[SPOILERS] Dazedroyalty - My head hurts already!

[dazedroyalty]

Wow this takes a lot of thinking!

[dazedroyalty]

I'm not sure how to weigh things. In PBEM32 I thought there was a clear best choice (Serdoa's pick) to get things going, but I don't feel that way about this game. None of the buildings seem to be totally amazing or must picks. Things I've identified as interesting:

-Greek with PHI could result in a really nasty early GA bomb.

-Dutch with PRO would make really nice sea tiles. Even better with IMP.

-I like starting with Fishing/Wheel but Japan is the only (I think) civ with that combo so it's out.

-I'm tempted by penalized France and Russia just for kicks, but the truth is that I feel like they'd be fun but pretty poor choices. France could work but Russia is right out.

-I think in terms of traits I need to pick good long term traits for this game. None of the buildings are so amazing I need them. With Prince/torroidal I'm seriously wanting to get Organized. I'm even strongly considering Sumeria to get super cheap super early Courthouses.

-Since there isn't easy access to early marble and no visible stone, I'm also considering IND, not because of the building but because it could really make the difference in an early Stonehenge/Oracle/Mids play.

-Inca is doable to me, but not India. However, I'm probably gonna skip both.

-CHM/AGG would be interesting... essentially like having an Academy from the get go. If rushing to a tech was a priority, this would be amazing. After that, though, it'd die off with no other great long term benefits.

-PRO Levee would be nice. If there was one of the food tiles that had river access, it'd be much more appealing. As it is, it'd be fun but I'm not biting.

[dazedroyalty]

[dazedroyalty]

So I picked Darius for those not following the tech thread. I think ORG is a pretty clear choice here. In fact, I think making a choice based on the buildings is mostly not wise because there is not enough difference in the buildings. This game is Prince/Torrodial which is the same as PBEM29. I think that ORG is gonna be a serious benefit that I hope other players underrate. Not only does ORG have one of the best starting buildings (+1 food!), but it will cut costs dramatically without any effort while also giving cheap courthouses and lighthouses. That's pretty nice.

I want Agriculture/Wheel. The Whale just isn't that tempting because the nets get +1 hammer, +2 gold and +1 happy. The Happy is the most tempting part of course. But, I would want fishing to be able to work the Whale and that's anti-synergistic with Agriculture (lose the net on the whales) which I would like. Hunting is out because it's not a food option. I'd prefer not to lose the RR mine so Mining it out. The Wheel is a good choice because I don't plan to work a plains town anyways for a while. Wheel/Fishing would be workable but it means I'd have to pick Japan, which is out. So, it comes back to Wheel/Agriculture.

That means I can take: Sumeria, Egypt, France or Babylon. (Did I miss any?)

-Sumeria: obvious synergy with the uber early and cheap Courthouse. Not a fan of the vulture though.

-Egypt: I like me a war chariot, but the UB isn't synergistic per se. If I wanted to go for a religion and found a shrine early, this would work well though.

-France: I already chose to be Darius so I'm not gonna get the free Salon and artist. The biggest benefit to picking France would be simply to screw with someone else. E.g. If someone picks Aggressive, they're probably hoping for France. I could screw that up for someone. But, that's a pretty poor reason to pick it, imo.

-Babylon: nope. I don't really want bowmen, it's not a good UB for my goals and I have played them before. I would only take Babylon if the other three are already picked.

So in short: Sumeria and Egypt are good choices. France is OK for denial. Babylon would be a bummer.

[dazedroyalty]

Oh, the Ottomans, duh! They are also Agriculture/Wheel. I'd rank them as a good solid option. Strong UB. The Janissary is meh. But it does mean that with 5 Agr/Wheel civs, I can definitely get one of them.

[dazedroyalty]

Stupid thing about the game... apparently I can not select a build for one turn and not get a pop up. Then after hitting end turn, that turn of production is lost forever.

[dazedroyalty]

So i know that I have played this game terribly. To the other players when they read this thread, I apologize. I vastly overestimated how much time and energy I'd have to devote to the game given I now have two children under the age of two. It didn't help that I was also working two jobs when the game started. So, apologies to all involved.

This game was over from the beginning since we have been playing against Seven. I am pretty sure that most of us are not putting in our own A game effort, much less Seven's level of A (or B or C) game effort. But for me I made the worst mistake when I totally missed that Seven had a chariot in striking distance of my capital which was only defended by a warrior a while back. No excuse for that except that have been playing turns in very narrow windows when I have a chance and I rushed through it. So after that was razed, any hope I had of making a significant financial push was pretty much gone since the capital was my main commerce producer.

So, I decided that when backed into a corner against a superior opponent the only option is to go down swinging. I teched HBR and have basically been building Horse Archers non-stop to throw at Seven. I don't have any plans to actually capture a city. He's ROME, for heaven's sake! Mostly, my goal has been to make him divert from whatever economic beeline/powerplay he was surely working on to waste time on military. I'm sure that it's only delaying the inevitable, but it's more fun and it's the only realistic way to give Seven any challenge at all.

I do have one small play though that I'm pretty stoked about! Take a look at this:



I have a couple of galleys sitting there with nothing to do. I can't transport units to attack Seven becuase he has two triremes already in the water and I am still building my first. But, if you look closely on the left, you see a city (named Outpost) that is on the other side of Franklin. Outpost is defended by a single archer. My galleys can't get there though. Or can they?!



4 workers on two turns built a fort! Allowing two galleys with 3 HAs and 1 vulture to pass through. If Seven misses this fact next turn, then he will surely lose Outpost. If he doesn't have any hammers invested in a military unit, he may not be able to whip out a longbow. I'm not sure how much pop that takes. There's a good chance he whips SOMETHING out there and then it'll be a long shot if I can raze it. We'll see. It's my one potentially successful play.

The other thing is that I've just been streaming units into Seven's land and done a mild bit of pillaging. No actual battles have happened yet though I expect that will change this turn. (My first catapults are just rolling out now but they move too slow to make any real difference). Here's where my troops are:



Not that impressive. I have 0% chance of taking anything. My goal is just to keep moving and stay away from any massive counter attack. So far I've only seen a total of 1 spearmen which makes sense, I guess, since Praets are pretty much superior in every way (though cost more hammers).

So, for what it's worth, that's the news in my empire.