Japper's Vindlandsaga

[Japper007]

So the civ picks are in:

CFC Jesterfool Spain, Rome, India

Singaboy Germany, Arabia, Pericles

Woden Brazil, Aztec, Kongo

Japper007 Norway, Russia, USA

OleDavey Japan, China, France

The Archduke England, Gorgo, Egypt

[Japper007]

I'm leaning towards the Vikings, I think, but let's discuss the civ's first:

Norway:

http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Norwegian_(Civ6)

Knarr:

Norways ability to quickly cross water tiles and faster crossing of oceans (at Shipbuilding, a Classical Era tech, rather than in the Rennaissance) can be a massive advantage in settling different continents early or invading with ground troops
I've rolled a few starts with our settings, and the Island Plates map usually puts players on a small continent that can fit 3-4 (cramped) cities. That's not nearly enough, so being able to get to other continents faster is a substantial bonus.

It also allows melle ships to heal in neutral territory (uncontrolled water tiles) instead of only being able to heal in friendly territory, which ties in nicely with Norways leader unique:

Thunderbolt of the North:

Gives us access to the Viking Longship UU, a galley replacement with +1 movement in coastal tiles and +5 Combat Strenght and allows melee to perform "coastal raids" (basically attacking tiles adjacent to water, which also enables them to clear barb camps and pillage improvements). Now this is where Norway really shines, able to pillage tiles along the coast with virtual impunity until the Rennaisance; due to being able to retreat into Ocean tiles and heal there without being worried about attack! This way Norway can significantly slow down their opponents and establish Naval dominance early.

Berserkers:

Eh not a fan, the zerk is on a leaf tech with an inconvenient Eureka (kill a unit with a spearman) and it isn't significantly stronger than a swordsman while arriving significantly later, it also can't be upgraded into! 4 moves is nice and coupled with the Knarr ability allows Norway to mount a devastating amphibious assault, but I doubt we'll see much use of these.

Stave Church:

The weakest bonus of the lot. A temple replacement that gives extra adjacency to the Holy Site for forests. The only cool synergy I've been able to find for this building is the Feed the World belief (food from holy site buildings) which gets buffed by the extra adjacency bonus added by the Stave Church, meaning that in a Holy Site with 4 forests a Stave Church can yield up to 8 food . That's a big "if" though.

So in summary, Norways strategy is early Naval aggresion and lots of raiding

[Japper007]

Russia:

http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Russian_(Civ6)

Mother Russia:

An excellent snowball (pun intended ) ability, it almost guarantees that Russia'll be able to work a faith tile from the get-go, thus grabbing the pantheon earlier. it also means that Russia has much greater odds of being able to work at least one amazing tile without needing to purchase it. On the flip side Russia's start bias leaves a high chance that none of the tiles within your borders are any good (we've all had the flat tundra Russia start I think, it ain't pretty)

Grand Embassy:

useless in MP, everyone'll be roughly the same tech level anyways, and it requires friendly relations with other players which may be unlikely.

Lavra:

A strong bonus to a culture victory and to securing a religion. Get every city a Lavra and a Theater Square and essentially monopolize Artists, Writers and Musicians.

Cossacks:

An utterly dominant UU on land maps, I think it's a lot weaker on water maps though. In order for Cossacks to do well you need to A) border your opponent directly (not likely if you start on different landmasses) and B) have lots of room to retreat to to cycle units (not likely on a small continent). They could still be an awesome defensive unit of course.

[Japper007]

'Murica

http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/American_(Civ6)

The weakest of my options, I won't be picking this one, but let's analyse them for  completeness, if nothing else.

Unique Unit and Building:

Both the Mustang fighter and the Film Studio come to late in the game to be usefull and aren't even that impactful when they do get unlocked!

The Rough Rider is cool, on a hill it's almost as strong as a Tank but again like with the cossacks I doubt a land UU will be all that great on this map-type.

Founding Fathers:

Government Legacy bonuses are so insignificant that I usually forget they're even a thing!

Roosevelt Corollary:

The best of the bunch 5 combat strenght on your home continent is a strong defensive bonus and if we're lucky a strong offensive one too since "continents" can extend multiple landmasses on Islands  . It's just not a strong enough unique that it makes up for the lack of other strenghts IMHO.

[Alhambram]

Stave Church:

The weakest bonus of the lot. A temple replacement that gives extra adjacency to the Holy Site for forests. The only cool synergy I've been able to find for this building is the Feed the World belief (food from holy site buildings) which gets buffed by the extra adjacency bonus added by the Stave Church, meaning that in a Holy Site with 4 forests a Stave Church can yield up to 8 food . That's a big "if" though.

I don't think that you get extra food. In my PBEM 2 I am running with feed of the world and I can tell that it only applies to buildings, not adjacent bonus. 
All you get is 2 extra food when having shrine and 4 food when having temple (stave church) in your holy site. Simultaneum policy card which doubles faith from buildings don't double food rate from buildings, it stayed at 2 and 4 food totalling 6. In my PBEM2 6 food already made a huge difference since my lands are mostly desert, tundra and hills.

[Quagma Blast]

I don't think that you get extra food. In my PBEM 2 I am running with feed of the world and I can tell that it only applies to buildings, not adjacent bonus. 
All you get is 2 extra food when having shrine and 4 food when having temple (stave church) in your holy site. Simultaneum policy card which doubles faith from buildings don't double food rate from buildings, it stayed at 2 and 4 food totalling 6. In my PBEM2 6 food already made a huge difference since my lands are mostly desert, tundra and hills.

Normally that would be the case, but the Stave Church gives specifically itself a bonus to faith output based on nearby forests, which does in fact get applied to Feed the World.

[Cornflakes]

If you are interested I will sign on as a dedlurker/teammate

[Japper007]

If you are interested I will sign on as a dedlurker/teammate

Cool, I'm always looking for advise. I'd love to have someone to bounce ideas of off etc.

[Japper007]

I've already PM'ed Sullla that I've chosen Norway as my civ pick. I think I can do some real interesting things with them.

[Japper007]

Final civ picks are in, let's analyse civs and opponents:

[warning: PBEM 2 spoilers below]

CFCJesterFool: Philip II of Spain (http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Spanish_(Civ6))

Spain is a relatively underwhelming civ.
The quick Armadas and Fleets are cool, but they are both extremely expensive builds (on standard speed even a mid-late game capital with a fully upgraded harbor still takes around 20 turns to kick just one out)
Conquistadors are dangerous if Spain manages to found a religion, and having access to musketeers without the usual Niter requirement can lead to a devastating timing push. If we see Spain grab a religion we have to assume a mid-game rush is in the works.
Weak points I see are that Spain has to get a religion early (to get some synergy bonuses for their Conquistadors) thus missing out on economic development. The bonus to intercontinental trade routes also means that a crafty player can get a lot of loot from plundering their trade routes (especially if, say, we had a civ that could enter ocean tiles early and heal in neutral waters )

CFCJester is the wildcard (how appropriate given his nickname) in this game, I've never seen him play before.

Singaboy: Frederick of Germany (http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/German_(Civ6))

Germany is a monstrous economic civ, able to get 3 (!) districts in a city with just 3 pop, essentially making housing/fresh water a non-issue for them when it comes to development (another civ needs 7 pop to build the same three districts). The hansa is a cheap, strong source of hammers.
On the military front Germany brings an extra military policy slot, +7 strenght vs City States, and the U-boot  (a cheaper sub that gets bonuses in ocean tiles). I doubt U-boots are going to be all that gamechanging, but the military policy slot allows germany to run production bonuses to ships and upkeep cost reduction cards simultaniously, while other civs can only do that in the late-game or military focused governments.

Singaboy has some experience in PBEM's by now, and also with Germany, since he played them in PBEM 2. His play in PBEM 2 impressed me, he got rushed by barbs very early on and was sandwiched between several aggresive players, even so he recovered pretty well and managed to crawl back from certain defeat a few times.

Woden: Pedro of Brazil (http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Brazilian_(Civ6))

Brazil has some nice eco bonuses and an excellent UU, the Minas Gereas, a stronger batlleship that is available much earlier  . Brazil needs to be dealt with early, before they snowball their economy and unlock those scary battleships.

Woden played a solid economic game as China in PBEM 2 but he crumbled rather quickly when attacked (though honestly Cossacks, are just broken on land-maps, few could've held out against such an assault). I expect him to play more aggresive or at least defensive in this game.

Japper007: Harald of Norway

...

oledavy: Hojo of Japan (http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Japanese_(Civ6))

Japan brings a decent economic bonus to the table, and a solid military bonus to both navy and land. The electronics factory is a nice boost in the late game.

Oledavy played a very solid game in PBEM 2 both on military and economic fronts. He did, however, demonstrate a lack of insight on the macro level, throwing himself into wars without an advantage and building way to much economy while under direct threat.

TheArchduke: Victoria of England (http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/English_(Civ6))

Vicky leads one of the strongest civs on this type of map IMHO, two trade routes per city can be a massive boost to development and economy. The dockyard is a harbor district replacement that yields extra gold if on a seperate continent and adds extra movement to ships. Redcoats are a beastly UU that is almost as strong as tanks and infantry if it fights on a foreign continent, and England gets them for free if she settles on a dfferent continent or takes a city there. Englands most dangerous thing is a snowball where they capture a city, get a redcoat/infantry, etc. and then use those units to continue capturing cities, it's a hard feedback-loop to break...

The Archduke so far hasn't impressed me, even though he's played in two PBEM's so far. In PBEM 1 he got overrun by Sullla due to focusing to much on econ, and in PBEM 2 he fell behind because paradoxically he over-compensated by going full Montezuma on everyone and then not managing to close out the game early enough. He seems to fall into tunnel-vision (a lot of players have that problem though, including yours truly ) and stick to a set plan even if it is to his detriment.