[SPOILERS] The Return of the Angel King

[Jowy]

Emperor AI is no match either. 10 numidian cavalry, 5 turns, one empire conquered.
Had 66% odds against archers in the holy city.



This kills the economy.

[Jowy]

"Barry Lyndon" is probably Xenu.
EDIT: Oh Xenu is playing, he just didn't have a thread.

[Jowy]

Okay I got to the good bits in Commodore's PB13 thread. I think his ways definitely reinforce the idea of just using the numidian cavalry as a defensive resource. With Combat II and Shock they'd be 8.7 strength attacking out against melee units. What I could do is delay getting longbows and maces and instead keep up defenses with numidian cavalry and catapults and go for economy techs with the saved beakers. And if I do happen to start next to a huge farmer, I could still use my units opportunistically if it's too juicy to pass up. I'll run another test game and try to bait the AI to attack me with maces or muskets, to see how well I can defend. The results from testing are probably more useful when it's about defending rather than attacking.. Human players, especially in a PB setting, wouldn't be taken by surprise like the AI.

Oh, and I learned this map will have FOOD in it

[Jowy]

It's happening!!! Tough choices right away. Which way to scout?! North: Chance for more sea food. But we'd be moving away from a plains hill, and replacing grassland river tiles with water tiles. Screw the north. West? Peak, jungles, plains, an island.. and moves away from both visible resources. Nope. South? Moving in-land is a possibility, but the forests in the south will block our vision and we won't learn much new by moving the scout south. We also start with Fishing and Mining, no land food techs, which does make a coastal start with WB first seem like the way to go, despite my deep hatred for clams. How about moving east? If we move with the settler, we would give up the sheep, but could still keep the clams. Moving the scout on the plains hill will reveal a lot of terrain. And it's a plains hill, we could even settle on it if we find some better foods around it that wouldn't be in reach of a coastal city. If we find nothing, then settle in place and hope that others have shit capitals too

I moved the scout to the plains hill.

[Jowy]

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.

Sometimes it pays off to be lazy Almost started building a 124x124 earlier today. It might actually be a good idea to leave it to the next turn. There's a tribal village on a plains forest 2E of the scout. A tech pop could immediately change plans. I'm planning to settle 1W of the corn. Six hills and four food resources should make it a strong production city.

[Jowy]

[Jowy]

So far almost everyone has settled on T0. Considering what a huge deal was made out of Gavagai having an extra food resource in PB16, it should be safe to assume that everyone had a similar starting location. There's a big difference between Gold/Corn/Deer/2xClam and Sheep/2xClam. By moving I might have gained a much-needed advantage over the others. Or Commodore is cruel and they just got an awesome capital without moving

[Jowy]

Turn rolled and I popped the hut. Got a map. However, for once, the map was very informative! Check this out:



Got a better idea of the map, located two more huts, and uncovered a corn that will affect my city placement. I will create a sandbox and check whether 1N or 1S is stronger. I'm thinking 1S before testing. I'd trade two clams for one corn, but it would be handy to have two agriculture resources for my non-food-tech start, and I wouldn't need to build WB's to get the food tiles working. City placement past the first city would also be much less awkward with 1S capital. And I get to work a 3F 1H tile from the beginning!

[Jowy]

Couldn't get the correct dimensions because novice's map editing tool doesn't work on my computer or is otherwise bugged. I did still make one with default dimensions and ran it, should be accurate enough to compare the two capital locations. South turned out way better, so that's what I'll do. Going with agriculture and worker first. Got some choices after that. Could go with BW and start chopping earlier, or go AH before that for the deer improvement. Also worth considering whether I want a second worker before the first settler. I will look into it

[Jowy]

Now that I've seen what kind of a map it is, let's talk more about my pick. First off, the dimensions are smaller than everyone expected for a 34 player game. Judging by what the map pop revealed, there is a lot of water on this map. It will be extremely close quarters I think. Being aggressive and having numidian cavalry should come handy as we fight for land. This being a water map, Cothons might prove to be very valuable. I haven't talked much about Philosophical. It's another trait that was buffed in the mod. My start is very high on food, so I will have a chance to make use of specialists. Problem is that I don't know what's the best way to use them. These kind of things are why I asked for a ded lurker, because burning a Great Scientist on the wrong thing can be a big mistake, but the right play is probably obvious to those who are experienced. Though I can do one thing if someone's lurking: Can someone link me to a good RB game thread with a high food start and specialist use? :P

Right now I'm just planning to run some scientists at some point after building a Library. Possibly in two cities, because both the capital and the city north will have a lot of food, but the happy cap can only be so high. I should make sure to whip both cities every 10 turns, they can grow back quickly. An idea I have for a Great Scientist is a Philosophy bulb. Pacifism is nice, I already have one boost to GP rate from PHI, and I'm bound to go hardcore for specialists with this start. The religion would be very welcome in a big game like this. A shrine can make me a ton on of money, and people will likely be spreading the religion by themselves because only a few can have their own holy city. I'll probably end up with a Great Scientist before I have the techs needed for a bulb, and with that one I THINK I should settle it or build an academy, and just wait for the next one for the bulb. Golden age I reckon should be initiated a bit later in the game.