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As a French person I feel like it's my duty to explain strikes to you. - AdrienIer |
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Civ AI Survivor: Season Five
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Game Six is finished! As everyone expected, this was a game that was mostly decided by where and how Montezuma decided to be insane, although he arguably didn't even have the dumbest war declaration in the game. It was another amazing turnout for the Livestream today as we topped 200 viewers for the first time ever in AI Survivor! (Twitch says we maxed out at 206 concurrent viewers.) Thank you so much to everyone who was able to catch at least some of the broadcast. Here's a batch of links for the next game:
Main Season Five Webpage Sullla Twitch Page Sullla Discord Channel AI Reference Guide from CivFanatics Game Six Livestream Next Game: Opening Round Game Seven Schedule: Scheduled for Friday, 10 July 2020 at Noon EST Game Seven Video Preview Game Seven Written Preview Game Seven Picking Contest Entry Form Congratulations to the eight-way tie that we had for Game Six's picking contest with 16 points apiece.  Scoring was slightly below normal with an average score of 7.00 points. We are continuing with our normal Friday date for next week's game. The next game looks like a rather weak field of opponents for powerhouse Justinian; will he coast to victory or will someone pull off the big upset? Who do you have this week?
The written report for Game Six is up on the website now: http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/civ4survivor5-6.html
This is another summary written by Eauxps I. Fourgott, many thanks for volunteering to put this together!
Thanks again for running these games, Sullla! And thanks to Eauxps for another write up. Game six was very entertaining; it helped that I picked the winner, even if I did get everything else wrong.
(July 6th, 2020, 15:57)haphazard1 Wrote: Thanks again for running these games, Sullla! And thanks to Eauxps for another write up. Game six was very entertaining; it helped that I picked the winner, even if I did get everything else wrong. I thought that was an easy one to get the winner right and literally everything else wrong. I almost went with a certain 3rd place finisher for runner up, because he seemed FAR more logical than the actual 2nd place finisher. And victory was just random chance on however the heck he wanted to win.
Community predictions added to the Game Seven preview page: http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/civ4survivor5-7-preview.html
![[Image: survivor5-7-8.jpg]](http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/Survivor/S5/survivor5-7-8.jpg) ![[Image: survivor5-7-9.jpg]](http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/Survivor/S5/survivor5-7-9.jpg) ![[Image: survivor5-7-10.jpg]](http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/Survivor/S5/survivor5-7-10.jpg) ![[Image: survivor5-7-11.jpg]](http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/Survivor/S5/survivor5-7-11.jpg) So I know this comes as a huge shock but most of the community is backing Justinian. Mousey_Commander: I think Alexander's aggression is going to ruin any chances of Zara setting up a friendly religious block (and Churchill is a speedbump, not an ally), and both his neighbours are relatively tough to fight through early game. Justinian meanwhile has much more reasonable neighbours, decent land to expand into, and half a continent that is likely to be a different religion, yet not presenting a united front. He'll slowly grind across the map, and it's down to luck to which of his two neighbours get to sit back and ride to second place. Slashin': I mean, what is there to say? Justinian goes on an imperialistic fueled expansion and lays a catastraphractic smackdown on these doormats when grey touch nongrey borders. Zara comes second simply by being furthest away from Justinian and having the most score when Justinian hits the domination benchmark. Amicalola: Peter and Justinian out in the west have a) the most potential land, which seems like an even bigger deal on these cold maps, and b) probably the best personalities anyway, so they seem like the easy 1+2 choice here. I guess it's lucky the AI can't remember what happened in previous games, after their last season. First to die is probably Churchill, with his crappy central position and bland personality. Zara will be the next to go, then Alex and Qin will either get wiped out late by the Big Boys or head to the wildcard game. T K: Justinian & Zara both play the religious game, and Zara looks to be in a better position for that. Justinian's isolation should protect him from getting dogpiled, but when it comes to conquests Zara is more likely to make actual gains. ZincAlloy: Well this is... bland. As much as I want to support Alex, he's just so bad. What happens here is Justinian founds Christianity, then Zara gets mad that he doesn't get to call his self-founded religion Christianity, and then they fight. Except Justinian gets either Peter or Qin as an okay ally, while all Zara gets is a rabid Alex stabbing at his ankles and a cardboard cutout of Churchill. Honestly, the cardboard cutout might be more interesting than the AI version. Victory type is Domination, but it takes a while as Justinian is bad at research. Bernn: Going with Justinian is the safe pick, but he's in a position to do excellently as usual. Solid capital, tons of room to expand in the north and a relatively inert neighbor in Qin. I expect his Imperialistic settlers to surge outwards and take control of a vast amount of territory during the landgrab phase, and with this pretty unimpressive field of competitors that could be all he needs. Only questions are who acts as second and the victory type - I'm hedging on Domination because it's his style, but Spaceship is absolutely viable. And I know I'm putting a lot of trust in Peter he doesn't deserve but if he chills out up north and grabs Justy's religion he can probably fill out enough of his backline to land a second place he doesn't deserve. SpamBot: So, Justinian vs five nobodies? Let's see the AI screw THIS one up. Bobchillingworth: I'd like to select Justinian to place, as he has a significant corner of the map to himself and I doubt he'll be eliminated, but his capital is a terrible mismatch for his starting techs and research preferences; he needs Fishing and BW to make anything of it, and it'll take him a good while to get there. He'll be backwards for a long while, and there's a good chance he'll be too Pleased with his neighbors to conquer anyone. Alex would be my favorite, since he's got a perfect setup to kill Zara early and run away with the game, but while I anticipate he'll manage (or heavily assist with) the former he'll tech slowly and inevitably involve himself in disastrous wars of choice which drag him down. Might well make it into the Wildcard game though. Qin has an excellent capital for his ideal starting techs, and can expand in almost any direction and do well. Protective keeps him reasonably safe from a low-odds Alex declaration until he can tech Iron Working; I think he'll be popular, the tech leader, and eventually stumble into a rare Diplo win after Zara and Churchill bite it. Myth: Justinian and Qin share a river, Justinian doesn't declare @ pleased, so 1/2. Zara is surrounded by enemies without having the good fortune of being Protective. Justinian not declaring at pleased means spaceship. Justinian is the best AI leader in the entire game, in my opinion, so he better put up a good showing... Greeney: Justinian has performed amazingly in the past seasons and I should probably pick him as winner to make a few points for a change, but I just don't dare to. Never before did he have to grapple with a sea resource only start like this before, given his religious preferences I think he will fall back early in tech and break his economy by settling too many spots too quickly. I don't expect him to do any better than Mao or Boudica in the last game. Choosing a favorite among the other duds is extremely hard of course, I've decided to put my money on Peter since I like his starting position despite lots of forest and because I think he could overpower Chuchill eventually. For second place I've picked Qin as I guess it's somewhat more unlikely for him to get torpedoed by Alex than Zara Yacob. That said, I do think anything is possible in this set-up. Who knows, maybe we'll even witness a shocking Churchill or Alex victory? The only thing I'm confident about is that this going to be a long, drawn out game with a lot of wars. bellarch: After the last game, I swore to myself to never bet against Huayna again. Well, the same should apply to Justinian, who's almost as competent. And he has a huge amount of land that makes him hard to bet against anyway, especially since he's Imperialistic and so should be able to get most of it. Besides, after the last two games, I'm thinking that The Wheel is a surprisingly good starting tech for the AI . . . The rest is unclear, but I'll nominate Zara as second as the best (and farthest-away) of a blah bunch, and Alex as first to die as he weakens himself in the Classical Era smashing his armies into Protective archers and Creative city defenses. Justinian isn't really aggressive enough to pursue Domination without provocation, which won't be coming from the bland gang, so I'll say the game ends by spaceship. But he could easily pull out one of those head-scratching Culture wins the AIs seem to love so much, or even Diplo like last season! luddite: I wanted to vote for Justinian, but I just hate his starting capital and nearby terrain. He won't be able to improve anything at all until he finishes researching his religion, and then fishing and building boats, or bronze working to clear out forests. I wouldn't be surprised if he sends his first settler down the coast, since that's the closest spot with resources visible to him. So then? Justinian is crippled out of the gate. Churchill is just a terrible AI. That leaves Peter with a pretty good capital, and the most room to expand, so I'm going with him. Hopefully he'll get some help from the other low-peaceweight leaders attacking and slowing people down. dreamyeyed: The most interesting part of this game will be Alex's inevitable suicide attack. If he was smart, he would attack Churchill - but he's not, so Zara Yaqob and Qin will take his cities. Peter and Justinian will be stuck fighting each other while Zara Yaqob's culture takes over the world. RonJenzy: I continue to be more and more lost as the weeks go on, a sentiment I believe will be shared for this game. But, for fun, let's analyze the sheer severity of the situation. Justinian, at least, is competent. So much more competent than anyone else in this field that I am very interested in seeing how people who don't pick him to win will justify their pick. Then we have Zara, who hasn't scored a point since season one and might be a bigger fraud than the Burger King (especially without the AP). We have Alexander, who isn't has hyper-crazy as, say, Montezuma, but is still just as bad. I predict he will tank himself with multiple wars and then get picked apart. Churchill is, uh, yeah, and Peter doesn't inspire much confidence either. The fact that I chose him as second shows how bad this whole farce is. I guess it helps that he has some more space than the others. Finally, Qin sets himself apart in this field by having a redeeming quality in his civ, but he also sucks so ehhhhh. Hopefully our boy Justinian will stomp the field in an exciting fashion, because these other leaders are going to be making us either cringe or fall asleep. Sir Colville of the Dale: Am I missing something here, or is Justinian pretty much a lock? eyser24: I actually can see multiple ways how Justinian loses this, but I have great respect for him and the skill he brings to this game, so I am rooting for a Byzantine win. He just has to expand moderately well and make use of having a ton of land in his vicinity, as I am not a fan of the resources around him. I think the most interesting event will be whether Alexander attacks Zara early or not. Who Alex attacks will likely determine second place, and Zara will fold immediately if he is attacked first. Since Alexander is usually a disaster, he will likely attack one of the protective civs, suicide his stack, and get wiped out from being hated by everyone. Meanwhile Justinian expands well, has an army to defend himself and overtake one of his neighbors, and techs it out to space in a clear, if not terribly impressive, victory. smithy: Is there any chance we can have the AP back, please? Just this once? Otherwise this game may mostly be a constant drip of small proxy wars between the two religious blocks run by Justin and Zara, who will mostly get on fine with each other due to their mutual love of the theocracy civic. Justin's start position hits him with a big enough nerf bat to at least make the game competitive, and Zara might just get a surprise visit from a phalanx or two before he has found any metals. Peter and Alex both did well last time out for no reward, and may hold out hope for a storming win- but as ever the best way to survive and prosper is just to be Justin's underling. In the brave new world where mighty Lincoln wages early aggressive wars against poor little Monty, perhaps Qin and WC may actually try to do something this game? In your own time boys... Anih: The gold resource is closer to Churchill. I put him to the first place. I hope he will destroy Peter, the first to die and snowball then with stone and marble to win by Culture. Justinian will be second because he's far from Churchill and he will only conquer Qin Shi. Takuan: After last game i thought "i'll never vote against Huyana ever again". Logically speaking i should follow the same course of action with Justinian, who's arguably just as strong as Huyana, one of the best AIs in the game. Needless to say, i won't be voting Justinian, let's be bold! I'm rooting for Peter, because he has a pretty strong land with a lot of resources. My scenario is that he expands well, beats Churchill with some help from Zara, they became buddies and snowball. Peter will be dominant and will eventually win by Domination. Oh, and eventhough this is very ballsy to claim, i can see Justinian being eliminated, by Peter. Kuro: Justinian HAS to be heavily favored this game, I would be shocked if he isn't a 60%+ pick for first. He has the most land to expand into with his Imperialistic trait and the 2nd best land (Peter has the best imo). He's also facing largely historically ineffective AI. Zara might seem like a natural 2nd place, but his high religious diplo and likelihood of competing against Justinian there marks him for death. Zara, Churchill and Qin all suffer from something dangerous: No copper! That seems a lot more common this year. Churchill has a disputed Tundra Copper but that's it. With Peter (8/10 aggression) and Alexander (8.6/10) with capital/close copper nearby, I feel any of them are a good choice to get whacked first. If there's any game for Alex to snowball to 2nd, this is it. I like Peter more though: His capital is crazy good, with triple food and tons of lush nearby spots and Churchill right there to kill. He also is a lot more likely to be economic than Alex. This makes it natural to pick Churchill as the copperless to die. I think this is gonna be a pretty fast Justinian romp, which also contributes to lower wars. Agni Neres: So, Justinian's first game without the AP in play finds him as the only AI starting with Mysticism = guaranteed religion. If his first, soon-to-be holy city is planted eastward near the rice, he should have a good game. Unfortunately, the double-food sheep/crab tile to the SW may be hard for the programming to bypass. Churchill is in Vicky's spot; the Vicky who did not have the courtesy to die first for us. Alexander has two Protective neighbors, so his target will likely be Zara. Peter is a solid utility player, neither a strongman nor a doormat. Qin, in Hatty's spot and sporting her colors as well, has the Protective staying power should Alex look his way. All that said, my detailed map analysis has netted me 10 points over the last three games combined, so caveat emptor! Lightning Roy: But who will control the southern tundra!?!?!?one!eleven Wyatan: Emperor Justinian was a hard man, who instilled fear far beyond the borders of his city. But he held the belief that one's true mettle could only be unveiled through worthy opposition, which cowering heathens most certainly were not. Unless... He ordered his scouts south. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ King Alexander surveyed the Ethiopian army arrayed on the battlefield. Their war chariots, painted in garish colours, were meant to impress. And truth be told, many a barbarian warleader could attest to their deadly efficiency. He turned back to face his own phalanxes, their heavy pikes more than a match for any gaudy contraption. Alexander smirked. He was no barbarian warleader. He was not impressed. Game Seven Picking Contest Entry Form
Righto-o! Just did my picks, after staring at the map for about five minutes straight and went Justinian to beat out Zara with a turn 350 domination and Churchill dying first. But if anybody half way competent were in Alex's spot they'd run away with the game.
But random.org went in a total 'nother direction: random.org Wrote:Whooeee! The random number gods have thrown out a truly random result here. Justinian the clear favourite is to die first with two competition weaklings starting in the north Peter and Churchill coming 1,2 in that order. It'll be such a war torn world with 17 conflagrations that nobody'll manage a victory and time runs out on the remaining civs, whomsoever they may be.
Travelling on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
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