[Spoilers] rho21 follows the works of Homer... D'OH!

[Cornflakes]

Chance to turn defeated units (not barbarians) into free builders [how much chance?]

I saw something on CivFanatics clarifying this. I think it was actually a post about the English Sea Dog's chances to capture, and the comment was made that the Eagle Warrior works on the same mechanics. Basically it is a strength differential, with weaker opponents getting captured more frequently. And I think the strength differential is base strength not counting any combat modifiers. In my duel game vs. Mr. Cairo I noticed that warriors and archers were captured 100% of the time, while swordsmen were captured what felt like a little less than 50% (although it may have been more ... the failed captures stand out more in my mind than the successful captures). Knights and muskets presumably have only very small chance of capture.

[rho21]

Thanks, that's really useful information. Seems like a good mechanic to stop people finding a way to abuse the mechanic for free captures late in the game.

[rho21]

One more question I need to find the answer to: is the hoplite still bugged to get its bonus from any adjacent unit rather than just another hoplite?

Anyway, my thoughts for today are about general gameplans for the civs I'm considering.

Greece
Primary districts: Campus, Acropolis
Early game: use a couple of +50% chops to help knock out an early wonder. A few hoplites will hopefully direct any early aggression to softer targets. Maybe use the wildcard slot to sneak an early great person if there's a good one.
Target: A scientific and cultural lead that is difficult to counter.

Aztec
Primary districts: Campus, Commercial, Encampment
Early game: Terrorize local city states to get as many free builders as possible, followed by some free cities. Turn the builders into districts and chops to supercharge the snowball. Chopping out the Pyramids early on would be ideal.
Target: Really strong economy thanks to an edge in expansion. Aim for overwhelming military might.

Egypt
Primary districts: Commercial, Campus
Early game: Look to eat a city state to bolster expansion, probably using the unique unit to help. Build a wonder or two if there appears to be the production to fit them in.
Target: Not really sure here, just a generalist strategy I guess.

India
Primary districts: Holy site, campus
Early game: Push hard for a religion: defender of the faith in particular would be a wonderful asset.
Target: Make sure a lot of faith comes rolling in, and find something to spend it on. Units from theology would be an obvious choice, as would campus buildings from Jesuit Education.

A stepwell placed next to a farm is another farm with an extra faith

Better than a farm early on, but weaker once feudalism starts giving adjacency bonuses to farms. Farms are a pretty weak improvement to start off with though, except where there's a resource.
Still, I don't disagree that I've undervalued India a little. The Varu is better than I was scoring it, and the minor bonuses do all do something at least.

War weariness is pretty negligible in the early game, but can be crippling in late wars, once the casualty rate really climbs.

[rho21]

Sent my picks in as Greece, Aztec, India, Egypt. Hoping to get one of the first two, really.

[rho21]

And Greece it is, to face off against Aztec, Egypt and Kongo. No duplicate first picks apparently, which makes it a little unfortunate that I have last spot in the turn order. Oh well, can't complain.

[Garath]

I'm sure turn order matters (wonder-chasing seems the most obvious thing) but I can't make myself believe that it's *that* big a deal.

[rho21]

Being a turn behind others is the problem early on, for wonders and pantheons and the like.
I think it's more important later on. As I understand it, friendships and peace treaties expire at the turn boundary, so the player earlier in turn order will get the first strike opportunity at this point. Might be wrong about that though.

[Emperor K]

Your start!

To be clear there are 8 city states, and this is a tiny map.

Good Luck!

[rho21]

Thanks Emperor_K!

So, first question is where to settle. The obvious options look like in place or on the plains 1E.

[rho21]

A cropped and annotated view of the start:

So, the first thing to note is that the Acropolis must be built on a hill and it provides +2 culture for being adjacent to the city centre. So it's likely going on one of the spots with a pink hexagon.

In favour of settling in place:

• More good tiles in the starting set (and fewer mountains).
  
• More visible forests to chop.
  
• Fog-gazing suggests the tile SW-SW has a very good campus / holy site adjacency bonus.
  
• The river continues to the E, so moving might rule out a good site in that direction.
  
• Dyes aren't a great tile, but they do offer a quick pantheon opportunity.
  

In favour of 1E:

• The Acropolis can go on the desert hill.
  
• The hill under the starting tile can get a mine.
  
• Borders should expand to the sheep quickly anyway.
  
• The hill SE of the start looks like a good campus location, there might also be one on the far side of the mountains.
  

As far as scouting goes, I think the warrior moves W to start. It looks as though there's a river off to the west (see the arrow). Also there's tundra to the north, so probably better to bias away from there unless the settler view suggests otherwise.