets a hefty city maintenance reduction making it a courthouse substitute, but it is expensive on a building that is usually reserved for core cities. The bonus is anti-synergistic with the base building's use-case. That UU though! A chariot replacement with first strike and March is an ideal barb smasher for Classical Raging Barbs. In PB82 I promoted my barb busters with March once they reached 10XP and it was glorious.
Leader
Civ

Krill is Washington (EXP/CHA) of Native America (Totem Pole / Tracker)
I love the Native America changes (what else can I say though, since I suggested them :D ). Krill got lucky combining them with CHA for maximum synergy. RtR nerfs them a bit late game by obsoleting the Totem Pole at Assembly Line. NA get a super medic by default with the Tracker, and an Ultra Medic with a GG. Washington can go tall easy, or use the happiness to whip hard and go wide.
Leader
Civ

Thoth is Justinian (SPI/IMP) of Maya (Ball Court / Holkan)
Thoth rolled the RtR equivalent of CtH Greece with the Mayan 5-strength spear. I loved the buffed spear in PB82. Hammer exchanges for a mounted invasion before at least Cuirassier will be awful. Alternatives are available (especially as AGG ) but don't approach them with the standard HA or Knight rushes. SPI is great on Classical Era start, just need to lock in one of the early religions since religion is no longer free in this version of the mod. The Ball Court can definitely plug a hole in a happy constrained start. The cost is good compared to 4 military police units with HR, a situational UU but excellent at what it does is a good UU. Looking back at PB82 I'd happily swap out the PHI trait for IMP.
Leader
Civ

Yuris is Shaka (AGG/EXP) of Ottomans (Hammam / Janissary)
Well done pairing Hammam with the EXP production bonus, and AGG with the UU Would I exchange my CRE for Yuri's EXP? I would have saved 40 gold at the start which is an extra pop or swapping to sheep pasture for a 3rd worker. That's a decent buff to get the snowball rolling from T0. Cheap Hammam will help grow tall, AGG/EXP will be good for expansion, AGG Janissary will help fend off invasions in the Renaissance, and could open up some interesting tech paths targeting Gunpowder as the jack-of-all-trades defender.
Leader
Civ
Synergy

Dreylin is Lincoln (PHI/CHA) of Carthage (Cothon / Numidian Cavalry)
Not sure how I feel about the UU. It doesn't get any bonus vs. its counter unit, and its performance vs. Pikes should still be abysmal so I favor the additional tactical buff of my Keshik over a slightly buffed "cleanup" unit. There is one niche use case here vs. raging barb Swordsmen which otherwise can be a pain. Base harbors were buffed with +2XP to naval units and the Cothon was already good from the trade route bonus. PB82 cooled down my evaluation of PHI on a classical era start but at least there is synergy with the CHA library production buff and happiness to afford more specialists. The only expansion bonus here though is covering stacked whips with CHA happy. Dreylin will need focused attention on growth.
Leader
Civ