[LURKERS] Mr. Gradgrind's Review

[Bobchillingworth]

A real man would have placed a barbarian submarine.

[GermanJoey]

Brennus of the Vikings has got to be a miss. Genghis seemed nice too.

In the pre-game setup, Brick asked me what my thoughts were on his leaders and those were two of my top 5. I think I rated Brennus of Vikings as my 3rd most favorite (after Ghandi of Khmer and the since-removed Sulieman) with my only comment on him being "this is gonna make someone cry, mark my words." Genghis of America is legit too... it's gonna be a long while before Marines come out, that's true, but the one thing I kept wishing every turn in the PB22 late game was that every other tank I had was a marine instead. Add in march, C1, and 2 free strikes? That unit woulda been such a big deal when it finally arrived.

That said, I thought the combo choices were really well designed, as there's something to like about every single one. I think how well a particular combo will gel with a player's playstyle will be a bigger deal then how strong they might be on paper, which is pretty cool. How that ties in with the the first 20 turns of this game will be super interesting to follow. Compared to an ancient-era game, where you're mostly concerned about early micro at T0, players will have to think very hard about what their overall strategy will be right from the get go. For example, they've already got to choose which of 4 huge growth/military tech paths they'll go for:

• SciMeth -> Biology (+1 food for Farms) -> Medicine (Sid's Sushi)
  
• SciMeth -> Communism (SP, Kremlin, Free Spy)
  
• Steel -> Railroads (Drydocks, Railroads, Mining Inc, Machine Guns)
  
• Steam Power -> Assembly Line (faster workers, Levees, Factories, Coal Plants, Infantry)
  

I have no idea what will be best here... my gut says that either the Communism or the AL routes are probably strongest? I think I personally would prefer chasing Communism if I was sure that would lock the spy, as then that would give you something to save for a GA while spending your first GE on the Kremlin, if you wanted. (IMHO whipping is entirely feasible with +100% production, the Kremlin bonus, and discounted units), or on one of the big National Wonders. (Oxford, West Point, etc) Or maybe the Taj, or whatever! The worker boost from Steam Power and fast factories can not be underestimated though, especially for an Org civ. Then again, getting a lock on one of the corps would be pretty nice too though, especially if you can plan for it from T0, as that would be a specific advantage others could not replicate...

[BRickAstley]

So many options! :D And it doesn't feel like anyone is going with a corp from the start, so I don't know if we'll get to see if heading straight for a corp is quite as effective.

[Miguelito]

How does the map look like wrt corps resources? Several players have expressed that they don't believe in corps being worthwhile because you'd need a dumb AI to trade with... But maybe you took that factor into account when placing resources?

[BRickAstley]

Minor mistake, I had aimed to not have the SE horse and corn both grabbable by the same city, which I clearly messed up on for CH'DZ. I think that's not so bad a mess up so far though.

[Miguelito]

REM got me thinking, could lumbermills be worthwhile in this game, I.e. could it help to spare forests for health when factories and coal plants are so close, plus you're not getting all that far with chops anyway?

[Bobchillingworth]

Mackoti does display an almost supernatural "game sense", but for all of Gaspar's persistent accusations, has there ever been any evidence that Mack actually cheats at Civ? I'm pretty sure he's managed the same dominating performance in multiple games where his foes reported sparsely or not at all. It's not particularly cool in my opinion to go around alleging that your competition breaks core rules of the site.

[Commodore]

Hard to say. Back in the ancient days of PBEM 24 Gaspar and I both started getting irritatingly scooped by Mack by a half-turn on a bunch of wonders, Mack even whipping his capital for the Pyramids. I quietly shut up with reporting wonder plans and landed the GLH. I broke down the math on a cultural victory and Mack broke NAP to end me (rotten, but not cheating itself of course). On the other hand, the dude's shown his work on C&D and reading lurker/spoiler thread activity levels, so it's very plausibly just that. So... I just assume everything I post and everything I don't post are known by Mack.

On the gripping hand Mackoti is a big boy and the constant aspersions are pretty funny.

[Bobchillingworth]

On the gripping hand Mackoti is a big boy and the constant aspersions are pretty funny.

I am well aware that I have zero standing to preach about internet etiquette, but I see accusations of cheating on a gaming forum as being akin to charging a spouse with infidelity or an employer with discrimination- something far too serious in the given scenario to treat casually. Like, if Mackoti has actually built his reputation on a foundation of subversion, then I don't want him being a part of the site.


If Gaspar is genuinely worried that Mackoti will dive into spoiler threads, then there are tools he and/or and admin can employ as countermeasures. I don't see what purpose his current complaints serve, save to preemptively color the achievements of the team he sees as his top competition, in the eyes of the lurkers.

[BRickAstley]

Turn 252 - 1710 AD

This is actually the exact spot that the map script I used placed the initial settlers. You'll probably see why I moved them as exploring progresses.