I realized looking back on the naming theme discussion, that since we are playing as
Charlemagne, books are the only choice
Bonus points because as Protective, Charlie doesn't have to research writing until it's a prerequisite
Well, back to the player/civ overviews. I stopped with the Hedge Knights.
These leaders have one foot in both graves, or something like that.
First up is Superdeath, with Victoria of Carthage
I mean everyone knows all three by reputation so do I really need to bother analyzing this?
Vicky is what passes for Pacal in these mods I suppose. Imp -> more population working cottages, less F/H requirements because of 4->2 whipping means more cottages instead of mines/farms at the capital, and Financial pays for the cities, and I'm redescribing the wheel. You all know Vicky. Carthage is a good Civ, I rate the Cothon as excellent with EXP and pretty terrible without, Numids, well everyone has some strong opinion about them one way or the other. Personally I'm a fan, but I can see where the split comes from. With Phalanx and Pro Archers I'm not terribly concerned about Numidians threatening my civ, if SD is going to kill me it will have to be earlier in the game.
My belief is that Superdeath is a better player than he lets himself be. Frankly put, a certain amount of focus and work is required on calculating ROI and economic development, that he largely seems unwilling to put in in most games. Dedicating himself instead to the admirable pursuit of mining his neighbors' salt. PB58 and PB60 were exceptions to the rule with clever use of wealth building to carry an MFG economy to an early tech lead/parity with MFG advantage, but ultimately, he failed to capitalize on that and his strong Horcher rush in PB59 was unfortunately neutralized by an Outside TBS Problem.
Verdict:
IMP/FIN will allow him demo parity, probably has an itch to make Numids work, we'll see if he locks himself into using the UU or builders his way up the tech tree more opportunistically. Probably ambivalent about neighboring him? Yes he's paranoid and prone to stabby stabby, but my Civ is good match up for his.
The second hedge leader is Lincoln of the Celts, being played by Commodore of the excellent reporting.
Commodore strikes me as an extremely strong mechanist, someone who knows the game and the meta and the combat tricks inside and out, but a bit myopic on the long-term path to victory, often trying to force an unwinnable confrontation in duel mentality rather than taking the off-road or round-about way. It feels a little awkward trying to judge one of the most experienced and best players on the forum from my noob-colored glasses. We're a free society, this is the internet, everyone's their own authority, but it still feels off, so I'll stop here.
Celts on Monarch is not a bad civ, techs shouldn't be too expensive even if the world has been edited to be normal size. And Charismatic wants the pricey Mysticism too, so it's okay. Of special note is that these tectonic maps can produce vast swaths of hilly land, giving the Celts some possibly obnoxious tools to play with. Lincoln is funnily enough the least likely leader to be whipping, as you can run bigger cities with specialists instead. Comm might try to go for an Astronomy bulb, as I've checked these 30% water maps and they can have some "strategically significant" bodies of water. PHI in CtH pitboss isn't the FIN-equivalent it is in BtS singleplayer, but it's still woefully underrated IMO, and Comm is creative enough to make it punch. Don't want him to neighbor me, Guerillas are a PIA.
Verdict:
Beelines Knights then bulbs Astro, probably wins, but the map gods are ever capricious.
Last but not least,
Puckering up and waiting for his renaissance rocket ride to kick off, Naufragar/Nowfrogger is piloting a bona-fide combo's combo with Darius of Sumeria as if it was 2012.
As a player Naufragar is similar to Gavagai in that they are methodically good players with strong emotional reactions to the game's vicissitudes. On the whole Nauf seems to have a faster rebound, and be more chipper about it, but also might not survive a bad
karte dealt to him. Interestingly they have nearly completely opposite leaders. However, if he does survive, his leader/civ combo just screams money bags, money bags. If I'm not out-settling him or using some wonder to gain the edge, he'll absolutely crush me. ORG is a more balanced trait on Monarch than it is on Emperor, and I'm sure everyone is going to be hyper aware of Darius at the table with weaker Axes. His game is going to have the potential for a lot of highs and lows, unlike say Charlemagne of the fuck-your-knights civ which should just be plodding along steadily.
Verdict: Will Sink or Soar, no middle ground.
