Woden's and Chevalier Mal Fet's [Insert Clever Name Here] Team Thread

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Okay, so this is my second go-round at this - the first time I tried it got eaten. Anyway, I’ll recap it as best I can.

Welcome to the Ill-Made Knight’s preview post of PBEM 7! Woden and I are going to be teaming up against 3 other pairs of players in an effort to win eternalno glory.

Chevalier Mal Fet - Victoria of England


First, I guess, I should do my evaluation of myself. I’m new to Civ VI multiplayer - in fact, this is my first game. I stumbled here because of Sullla’s website - specifically his PBEM 1 writeup made me want to seek out other Civ VI multiplayer games, so I read through all of PBEM2 here and then started lurking in PBEM4. Now it’s time to find out how much I’ve learned. ._.

My strengths are that I tend to be cautious and analytical. I can think through most problems clearly and logically, and I am quick to formulate big-picture plans to work towards a specific goal. However, I often overlook small details, I’ve no talent for micromanagement at all, and I lack aggression - many times I’ve let other civs and city states live far longer than they had any business doing. I try to compensate for that by being bold and offensive when I do find myself at war, but we’ll see.

Why England? Well, the British Museum is underwhelming (the archaeology minigame is a tedious and pointless chore still), and the Sea Dog is situational at best, but the civ has three great abilities I think will work well in this game.

1)The Redcoat UU. This upgrades from musketmen at Military Science, and thoroughly outclasses them at 65 strength to their 55. This rises to 75 strength on a foreign continent, which means that the Redcoat can stand up to infantry and armor! There is no stronger melee unit in its era, and I’m hoping it can go toe to toe with Archduke’s Cossacks.

2)The foreign-continent bonus is helped by Victoria’s Pax Britannica - giving me a free melee unit for every foreign city I conquer or found on another continent. It means England can dominate the coasts of a foreign continent, send in Redcoats (who all disembark at no penalty), and then snowball from there as every conquest adds to their army. It’s not gamebreaking, but it does help maintain momentum and makes garrisoning cities a breeze.

3)Last, but most importantly, the Royal Navy Dockyard. This half-cost harbor gives double Great Admiral points - which makes it roughly 4x as efficient as your vanilla Harbor! Since England wants to plop down as many of these as possible, it effectively means that the civ can monopolize great admirals - and that, in turn, makes England fearsomely effective at sea. Archduke’s double-GA fleet was able to stand up to fleets twice its size. But wait, it gets better - RNDs also get trade routes, even if there’s already a Commercial Hub present in the city. This means that England gets effectively twice as many trade routes as other civs for the same population base. Since my role this game is gold generation, this is a huge boon - better, I think, than other trade-focused bonuses (boni?) like Egypt’s or Russia’s.

So, gameplan: Slap down Holy Sites, Commercial Districts, and RNDs in as many cities as possible. Use the RNDs and gold generated to build an unstoppable navy, use that to dominate the seas between our continents and others (or isthmuses), and play it by ear from there. With naval superiority, we ought to be able to raid others as we please, and defend ourselves from attack.

We will lag somewhat in culture, but I don’t think that matters as much. No game has been decided by culture yet.

Next up: Woden, and then the other teams.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Woden: Amanitore of Nubia


I evaluate my teammate’s strengths thusly: Woden is a builder par excellence. He pulled off astounding things with China in PBEM2 - using the Civ’s super workers to land every single ancient and classical wonder, leading the game from start to just before the finish. In PBEM4, he stayed out of the early wars and alone built his civ to be safe from attack from the sea.

Woden’s biggest weakness I think is in aggression and warfare. In PBEM2, he passed up numerous chances to attack Alhambram, and ultimately succumbed to Russia when Alhambram reached his Cossack UU. In PBEM4, he sat out most of the wars while his neighbors grew stronger, then intervened in effectively in Germany and lost his fleet to Dave. As a result, his reputation is “yeah, great builder, but he can’t fight.” I think Woden is out to prove that reputation wrong this game!

Nubia is an interesting civ. I’ve never seen it in action, but the bonus to district production, coupled with the Nubian pyramid, seem to suggest a civ that favors large, densely-packed cities with lots of districts bordering each other. An example of the sort of build I have in mind is the Jovian megacity Dave built in PBEM4, which had something like 4 city centers and a dozen districts all neighboring.

Nubia’s other bonus is to ranged units. They can crank ‘em out like no other civ, and the UU Pitati Archers can dominate the ancient and classical ages. The UU won’t be as relevant in this game, I think, but the bonus to ranged production lasts all game long, and the bonus to mine production means that Nubia should have some fearsome production by the end game. Overall, I think it’s a good choice for a production/science civ, and makes a good complement to England.

Japper and Mike: Mvemba A Nzinga of Kongo and Jayavarman of Khmer

Japper has only completed one PBEM, but he and Mike are teamed up in PBEM5 as well. I’m dedlurking Alhambram there, so I’ve no idea how they operate together.


Japper didn’t really get the chance to show himself off in PBEM4. He overexpanded, investing most of his early hammers in settlers and building no infrastructure or military at all. As a result, he was swiftly overrun when Singaboy attacked with GG-led horsemen. He won’t fall for that again, so I expect him to more cautiously balance expansion with protection in this round.

The civ choices suggest a religion/culture oriented game. Kongo famously cannot found its own religion, instead gaining all beliefs of any religions established in the capital. Khmer gets bonus food and faith from aqueducts and holy sites, including a UB that lets missionaries create relics...which Kongo can use to boost its food, production, and gold. It’s a cute play, but I’m skeptical how well it will work in practice. Kongo is dependent on Relics, which may be hard to come by even with Khmer, since the relic is only created in theological combat. I feel that English naval patrols will be able to deal with any attempted religious invasion of our lands, and without constant relic generation both civs are only so-so.

Emperor K and the Archduke: Frederick Barbarossa of Germany and Peter the Great of Russia


In contrast to Japper and Mike, this team chose two civs that are quite strong on their own, and will be very scary together. I don’t know much about Emperor K, as the newb of the team, but Archduke is a formidable opponent. His most distinctive feature is his constant improvement by leaps and bounds in every game he plays. He doesn’t make the same mistake twice. He has great natural ability as a general, many times fighting civs superior in numbers and technology to a standstill in both PBEM2 and PBEM4. In fact, he never lost a battle in PBEM4! I used to think his weakness was the economic side of things, but he did a fantastic job in PBEM4, and had Dave not landed the stupid-good Venetian Arsenal, he would have steamrolled to a victory in that game.



This team has two very strong picks. Russia was one of my top three choices. It’s a monster of culture and faith generation with the lavras. The Cossack UU is one of the best in the game, and the Grand Embassy ability syncs perfectly with a team game. Germany can lead the way in science while Russia gets boosted from its trade routes. One of Russia’s weak points, a tundra start bias, is negated by the custom map.

Germany, of course, is widely beloved, appearing in 4 out of 7 PBEMs so far. The Hansa district and the bonus districts per city make this civ a mid-to-late game powerhouse, while the extra military card adds flexibility to Barbarossa’s game. Germany has somewhat lackluster unique units, and in every game so far the German player has been effectively attacked before his urban megacities can come online.

Bottom line: if this team is given time to develop in peace, watch out! Russian culture and German production will be a very difficult combination to overcome.

Singaboy and BRickAstley: Trajan of Rome and Qin Shi Huangdi of China

This is the other team I’m worried about. Strong players and strong civs.



Singaboy, I think, is one of the most impressive all-around players of Civ VI active on the forums. In PBEM2, he was hit with an early barbarian rush that he handled with aplomb, dropping behind not at all. Despite setbacks, he constantly was able to rebuild and keep his civ a factor in the final outcome of the game. In PBEM4, he executed perhaps the best early game of any player, fending off early Viking raids, absorbing nearby city-states, before launching a skin-of-his-teeth invasion of Norway that succeeded with a combination of boldness, luck, and skill on Singaboy’s part. His biggest weaknesses are a frequent blind spot to the metagame - he fails to consider the effects of his actions on other players, and was blindsided by Archduke’s attacks in both games. He can also get tilted at times, as frustration sometimes drives him almost to give up on games. He’s recovered every time, though, and revenged himself on whoever wronged him (his defense of Germany in PBEM4 I find particularly impressive).



I can’t comment on BRick, other than a warning to myself not to underestimate him. He’s obviously a veteran of the forums and whatever Civ-VI specific skills he may lack he’s familiar with the MP environment.

The Civ picks are great choices, as well. Sullla explained in PBEM1 why Rome is so amazing, and that remains true. The legionaries will hopefully not matter much, but the baths and culture generation will shine. This will be an expansive, high-pop civ, good at whatever Brick wants it to do. China is perhaps the pre-eminent builder civilization. Builders are boosted, and China can rush out wonders for the hammer cost of a builder using the right policy cards. The Dynastic Cycle buff will be great in a team game, so this team will be able to leap ahead in science and culture. China’s one real weakness are the lackluster UU and UI, but since it does everything else well that’s not an issue.

If I had to say, I’d pick this team as the favorite to win. Here’s hoping I can prove that prediction wrong.

[Woden]

If I had to say, I’d pick this team as the favorite to win. Here’s hoping I can prove that prediction wrong.

To make matters worst, I think Sullla is ded-lurking them and they will have his help. Their thread is the only thread I have seen him in and he has been posting frequently in. 

One the plus side, I think the Germany/Russia combo will distracted them more than us, especially since we can spam archers for stronger defenses. There may be an opportunity to take advantage of this somehow. Don't know how yet, but something to think about. I think this game is going to depend on who goes after Kongo/Khmer first and if they are successful.

[Woden]

Are we good with Nubia taking the Japanese site and England taking the Vikings location?

I do believe you can build harbors in lakes, so even though your capital is not the coast, you should be able to build a harbor for double trade routes.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yeah, that's good with me. The RND can indeed be built on lakes. 

And fuckin' peachy news about Sullla.    As if that team needed any more help. Well, nothing to do but soldier on regardless. We can do this thing.

[oledavy]

Back from Thanksgiving. 

Good job on the draft you two! I think you two drafted really well considering your shitty placement. I'm a little sad we didn't get Russia, as Grand Embassy would have been very fun to tinker with, but batting Nubia/England was nice. I think in general people are really underrating the naval civs for this map. I'm a little shocked Australia was not picked. Anyway, picking first in this situation was just a raw deal, as there was simply a bigger drop off in quantity between about the #3-#5 picks then there was between the #1-#2 picks. With that in mind, I think Nubia was a good pull. The district production bonus lends them to either role, as broadly outlined earlier in this thread. They're strong, flexible, and probably the best general pick. 

I'm going to be very curious to see how good China ends up being in these settings. We are sure that their 60% of a bonus applies to both civs, right? 

Brief thoughts on the draft. 

Pick #1 - Woden takes Nubia

 - See above, I think this was really solid

Pick #2 - Singaboy/BrickAstley take Rome

- Really solid choice, probably the best civ remaining, doesn't commit them to a second pick they can't guarantee

Pick #3 - Archduke takes Germany

 - I was a little surprised at this. I expected Australia/England/Russia/China to fall here. I think Germany is definitely Top 8, but I expected it to fall on the back half of the draft. Despite seeing them in three games, and each time their potential being clearly shown off, I think the issues the German players up to now have had in leveraging Germany into a win may indicate the civ isn't quite as strong as we generally think. Also, there's an anti-synergy in their kit. Germany wants to be the techer/military muscle with Hansas, but since Hansas depend on CH's to really ramp themselves up, Germany will have fewer hammers to sink into campuses. Not a severe handicap, but a potential shortcoming. 

Picks #4 & #5 - MikeForAll & Japper007 take Khmer and Kongo

On the one hand, I like that someone is taking these civs for a spin. On the other, I think these picks are both just a little too cute, and the interaction they're working for probably won't work because Condemn Heretic doesn't produce relics. 

Being brutally honest for a moment, this game is likely going to come down to who is next to these players. I sincerely hope Japper007 is learning as a player and getting better, but PBEM4 didn't leave me terribly impressed. See my thread if you want to see how he actively took a bad situation versus Singaboy and made it worse with ill-advised tactical moves. His loss that game wasn't simply a matter of too much of a focus on expansion, the mistakes started long before that and continued all the way through his war with Singaboy. Add to this, they're both playing two games now and consequentially are likely to be unable to focus as much on this one. They're also friends in real life, which means they're less likely to post in their threads and consequently be forced to think through their moves/get constructive feedback. Finally, as discussed above, they went for a cute combo where I'm pretty sure the synergy they're aiming for doesn't even work. If it does, more power to them, but that's a long payback window and a lot to sacrifice for one (potentially) really awesome synergy. 

Now, because they have a resourceless Swordsman UU that is stronger against ranged attacks, you probably can't do a Classical Era rush on these guys, but if you neighbor them, I think these guys are prime candidates to colonize with the Royal Navy. 

Picks #6 - Emperor K takes Russia

 - Smart pick, surprised it lasted this long. Japper007 and MikeforAll really messed up my mock draft 

Pick #7 - BrickAstley/Singaboy takes China

 - I probably underrated this civ slightly in my analysis, we'll see how it pans out here. It's worthwhile here to note that both ArchEmperor and BrickBoy went simply for combos of strong base game civs, and neither of these has a great or obvious synergy.

Pick #8 - Chevalier takes England

 - England doesn't quite fit into the allocation of roles I suggested, and you guys are probably going to have to adapt if you want to use that as a model. That being said, I think England for Pick #8 was a steal. Good stuff. The issue is the anti-synergy of wanting them to be your naval muscle and gold powerhouse. However, there are ways around this. 

As England, you're probably going to want to focus very narrowly on the top part of the tree, getting the essential classical/medieval techs and then beelining for frigates. You simply don't need much of the lower half of the tree to be effective as England. We need to try to efficiently leverage England's focus on RNDs and CHs into the Culture/Science relatively early. So, I would suggest Nubia plan a city fairly early on that will eventually have a CH, Harbor, Campus, and Theater District. England can send all their TRs there, and with Trade Confederation, leverage this into a fair amount of culture/science. At least enough to get them to square rigging in a decent amount of time. 

You probably want to make Nubia responsible for the religion in this set up. This might possibly be a good game to run a Jesuit Education play, leveraging religion and faith into campus buildings - allowing you to build more of the districts with a bonus and buy multiplier-less buildings with Faith. I also just want to say, thinking about PBEM2, I think Nubia is an all around excellent choice for Woden to play. I look forward to seeing you really abuse that ranged unit production multiplier to cram tons of hammers into other things. 

I would consider planning on going for VA if its available. Specifically, England would love it. I don't expect a straight rehash of PBEM4, and I anticipate about 30%-50% of cities for a given civ will be founded inland. However, a lot are going to be coastal, and whoever controls the water is going to have disproportionate control over the game. 

Also, I'm a little surprised nobody took Sumer. I think Ziggarauts alone make them pretty worthwhile. 

Finally, I suspect each Landmass will be its own self-contained continent But, I would find trading cities back and forth to generate free units for England a little cheesy and suspect.

[oledavy]

Singaboy, I think, is one of the most impressive all-around players of Civ VI active on the forums. In PBEM2, he was hit with an early barbarian rush that he handled with aplomb, dropping behind not at all. Despite setbacks, he constantly was able to rebuild and keep his civ a factor in the final outcome of the game. In PBEM4, he executed perhaps the best early game of any player, fending off early Viking raids, absorbing nearby city-states, before launching a skin-of-his-teeth invasion of Norway that succeeded with a combination of boldness, luck, and skill on Singaboy’s part. His biggest weaknesses are a frequent blind spot to the metagame - he fails to consider the effects of his actions on other players, and was blindsided by Archduke’s attacks in both games. He can also get tilted at times, as frustration sometimes drives him almost to give up on games. He’s recovered every time, though, and revenged himself on whoever wronged him (his defense of Germany in PBEM4 I find particularly impressive).

I think this is spot on. I think half the battle of beating Singaboy is tilting him. Unfortunately for us, that is going to be harder this game as he has level-headed teammates to keep him more focused. He's also proven twice now that he can be put out of the game and still put up a fight and find mini-objectives to aim for.

BrickAstley played a couple games back in the day. I don't think he did particularly well in any of them, but he shouldn't be discounted either. His chill demeanor will likely mesh well with Singaboy's play-style and help keep him on his game. 

Overall, with the addition of Sullla ded-lurking, probably the most dangerous of the opposing teams this game.

[Woden]

Awesome write up Chevalier Mal Fet! Don't fret too much with Sullla ded-lurking Sinagboy's and Brick's thread.  At least he is not playing and not sure how much effort he is willing to put in plus IDK how much Civ 6 he has played lately.  Besides, we have oledavy on our side! Maybe....(Edit: looks like oledavy posted as I was writing this up)

Woden: Amanitore of Nubia


I evaluate my teammate’s strengths thusly: Woden is a builder par excellence. He pulled off astounding things with China in PBEM2 - using the Civ’s super workers to land every single ancient and classical wonder, leading the game from start to just before the finish. In PBEM4, he stayed out of the early wars and alone built his civ to be safe from attack from the sea. 

Woden’s biggest weakness I think is in aggression and warfare. In PBEM2, he passed up numerous chances to attack Alhambram, and ultimately succumbed to Russia when Alhambram reached his Cossack UU. In PBEM4, he sat out most of the wars while his neighbors grew stronger, then intervened in effectively in Germany and lost his fleet to Dave. As a result, his reputation is “yeah, great builder, but he can’t fight.” I think Woden is out to prove that reputation wrong this game! 

Nubia is an interesting civ. I’ve never seen it in action, but the bonus to district production, coupled with the Nubian pyramid, seem to suggest a civ that favors large, densely-packed cities with lots of districts bordering each other. An example of the sort of build I have in mind is the Jovian megacity Dave built in PBEM4, which had something like 4 city centers and a dozen districts all neighboring. 

Nubia’s other bonus is to ranged units. They can crank ‘em out like no other civ, and the UU Pitati Archers can dominate the ancient and classical ages. The UU won’t be as relevant in this game, I think, but the bonus to ranged production lasts all game long, and the bonus to mine production means that Nubia should have some fearsome production by the end game. Overall, I think it’s a good choice for a production/science civ, and makes a good complement to England. 

Since I have been messing around with them for a few games, figured I would go a little more in-depth on the power of Nubia:

Kandake of Meroe
Provides +20% towards districts, rising to +40% if there is a Nubian Pyramid adjacent to the City Center.  

This benefit helps throughout the game, cheaper districts means more districts, especially in the late game. It also means I will want to place my cities near desert, desert hills, or floodplains to get a spot for a Nubian Pyramid but even without the Pyramid, +20% is nice! Pair this with the City Patron Goddess for +25% on the first district in any city and districts become very cheap.  IMO, a big issue with the late game is that districts become too expensive to build. This ability really helps keep them manageable.

Ta-Seti
+50% towards ranged units. All ranged units gain +50% combat experience. Mines over strategic resources provide +1. Mines over bonus and luxury resources provide +2.  

 +50% all game long means you can produce a lot of ranged units, but it also means that you can run Agoge and get +100% on all your chops. Build an archer, chop something, build an Archer, chop something, over and over. No longer is it only coastal cities that can get +100% out of their chops, it is everywhere. I am going to abuse this ability as much as I can.  Second, the +50% experience is almost as good. After one war, you could have multiple level 4 Ranged Units that can shoot twice. If we find fairly useless city-state, we may be able to farm experience for our archers. It doesn't take long to get a promotion. Add a Barracks and Armor and you are talking about Ranged units that promote twice as fast.  Add in better mines over resources and this becomes one of the best abilities in the game.

Pitati Archer
Nuibian unique Ancient era unit that replaces the Arhcer. Stronger than a normal Archer (30 ranged strength verus 25, 17 melee strength verus 15) plus 3 movement. 

These guys are nice for early war but not sure how much they will be used for that. They are good scouts and can hold there own against barbs and swords. We will be building a bunch of these for defenses. If we do want to push an early war, we could build a bunch and push on someone before a GG can be earned. 

Nubian Pyramid

An improvemnet that unlocks at Masonry and must be built on Desert, Desert Hills, or Floodplains. Provides +1. Recieves +1 if next to a city center and +1 of the approporiate yield if a district is adjancent to it. 

Unlike some improvements (mines) that add to adjacency to districts, this improvement gets an adjacency bonus from districts. It is best to surround them with districts to create a high yield tile. They can be good if you can set up the city right. We will see if we can get some good yields. 


I think a good strategy with Nubia will be to (1) build lots of districts; mostly encampments, campuses, and commercial hubs; (2) spam ranged units for a good network of defenses. I would say let Nubia handle most of the defensive work while England focuses on infrastructure and have England only have a small response force in case of attack (maybe calvary); (3) abuse the production bonus for fast development. 

After think about the benefits of team play, I think the best strategy to make the best out of the research side would be to split the trees and have each civ focus on researching and getting the inspirations/eurekas for different branches. For example, at the start have 1 civ go for Craftsmanship and State Workforce, while the other goes for Foreign Trade and Early Empire. Then the other team member will get the eureka for it when it is complete. This would mean 1 civ goes early builder and the other goes early settler. Now, each will have to finish every tech/civic but if we split the tree and only chase those inspirations/eurekas, we should be able to get through the trees fairly efficient. 

Here is a thread on fast science finishes,  in case you haven't see it: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/s...ss.623393/

I am think about trying to work some of the strategies into my play to see if I can get through the tree faster. A lot of strategies rely on conquering everybody but I think there is some stuff we can incorporate into our strategy that might give us an edge. I am still testing some of it, but I will write up my thoughts soon.

[Woden]

Good job on the draft you two! I think you two drafted really well considering your shitty placement. I'm a little sad we didn't get Russia, as Grand Embassy would have been very fun to tinker with, but batting Nubia/England was nice. I think in general people are really underrating the naval civs for this map. I'm a little shocked Australia was not picked. Anyway, picking first in this situation was just a raw deal, as there was simply a bigger drop off in quantity between about the #3-#5 picks then there was between the #1-#2 picks. With that in mind, I think Nubia was a good pull. The district production bonus lends them to either role, as broadly outlined earlier in this thread. They're strong, flexible, and probably the best general pick. 

I am also a little surprised that Australia wasn't picked. This game will probably go longer than any other because it is 2 civs you need to fight, not just one at a time.

I'm going to be very curious to see how good China ends up being in these settings. We are sure that their 60% of a bonus applies to both civs, right? 

Pretty sure it is only China that will get the 60%, Rome should only get the normal 50% if China finishes something.

Pick #3 - Archduke takes Germany

 - I was a little surprised at this. I expected Australia/England/Russia/China to fall here. I think Germany is definitely Top 8, but I expected it to fall on the back half of the draft. Despite seeing them in three games, and each time their potential being clearly shown off, I think the issues the German players up to now have had in leveraging Germany into a win may indicate the civ isn't quite as strong as we generally think. Also, there's an anti-synergy in their kit. Germany wants to be the techer/military muscle with Hansas, but since Hansas depend on CH's to really ramp themselves up, Germany will have fewer hammers to sink into campuses. Not a severe handicap, but a potential shortcoming. 

Australia probably would have been a better pick here. TheArchduke's weakness is the builder side of the game, maybe that is why he picked them, to see if he can improve. It will be intresting to see what he can do with them. I am just glad Singaboy is not playing them again.

Picks #4 & #5 - MikeForAll & Japper007 take Khmer and Kongo

On the one hand, I like that someone is taking these civs for a spin. On the other, I think these picks are both just a little too cute, and the interaction they're working for probably won't work because Condemn Heretic doesn't produce relics. 

Being brutally honest for a moment, this game is likely going to come down to who is next to these players. I sincerely hope Japper007 is learning as a player and getting better, but PBEM4 didn't leave me terribly impressed. See my thread if you want to see how he actively took a bad situation versus Singaboy and made it worse with ill-advised tactical moves. His loss that game wasn't simply a matter of too much of a focus on expansion, the mistakes started long before that and continued all the way through his war with Singaboy. Add to this, they're both playing two games now and consequentially are likely to be unable to focus as much on this one. They're also friends in real life, which means they're less likely to post in their threads and consequently be forced to think through their moves/get constructive feedback. Finally, as discussed above, they went for a cute combo where I'm pretty sure the synergy they're aiming for doesn't even work. If it does, more power to them, but that's a long payback window and a lot to sacrifice for one (potentially) really awesome synergy. 

Now, because they have a resourceless Swordsman UU that is stronger against ranged attacks, you probably can't do a Classical Era rush on these guys, but if you neighbor them, I think these guys are prime candidates to colonize with the Royal Navy. 

Agreed, I think the game will depend on how goes after these two first and how successful they are. Even if they put up a good fight and win, I think they are perceived as the weakest group of civs. Singaboy and TheArchduke haven't accomplished much going after each other and we can produce a bunch of ranged units. They just look like an easier target to everybody else.

Pick #8 - Chevalier takes England

 - England doesn't quite fit into the allocation of roles I suggested, and you guys are probably going to have to adapt if you want to use that as a model. That being said, I think England for Pick #8 was a steal. Good stuff. The issue is the anti-synergy of wanting them to be your naval muscle and gold powerhouse. However, there are ways around this. 

As England, you're probably going to want to focus very narrowly on the top part of the tree, getting the essential classical/medieval techs and then beelining for frigates. You simply don't need much of the lower half of the tree to be effective as England. We need to try to efficiently leverage England's focus on RNDs and CHs into the Culture/Science relatively early. So, I would suggest Nubia plan a city fairly early on that will eventually have a CH, Harbor, Campus, and Theater District. England can send all their TRs there, and with Trade Confederation, leverage this into a fair amount of culture/science. At least enough to get them to square rigging in a decent amount of time. 

Also think Nubia should have a city with an encampment, industrial zone, commercial hub, and harbor for a high production city that trade routes can be sent too. Does production get added on international routes?

You probably want to make Nubia responsible for the religion in this set up. This might possibly be a good game to run a Jesuit Education play, leveraging religion and faith into campus buildings - allowing you to build more of the districts with a bonus and buy multiplier-less buildings with Faith. I also just want to say, thinking about PBEM2, I think Nubia is an all around excellent choice for Woden to play. I look forward to seeing you really abuse that ranged unit production multiplier to cram tons of hammers into other things. 

I was thinking along these lines too. I could go for an early Holy Site and chop out a few projects as I build archers. Might even be able to get the first one if China doesn't start by stone.

I would consider planning on going for VA if its available. Specifically, England would love it. I don't expect a straight rehash of PBEM4, and I anticipate about 30%-50% of cities for a given civ will be founded inland. However, a lot are going to be coastal, and whoever controls the water is going to have disproportionate control over the game. 

Agreed. You could keep everybody trapped on their interiors as you raid their coasts.

Finally, I suspect each Landmass will be its own self-contained continent But, I would find trading cities back and forth to generate free units for England a little cheesy and suspect.

Would be cheesy and probably an exploit

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

As England, you're probably going to want to focus very narrowly on the top part of the tree, getting the essential classical/medieval techs and then beelining for frigates. You simply don't need much of the lower half of the tree to be effective as England. We need to try to efficiently leverage England's focus on RNDs and CHs into the Culture/Science relatively early. So, I would suggest Nubia plan a city fairly early on that will eventually have a CH, Harbor, Campus, and Theater District. England can send all their TRs there, and with Trade Confederation, leverage this into a fair amount of culture/science. At least enough to get them to square rigging in a decent amount of time. 

Also think Nubia should have a city with an encampment, industrial zone, commercial hub, and harbor for a high production city that trade routes can be sent too. Does production get added on international routes?

All the districts get added - production, gold, culture, food, whatever. I think both of us want at least one city with a Harbor, CD, ID, and Encampment just for the other partner to run trade routes to. Every city of both players needs at least one CD/Harbor, and I'm going to try to lay down both in all my coastal/lakeside cities.