SPI + Mids -> PS + Slavery in bursts seems like a reasonable way to amass protection but of course depends on having built the ‘more cities’ wonder. Probably not something that can be prioritized just yet but worth considering.
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[PB73 SPOILERS] scooter's Oracle
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It's close in my book. Fortunately, we can happily take the leader with our last pick because Yuris can't cut us off of a leader.
T4/T5 Lake Fish is ludicrous either way. But my gut says we'll have at most one of those two available to us, honestly. Ragnar + SAM Infantry is a real possibility (not comboing them would be a mistake if someone goes for SAM), but who else are our three other players going to take? Victoria, Sury, Shaka, Joao? It'll go Cairo Tech, Oxy Leader, Luddite mandatory Leader/Civ, Oxy Tech, Cairo Leader - neither Oxy or Cairo are going to take a Civ. (June 28th, 2023, 11:04)Zed-F Wrote: SPI + Mids -> PS + Slavery in bursts seems like a reasonable way to amass protection but of course depends on having built the ‘more cities’ wonder. Probably not something that can be prioritized just yet but worth considering. Yeah absolutely, I shouldn’t undersell the ability to access Police State with a Spiritual leader if I can also nab Pyramids. It’s sort of tricky because if we’re talking purely about military production, it takes a little while for Police State to pay back the cost of Pyramids. Although not nearly as long as normal given the +175% modifiers potentially available for Pyramids. I guess this is another point in favor of Spiritual - the flexibility. If I think an early rush is coming, getting free Bureau/Slavery revolts helps a lot. If it seems more likely that I get mid-game pressure, having the time to build up while snagging Pyramids and Police State is appealing. If I don’t think pressure is coming at all, I could ditch Pyramids entirely for one of the other options. (June 28th, 2023, 11:15)Cyneheard Wrote: It's close in my book. Fortunately, we can happily take the leader with our last pick because Yuris can't cut us off of a leader. This may seem odd, but I’m sort of considering picking leader prior to Yuris anyway. The rationale is that my preference for civ is probably still Vikings, but having two more picks of data would help me determine how much I need to index into Civ military, even if it means risking losing Vikings to Yuris. Basically I wonder if counter-pick implications for Civ is more valuable than maximizing pick priority. I don’t necessarily WANT to pick for Praets/Vultures/WC/Impi/Holkan, but I will if I have to. (June 28th, 2023, 11:15)Cyneheard Wrote: T4/T5 Lake Fish is ludicrous either way. Cairo has already selected Willem, so only Luddite and Oxy can (and likely will) take a leader before me. Keeping in mind stuff like Sury, Isabella, Ragnar, and Vicky will all be available too. There’s definitely a chance they both fall. Luddite will probably need to consider Sury though with his start. Oxy’s nutty start is probably the one most likely to take one of those two target leaders. Ragnar of France + Gunpowder with his start would be downright terrifying, although that’s a situation where he might wait on the leader. (June 28th, 2023, 11:41)scooter Wrote: Cairo has already selected Willem, so only Luddite and Oxy can (and likely will) take a leader before me. Keeping in mind stuff like Sury, Isabella, Ragnar, and Vicky will all be available too. There’s definitely a chance they both fall. Luddite will probably need to consider Sury though with his start. Oxy’s nutty start is probably the one most likely to take one of those two target leaders. Ragnar of France + Gunpowder with his start would be downright terrifying, although that’s a situation where he might wait on the leader. A follow-up on this. Oxy just took Inca with that top start. Given that Pacal is gone, it likely means he's going with an Expansive leader rather than Financial. That just leaves Luddite, and I would not take either Mansa or Darius with his start + tech, and I really doubt he would. So they will likely both be available. I'm increasingly leaning towards Mansa. Like I said, the flexibility sounds so helpful. If you'd like to convince me of someone else, now is the time.
I think Darius isn't worth it on Monarch. I'd be happy with Mansa.
I wonder about Huyana Capac? Perhaps IND gets lost in the Bureau bonus, but wonders are very good here. The other option is Vicky, but I think she's too weak.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
(June 28th, 2023, 15:10)Qgqqqqq Wrote: I think Darius isn't worth it on Monarch. I'd be happy with Mansa. They are, but we have stone + Bureau. IND is a lot worse for the wonders half since we already get a +150% bonus on a lot of the wonders. I might make that case if we didn't have stone, but Mansa seems head and shoulders above Huayna given that. Oxy's likely to want Joao or Shaka. 
I agree that easy Org Rel is just as good overall for hammers as the IND wonder bonus given we have stone for the important wonders, and SPI does a lot more for us, especially if we can justify and land Mids.
Huyana might possibly be in contention with Darius but the upside on SPI is much stronger then either if things work out well, and it’s hard to argue against the flexibility, especially to whip without needing slavery all the time. We have enough tech power that we could probably get Code of Laws for Caste (a likely alternative to Slavery if we land Mids) relatively easily. (Wiki says Bureau is a legal and slavery a labor civic, so seems like we can have both of those at once.) (June 28th, 2023, 21:21)Zed-F Wrote: I agree that easy Org Rel is just as good overall for hammers as the IND wonder bonus given we have stone for the important wonders, and SPI does a lot more for us, especially if we can justify and land Mids. Bureau's slot mostly has to contend with military civics (Nationhood and Vassalage); Free Speech's +100% to Culture is pretty useless, and +2 to towns isn't relevant for a long time.
Vicky + India + Artillery?
Start1 + Inca + Communism? These feel like ‘GoodStuff’ strategies to me, not particularly focused on maximizing the benefit of their tech. If I wanted to pick Communism from Start 1 I might have been thinking about ORG/xx Aztecs or something. To be fair, though, Inca might be better if I’m more worried about running out of useful things to whip.
Well with the recent picks, Mansa is officially mine if I want to lock it in. As of right now, that’s what I plan to do. I’m not sufficiently dead set on a certain civ, so I’m still leaning towards putting it off in order to wait to see the Yuris tech selection first. I’m hopeful Cairo is about to lock a tech too, otherwise I won’t know his when I pick Civ. Oxy went with an economic tech, and I expect he’s going to select Joao with it.
I agree IND for wonders is a little underwhelming for me here. IND is far more about the Forge bonus, but as folks have mentioned, SPI has a version of that with Organized Religion, plus it has other stuff that helps me here. I keep coming back to prioritizing flexibility because my start needs to be played very differently next to Luddite versus next to Oxy. Feels like SPI is best equipped to be useful for both scenarios. Luddite taking Vicky with his start was fairly shocking to me. I was expecting Shaka. I’ll hold full pick thoughts until they’re all locked, but his set of selections feels a bit weird. It suggests he intends to play straight-forward and use Artillery whenever everyone runs out of room rather than rushing someone. IMP makes sense I guess. |
