[SPOILER] Lincoln of Ethiopia -- Sareln

[Sareln]

The civ/leader pairings are:

1) Augustus of China (SleepingMoogle, GingerEagle1969)
2) Lincoln of Ethiopia (Lewwyn, Sareln)
3) Kublai Khan of France (mackoti, Nicolae Carpathia)
4) Asoka of Aztec (DMOC/Nakor, Ioan76)

(By the way it's a coincidence that the the first player on each of the time loops was given the second position in the game; I picked randomly for each, as it's reasonable to start the cycle anywhere in the day.) Go ahead and make your threads now. I will mail the save off to SleepingMoogle and GingerEagle.

Lurkers gave lots of suggestions and advice on both the map and leader/civ combos, much of which I heeded, but ultimately if you don't like your start/leader/civ it's totally my fault. Have fun.

Reference Links:

• Tracker
  

[Sareln]

[SIZE="5"]Leader/Civ Reference:[/SIZE]

• Augustus (Ind/Imp) of China (GingerEagle1969)
  
• Lincoln (Phi/Cha) of Ethiopia (Sareln)
  
• Kublai Khan (Agg/Cre) of France (Nicolae Carpathia)
  
• Asoka (Spi/Org) of Aztec (Ioan76)
  

I'm about to be late for somewhere else, so I'll fill this in later. :neenernee

EDIT: Later

[SIZE="5"]Leader Analysis[/SIZE]

Augustus (Ind/Imp)
I actually just finished off a BTS prince game with Augustus/Rome. It was more dominated by the Praetorians than Augustus really. Industrious will be nice if GingerEagle can get his forges up early. I would look for an attempt at using the Oracle to grab Metalcasting for early whipped forges and the bonus production they bring. I'm not such a fan of Imperalistic, the Settler bonus counts early in the game, but then stops mattering as we head into the mid game. The great general generation bonus is negligible, and I don't see it having a huge effect except in some very particular edge cases. Combined, I don't view Augustus as particularly strong, but being the only IND leader in the game, I expect that GingerEagle will be sorely tempted to grab some wonders (If I were him, I would strongly consider Stonehedge, Hanging Gardens, and Oracle[Metalcasting]).

Lincoln (Phi/Cha)
CHA gives the monument enough of a bonus that I will skip an early religion in favor of just whipping out monuments. If I see an opportunity for stonehedge, it will be strongly considered, but having looked at the first turn, I'll probably give it a pass. CHA will also allow me highly promoted units later on in the game, and I should keep that in mind when sizing up my opponents for a potential mid-game push. Philosophical is a solid economic trait, and I'll have to remind myself how to leverage it appropriately. Look for me to push out an early great-scientist for an academy in the capital. Long term, I want to be left mostly unmolested in the early game and then take a bite out of a neighbor in the midgame. I expect that I have the strongest economic trait (PHI/IND/CRE/ORG) amongst the pack, I expect the other players to recognize this, and should try and make nice as best I can with tech trades etc.

Kublia Khan(Agg/Cre)
Aggressive Creative suggests to me that Kublia encourages a player to expand rapidly and aggressively, using his creative culture to claim land and his aggressive trait to hold it. I expect Nicolae to ignore the early wonders and push out a large number of fast cities. He could also attempt an axeman rush, but that would only leverage one of this traits AGG, instead of both. I'll need to keep an eye on him if he's an early neighbor. A settling deal would help negate the early advantage of CRE.

Asoka (Spi/Org)
Asoka is great for fast expansion with double-speed courthouses and the ability to flip between slavery and caste system whenever convenient. Combined with the Sacrificial Altar's reduced unhappy timer from the whip, I hope that Ioan gives a good clinic on strong use of the whip. Spiritual also incentivizes an early religion, so Ioan will probably push for one, maybe two.

[SIZE="5"]Civilization Analysis[/SIZE]

China - Cho-ko-nu, Pavilion
The Cho-ko-nu are an awesome unit, with +1 first strike and the ability to cause collateral over the normal crossbow. Costing only 10 more hammers than a catapult, they look very strong on paper. I've not had an opportunity to play with them recently, but they're timing is a bit awkward. One could use them in liueu of Macemen combined with HA's and Catapults in a push between the early and the mid game, when people are normally hunkering down behind their longbows. That's the real issue actually, they're contemporaneous with the longbow, but don't have the extra strength to punish those units even after a round of collateral. On the flip side, defensively the Chinese have nothing to fear in that time-period, as the mere threat of the huge amount of collateral they can bring to the battle (with Cho-ko-nu and the standard siege options) will cause an opponent to think twice about pushing in that time period. The pavilion really isn't anything to write home about, boosting cultural output on a building that's already designed specifically with culture in mind. It strikes me as a win-more when pushing culture.

Ethiopia - Oromo Warrior, Stele
Oromo warriors are Muskets with Drill I and Drill II. Combined with the draft, they'll do the job quite handily, but nothing to write home about. If anything, they're primary bonus is going to be that they upgrade into rifles and infantry whilst keeping their Drill promotions, giving me a slight edge as the game progresses. Most Cavalry is immune to first strikes, so their additional drill promotions won't come into play until later on, while holding out against Cavalry. The Stele has the same bonus as a pavilion, except on a monument. I'll be whipping these anyways for the cultural expansions since I'm Charismatic, but I'd do that anyways even without the bonus. Honestly kinda meh for me, since a late game switch over the culture will have obsolete monuments already...

France - Musketeer, Salon
2 move muskets. Yes please. Not quite sold on the usefulness of the Salon beyond the standard observatory, but hey, free is free.

Aztec - Jaguar, Sacrificial Altar
The only side with an early UU, cheaper than the standard sword. Usefulness will depend on proximity and the defender's access to metals. Sacrificial Altar is amazing, letting you whip to convert food into hammers more often, and chained onto a building you'll want in most every city eventually anyways.

[Sareln]

Initial View

Moved!

[novice]

I expect that I have the strongest economic trait (PHI/IND/CRE/ORG) amongst the pack, I expect the other players to recognize this, and should try and make nice as best I can with tech trades etc.

Well you Cannot Talk Or Negotiate, and tech trading is off.

[Sareln]

Well you Cannot Talk Or Negotiate, and tech trading is off.

oh, right. Well then, paint a target on my back and call me India then...

[Sareln]

Bobchillingworth: Why don't you go update your BTS PBEM thread while you wait for the turn then?
Sareln: Ohhh yeahh, I'm playing in one of those aren't I?

EDIT: I thought I had sent the turn on, but haven't yet. Let me attend to that first. For a teaser: Nicolae lacks a killer instinct.

[Sareln]

Nicolae's warrior appeared out of the fog north of the pigs last turn right as my worker got to the pigs. I grumbled a bit and moved onto the deers. My Warrior would've finished in time for a 5% fortify bonus, giving Nicolae a full 10% shot at elemination. Such are the perils of going worker-first.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I opened the save to find that he had instead moved south-east onto the forest, continuing in a normal scouting pattern. How nice!

My tech path so far has been AH -> Bronzeworking. I want to get my chop and whip on.

Map Thoughts: A strange geography, but one that will lead to lots of choke points to take advantage of / limit mobility. We'll see what the metal distribution looks like shortly. No religion has dropped yet.

[Sareln]

Whelp, better late than never Nicolae. Not sure how much he'll be able to do here.

Combat Odds: Give me 50% defense bonus (+25% for city, +20% for Culture, +5% for fortify) and him a 10% bonus (Combat 1) gives him about a 20% shot at elimination if he makes a straight run for the capital. 1 in 5 Isn't bad. He should go for it. In other words, I don't expect this to be a choke, but rather an attempted kill. If he does waver on whether or not he wants it to be a choke, his odds get progressively worse until I max out on fortify bonus.

Or more accurately, those would have been his odds if he had gone straight for the capital the second he hit my borders. As it is, I think he's allowed me to get to at least 10% fortify, roughly halving his chances from if he had gone straight for it.

For those who care:

• 05% Fortify Bonus - 20.74%
  
• 10% Fortify Bonus - 11.90%
  
• 15% Fortify Bonus - 10.87%
  
• 20% Fortify Bonus - 09.94%
  
• 25% Fortify Bonus - 09.09%
  

As you may notice, my next warrior is due in 3, so any Fortify over 15% is mooted.

[Sareln]

NOTE: Sorry Nicolae, I've been making fun of you even though you didn't deserve it . Either path gets to my capital in the same amount of time. Does anyone know when the fortify bonuses are applied? EoT or BoT?

[SevenSpirits]

Beginning of turn.