[PLAYERS STAY OUT!] Lurker Thread - PB5 Starts A Day Late & Dollar Short

[BRickAstley]

I haven't studied each one, but in scooter's report I saw this one and almost wept, for it had as much food as our whole continent.

[WilliamLP]

It seems like the only way there could be a slight chance of Krill not winning (if there even is one) is if Pingo and Scooter could somehow signal a tech alliance and an embargo, and stick to it.

E.g. Pingo could have simply given SM to Scooter. This is a much better result for Pingo (since it leads to the same situation as now, only Krill doesn't have Rifling). It's also a much better situation for Scooter, again because Krill doesn't have Rifling. But because of no communication, they choose an agreement (letting Rifling go to the leader) that was clearly worse for all parties except Krill.

[slowcheetah]

Which start do people think is the best (both in BFC and strategically)?

From what I remember probably Nazul. They had some pretty nice land, a neighbour eliminated early and lots of land to expand into. Their only real disadvantage was Krill also wanting that land.

Regopin had some pretty nice land too as I recall. But were at a disadvantage strategically being next to a desperate Commodore, with crap land, playing Tokugawa of Zulu in his 'war on everyone' phase. Athough that seems to have al worked out pretty nicely for them.

[Qgqqqqq]

Umm, actually looking at that screenshot, was silver popped?
Can't see any reason not to go 1E otherwise.
Remember those are unirrigated until CS.
Ehh I wouldn't say Nazul, because they had Plako there, and there would be no guarantee of early elimination. If Plako hadn't died early it would've meant AW between the two, probably with Plako slowly (and painfully!) dieing.

Personally I think Pingo's start was the best all-told with nice jungle land, not too close to neighbours, juicy IC TR etc.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I don't think I'd have put my money on Nakor outlasting a trapped Plako, because we've seen what Plako can do when cornered before. Now, if more aggressive Ceilazul had been at the helm it would have been more interesting between them over there. I think if Plako hadn't got kneecapped at the start they may have skirmished a bit and he would have taken to the seas when the land tightened up, and then you may have seen him taking some of the Scooter role in the Pacific snapping up islands left and right. I think in the end the land over there wouldn't have been good enough to support both a viable Plako and Nakor, though, so there may have been a chance of a grinding war like Commodore prosecuted against Cyneheard.

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[Merovech]

Umm, actually looking at that screenshot, was silver popped?

The silver had to be popped; it doesn't normally occur on grassland, even grassland hills.

[Azza]

Which start do people think is the best (both in BFC and strategically)?

From best to worst

Cyneheard and Regocator probably had the best start areas. Cyneheard had 3 corn and decent space to spread into, Regocator had a nice capital in a strategic location.

Nazul had a secure backfill, a decent capital and a decent amount of land to compete for.

Krill had to move a fair way to get a good capital, but he had the best access to the middle of the big continent. I had to go round an inland sea, Regocator and Nazul had to go through jungles, Krill only had desert.

Brick and I had nice BFCs to start with, but the surrounding land was poor or difficult to get to. Commodores immediate area was nice, but not much beyond that.

Dazedscoot and plako just got screwed by the map generator, dazedscoot probably moreso. It's amazing what they've done with it.

[Qgqqqqq]

My real problem with the Nazul start is, of course, Plako.
Xenu, pretty sure in Nazul's thread there was a discussion about how screwed plako would've been for copper/iron/horse, which is why I predicted Nazul eventually kicking them off.

[Azza]

Yeah, having a neighbour so close is why I didn't have him in the top tier. Even with the close neighbour its pretty good.

[spacetyrantxenu]

I'd forgotten Plako's resource situation, but pushing him off the continent would have required a forward attack rather than sim-civ building. I wouldn't see Nakor attacking until he was out of land to expand into. If anything I think Nakor would have ended up settling more of the jungle sooner since he wouldn't have had as much safe backfill land. Not sure if that keeps Krill from getting just as much of the jungle as he really did, probably not. Maybe it would have forced Krill to fight more against Nakor instead of being able to turn his HA stack back toward Azza as soon as he did.

I'm curious to play a game on this map from Plako starting location...did we post a link to this map when the game started? I don't even remember who rolled it now.