![[Image: lazy-cat.jpg]](http://ilikewhatihear.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/lazy-cat.jpg)
|
[SPOILER] The Steak, Beer, and Cigar Saloon
|
|
December 11th, 2013, 16:14
(This post was last modified: July 15th, 2014, 05:11 by spacetyrantxenu.)
Yep, that's pretty much my game plan. I'll be playing to win (not going to screw around completely aimlessly), but this will be a very lazy game for me. Micro will be minimal, gambles will be cautious, plans will be simple.
On a more serious note, I hope to run a balanced game plan: 1) Clear economic focus throughout the game 2) Satisfactory land grab without provoking anyone majorly, no pink dotting 3) Remembering to not run a farmer's gambit, making sure to avoid inviting anyone to my lands 4) Probably going to ignore wonder and religion races 5) Making sure to keep a close eye on my opponents, especially my neighbours I think I can abide by all of those points while playing lazily, and if so I think I'll do okay. FIN/PHI should support that plan just fine, it's a strong economic combo that's easy to play. Not going to bother with any kind of specialist economy, just going to devote a city to cranking out great people and run a cottage economy. I have no idea which civilizations will be available to me, but I'm not picky. Reporting will be sparse, but I hope to keep up frequent reporting to give lurkers a better idea of what's going on in the game.  Played: Pitboss 18 - Kublai Khan of Germany Somalia | Pitboss 11 - De Gaulle of Byzantium | Pitboss 8 - Churchill of Portugal | PB7 - Mao of Native America | PBEM29 Greens - Mao of Babylon
A quick look at the start suggests an easy decision to settle on the PH spot, a very nice spot indeed. This will be an excellent capital, has everything I need:
11x forest 8x river grassland + 4x non-river grassland 2x river grassland hill 2x 5-food tile The two food resources are also perfectly situated to share with expansions. Going to move my scout down to the deer, looks like I'll get extra vision from a water tile SE of it. Then moving somewhere east the next turn, investigating potential expansion sites before heading out further. My first warrior will likely check out the NW surroundings a little.
China, Mali, Persia and Rome have been chosen. Furungy is Ragnar of Rome, I <3 him for that already. I had a lot of fun with that combo in PBEM37, especially since everybody feared my awesome Praetorians without them ever really seeing any use.
My short list of civilizations to choose from: Egypt England Ottomans France Sumeria Babylon There are 3 players ahead of me, and I expect at least Egypt and England to be gone. I'm happy with either Ottomans or France, so this leaves me with a very solid pick for a 12-player game.
For my own benefit mostly:
Zanth - Darius I of Babylon FIN/ORG Bowman (Archer with +50% vs melee) Garden (Colosseum with +2 health) Agriculture + Wheel flugauto - Mansa Musa of Ottomans FIN/SPI Janissary (Musketman with +25% vs all but gunpowder) Hammam (Aqueduct with +2 happy) Agriculture + Wheel Jowy - Huayna Capac of Zulu FIN/IND Impi (Spearman with 2 moves and -1 terrain movement cost) Ikhanda (Barracks costing 20% more with -20% upkeep) Agriculture + Hunting yuris125 - Suryavarman II of France EXP/CRE Musketeer (Musketman with 2 moves) Salon (Observatory with an artist in it) Agriculture + Wheel Catwalk - Elizabeth of England FIN/PHI Redcoat (Rifleman with +25% vs gunpowder units) Stock Exchange (Bank with +15% gold) Fishing + Mining BaII - Victoria of Sumeria FIN/IMP Vulture (Strength 6 axeman, only +25% vs melee) Ziggurat (Cheap Courthouse available with Priesthood) Agriculture + Wheel Sian - Mehmed II of Egypt EXP/ORG War Chariot (Strength 5 chariot, immune to first strike) Obelisk (Monument with 2 priest slots) Agriculture + Wheel Slowcheetah - Isabella of Netherlands EXP/SPI East Indiaman (Galleon with +2 strength and +1 cargo, can enter rival territory without open borders) Dike (Levee with +1 hammer on ocean tiles) Agriculture + Fishing Furungy - Ragnar of Rome FIN/AGG Praetorians (Expensive swordsman with +2 strength) Forum (Market with +25% GPP) Fishing + Mining Azza - Louis of China CRE/IND Cho-Ku-Nu (Crossbowman with collateral damage) Pavillion (Theatre with +25% culture) Agriculture + Mining Nakor - Bismarck of Persia EXP/IND Immortal (Chariot with defense bonuses and +50% vs archers) Apothecary (Grocer with +2 health) Agriculture + Hunting 2metraninja - Rameses II of Mali SPI/IND Skirmisher (Archer with +1 strength and 0-1 extra first strikes) Mint (Forge with +10% income) Mining + Wheel
Quick comments on picks so far:
It's unsurprising that the FIN leaders went first, the order in which they went was also fairly predictable. I'm quite happy to get Elizabeth with 5th pick. It is slightly surprising that 4 players took IND, it will definitely be difficult to land wonders in this game. The flip side of that is that failgold is a guaranteed investment, so if I hook up some marble and stone I might as well go for a bunch of wonders anywhere I can spare hammers. I'm a bit surprised with the civ picks so far. Persia in particular strikes me as a blunder, I don't see anything useful about them. Mali and China are standard picks, but passing up on both Egypt, England and Ottomans? Rome makes sense with Ragnar, I'm guessing Furungy will try the same strategy I did last game (expanding in peace, relying on intimidation factor to deter attacks). Still, AGG works fine with both Ottomans and England as well since gunpowder units get the AGG bonus too. I found Iron Working to be a stretch tech wise, forcing me to derail my tech plans in order to access the Roman powerhouse. And as I posted this, slowcheetah went ahead and picked Netherlands. Usually not seen as a strong pick, unless navy plays a significant role. It's not weak, but I'm surprised he picked it over my top 3 above. Sian then picked Egypt, fairly unsurprising. That leaves me with either England or Ottomans, I'm hoping for England as Red Coats seem to come at a very nice time for some territorial expansion. 3 out of 4 civs picked so far have Mining. Would they do so without any minerals in their starting screenshot? I have no idea how strong these players are, I don't know most of them and I don't know much of anything anyway around here anyway  Very rough idea for strength rating:1. slowcheetah 2. Sian 3. 2metraninja 4. yuris125 5. Azza Absolutely no idea about: Nakor, furungy, zanth, BaII, Jowy, flugauto I'm not going to rate myself either, I think I was getting decent back when I played and able to go up against all of these players with decent chances of winning. Now I'm probably somewhere in the bottom half, hopefully a bunch of these are newbies so I'll look good in comparison
I'll go ahead and pick England, provided it's available. If BaII takes England, I'm really not sure if my pick should be Ottomans or France.
Ottomans Hammam: Health is not likely to be any use for a long time, so effectively I get to build a +2 happy building for 100 hammers (normal speed). How good that is depends heavily on how many luxury resources are available. I highly doubt they'll be scarce, but if they are this could be very useful. Value: 2/5 Janissary: I'm not sold on it. Unless I plan on going on the offense against a weaker opponent fairly early on (I'll probably be too lazy for that), I think these will be up against musketeers and knights, not doing amazingly against either one. Value 2/5 France Salon: Observatories aren't terrible if I need Astronomy, but adding a free artist to each one is all but useless. I probably don't want to generate artists, and it's risky to pollute my pool with artist points. Value 1/5 Musketeer: I like musketeers. It's great to be able to move my defense where I need it, and it's also highly useful for harassment operations. Value 3/5 England Stock Exchange: It gets a substantial bonus to an already useful building, what's not to like about it? It comes late, but not too late to matter. I plan on staying in this game for a long time, and I expect the game to remain open for competition for a long time. Value 3/5 Red Coat: Also comes late, but it's highly potent against other units of its era, at a highly opportune time for warfare. Good land will be very scarce at this point, so the opportunity cost of conquest attempts will be lower. Value 4/5 I really want England... Come on BaII, pick Korea! |
