Dare you enter the Whizzard's Realm? Magic and Mysteries abide.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I don't want to lead your picking too much, so I won't post suggestions until you've had some thoughts. I have realised though without chem or rep parts at the start then there are a lot less useful tile improvements open to you. Either it's keeping in slavery for a while until the workshop econ picks up and is viable, or getting a few cottage cities. At 6th though you get to synergise the pick at least!


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[Nicolae Carpathia]

Well I've not thought that much, so post away!

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Ok then.

There are a few traits that stand out here IMO.

Imp - more settlers, and longer to hammer bonuses. 6-3 whips with the free grans and forges and extremely efficient in covering the map. The GG points are a nice icing. Claim more than your fair share.

Spi - bounce around the civics, lots of viable choices here and access to your given religion early.

Org - fire and forget simplicity of cost reduction. Courthouses will be big here I guess, depends on the world wrap though. Slightly cheaper sets and factories come very quickly with this.

Philo - the GP push. However, less immediately useful on this setup. Taj does need to be researched first and most will get a rep GP before nationalism so this will likely go to that player. Then to get lib undiluted sci points for a couple of bulbs will be awkward. Very useful though.

Agg - I love this, will make others wary though.

Fin - I think is better still than most. Make a load of water mills/windmills and boost the early cottage cities. I think the fun player might be able to nick taj being the earliest faster techer.

Exp... The 25% isn't enough at this stage IMO. The grans are already gone too.

Chm - unconvinced

Pro/ind/cre I wouldn't bother with these, far outclipsed.

So thoughts - nothing beats the simplicity of my lovely imp/org. If you can't commit hugely to this then this is the power combo with little time investment needed.

Spi/imp I think is probably the best, but I reckon will go early.

Phi/spi has been shown to be powerful. Requires much planning.

If you want to synergise... Standard choices. Korea and philo? Org/aztec could be nice. Agg/Zulu could help a lot.

Early rushing - Byzantium or France. Arabia might be useful here with knights pre resources although neighbours will be on high alert there obviously as it screams this. Ottomans will punish anyone that don't go for gunpowder first, which will be anyone not wanting to rush. Oromos get good with increased stack sizes, not convinced here.


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[El Grillo]

Rushing will be a lot harder without immediate access to galleons, especially if the map is designed to avoid mini-duels.

(cough cough PB34)

I don't actually think the other players will opt for early civ picks, so we could be left with whichever decent leader we can pick up, and then the most synergistic civ to pair it with.

[Mardoc]

Your start will be this, or a mirror/rotation of this. Fog lies.

[El Grillo]

Interesting, a few things that stand out to me are:
- Horses and Iron are immediately available. This makes picking Arabia for its Camel Archers a lot less appealing.
- Workers will have lots to do, between chopping jungles and cottaging at least the first couple of cities. 3N has at least 5 forests for chopping.
- 3 Market-boosted luxuries in vision: furs, ivory, and whale. Markets don't come free, but they'll be worth +3 happy right from the start.
- Explorer has an incentive to head NW-NW or NE-NE.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I'll play around with a sandbox once I get home. But in general, grow to 2 before building a worker, or start on one right away?

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

I'll play around with a sandbox once I get home. But in general, grow to 2 before building a worker, or start on one right away?

Cities start size 2 no?

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

From looking at this, agree Arabia is pointless. Realistically nothing better than a SIP. 2nd city should either be able to share the pigs or corn really. Pigs could easily claim forest iron first ring for a faster start too.

With the early cities in 33 I could find anything faster than at first whipping workers out of cities.

India looks good here. I would be looking at IMP v no IMP and how restricted you feel without spi. I would probably change T0 and look to change to serfdom ASAP after whipping for both workers.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Sorry, Justin/India banned. Aqaducts still free mean Khmer will be huge here again.