Ripples of War - Ichabod's Spoiler Thread for Tides of War Mod

[Commodore]

You actually have to chain three, but Theology and CoL are very tasty bulbs too, particularly for Gandhi. Reference

Agricultural is weird; I'm not sure how to value it to be honest. I think for a FP start it would be pretty nice, just not seeing it here. Expansive nets more food sooner if you get Pottery in a decent time...yeah I just don't know.

I just know no matter what, this is a city you want max size pretty fast working lots of cottages; it'll carry your economy. Heh, if you're avoiding Fin honestly you listed the three most interesting-to-me leaders, maybe baking in Imp/Ind early too.

[Commodore]

Egypt passes the buck nicely; Phi/Exp/Ind/Imp/Chm/Spi all work great with it.

[Commodore]

Augustus I mention because of all these forests; Math efficiency on Settler and Stonehenge chops early!

[Ichabod]

Ah, we can bulb CS by delaying Masonry, I see it now.

Yeah, this doesn't work...

[Qgqqqqq]

If you're not certain what leader to run with, Egypt does offer a nice alternative. I think IND is going to be a bit awkward with the new meta which will affect how much we would want to target some wonders, especially the Oracle. Of the traits available I think I like CHM and PRO the most, although PRO is less powerful with this start.

[Ichabod]

I think I'll go with Washington. Sounds like a good, solid combination. I thought about it and realized I should avoid being too gimmicky about my play. With these traits, we can abuse the whip and still grow our cities, due to all the extra happiness. I think it fits very well with our Capital and it'll help me improving my game by paying attention to whip cycles and growing my cities.

What I'm worried is that a PRO player with a 3 hammer tile can get a worker in 10t, while I need 15 turns to do the same... And if they have a plains hill start + a 2 hammer tile, they can get it in 9 turns. That's a big head start. But, oh, well, our start doesn't work with PRO and I'm guessing the trait won't scale that much until the very late game.

We'll see.

[Ichabod]

Testing showed that I can get AH in time for the worker to improve the pigs first with just an Agriculture start. So, we can be flexible about what tech to go with it.

A part of me wants to go Inca. I guess I'll secure Washington first, though. I don't care that much about the Civ.

[Ichabod]

So, what do we need to do with this start?

- We need early AH, because the pig is the best tile.
- We need a fast granary and fast cottages, due to the potential power of our Capital and the traits we chose -> Exp is all about the granaries now, CHA is about big cities. That means fast pottery.
- We need BW, because our best cottageable tiles are under trees. Slavery combines nicely with a high food Capital, a high happy cap and quick granaries.
- An academy will be very profitable in the Capital.

What we don't exactly need that much:

- Religion or HR - we have enough happiness with CHA + whatever resources we find. Those should probably be delayed
- We don't have traits that help producing settelrs and workers, so any early game buildings will probably be delayed. So, no sense in getting forges or early wonders (especially the ones related to the religious line).

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These are probably pretty obvious, but I think it helps me clearing my mind of cute plays. Inca won't be a good pick, no matter how cool it looks. We can't afford to "lose" a starting tech with Mysticism. We need Agriculture + The Wheel/Mining. Besides, we'll want pottery soon, so we won't have time early to build a granary (yeah, starting on a granary very soon sounds great, but I don't think it's feasible).

Or is it...?

We need 30 hammers for a granary in normal speed with EXP. We could go AH -> BW and make a slick micro to get a very fast granary in the Capital, maybe with overflow from a settler/worker whip? Or maybe even risking everything while building it just after the first worker, while growing? But then, what would we grow into? I have no doubts our city would be huge in no time, but is working mines (would we even have time to improve mines with only one working, that also would want to chop and improve the second city?) and forests worth it? We want a big Capital, but doesn't it make sense to wait for pottery and cottages to get one? After all, if we plan to overflow something into a granary, the granary will only be useful after the whip is done, which probably gives us time to get pottery, considering a AGr/TWh start.

So, yeah, I think Inca is out. I need to play solid, not cute.

Research should probably go AH -> BW -> Pottery. AH for resources, BW to gives us at least some sort of production and Pottery to overflow into a granary and drop some cottages. After that, I don't think we can plan yet.

I think Egypt is the perfect fit for what we want, considering the sinnergy I see in CHA and WCs. A GPro could even give us a late religion, but that's not so important. Ottomans have the techs we want and Janissaries, Hammans sound superfluous with all the happy we have. Sumeria and France are solid and I don't mind babylon that much either. China is also good, less total beakers, but quicker BW. I'd have to make the math of the possibility of a Mining/The Wheel start - it gets more beakers than the others, but we'd need to make sure that we can get Agri + AH in time for the worker to improve the pigs. I'm not so sure this is possible, but my last test showed it could very well be (I forgot to test this option, but going from gut it seems possible). That opens up Mali, which could be good, having a solid early resourceless defender.

[Commodore]

Egypt was taken, no shock. Normal speed makes muskets decenter, so Ottomen or French are fine. The usual China/Sumer/Mali work, of course.

Max beakers is...Spain? Heh.

[Ichabod]

The Ottomans feel solid enough here. I considered Mali, but I didn't want to be obliged to improve the rice first, since Agri + AH can't be gotten in time for the worker to improve the pigs. Not sure if I want to improve the pigs first, but I want to have both options avaiable.