[SPOILERS] They're cOMing to taKe mE AWAy! Haha! Hoho.

[Mardoc]

Remember, Mardoc, 'We can wait a while to play, no one's in a rush'. Repeat that often enough and you might even believe it yourself.

[Mardoc]

I, um, I kinda already wrote up a bunch of pregame analysis for this one. The only reason it's not all coming out instantly is the need to find some appropriate pictures to break up the walls of text. And perhaps a desire to provide lurker fodder for the whole period while we're still not yet playing.

[Mardoc]

First up, my goal for this game is self-improvement.

Details...

Mardoc, you're great to have as a teammate.

And now I remember why it is that I've done most of the logistics in games past when we've teamed up together.

That's me in a nutshell. It's also what I aim to change this game.

I've got pretty decent big picture skills, good empire planning, and I'm starting to get the hang of city management. I've got a pretty good feel for what is and isn't possible with an empire. I understand the theory of warfare, too.

But I tend to let the details slide a bit. Workers do whatever's in front of them, cities build whatever I needed 5 turns ago, military wanders in the direction of the enemy and maybe accomplishes something.

In order for me to jump up to the next level, I've got to do this the other way around: start with a basic idea of what my empire is capable of, make plans, and go backwards to the worker moves/builds/etc that I need for said plans. Look at what I'm about to need, and plan to build it, instead of building the stuff and tiles that I just noticed I'm missing. Then follow the microplan. There's a significant difference between a city plopped down, that a few turns later has workers trickle in, and a city plopped already on a road connection, with workers improving its first workable tile immediately, as just one example.

So, that's my main goal for this game: to kick it up a notch. I need to let my other games coast to an end, and not commit to too much more - and use that extra time for careful planning to replace playing by ear. Given this field of contenders, I think that would be a sufficient change to let me be favored to win. But even if I don't, if I can pull off the swap in style, I'll be pleased with my game.

[Mardoc]

Opponent analysis first. I'll revisit this once picks are in, but for now let's discuss the opponents.

Yell0w (Agg, Agg)


Steadily improving, but probably the bottom of the current field.

Yell0w's still got some to learn about basic civ strategy. He tends to plant his cities too far apart, with too much emphasis on 2nd ring that he then can't use for eons. Too much emphasis on how good the city will be in 50 turns, not enough on its value in 10. He doesn't build quite enough workers. And he's a bit too aggressive, at the wrong era for that to be profitable. I expect him to attack someone at the tier 2 era, with axes or horses or some such, before he can really profit from the war. I expect war traits from him, so that attack will be a little small.

He's no noob, of course. He does end up with solid cities eventually, and you certainly can't farmer's gambit around him. Also, if he picks a Creative leader, or one with worker bonuses, that will counteract some of his natural weaknesses.

Still, I expect him to be a kingmaker, to take someone out of the running, but not be in the running himself. Our main goal for diplo with him is to send him elsewhere. Unless we're lucky and he's halfway across the world to begin with .

More meta considerations: Pretty good at PYFT. At diplo, he'll say what he means, and expect you to do the same. Don't expect him to surprise backstab - but if he's not promised you safety, he'll quite likely come. And if he said he was going to attack you unless X - it's not a bluff.

Next up...the backward Charles!

[Mardoc]

Selrahc (Creative, Jaded)


Selrahc's basic problem in competing is that he's played too much FFH. Contradiction? Not really. He knows the really strong strategies, and he's done them enough that he's not really enjoying himself just executing them again, even if he's winning. There's a reason after PBEM 1 he's mainly signed up for the oddball games (and even there, Illians isn't exactly middle of the road). I expect Selrahc to try something off the wall, something different than the standard build/aristofarms/T3 army/kill. It will either work, in which case something will surprise us out of left field, or it will crash and burn and he'll be a decent target. Need to pay close attention here, life gets much better if we figure out what he's doing.

Next up, the game proposer, HK

[Mardoc]

HidingKneel (Careful, Strong)



Slightly better version of me. Strong understanding of the game, decent micro (better than mine, anyway), prefers a builder game. And the 'just one more tech' game, too. Well...I think. He seems to be pretty good at introspection, and although he made the 'one more tech' mistake in 21, he doesn't seem to have made it in 23. Biggest problem with HK is he tends to overestimate his position a tad, and go for easy targets rather than #2. I don't think it's a coincidence that he got dogpiled in both the last two games he was in; he was ahead due to good play (and a little luck), and used that to take out the bottom of the field until the higher ranked players saw the light and did something. I expect HK to take the obvious route with whatever civ he chooses, but execute it well.

He's a bit better at micro than me, but he does tend to react rather than plan (also very similar to me, at least as of now)

HK's the main reason I feel I need to improve my game here. If I stick with my standard game, and he sticks with his, I'll be slightly behind, close enough that neither of us wants to engage. That's a recipe for a late game loss.

What's HK's biggest weakness? He's not willing to accept the casualties required to really go for the jugular against an equal foe. He also seems to underestimate collateral - too focused on high Str.

Next, we'll wrap up the pre-pick opponent analysis with Ellimist

[Mardoc]

Ellimist (Focused, Detailed)



Ellimist makes a very useful teammate. And a very frustrating one. He's pretty much my antithesis: extremely good at the details, a bit lacking on overall strategy. He finds very good micro tricks, ways to optimize worker movement, hammer -> whatever efficiency, fastest wonder time...but while he's focused on efficiently getting X, he perhaps should be aiming for Y instead. Or getting X quickly, regardless of the efficiency hit, because having X sooner is worth it.

Except, of course, when he's efficiently going for exactly what he should be. Then he's freakin' terrifying.

I don't know how much to fear Ellimist here. Either he picks something that's good to optimize, and does awesome, or he picks something that he should have treated as secondary, and he'll underperform.

I think I will bet that he takes Jonas again. He enjoys the efficiency of Warrens a bit too much, in my opinion . He hasn't really run into their downside - first he had too many free huts, then he had teammates.

[Mardoc]

Civ selection criteria:

I've got balancing priorities for this new game. I want to play a civ that's
a) not one I've played before at RB-level
b) Strong enough to compete in this field - I'd rate myself 2nd or 3rd, so I can't afford to handicap myself
c) Interesting mechanics of some sort
d) Does well in a builder game
e) Not banned
That removes an awful lot from my options.

Played before:
a)
Lanun: PBEM3, 16. I like the Lanun, they fit my preferred playstyle...and I need a change. Plus apparently they're banned .
Calabim: PBEM X, PB1, part of a team in PBEM...17, I think, the king of the hill game that died - Vamps and Manors. Simple recipe for fun.
Clan of Embers: PB1, PBEM V. Warrens are fun, Jonas is awesome at buildering, and I think I know the Clan pretty well by now.
Kuriotates: PBEM VI, part of the team in PBEM 21. Additional penalty for not being particularly good at long term builder games.
Sheaim: PBEM 23. Although I think they might also fit under the 'too weak' category. They seem to have so much potential, and that potential never seems to manifest itself. Maybe if they had truly builder traits...
Sidar: PBEM 18. Which was, granted, extremely non-representative. Nonetheless, not going to play them again, at least not this game.
Not going to ban the Elohim for myself, (PB1 Spoiler)

because we're not really using their uniques other than Tolerant, they might as well be a blank slate

Too weak:
b)
Doviello: Not 100% sure they're still too weak - but all their mechanics point toward rushing with melee which is boring, and not good on a builder map. Pass.
Grigori: No religion is a heavy cross to bear. As is, for that matter, getting no particular non-Adventurer bonuses. Adventurers aren't awesome enough to carry a whole civ in my opinion - wouldn't even be awesome enough if religion weren't banned
Khazad: Vaults are painful. No mages is painful. Trebs just aren't enough

c) Interesting mechanics of some sort
Bannor: Crusade is pretty much all they've got. It can work, but it's boring.
Hippus: Strong civ. Strong leaders. Cavalry just isn't that interesting to me, though.

d) Does well in a builder game
Illians: Arc/Cha is fairly strong, except when it means you're half the size of your opponents by the time you touch borders. Priests of Winter are strong, except when they can't arrive before your opponents have counters. Lacking religion and only having one econ trait (and not the strongest of them, either) just will leave them behind, I think.

Amurites: Like the Illians, they've got very nice options for mages, and they need them, because no/few econ traits won't let them compete any other way. On balance I think I'd prefer to be on the other end

That leaves me with these options:
Balseraphs
Elohim
Ljosalfar
Luchuirp
Malakim
Svartalfar

I'll go into detail on how I picked my final ordering...later

[Gaspar]

Pretty hard to argue you haven't played Ljo before, Mardoc.

[Mardoc]

Pretty hard to argue you haven't played Ljo before, Mardoc.

I was but a lowly dedlurker and occasional sub.

And besides, I'm somewhat tempted toward the elf econ again, so logically I must not have played them