well ... Neither Augustus or Kubai seem to have great starts, hemmed in by tundra and another AI ... another interesting question would be who to pop Religions
Winner: Ragnar
Runner Up: Lincoln (decent land and to far away to be likely to get borders with the military wanks, although Washington has a decent chance as well if he doesn't catch the eye of Ragnar in the late game)
First to Die: Augustus (with a extra wild bet on Hammubari 1t after him)
Number of Civs Surviving: 3 (Ragnar, Lincoln and Washington)
Victory Type and Victory Date: Domination, 317t
Winner: Ragnar Runner Up: Kubilai First to Die: Hammurabi Number of Civs Surviving: 3 Victory Type and Victory Date: Domination at turn 316
Ragnar is the best of the aggressive leaders IMO, with his Fin trait he'll keep up in military tech at the very least and with his unit weight and peace weight values he'll attack someone at par in tech with c. twice the numbers and that'll be all she wrote. Kubilai's creative will help him out early on, and I think he'll have enough land to stay in the hunt long term, especially if he knocks out Hammy by hisself.
Poor Hammy, stuck between the two big dogs militarily, his only hope is that he pops an early religion and both Kubilai and Ragnar adopt it early enough that it cancels the peace weight problems. Both Americas (USA and CSA) have enough land to do well, but I can't see either leader knowing enough to use it properly, and if war comes, we'll that's all she wrote.
Rome should survive I think, he's well enough isolated, but I can't see him doing anything except cranking wonders and stunting his growth.
Finally it'll be interesting to see how the religions pan out this game, I don't think we've anyone rushing to them, so we may see some unusal blocks forming here.
Travelling on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Winner: Washington
Runner Up: Ragnar
First to Die: Hammurabi
Number of Civs Surviving: 3
Victory Type: Space
Victory Date: T323
Spoiler for my analysis - stay out until you make your own picks
I see Ragnar and Kublai Khan teaming up to squeeze out Hammurabi in the midgame, piled on by some of the other leaders. Ragnar will be able to keep up with the peaceniks by way of being FIN while Khan falls behind the main lead. I actually like Rome's position if he didn't have that huge belt of tundra to his east - I think it's going to be hard for him to get enough land to stay competitive.
I actually like both of the American leaders' positions - going with Washington as he at least has average traits instead of Lincoln's horrible ones. Hopefully they'll figure out to send their 2nd settlers inland instead of into the back lands (as it does look like he is if I look closely. Actually it looks like Kublai Khan has sent out units to the northern arctic...
I'm not as familiar with the bonuses AIs get on Deity but it looks like Kublai Khan and Ragnar are working 2 food tiles (grow in 8) vs. 3 food tiles (grow in 5). Is Karakorum having an archer in 2 consistent with being on a plains hill maybe?
Winner: Ragnar
2nd Place: Kublai Khan
First to Die: Hammurabi
Survivors: 3
Victory Type: Domination
Date: I'm going to change this to 310 for posterity's sake, I hope that's alright with you Sullla? I didn't realize I've copypasted Bob...
Winner: Ragnar
Runner Up: Washington
First to Die: Hammurabi
Survivors: 3
Victory Type: Domination
Victory Date: T305
The two thugs should cripple or eliminate Hammurabi quickly, and can use the extra land to put pressure on Lincoln and Augustus, but Washington ought to be far enough away from the big dogs to get a proper economy set up, so I'll bet that he outtechs Kublai Khan and/or manages to avoid a serious war until Viking/Mongol border tensions drive them to war.
