Difficulty: Monarch
Speed: Normal
Vassals: off
TT: off
Huts: on
Events: on
Barbs: on
Espionage: on
Diplo: AI-diplo
Double moves: Don't be a jerk. Peace time or when you're not planning to start war play as soon as it is possible and most times no need to be taking into account potential double moves. During war preparation turn and war times double moves are not allowed.
Other:
* No city gifting or trading
* No using trade window to communicate (e.g. using letters or numbers in a way that could be interpreted something else than a real trade offer)
Montezuma (SPI/AGG) of Japan (Fishing/The Wheel | Samurai(Maceman)/Pagoda(Observatory))
Spiritual: No change from BtS ( No anarchy. Double production speed of Temples and the Cristo Redentor wonder. ) Aggressive: Free C1 promo for melee and gunpowder units. -25% city maintenance [Not shown in trait description. Bonus not shown in interface. Bonus is multiplicative with other maintenance modifiers. Final displayed city maintenance value is correct and includes this bonus.] +100% production of Barracks, Stable, Drydock.
I'm OK with Monte and RBmodified Aggressive. Maintenance reduction is a huge benefit for AGG, in addition to the culture provided by barracks. RBmod Spiritual is Spiritual which is always fun. I'm very happy with the leader draw.
Of course, the world is not a perfect place for Spiritual Aggression and I drew Japan. The starting techs leave much to be desired. I am two techs from any strategic resource tech. Barring a very seafood-heavy coastal start, I'll have to research at least one food tech. Workboat construction can be slow, especially without a bonus, even if I do get that start. I'd hope to have at least one fish as opposed to clams and crabs.
Pagodas are an observatory replacement that adds +10% hammers. Not a great UB. Aggressive Samurais may delight, but I think their value is somewhat illusory. I'll have with C1 D1 Samurai, meaning 2-3 first strikes; obviously much better than a regular maceman. Of course, you want to build Knights in the medieval period for their mobility and flexibility. Knights treat an Aggressive Samurai as an Aggressive Maceman as they avoid first strikes. It is highly likely that I will have barracks built in many cities and with spiritual, may be able to facilitate Theo/Vassalage swaps for +5xp. While I may be able to take formation on these Samurai with greater ease, that's not that strong of an option ahead of pikes or even spears.
Not much synergy between civ and leader. I will likely not be able to leverage Spiritual early without a lucky, external religion spread as I'll need to research towards BW and AH. Aiming for a religion in this game is a huge crapshoot with 33 players as it is. Slow start with probable need to research at least one, if not two, food techs.
I would lean towards a reroll, but the presumptive reroll pool looks scary. I don't think there will be many rerolls. Ranked in order of most likely to reroll first:
27. Hashoosh Stalin/Inca - Inca has terraces, but I'd take another spin on AGG/IND in a 33 player game, even if there are only 5 IND players. Leery of Mysticism start.
23. Jowy Alexander/Carthage - I have an inherent bias against PHI since I am terrible leveraging it, +150% hasn't quite factored in for me. Prefer Mining over TW plus decent UB and C1 HAs!
30. Whosit Sulieman America(F YEAH) - See PHI bias. OK techs, bad UB, marginal UU.
1. Krill + Novice Lincoln/Mongolia - See bias against PHI, but CHM and love of mobility HAs leads me to believe they'll keep.
Significantly less likely to reroll:
24. Barry Lyndon Hatsheput/Celts - Good leader, Mysticism plus meh UU/UB. I think I'd still prefer CRE over AGG, but this is close to my pairing.
16. Molach Genghis Khan/Portugal - I'd prefer mining over TW and AGG/IMP is improved. Definite synergy with IMP and 60h Feitoria, if you can last 200 turns. I'd be tempted to reroll this on first impression, but wavering now. Including it here anyway.
31. WilliamLP Sitting Bull/Byzantium - I think I would keep this, but after more thought, Myst/Fish is a huge starting hurdle. Not to mention PHI.
5. BRickAstley + Mardoc Wang Kon/Spain - FIN/PRO nice, but Spain not so much. May be the only starting techs worse than mine. No bonus for Citadels, which could have been fun. Too risky to throw back nerfed FIN and buffed PRO.
There's a few civs which are better (Carthage, Inca) and the rest which may not be much better, between Fishing/Mysticism. I really don't want to play PHI.
With standard wetbandit daftness, I neglected to consider the plethora of unchosen leaders. Presumably, these are all still eligible in reroll-land:
FDR (IND/ORG)
Hammurabi (AGG/ORG)
Justinian (SPI/IMP)
Hannibal (FIN/CHM)
Boudica (AGG/CHM)
Ramesses II (SPI/IND)
Zara Yaqob (CRE/ORG)
Napoleon (CHM/ORG)
Asoka (SPI/ORG)
Sury II (CRE/EXP)
Pacal (FIN/EXP)
Cyrus (IMP/CHM)
Julius (IMP/ORG)
Augustus (IND/IMP)
Isabella (SPI/EXP)
Gilgamesh (PRO/CRE)
*Frederick (PHI/ORG) - I think Sullla is stuck with Freddy/India
There are some appealing choices here. I'm more confident in letting Monte go, since there are far more options than I had considered previously.
This is...micro-plan intensive. I'm going to move the scout south to a southern hill, as that's the only place I would contemplate moving, if at all. I'd need something pretty amazing down there, like the Wheel of Fish!
The disappointing part so far is that there are no 3-hammer tiles in view. I'm holding out hope for the fogged tile 2N1E, but that looks like grassland. I don't know how great a 7T WB build will be compared to a regular old 12T worker. Even then, it's unclear whether a 6T WB would be superior. It looks like techpath will be Hunting-Mining-BW regardless of worker or wb first.
(March 12th, 2014, 13:58)Commodore Wrote: By the way, going by the settings from first post, and also my mention of the different starts for the "we want tight!" set, this is a 60x124 cylinder. It'd considerably more roomy than, say, PB15 for you "normal" people and every single land tile is going to be eligible for being in city borders. I know the tile amounts look scary, but don't worry folks.
![[Image: hall_lmad.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/171749865/PB18/hall_lmad.jpg)
