Gavagai's spoiler thread

[Oxyphenbutazone]

Serdoa deliberated on banning the GLH, which tells us that there are a lot of islands on the map. I really doubt early warfare will be such a huge factor that it makes sense taking Ragnar over Darius or even Mansa. Victoria could be interesting, but is again strictly inferior to Darius. Also, if the map is water heavy, that means FIN/ORG are amazing traits. Plus, I do think we can get a decent early civ on the way back so I think Darius is by far the best choice here.

[Gavagai]

Map dimensions are 92x40 according to Serdoa. Assuming that half of this ocean, we get something like seven cities per player. We will most likely have less ocean but it still seems pretty cramped. Which adds points to Ragnar...

[Gavagai]

Serdoa deliberated on banning the GLH, which tells us that there are a lot of islands on the map. I really doubt early warfare will be such a huge factor that it makes sense taking Ragnar over Darius or even Mansa. Victoria could be interesting, but is again strictly inferior to Darius. Also, if the map is water heavy, that means FIN/ORG are amazing traits. Plus, I do think we can get a decent early civ on the way back so I think Darius is by far the best choice here.

If there were a lot of islands, Serdoa would just ban GLH... I don't see water immediately near our start and I afraid that Org won't start to contribute until it is too late. Though the fact that the map is toroidal adds Darius some points...

[Oxyphenbutazone]

AGG is only good if you play a very specific game plan(rush) and that game plan isn't even that effective. Your estimate of 7 cities per player is off, its probably closer to 12 or so

Even though the GLH wasn't banned, we can ascertain that there's still a decent amount of water, even though the capital isn't coastal...

[Gavagai]

AGG is only good if you play a very specific game plan(rush) and that game plan isn't even that effective.

Not necessarily "rush"... Aggressive settling works good with aggressive. What aggressive really wants is a strong early melee UU and we are not guaranteed to have one. Org and Imp most likely mean that we will play with barren trait for the most part of game...

[Oxyphenbutazone]

I think we can use solid micro and cautious decision-making to survive the early game. As Darius, if we're still in contention turn 100, we'll be in great shape.

[Gavagai]

OK, Darius it is. I like other two options much less. Will post in game thread.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

You know, Darius of the HRE is not nearly as punitive a combo as usual here...

[Gavagai]

I actually thought about hre... they have a weird and rather late uu but yeah, definitely a possibility.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

So what civs are left? Ethiopia or Holy Roman Empire?