[Spoilers] All rho21s lead to Rome

[rho21]

So after all that, everyone ended up with a different first choice. A couple of them are pretty surprising.

In turn order:

1. Pindicator: Aztecs - did suboptimal's performance in PBEM10 make them the new flavour of the month?
   
2. Cornflakes: Brazil - perhaps the Minas Geraes is just that good
   
3. TheArchduke: Russia - solid choice if you want a religious game
   
4. Rowain: Gorgo of Greece - strong on culture, but there are better choices for that
   
5. rho21: Rome - alea iacta est
   
6. Banzailizard: Germany - very solid, we'll see if they can keep up long enough to come into their full power
   

Happy to get my first choice, though it's a shame about 5th place as turn order matters so much.

The big omission in terms of gameplay is China, opening up the early wonder game for all to play. This works out well for Russia, which has a virtual guarantee of the first religion: very doubtful anyone can (or should) afford Stonehenge before then.
Conversely, Russia is a really bad civ to see for Gorgo, who must have been hoping to use her cheap cultural districts to guarantee early great writers. Instead, Russia's lavras will take these too.

So, let's hope the Aztecs can't conquer a neighbour early on this time and that someone does something to limit Germany's potential.

[Garath]

I'll be here again.

Maybe I'll manage to be more active than in PBEM10 with another lurker to show me the way? Or maybe trying to follow both will make me even less competent at asking relevant questions? Who knows!

But either way, it would still be rather silly of me to follow someone else in a game you're playing.
(For anyone who doesn't or can't read rho21's PBEM10 thread, that's simply because I'm a real-life friend and I don't want to have to keep secrets about the game in person!)

[Garath]

My biggest problem with the choices you have made so far is that you've used [Spoilers] ... for the PBEM10 thread title and [SPOILERS] ... for this one (The puns, I understand, are somewhat de regueur for PBEM thread titles, so I won't comment on those). But now my tabs are mismatched. How dare you!

[rho21]

Fixed that. I think I was copying the other PBEM11 thread titles, which all had SPOILERS when I set this thread up.

[RFS-81]

Nice that you got your first pick!

Two civs with Ancient Era rush potential on the map though I'm honestly surprised that the Aztecs aren't played more often. Once you connect two luxuries, Eagle Warriors are as strong as War-Carts, and they can pay for themselves by capturing builders, which frees you up to build other stuff (i.e., more Eagle Warriors). Greece is not as bad, Hoplites are not that scary until they pick up the don't-suck-against-infantry promotion. The best case scenario would be both of them starting on the same continent, I guess.

Anyway, what's the plan? Teching to Legions, getting a GG and then conquering someone sounds good if you have the right neighbours. Especially if you start next to Germany or Russia. The problem is that Greece has an easier time running Strategos because of the additional wildcard slot.

[rho21]

Attacking someone early is difficult to pull off politically in this game, I reckon, because you immediately end up in a 2v1 situation. You need to have a huge military advantage to manage that. There's not even a way of making small gains then stopping: because of the occupation penalties you will never get peace. It only worked for the Aztecs in PBEM10 because the western civs were so separated from the eastern that by the time a response was possible it was already a fait accompli. The Aztecs will nonetheless be a threat as a neighbour, so I hope I don't end up on the same continent.

My intended game plan is to use the general strength of Rome to maximise my snowballing. So expand as fast as possible to make best use of Rome's commercial and cultural advantages. Go fairly quickly to legions and use them to conquer city states and enforce my claim to as much land as possible. Keep the snowball rolling with aqueducts to grow tall, focusing on commercial hubs, harbours and campuses to buffer the economy.

This should let me support a large army and navy, which by the late medieval might be enough to consider conquering someone, we'll have to see.

[Emperor K]

I really like your thread title btw.

[Emperor K]

Starting screenshot

[Emperor K]

Please check general thread for map info.

[rho21]

Thanks again, Emperor K. I hope we can have a game to do all your hard work justice.

So, looks as though you've set me quite a settling puzzle. It feels as though there's too many good tiles there for just one city in the visible area. Don't want to waste more than a turn before settling though, ideally none at all.