[PB69] Lurking the dreams of summer

[Tarkeel]

Comm was the first to Code of Laws and Confucianism, but he is spreading my religion. He figures, rightly, that I'm going to build the Apostolic Palace, so he can reap the benefits of boosted Buddhism. Good for him.

It also means that if you find yourself in a race with Comm for AP, you should let him win. The only benefit to being the builder (with diplo options diminished) is deciding which religion it enshrines.

[Mjmd]

T119 and no HG yet. Something about these barren tighter games leads to slower expansion shockingly. Commodore does have the most cities and will help him get those cities online so love it if he can get.

[Krill]

If the games feel slow it's because they are. But I'm not complaining.

It's nine years since PB18 and I still have flashbacks to dtay with a knight stack by T118.

I for one am started to get a bit more interested in how these random games get played out but I reckon they would benefit from a specific mod designed for them (like RtR leader and civs with ToW tech changes on CtH)

[Qgqqqqq]

Predictably, Magic Science's war-peacing of naufragar to encourage cooperation between them is doing the opposite - why am I not surprised? I would've thought some of the discussion in PB66 over the past few days of his actions would make him reflect on his diplomacy.

It'll be a real coup if Commodore can keep that city, though with just axes that seems unlikely.

[Amicalola]

I caught up with my lurking today, and could be wrong, but it seems to me like Naufragar really just needs to settle those damn cities in his south. Especially now that he has Currency. Sure they are slow and will take a while to return the investment (though religion helps considerably), but the longer is takes to settle them, the longer they will take to become relevant. And there's plenty of 4-food resources down there, which on the 64/69 maps is not nothing!

Edit: Also, fwiw, all the players (and maybe the lurkers?) are sleeping on him, but I'm pretty sure I'd call Commodore the favourite at this point in time. With his happy problem fixed, he has the most cities, good quality land, Gavagai nearby, and few other neighbours. Maybe his attempted conquest here goes disastrously wrong, but otherwise he looks very strong.

[Mjmd]

I agree that Nauf should have settled those filler AGES ago.

I'm not sure who favorite is right now, but Commodore has potential. He is going to have problem of a northern Pin who has fairly safe borders. If Pin gets MoM he may very well be favorite.

[Tarkeel]

I still rate Binvac as one of (if not the) favorite; good combo and land., and being given leeway by other players because it's Bing.

[Mjmd]

SD looks to be doing same as Nauf and going straight into Maoi. While I agree with Naufs decision to do this in his site, I wonder if chopping into a granary and lighthouse and then 2 pop whipping overflow into maoi would be faster (and better long term). SD also looks to be going hard into infrastructure. Probalby won't get punished for it, but as stated in Naufs thread there are payoffs and payback periods and there are a lot of red power numbers there.

For next game in addition to pushing for the green tectonics El Grillo provided I would say stone should be balanced like copper, iron, and horse. I do feel bad Pin doesn't have. In stuff I wasn't told to balance and for an all random game I guess they have to deal with is yaaaaa some of the luxury metal balancing is very bad.

Edit: also ouch poor Commodores stack. I had assumed he had looked at power graph in more detail and thought he was fine. Honestly if Gav just promotes and heals up will give Pin a harder time too.

[Amicalola]

I don't think stone should be balanced in a random game, fwiw. Anything past copper/horse is pushing it imo. (though it obviously depends on what the setup proposal is. If people just want to play random civs on a balanced map, that's fine too)

[Qgqqqqq]

I would agree. If they ask for strategic resources, balance those. If they ask for Horse/Copper/Iron, balance those. But I would only ever balance stone/marble if specifically asked for, and wouldn't suggest it in general - it doesn't feel very 'lightly edited' to me.