[SPOILERS] Watch pindicator get distracted by shiny bonuses

[Commodore]

Wait, Samurai start with the actual Drill promo? I thought they just had 2 innate first strikes like a CKN. That would change my opinion of using Japan a little, being able to carry over the drill promos.

CivFanatics is nice, but it has a few holes, that's one of them sadly. Drill-line samurai can be quite good, it's the horrible starting techs that make Japan a bottom-five.

[Sian]

that and Tokugawa have one of the worse AI's and worst trait combos ... CivFanatics is predominantly a Single Player site

[pindicator]

More fun combinations that I probably won't play:

Louis of Egypt - starting barracks & stable in your capital screams war chariot rush. Hope for horses and a close neighbor. Persia works here too but Egypt has better starting techs.
Brennus of Arabia - build a Madrassa then run 3 scientists & 3 priests in your capital. (Never mind that you have to farm 2 grasslands and be size 11 to be able to pull this off without a death camp. Or forget that and run the game's earliest death camp at size 6! Just remember: 18 + 15 + 12 + 9 + 6 +3 comes up a little short for your first GP). Also works with Montezuma.
Victoria of Portugal - work water tiles in style! 3f4c lake and 4f1h6c whales. On the downside there are only two water tiles. And you have to play the rest of the game as Portugal.
Lincoln of Maya - Why build a second city when your happiness cap is 10? Comes with free lab.
Suleiman of Vikings - hey, it worked in pbem32.

Any other fun ones we can think of? Post in the lurker thread, or wait until after I pick and put them here. I want to see if there's any fun combinations I missed.

CivFanatics is nice, but it has a few holes, that's one of them sadly. Drill-line samurai can be quite good, it's the horrible starting techs that make Japan a bottom-five.

Yeah, I just need to find a reliable civ reference on the internet. CivFanatics is about 95% there.

As for civs, I'm leaning toward Japan because this setting mitigates their start techs. As I mentioned before, having that whale early on will be super nice. Picking SPI or CRE alongside it will let me start working the whale on turn 2. I'm also leaning towards just trying out AGG France to see if the lurker thread nerfed that choice enough (or too much)

[pindicator]

Seven picked a leader which means I probably want to pick a civilization next. So do I commit to France? Pick Japan? I probably will go over others in case a civ jumps out at me and make a decision tonight.

Zara Yaqob is CRE / ORG. He's a solid leader in his own right; half price on a lot of things throughout the game. My guess is Seven picked him for CRE as a good starting trait combined with ORG as a good bonus. (It's like how I was thinking towards IMP, except you get the +1 food no matter which tile you work. Maybe this makes it a little better bonus than IMP.)

[pindicator]

Didn't have enough nagging curiosity to go with France. If I wasn't going to pick France then I wanted a civ that would take advantage of that whale tile, so Japan is that civ. With Fishing & Wheel that means my worker is going to making a road to start the game off. With Montezuma as a leader (my current front-runner) I can get Mining in 3-turns.

t0: work lake. 2/14 f 11 * 1.25 = 13c (14/47 towards Mining) 1/10 warrior.
t1: hire sci spec. 2/14 f 12 * 1.25 = 15c (30/47 towards Mining) 2/10 warrior.
t2: work whales. 5/14 f 13 * 1.25 = 16c (47/47 towards Mining) 4/10 warrior.
t3: whales. 8/14 f 13 * 1.25 = 16c (20/114 towards BW). Worker to railroaded grassland hill and mines 6/10 warrior
t4: whales. 11/14 f 13 * 1.25 = 16c (40/114 towards BW). Worker mines 8/10 warrior
t5: whales. 14/14 f 13 * 1.25 = 16c (60/114 towards BW). Mine finishes 10/10 warrior
t6: whales & mine @ size 2. Start settler. 16c (80/114 towards BW). Settler 7/67
t7: 100/114 towards BW. Settler 14/67
t8: 120/114 - BW finishes. Worker moves to a forest. Settler 21/67
t9: Research to Agriculture (22/57). Settler 28/67. Worker chops
t10: Agriculture (39/57) Settler 35/67. Worker chops
t11: Agriculture (56/57) Settler 42+13 = 55/67. Chop comes in.
t12: Agriculture (73/57). Settler 62/67. Worker to rice.
t13: Settler 69/67. Worker farms.

So settling city #2 t15 or t16, depending on what we scout.

Likely the capital will build a WB next while the settler founds a city near the fish we can see in the east. That way we can share the bonus tiles of railroad grass hill & whales, and possibly the elephant if we opt for the southern location.

[pindicator]

So Montezuma is my current front-runner for leader, and I seriously doubt Yuris is going to pick him ahead of me. I expect Yuris to do something with PHI to get that free Odeon. Run an artist on turn 0 and start working the whales earlier than anybody else. The other option is to pick CRE / SPI and get that culture

Montezuma - AGG & SPI are two traits I would enjoy as the game gets going. AGG Samurai alongside SPI for lots of conditional civic swapping. They also give good starting bonuses. SPI lets me work the whales a turn earlier and gives me a slightly larger capital. AGG gives me +25% beakers out of the gate. Combine them together and I can run a priest & scientist very early on for a quick early Great Person. This means I will likely look at a religion line early in the game, being that if I land a religion I'll have an early shrine to go with it should I get a Great Prophet, or should I get an Great Scientist I'll have an early academy.

Should Yuri surprise me and pick Montezuma himself, then I'll have to choose between Justinian (SPI / IMP), one of the Khans (AGG / IMP), or possibly Brennus (SPI / CHM). Brennus would be more of an economical pick than Monte, but less synergy with both the Samurai UU and with drafting units later in the game.

[pindicator]

I'm trying to sort out a starting plan. This start just gives so many options. I can:

1. Tech Mining - Bronze Working and get a fast first settler by t13. Likely this one would settle the plains hill up by the fish. Sandboxes show the 2nd city will cost me 2gpt even at minimum distance.
2. Tech Agriculture - Animal Husbandry and take advantage of all the happiness plus being the only civ with a +25% sci multiplier. So follow up the food techs with Pottery, then Bronze Working.
3. What about an early Great Person? Sci + Pri will get me a great person in 12 turns. I could either get an early academy or a settled Gr Priest.

I think I am going to go with the fast settler. I doubt this will be the game's fastest settler -- that probably goes to Seven, Dazed, or Yuri with their starting food bonus. After that we'll grow, so maybe i don't tech Mining-BW; maybe i go Mining-Agri, or even see if Agri-AH slows down the first settler much. Then after we grow and get early cottages down to take advantage of our strting observatory

Sims, sims, sims, always more sims to run.

[pindicator]

Tentative tech plan:

Agriculture (4), AH (9), Mining (12), BW (17), Pottery (19).

Build a warrior then settler, then grow the main city while city #2 builds a worker. Not sure where city #2 will be but likely candidate is the plains hill NE of the railroad grassland tile. It will be up on t15.

[pindicator]

Yay, there's a save in my inbox! Seven would be pleased to hear I'm playing Dominion with friends instead of civ --turn well, as long as i get him the save by midnight

Anyway, the reasoning behind Agriculture first is that even though Mining - BW gets me my city a turn faster it also leaves me with no growth after finishing said settler. Well, i could always start a worker after the settler, that would be both needed and give me time to research AH and farm the rice.

Ugh, more sims. I hate the Sims.

[pindicator]

Turn 0

I like what Commodore named my city Too bad I'm going to rename it when I figure out what my naming convention is. Right now I am a bit inspired by his name in the original screenshot of "The City", so I'll probably do some kind of theme based off The Tick, either heroes or villains therein.



So I did a few more sims and decided that the earlier city was indeed worth it. I'm going to plant city #2 on turn 13, which is a 1 turn improvement over what I had before. This turn I work the lake tile, next turn I work the pigs, and after that the whales until I hit size 2. Then we swap to a settler with the warrior at 8/10. Settler finishes on turn 12 with help of a chop.

Tech path is Mining (4), Bronze Working (9), Agriculture (13).

I sent the scout to where city #2 is going to be located to have a peak around.

Hmmm.... I just realized I could have sent the worker straight to the plains hill i want to plant on and roaded it before coming back for mining. Then the settler will get city #2 down on turn 12 instead of 13 because it will have a road all the way to the second city site.

I don't think i can do this any longer, having already moved and roaded how I did Maybe I can find a way to fit it in.
Edit: Yes, I can! Next turn we finish the road we're on. Then we move to the plains hill in the NE. Road it on turns 3 & 4, then mine the railroaded hill as normal. We lose 1 hammer from having the grassland hill done 1 turn later, but that's certainly worth getting city #2 up on turn 12.

The lands around:



Note the strategic peak tile in the north, preventing me from settling a pig/cow city. And the lake preventing a cow/fish city. Commodore, you tease