[SPOILERS!] I am Molach. This is my thread. Kublai Khan of Rome

[Molach]

This is my Civ.
There are many others like it, but this one is mine.
My Civ is my best friend.
It is my life.
I must master it as I must master my life
Without me, my Civ is useless.
Without my civ, I am useless.
I must micro better than my enemy, who is trying to conquer me.
I must DoW him before he DoWs me.
I will.
Before God I swear this creed: my riflemen and myself are defenders of my civ, we are the masters of our enemy, we are the saviors of my life.
So be it, until there is no enemy, but conquest victory.
Amen.

[Molach]

Reserved for Battle plan.

Tentative battle plan:
Beeline iron working, kill one and a half civ, then get crippled by unit costs and city upkeep and eventually die a slow agonizing death to riflemen

Battle plan mk 2:
Beeline pottery and writing, build the best Civ that has ever been, using the threat of praetorians to settle aggressively and creatively

[Ichabod]

Ded-lurking.

Praetorians! Agressive!

[Molach]

Hey, welcome!

I mean to roleplay, or mimic, Kublai Khan. I shall be aggressive, but be creative about it so as to not cause hard feelings.
However has anyone really won with Praetorians in a game? Migth need a link to someone who did. I know Azza seems to have a thing about them not really working....Whosit from PB 2 ultimately crippled himself after a neighbourly rush...

I think, rush to IW and you don't really have the techs to support a growing empire with mounting unit costs, don't rush to IW and you're too late to really profit from them. I shall see. And perhaps I've been compensated for a warmonger's dream Civ/Leader by not having Iron easily accessible - mapmaker's gotta know that giving rome easy iron means closest neighbour might as well sign up for the next PB game if Rome so decrees...

Hopefully map lets me start with BW, and then I pop IW from a hut turn 15.

[Ichabod]

Agressive makes a big differnce for Praetorians. Remember, this was a random leader distribution, so you are not giving away economic power combos for an agressive Rome, which was the case for PB 2. Of course, you don't do early war just for the sake of it. You do it to secure a lot of land to settle later.

PB 8 Spoiler:

Just look at how great is Commodore civ after that early war. Early war can be powerufl in the right settings.

[Commodore]

Here's your start, anything might change, etc, etc.

[Lewwyn]

Looking forward to seeing you play Molach.

[Ichabod]

Is that a desert tile?!?!? (No, I think it's a fp, but it seems like a desert).

That's certainly not an appropriate full praet rush start. But full praet rushes aren't good anyway. 1SE, 1S seems like a resource too.

[Qgqqqqq]

Looks like simple desert to me.

[Molach]

Looks like desert, but the screenshot says 'flood plains'....hoping for flood. A natural start shouldn't have desert in bfc, should it?

If so theres enough food, and good production. But where is my commerce?