[spoilers] Vi Viqsi Veniversum Vivus Vici (or possibly just embarrasses herself)

[Viqsi]

With the first draft pick, the die is cast and we're going for the lake. Two possible settlement spots there, so it's the most flexible.

I didn't get all my thoughts written down for the draft (I was going to yesterday, but got sidetracked), but here's how it goes:

• As hinted earlier, I wanted a Creative leader from the very beginning. It's just the trait I know best.
  
• I was strongly considering either Industrious or Expansive as the other trait. Industrious because I like bringing in quick cheap forges, and Expansive because, well, duh. That latter, though, would be a "go big or go home" - we'd be obliged to race for the lake.
  
• UUs and UBs are something of a secondary consideration for me. Buildings are okay. Units are frequently transitory. Traits are forever. But most importantly, most of our "points" are going to be tied up in our leader traits rather than our civ picks, which means they probably deserve higher consideration.

An ideal, if both came to me, would be Suryavarman II of Carthage. Cheap Cothons can bring in the cashmoney, and I have a better opinion of Numidian Cavalry than most here seem to have. I would have considered the Dutch, but they're too costly since we're going for 6 points instead of 5.

So, when the draft came around...

• Hydra has picked Spain. Aside from the obvious RB1 jokes, they're 0 points, which probably means they want to "go big" with a leader. Also, it suggests that their opening strategy is going to also involve a lake and work boat (assuming starts are similar), AND they'll be pursuing a religion out of the gate for happy.
  
• Fintourist picked Hannibal. Financial/Charismatic is bloody expensive - 4 points, which means they've got 1 to spare for their civ (so again if the starts are similar, that means he wants Agriculture for some wet food).

Under the circumstances, a very nice "go big" leader pick for Hydra would be... Sury! On further review, there's plenty of Mining/Fishing civs for me to pick that are damn good - England (aping the Vets draft! ) and Rome, and Portugal would be a decent consolation prize if necessary if we really are all that water-focused.

So I went and grabbed Sury before he potentially became unavailable. There's five picks in between (EDIT: one of which has to be a leader), so I'm likely to get at least *some*thing good to work with him.

Am I being crazy? Probably. But we'll find out.

[Commodore]

Heh, I would never, ever, ever call picking Sury crazy, he's truly excellent. Numidians are basically the best UU ever, in my experience, but I think you'll be happy with any of the four remaining Fishing/Mining civs, really.

[kjn]

To add on what Commodore said, I think Sury is about the only non-FIN leader that regularly gets banned in games here.

That said, his advantages are very much tied to the land grab and early development.

[Bigger]

Yeah, I'm thinking the first part of that subject line might be just a teensy tiny bit overambitious.

Viqsi: I've got a really great compliment for you, and it's true.

Realms Beyond: We're so afraid you're about to say something stupid.

Viqsi: Don't be unwelcoming, it's not your style. Okay, here I go. I've got this, what - aversion? My dedlurker, one of those pros whose reports I read, he says that in fifty or sixty percent of the cases, opening micro really helps. I hate opening micro. Very tedious thing, opening micro. Hate. I'm using the word "hate" here, about opening micro. Hate. My compliment is, that night when you came over and told me that I could be in... all right, well, y'all were there, you know what was said. Well, my compliment to y'all is, the next evening, I started practicing opening micro.

Realms Beyond: We don't quite get how that's a compliment for us.

Viqsi: Y'all make me want to be a better Civ player.

hah, that is an awesome opening post . Great movie.

[Viqsi]

Two more draft picks, moar thoughts.

• Azza has taken Victoria. Our first Another Financial leader! I can only assume that early land grabs (from cheap Imperialistic settlers) are also part of the plan. There's also room left for an Agricultural civ, but I'm not sure if that's as big a consideration here. Given the early boosts Financial can give to water tiles, tho, I wouldn't be shocked if his followup pick is one of the Fish/Agri civs. One (the Dutch) are out due to cost, but the other two (America and Native America) both have their possibilities. (I was at one point contemplating an American strategy because I've always wanted to use Navy SEALs in an engagement, but kind of discarded that early on.)
  
• Sareln takes Rome. There goes one of my backup plans. That may also be why this civ was picked; he may have been concerned that Rome was my preferred selection and wanted to get it before he lost it, on the same basis under which I picked Sury. Then again, I may be assigning more importance to myself than is necessarily the case. In any case, he's also able to "go big" with his leader pick.

So, now that we have two folks who are looking at high-draft-point-cost leader picks, I opted to glance at how many are available. The answer? Lots.

• Elizabeth (FIN/PHI)
  
• Bismarck (EXP/IND)
  
• Isabella (EXP/SPI)
  
• Zara Yaqob (ORG/CRE)
  
• FDR (ORG/IND)
  
• Asoka (ORG/SPI)

Those are just the five-pointers - there's plenty of nice four-point combos left too. In particular, I figure Sareln might also consider Ragnar (FIN/AGR) because of that whole "aggressive Praetorians" thing. In such a case, I'd much like to have different neighbors.

So who's taking what? No clue. I know I would prioritize Zara, but that's because of my addiction to Creative - he was more or less my #2 guy. I can't really properly evaluate the Spiritual trait; no anarchy is kinda nifty and I have seen demonstrations of its awesomeness but it still just doesn't "click" with me. Alas.


EDIT: omfg I am a scatterbrained idiot
EDIT 2: I kept getting Sareln's nick misspelled early on and it's been bothering me all this time so I went and fixed it.

[Viqsi]

Bonus! Some random research plotting (that I was writing before those draft picks came up), because I seriously have never done this before. "Plan ahead? This is a GAME! Planning ahead is work!"

So! Out of the gate, we will undoubtedly have Fishing and Mining one way or the other, based on The Plan™.

Short-term research priorities, in priority order - all worker techs:

• Bronze Working: Whips and chops! Attempts will be made to use them. Said attempts will make micro fiends either die laughing or lose eyes to excessive rolling, I am quite sure.
  
• Animal Husbandry: All settlement plans include the hill sheep. We want the hill sheep.
  
• The Wheel: to hook 'em all up, and also to get...
  
• Pottery: get those quick Granaries into play, and some cottages too.

After that it gets all vague for me. Although Agriculture will want to be soon, if not earlier than listed here.

Rough ideas on mid-term research priorities, in cost order:

• Writing: to get our Libraries into play, and maybe by then we can do Open Borders with someone and make all friendly like. Depends on the state of the empire. Might be a good follow-up idea as well if we find a need to hop to Agriculture for other cities since this can be done relatively quickly compared to the others.
  
• Monarchy beeline: On the wild theory that I can overuse Hereditary Rule to confront happy problems, despite the number of times I've screwed that up in games. Probably via Meditation->Priesthood, as that would also help open up Code of Laws in case we find ourselves needing a faith. (I harbor no illusions about my "ability" to pick up an early religion. I think I managed it once in, like, the very first game I ever played or close to it...)
  
• Code of Laws beeline: See above re: happy. Caste System might also make for an interesting experiment, as I don't think I've ever tried using it before but I have toyed around with specialist and hybrid economies before. (SMAC(X) gave me an addiction to RUSHING EVERYTHING and so I tend to stay in Slavery far, far longer than is probably reasonable.)
  
• Beeline for our UUs - if we're Carthage or Rome, this becomes a possibility. Depends on what civ we become, and also how quickly we find Horses/Iron/Whatever and/or how close we are to "friends".

Subject to revision as events warrant. If I find three wet Corn tiles just outside the fog, for example, Agriculture will probably become a higher priority.

[Viqsi]

Moar drafting!

• Fintourist grabs the Ottomans to go with Hannibal. Innnteresting. Shows a major focus on happiness as a concern. The granarieshammams aren't low-cost, but they're still awesome. And of course janissaries are scary. I haven't done the math, but I believe Charismatic XP reduction gets them the opportunity to squeeze another promotion in if they're doing something like building with Barracks/Vassalage/Theocracy. Suddenly I'm starting to wonder. Or possibly worry.
  
• Hydra picks Asoka to go with Spain, having indeed "gone big" as thought. Organized probably has awesome potential here, but, as I'd said before, I dunno what value should be placed on Spiritual.

And I get Carthage! Happy viqsi is happy.

[Viqsi]

Final draft picks:

• Azza picks England to go along with Victoria. How apropos. So Financial really was the primary driver of that decision, and he's also definitely going for a water start and hoping to be a later game terror. I'm finding myself wondering why he picked Vicky, though. Fast settlers are kinda neat, but I would have thought Elizabeth would be a better choice. But, meh. I'm still new at this.
  
• Sareln takes Bismarck to go along with Rome, becoming our only Industrious leader. No synergy elements that I can see, but having a head start on wonders against everybody is likely to be a nice ace in the hole.

Also, in hindsight, even after writing reviews saying otherwise somehow I thought of Hannibal as Charismatic/Expansive, which led me to declare Vicky as our "first Financial leader". He's Charismatic/Financial. More reasons why I refer to myself as a very casual player - I have a memory like a something or rather wait what was I talking about again?

Interesting note: Only one player grabbed an Agricultural civ: Fintourist with the Ottomans. (And that was probably more for the UU & UB.) Apparently that "focus on naval strategy" bit caught everybody's attention; there's almost no landlubbers here.

So. Game startin' soon. Now taking bets on how quickly it takes for me to screw up again and notice doing so.


EDIT: As previously noted, I kept getting Sareln's nick misspelled and it's been bothering me all this time so I went and fixed it everywhere. And no, that doesn't count as the next screwup; that was noted in post #23.

[Viqsi]

So! T0! Moved scout, and... lots of greenery and forestry, but no other goodies. Making it a much harder call for me.

So, after moving my settler partwayin the proper direction, and then some agonizing and lots and lots and lots and lots of second-guessing, I opted for the following short-term plan:

• Settle on the forest hill tile T1 (whereupon we'll start on a work boat).
  
• Send scout around south to look for a second city site around the rice.

Not settling on the first turn makes me go all , but, well, this is kind of an experiment. Let's be experimental.

[Viqsi]

T1: Gosh, they seem to really like wet rice in these here parts.

Oh, and first city of Myst founded. And ALREADY I'm second-guessing myself, thinking "y'know, the forested hill tile I founded on would have gotten a Work Boat out quicker if I'd worked it instead of settling it."
Then again, I know I'm not the only one who moved on the first turn - based on the score, Sareln did something similar. So at least I'm potentially not alone on that score. :D

Would be nice if there's more seafood goodness to be found to the south.


EDIT: Blah blah mispelled Sareln's nickname blah bothered blah obsessive blah fixed.