[Spoilers] Alhazard goes back to BTS

[Alhazard]

I guess I can tech in peace? Agg Shock Praet's are nice and all but they are 1 movers, IW is expensive, and seems like axes behind walls do alright?

[Alhazard]

Ok to I think I really owe to write about this game in depth to hopefully be a 1 stop intermediate guide for new players trying to get into Civ4 BTS MP. I would also like to invite veteran players to critique some of my theories. Probably best in the lurker thread.

(Not covered: SPI and PHI)

This is a natural map so happiness might be hard to come by. The 2nd city is so crucial, and something even I get wrong a lot of the time. A city with just 1 food resource shouldnt cut it. Ideally you want to expand to a city that will jump start your production to start your "snowball" or early advantage, and could develop cottages for the capital. You could look at a city with multiple food (for heavy whipping) or 1 food and strategic resource. Then you want to expand towards your horse/copper, which ever you are missing, and definitely towards happy resources. Trying to whip at 4 max happy is going to be painful, and the extra citizens are needed to work cottages, which will save your economy when you are expanding later.

[Alhazard]

So discussion about traits. For those of you wondering about my preferred picks, I have been following mackoti's recommendation of picking a leader with 1 trait that helps in the early game, and 1 trait that helps in the late game. Therefore, I will analyze the traits within this paradigm but keep in mind that better micro could mean that a leader with 2 early game or 2 late game traits could beat out other balanced leaders.

FIN: the best trait in the game still but I think the gap between FIN and the other traits have been narrowed based on new understanding of the game. Generally, FIN is recognized as a powerhouse late game trait especially with multiplier buildings boosting the extra commerce, and really powerful on water heavy maps without a lot of cottagable land. Counter-intuitively, FIN should also be seen as an early game trait especially if you have some way of getting the extra commerce before pottery (riverside unimproved wine, improved sheep and ivory, oasis tiles), which could mean the difference in a religion race and just enabling faster improvements. Now the biggest weakness of FIN is 0 saved hammers, and if you fall behind in expansion, you could lose to a civ that just claimed overall more land, which translates into more production and commerce.

CRE: A very powerful early game trait. Saves you 30 hammers from building a monument and CRE expansion grabs tiles twice as fast as a monument. Saved beakers from Myst. Also do not forget about the half price library saving 45 hammers. Now a library is a luxury that you do not want to build a lot of in the land grab phase but it helps in the classical era teching phase toward expensive goals like currency. Half-price theaters and colosseums are still not going to be built in most games unless you are using dyes for happiness, a unique building, or need help in a border culture war. If this is a natural map, half priced colosseums still might get built because of happy reasons but handcrafted RB maps won't be lacking in midgame happy.

EXP: Another very powerful early game trait. Half-priced granaries are huge since you definitely want 1 in every city and makes it a lot easier to build especially in the early game. If you can build fast workers, it could really speed up not only your expansion and commerce from faster cottaged improvements. Curiously, the extra health also makes EXP a good late game trait when factories and coal plants and their massive unhealthiness become available. The discounted harbor also makes this trait a good midgame economic trait if the map calls for a lot of coastal cities.

ORG: A very powerful economic trait. I think it was Seven(?) who pointed out that the 1/2 civic cost makes up about 80% of the trait's benefit, and this seems to be correct. In the renaissance era and later, the 1/2 cost civics could be saving 100+ pure commerce every single turn. Faster lighthouses is notably powerful in coast heavy maps, and courthouses is another building you want to build in every single city and being able to 2 whip them as opposed to a 3 whip with help or a 4 whip, is immense.

IMP: More powerful now than early in the game's history. People were debating whether EXP could outexpand IMP. Now we now that IMP leads to must faster expansions. The problem with settlers in the early game is that the best way is to whip them from the capital, which hopefully should have a double food start, unless you have early happy and another city that can claim double food. However, with IMP, you can feasibly slave out settlers from size 4 cities. The biggest temptation you need to avoid is that some cities also need to slave out workers to support fast settlers.

IND: Mackoti calls IND a viable economic trait if you can get the key wonders. Now what are the key wonders? The biggest prize is MoM. The Mids also is a potential game changer. The great lightouse and Colossus are powerful in certain maps. Now what if you lose out on the obvious economic wonders? I have tried to figure this out, and I can see the monk economy being a viable alternative. Note that the AP has 0 multipliers so the IND trait helps a lot. (Side note, one of my biggest mistakes in PBEM77, now I think about it, was not building the Spiral Minet and completing the monk economy. Given the amount of temples already built, it would be paid off very fast.) Forges are a building you want in every city and being able to 2 whip them is also huge.

[Alhazard]

SPI: A trait I will acknowledge that I do not know much about and badly misplayed in PB30 and PB35. Weaker for sure in an ancient start. The best way to leverage the trait seems to be to get a religion and build temples for happy (might be hard in a big FFA), or rush monarchy for HR happiness. Definitely need more research. Honestly, I am not a big fan of caste until state property, but I could be wrong.

PHI: Another trait that I acknowledge that I do not know much about. The theory is that it's good on smaller maps for key bulbs where you might not have much a lot of commerce land available. However, I think that FIN/ORG can still give PHI a challenge in the mid-late game even in a small AW map, but need more research. A good plan is to bulb math, chop out oracle for currency, but not sure what else it can do in the early game mainly because buildings for merchants are out of the way. Early engineer is good but need to get to very expensive MC, again by oracling, and either line up to whip out forge almost immediately so the engineer can beat the priest from the oracle, or build the forge in the oracle city and take a gamble. The lack of a PHI/IND combo really hurts here.

CHM: A heavily underrated trait. The early happy means that settler whipping is viable in non-capital cities, and also means 1 extra pop in the early game that could be working a cottage in every single city. Since you will likely build a monument in every city early, this means 2 extra pop in every city that can work a cottage. The cheaper promotions could be significant especially in naval battles or if you can get Mongolia for 3 promo knights with vassalage or theocracy (one of the big reason why I took Mongolia is for pure denial to superdead).

AGG: Not so good in a FFA game but could be helpful if the said map puts you in an inevitable early war with your neighbor. If combined with Zulu, the city cost reduction could be huge. Much better in duel or AW games.

PRO: ugh, the worst trait in the game. The best thing I can say is that in a water heavy map, the harbor+castle economy is surprisingly good. Good in duel or AW games.

[Alhazard]

so now lets look at the pairings of other teams with this paradigm.

superdead: FIN/CHM of Egypt. A very good combo, CHM helps with early game and allows to work more FIN cottages. UU is very good, and UB could be good. Need to look up great prophet bulbs. Wants stonehenge.

Commodre: CHM/SPI of India. Very good civ, but not sure about SPI. Maybe he knows what to do, but I would have picked CHM/ORG. Want stonehenge.

Civ4 discord: IND/ORG of Mali. I really dont like this pick. Mali first is questionable unless they were very sure on getting an IND leader. However, that line of thinking is problematic because the 2 picks before them already signaled stonehenge. If stonehenge is the main target, i would have picked IND/EXP. Usually you think of this leader associated with the GLH, but since this is a very slow pairing, it really needs the help from stonehenge. ***Prediction*** this team really need stonehenge badly to help out in the early game or they will go down in flames. If you have the early pick, you really should take a balanced leader that doesn't need to resort to a narrow plan like this.

Chumchu: EXP/ORG of Aztecs. Excellent leader. According to DTG, the best REXer in the game. He is a lot better at this game than me so I will take his world for it. The civ pick is however very bad. You are already ORG so don't need cheaper courthouses. The tech costs in Emperor is no joke and should have taken a HUNT/MINE civ.

Gavagai: FIN/AGG of Rome. Definitely should have taken Zulu here. I hope he starts with double AH food (but probably not).

Alhazard: CRE/ORG of Mongolia. Excellent leader. Ok civ based on available options. Doubt that ger would make a difference but maybe I will go for a suicidal Vassalage+Theocracy knight rush. (I think you still should be in organized religion at this point to build multiplier buildings eventually. Maybe this is a hidden perk of SPI?)

DZ: EXP/PRO of Inca. I think this is a bad pick. If he wanted to really play a heavy expansion game, CRE/IMP and IMP/EXP were still out there. Inca is still considered OP, but personally, I think Inca is not that good in this setting because the starting tech of Myst and high cost of techs.

Regentman: EXP/PHI of Ottomans. Complete unknown but an old school player? Should have taken Egypt for better early game and interesting bulb choices. based on map size, PHI could be good. A knight rush for sure wouldn't work if he beelines GP. Will have to keep an eye.

[Alhazard]

First, need to setup a demohacking spreadsheet.

This is the primer guide that you must read first: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/s...ng.467694/

5000/754 (max pop according to map) = 6.631299734748011 points per pop. The game does keep track of decimals also but unknown how many digits it does consider. I will calculate this as 6.6313.

2000/886 (total land tile) = 2.257336343115124 points per tile. Does not count coast/ocean. Land means something you can walk on and mountains.

"Technologies are worth 5.99*Tech Era Value. Ancient is worth 1, Classical is 2 and so on.

There are 1000 possible points for wonders. There are 62 wonders in the game, so we get 1000/62=16.13 [16.129 rounded up] points per wonder (including National wonders)"

Right now, only the Discord team played besides me, and they settled this turn also. From demo screens, they got 7 land tiles in the beginning also, meaning coastal start. They are working 1 less hammers, however, they have a GNP of 17. In the beginning, every starts with 16 GNP = [2 culture from palace + 4 espionage + 8 commerce from palace + 1 commerce from capital + 1 free beaker]. My GNP is 18 because of CRE culture. What does this mean? Assuming that they also settled on a plain hill tile, they are working a 2/1/1 tile for the extra commerce and researching a tech with 0 prerequisite. Probably Agriculture and they likely have a riverside plain wheat tile that will improve to 5/1/1.

Need to sim to see if fishing first or mine->BW is better. Likely next city spot is 3 E of capital to get one of the deer tiles and fur but need to scout more and unlock BW. For now I unselected the tech from fishing but need to make a decision in 3 turns.



Setting look alright

GS Patch for civ 6 = Nuclear bomb

[Alhazard]

The power rating didnt match up to starting techs and the main reason I realized is probably because non-Hunt civs started with a warrior

[Alhazard]

Very dissappointing finding to be honest. Was hoping for another food resource. Scout will move SE,SW to check if the spot 2S should be the 2nd city isntead.





I did grab the t0 demo shot before Commodore and chumchu settled. Since I know the discord team's capital claimed 7 tiles, I know that between Gav+DZ+RegentMan (RM)+superdeath (SD), they have 31 land tiles between them with a high of 9. Commodore and chumchu claimed 14 tiles between them. This information would be important when everyone gains the land score in T19. Hope that no one gains a pop or a tech to complicate the math then.

[Alhazard]

Well I won't be stuck on early happy for sure but still no food. Will move scout to the silver to see if the 2nd city should be N of silver. Now the obvious play of fishing first was better overall. You can finish WB then warrior then be at size 3 the same turn to build a settler. Tried multiple BW openings but none seemed quite right. I will fuel early growth by aggresively chopping the 4 trees in the riverside grassland tiles for cottages. Even after the chops, the capital has 5 forests available for chopping out a wonder. The chopping order should be 2 workers then 2nd settler.

[Alhazard]

2 food resources. It's better than finding 0 for sure. However, due to the lack of 1 more than 1 food resources in the vicinity, I will probably settle cities on the tundra fur and the tundra silver since the chances of those tiles being worked is 0. However, I don't think I would settle the silver city soon because I need probably need sailing and I should settle the fur city first to build some warriors.