[SPOILERS] Ghostpants buckles up for PB39

[Ghostpants]

Oh, a ded-lurker would be amazing, thanks! And hey, it's encouragement to keep the posting regular.

I'll have to take a look at your thread from PB11 at some point, I'm sure first-game threads probably have a lot of good info in them, learning with others I guess.

Yeah, honestly I agree about industrious. I didn't know no one would pick it! I feel like in this scenario it'd be basically "build any wonder of your choice. No one else even gets a chance."

Regarding skirmishers as an offensive unit, well, yes I have. The issue with that is early combat is EASILY the part of the game I'm worst at, particularly on the offensive, so I figured it was a bad idea to go for it. Although, I'll have to give it more thought now, this is where a ded-lurker might come in especially useful

Yeah you're probably right that I should go into this more hopeful, who knows what'll happen right? With such aggressive picks and several new players, I honestly feel like pretty much anything could happen. Might be that the winner is just the player that adapts the best to whatever clusterf**k appears, and it's possible that's us. So, yeah you're right, I should probably start gunning for the win.

I haven't had much time to sim yet (I know I'm leaving it late) but hopefully tonight after uni I'll have one or two hours. The main thing I want to test is just generic stuff like settler at size 2/3, bronze working straight away/pottery for my cheap granaries, when to slip archery in, things like that. I'm gonna try to do the basic stuff such as that tonight, and anything more advanced needs more map info imo. I'll post my findings once I have them though.  

[Ghostpants]

I'm carefully watching OH, THH and Fintourists thread in PB38 to watch how to handle during-expansion aggression if it does come my way.

Me too! Haha, kidding of course. 

I'll make sure I don't spoil anything

[Ghostpants]

One more thing:
on the topic of offensive skirmishers rather than just defensive ones, a thought I just had is that if ipecac builds a lot of impis, he might be a great target, since that matchup is so unfavourable for him. That's just a random thought though, I'll think a lot more on that once I see my neighbours.

[WilliamLP]

I'll have to take a look at your thread from PB11 at some point, I'm sure first-game threads probably have a lot of good info in them, learning with others I guess.

I'm not sure it's the one of the better threads to learn from on this site! It was unmodded BTS and the starts were not very balanced to say the least. It was an interesting game though, a "greens" game, but several players went on to become veterans. Wetbandit and BGN / Xenu were there, and Suttree and Retep were on the strong side of green. I had a noob's noob as my nearest neighbor and a ton of jungle nearby, but I think I made good strategic choices that made the best of the situation. Also some poor tactical choices at times.

I think gameplay in this community has advanced a lot since then, so you're better off studying threads from the great players, SevenSpirits, Mackoti, TBS, etc.

Regarding skirmishers as an offensive unit, well, yes I have. The issue with that is early combat is EASILY the part of the game I'm worst at, particularly on the offensive, so I figured it was a bad idea to go for it. Although, I'll have to give it more thought now, this is where a ded-lurker might come in especially useful

Well I can certainly chime in if you're doing something that reminds me of something I've tried and failed at.

You might already know about Cyneheard's calculator: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...rsEMP1nGlc ? (You'd need to make a copy of it to edit.) Curious myself, it looks like a skirmisher has an 85% chance to win vs a fully fortified warrior defending a city on flatland, 78% on a hill, if I'm using it right.

You probably also know, knowledge and surprise can give you quite an edge. In particular, in my next game here I want to make sure I'm really careful with my scout moves. (An example, getting a situation where you see the edge of their culture tile bleed but don't make contact could be really valuable - you know who your neighbor is but they don't know it's you.) Also, somehow getting a Woodsman 2 warrior in the early game could be quite an advantage to open up a surprise attack to snipe / steal a worker or something.

By the way, if any of my tips or thoughts are beneath your knowledge let me know!

Yeah you're probably right that I should go into this more hopeful, who knows what'll happen right? With such aggressive picks and several new players, I honestly feel like pretty much anything could happen. Might be that the winner is just the player that adapts the best to whatever clusterf**k appears, and it's possible that's us. So, yeah you're right, I should probably start gunning for the win.

Well to be frank, this isn't an extremely strong group of players, as games on this site go. Nobody here would be considered near top ten, or be inclined to micro plan 20 turns in advance or have precise C&D spreadsheets. With the size and strength of the field in PB38 it's a little different! But I guess it's always a wildcard, isn't it? There could be some maniac noob plays and rushes in this game for sure, that would be my read as well.

I haven't had much time to sim yet (I know I'm leaving it late) but hopefully tonight after uni I'll have one or two hours. The main thing I want to test is just generic stuff like settler at size 2/3

Do you think you'll be popping borders with monuments? Any consideration to building Stonehenge? (Who do you think will try to build it?)

Any thoughts on early religion?

Will you go 2 workers before the first settler or 1? How many warriors can you fit in?

How fast can you get a settler if you whip from 3->2? Is that worth it?

I like that you have a wheel start as the prereq for pottery. Just how early do you want granaries? They're eventually a must-build in every city so clearly getting them for 30 hammers instead of 60 makes them great, but then, early expansion speed is criticial.

How early do you want your first cottage?

I don't know these answers! I'd like to get better at my opening game too.

At least, the nice thing about the pace of these games is the first 15 or so turns play themselves, except for the scout moves. So this gives plenty of time for sims and thinking about the opening.

[Ghostpants]

Regarding a sandbox, do you know what size I should make the map for it? I think it changes tech cost, right?

Any thoughts on early religion?

Will you go 2 workers before the first settler or 1? How many warriors can you fit in?

How fast can you get a settler if you whip from 3->2? Is that worth it?

I like that you have a wheel start as the prereq for pottery. Just how early do you want granaries? They're eventually a must-build in every city so clearly getting them for 30 hammers instead of 60 makes them great, but then, early expansion speed is criticial.

How early do you want your first cottage?

I don't know these answers! I'd like to get better at my opening game too.

At least, the nice thing about the pace of these games is the first 15 or so turns play themselves, except for the scout moves. So this gives plenty of time for sims and thinking about the opening.

In about 12-15 hours (after work + sleep) I'm gonna make a sandbox and plug away at it for an hour or two. All of these questions will be on my mind at work until then! Stonehenge in particular is an interesting idea: in a field of no industrious leaders and several aggressive nutcases it might be doable, but at the same time, we'd need to be very careful to not just lose it. I have a feeling that a LOT of what happens this game will be entirely based on neighbours, perhaps even moreso than usual. I don't just mean that in a self-pitying "wow sucks for me if I'm next to aggressive civs." To use not-me as an example, if Ipecac got stuck between us and Wetbandit, that'd be a super tough spot to rush himself (herself?) out of. 

Two workers first is another interesting proposition, especially with expansive. I have a feeling that'd lock me into bronze working second though. Those workers need something to do! Chopping seems especially good for us early since we have hammer boosts towards workers and granaries, and there's always one of those two things to chop more out of. Same goes for slavery. So yeah, bronze working might be second, followed by AH/Pottery (order of those two tbd.)

One last thing: Any ideas for a good naming scheme? I can probably think of something but right now I got jack.

[Ghostpants]

On the tech front we have at least a week or more to decide I think, since there's no question about agriculture first. So that at least is nice.

[Ghostpants]

Using this post to see if I can get a proper handle on uploading pictures as well. Will keep editing throughout the week till I work it out. Or who knows, maybe I get it right first try.

   

alrighty, how about this?

Edit: Well, unless I messed something up without realising, that's a lot more painless than I thought 

[WilliamLP]

The naming scheme is all you!

More thoughts later, but here's one war we can win:

   

[Ghostpants]

Honestly if the naming scheme is left to me I'll just end up making something obnoxiously Australian. But hey, I'm alright with that

[Rusten]

Honestly if the naming scheme is left to me I'll just end up making something obnoxiously Australian. But hey, I'm alright with that

Steve Irwin theme confirmed.