[SPOILERS - NO PLAYERS] The Final Clusterfuck: The PB38 Map and Lurker Thread

[JR4]

I`m looking forward to lurking this game. The map looks really interesting, lots of decisions to be made early on. Rivers are few and far between and the FIN civs will surely appreciate that. Also, I must say that the civs with 2 mover UUs will be happy with so much rough terrain.

Pindicator and Commodore locking horns yet again - that`s the way it`s supposed to be! That eastern side of the continent is looking like a stalemate area to me. If Gavagai (or plako) can take out B4ndit early on, there might be an opportunity of snowballing ahead from there but.. all those players in that area are seasoned veterans.

Seeing Superdeath`s neighbors made me think of a Gazelle surrounded by Lions. He`s going out quickly. Dtay and TBS certainly aren`t out of the running with those neighbors. TBS has about a million options, he could settle up on any of his neighbors. Dtay will probably play a strong early game. I don`t think he`ll run over BGN, but Dreylin might be in some danger. Prediction: Dtay and TBS will get the best of it.

As you`ve already noted, mackoti and Rusten had a very kind draw of neighbors. Especially Rusten, who got 3 newbies out of 4 neighbors. I can see Rusten and mackoti sharing the spoils.

The southwestern area looks really interesting. No sharks around there and a good chance for the solid veterans to stay in contention. Dark Savant looks set to found an early religion (and has the right traits to get out of the hole). So the question is whether he`s building a shiny new Shrine for Joey or one of the other players close by. At the very least DS has a fighting chance here. I think that Mr.Cairo will get a conquest and stay competitive. But he has to contain mackoti..

The NW area is a tough neighborhood indeed. Finharry can`t be happy with that. Being next to an aggressive (and good) player as OT4E is never easy. Also, William is a very stubborn defender. He`s not been eliminated in any of his 3 PB games here and will be a severe test for Finharry and his other neighbors. OT4E pretty much has to get an early conquest in order to stay alive. I think that Joey, OT4E and Finharry will survive until the end. Of those players, Joey has the best chances of winning. He could go SE for a long time IF he can breach Dark Savan`s defenses. But still, he borders OT4E, so Joey is by no means favorite here.

Prediction:
1. mackoti
2. dtay
3. Joey
4. TBS
5. Rusten

[scooter]

A few stray thoughts on the geopolitics. 

* The chasm of weaker players in the arc between GermanJoey and mackoti is really striking. No insult meant towards any of those players, but I think they all know they're not at the top of anyone's prediction list. Ordinarily The Black Sword would be my favorite here, but it's hard not to like mackoti's chances given the wealth of options to invade that he'll have, and how long it'll be until he has a truly threatening neighbor. It's also a nice boost to Joey's chances.

* Mid-game potential war I'm most looking forward to: FinHarry vs GermanJoey. I think those two are clearly the cream of the western crop, and FinOldTouristHarry are going to be heavily incentivized to collect scalps given their geographic location. Their nearest 3 should all be very doable for them, but I suspect GermanJoey will be a spicier option on a number of levels. I imagine they will need at least some of his land to win, particularly if Joey pushes north rather than south.

* The Peninsula Of Death (hereafter known as POD) in the east starting with TBS and going south will be something. I don't know anything about B4ndit and his abilities, but the rest of that group is a murderer's row that will all be unhappy to be in that neighborhood. Look to see if pindicator and/or Commodore tilt early when they discover each other. It's not hard to envision a scenario where POD devolves into a mess of unproductive wars while TBS quietly does his thing, and then takes advantage once he's blown past them all. 


Nice map by the way!

[BRickAstley]

I feel like I should start taking money for bets on who of Pindicator or Commodore will tilt fist when they discover each other.

[Ichabod]

I am looking forward to see Rusten play. As Mackoti mentioned, I also remember his name from Civfanatics as one of the Civ legends. He seems pretty invested as well. Hopefully he can give us a nice showing and put a counter to Mackoti's western agression.

[BRickAstley]

I was never big into the CFC forums back in the day, so I came into these threads thinking "Who the hell is Rusten and why does everyone seem to think he's so amazing for a newbie?"

[darrelljs]

I feel like I should start taking money for bets on who of Pindicator or Commodore will tilt fist when they discover each other.

This is indeed the highlight of the start, but the obvious answer there is Commodore.

lets hope no TBs , rusten ,gavagai and the finhary are not near me.

He's going to be pretty happy I think.

Darrell

[Ichabod]

By the way, where's the ranking that mackoti was talking about in his thread?

[BRickAstley]

By the way, where's the ranking that mackoti was talking about in his thread?

I think this one here in the Signup thread.....

First post looks to be out of date... 

yeah, regarding players I believe these are the players currently signed up:

1)   The Black Sword
2)   Mackoti
3)   Old Harry + Fintourist + shallow_thought + TheHumanHydra
4)   Dtay
5)   GermanJoey
6)   Commodore
7)   Gavagai
8)   OT4E + chumchu
9)   plako
10) Mr. Cairo
11) Dark Savant
12) 2metraninja
13) AdrienIer + TruthBehindTheLies
14) WilliamLP
15) Boldly Going Nowhere
16) Pindicator
17) Dreylin
18) spacetyrantxenu
19) Donovan Zoi
20) Rusten
21) elkad
22) B4ndit
23) superdeath (1st time player)
24) naufrager (1st time player)
25) Aretas (1st time player)

Which is definitely not an *explicit* tier list.

[scooter]

This will not prevent me from being within fifteen tiles of Pindicator somehow.

I just wanted to preserve this beautiful moment in here. Commodore is being much too optimistic here. The actual number is 12.



This game will be great, I can feel it.

[Mardoc]

It would be really helpful if a veteran mapmaker would comment too

I'm sorry I disappeared again. Every time I think I'm caught up at work, my lead notices and I get an additional assignment. This week he's out of the office, so I have a little breathing room, for the moment. It's probably a good thing to be reliably seen to get stuff done, but it has meant no RB time for a while.

Fortunately, I think this would have been my answer:

telling us to just send the thing out

The only bit that's a little uncommon is the low count of rivers - but you did that to everyone, so it should be fine. May be interesting to see how much of the dislike for RtR Financial is due to excessive mapmaker generosity; maybe trait ratings will be altered again by this game.

I am quite impressed at the degree you and Cornflakes made the map look natural despite all the constraints placed by balance. Aside from his little Pindicator problem, Commodore should be quite pleased with you .