[SPOILER] Kyan + thestick. Is that the best you can do?

[Kyan]

A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark
Close your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy me
Satisfy me baby

Baby close your eyes and listen to the music
Drifting through a summer breeze
It's a groovy night and I can show you how to use it
Come along with me and put your mind at ease

A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark
Close your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy me
Satisfy me baby

Come on baby I'm tired of talking
Grab your coat and let's start walking
Come on, come on
Come on, come on
Come on, come on
Don't procrastinate, don't articulate
Girl it's getting late, gettin' upset waitin' around

A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark
Close your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy me
Satisfy me baby

[thestick]

What's that a reference to?

The only other odd pick I can think of is the Aztecs for cheaper, whip-happy Courthouses. And Jaguars if we want.

[Kyan]

What naming scheme are we going with? I was thinking either space probes (Pioneer, Luna, Sojourner, New Horizons), dwarf planets/asteroids (Pluto, Ceres, Pallas, Makemake) , or renamed cities (Byzantion, Hanseong, Batavia, Leningrad).

All nice suggestions. Either of the first two sound good to me, got some more examples of space probes names?

Beer festival? Nice. I'm currently staying on the East coast, -4 GMT.

Time to start thinking about civiliztions. Mali and Sumeria are both gone.

Here are my current ideas.
Reasonable picks:
China/Ottomans - standard good techs, decent UU/UB
Portugese - build the Feitoria and grab Colossus-like coast everywhere. Get Carracks and colonize the islands.Kinda late, though
Holy Rome - build Ranthuses everywhere and beat Torodial maintanence
Maya - Ball Courts everywhere

Ideas just to get the brain working:
Khmer - War Elephants
Zulu - Ikhanda + Courthouse = semi-Ranthus.
Dutch - lol

Ok, so choices. China has best techs but trash UU and UB. Ottomans have mediocre UU and UB but nice starting techs.

All these choices are so uninspiring. The 'best' choice is either Ottoman or China, but geeze. Maybe this is the beer talking but how boring are they?

Don't get me wrong thestick, you've identified some of the best targets, I'm just going to appeal to something different. I wish some of the 'crap' civs with poor UU and UB didn't have such bad starting techs too, they make such a big difference. I guess France are probably the next best option...

My original two picks were Sumeria and Mali for any interested folk. This is just a stream of consciousness and i'm really not sure why you're still reading at this point.

My current thoughts are one of:

Carthage
HRE
America (dead UU and UB but starting techs aren't that bad and would be funny, maybe we could get some use from those Navy SEALs).
Khmer

What do you think people?

[Kyan]

What's that a reference to?

The only other odd pick I can think of is the Aztecs for cheaper, whip-happy Courthouses. And Jaguars if we want.

Elvis Presley song. A space filler and seemed mildly relevant for a no diplo game. Aztecs have a good UB but trash UU and awful starting techs.

When picking a civ purely on strength (compared to fun factor), starting techs are really important.

[Kyan]

OH, whilst you're here thestick, a few questions:

1) How would you like to be addressed? I can't call you 'the'. 'Stick' or anything else you'd prefer?
2) How do you want this to work? I have no idea of your experience level.

[Kyan]

It just occured to me that picking America but be seen as disrespectful to the others, like i'm taking the piss. Thoughts?

I lean towards either America or Carthage currently.

[thestick]

I think the beer might be running a little deep.

Wow, most of the good stuff is taken.

Carthage - Cothon looks terrible, just an extra trade route. Have no clue about Numidian cavalry, they're mediocre, right?
HRE - Ranthus seems good, starting techs are terrible
America - No UU or UB, Fishing/Agriculture doesn't look so good.
Khmer - Are War Elephants worth it?
France - Salons are pretty bad, just 1 free beaker and 4 culture. Musketeers are a bit late.

Funny how it looks like I'm thinking in terns of the UB.

I say we don't intentionally grab the bad civ. China/Ottomans/HRE/Maya looks good, Portugese look a bit too late.

'Stick' or 'thestick' is fine. By 'work,' what do you mean?

[Commodore]

You'll get America for color, then!

[thestick]

As for my experience level, I think it's mediocre. I'm playing in PBEM 35, and without spoilering too much, I screwed up the Expansive Ottomans by being too paranoid about my neighbor, teching early Archery, and declaring war to pillage his food. I've waddled into third out of fifth because the last-place civ got semi-conquered and the fourth place civ kept getting into wars that didn't achieve a single strategic objective.

[Kyan]

I think the beer might be running a little deep.

I think the beer might be running a little deep.

Carthage - Cothon looks terrible, just an extra trade route. Have no clue about Numidian cavalry, they're mediocre, right?[/quote]
If we can get open borders with someone on the other continent, a cothon is worth an extra ~8 commerce per turn from each coastal city. Terrible? Hell no.

Numids are very situational. Cothon is the selling point here.

HRE - Ranthus seems good, starting techs are terrible

Yeah, agreed here. Rathaus are decent, but not spectacular. I reckon overall though, they're likely not much better than Cothons. They affect all the inland cities too but save a lot less per city. Considering they are only an extra -25% maintenance, i'd suspect, assuming we can get OB, not a guarantee, they're worse.

America - No UU or UB, Fishing/Agriculture doesn't look so good.

For a continents map, those techs aren't too awful at all. Agri is the best trait and it has that at least. Fishing also unlocks pottery. The UU and UB are trash though. It was mostly just because nobody has ever done it. It could be Star Trek stuff to boldly go!

Course, there's a bloody good reason nobody goes there.

Khmer - Are War Elephants worth it?

If we have Mack on our continent? Maybe. If not, definitely not.

France - Salons are pretty bad, just 1 free beaker and 4 culture. Musketeers are a bit late.

Salons are crap. Musketeers are good because they're a two mover that can fortify and defend. You can use them in conjunction with mounted stacks for defence.

Funny how it looks like I'm thinking in terns of the UB.

Aye, this is a common trap. Techs are 'usually' more important.

By 'work,' what do you mean?

I mean, we're a team. I was wondering if you could tell me what kinda skill level you're at. For example, what difficulty do you play in SP, have you any MP experience etc.?

If you are a more 'green' player, i'd be happy to try and assist/guide/teach. However, you may well be brilliant and far better than me and i'd really rather not upset you by being condascending. Heck, maybe you can teach me a few things- that would certainly be appreciated!