[SPOILERS] Charriu and Zalson are fighting the honorable post count war!

[Charriu]

Here's your start. Don't trust the fog.

But the two coastal tiles will be coastal, right? You won't change them into Fresh Water Lakes?

[mackoti]

Hello there.Well if you want a normal game i sugest you to get a super strong starter for the leader and that would be one of in this order:

1.The best of all Pro/cre  and if can land China or Mali will be golden.
2.Agg/imp super strong as well just the other side of the coin for first.
3.IMp/Org  alitle harder to play but mid game is gold.

[DaveV]

Some personal and probably idiosyncratic thoughts on reporting:

I think the best threads are the ones that tell a story (I don't mean lots of in-character stuff, which can quickly become tiresome if not done really well). The details are less interesting than the overall picture. Using the World Cup as an example, I'd rather read about which players are performing above expectations and which below, and how each team's strategy played out or evolved; an exhaustive account of every shot and substitution bores me and could be written by a computer. The human analysis of performances and personalities is what makes the reporting interesting.

Good players usually have long, medium, and short term goals. I'm more interested in how you're working toward those goals than your worker micro spreadsheet. Screenshots should be integral to telling the story, rather than just dumping a shot of every single city. How are you reacting to new developments, and how are your goals evolving over time? What are the other players doing well, or poorly?

[Charriu]

Some personal and probably idiosyncratic thoughts on reporting:

I think the best threads are the ones that tell a story (I don't mean lots of in-character stuff, which can quickly become tiresome if not done really well). The details are less interesting than the overall picture. Using the World Cup as an example, I'd rather read about which players are performing above expectations and which below, and how each team's strategy played out or evolved; an exhaustive account of every shot and substitution bores me and could be written by a computer. The human analysis of performances and personalities is what makes the reporting interesting.

Good players usually have long, medium, and short term goals. I'm more interested in how you're working toward those goals than your worker micro spreadsheet. Screenshots should be integral to telling the story, rather than just dumping a shot of every single city. How are you reacting to new developments, and how are your goals evolving over time? What are the other players doing well, or poorly?

Thanks for the feedback. I get what you mean by story and I still want to do that style. I think my macro section will be what you want to read. There I will go into more freeform writing. The micro section is more for people, who want to know the detail and help me improve in that section. But this part can get very long so I will probably put it into a spoiler. With the exception of the demo screenshot, I will mainly take screenshots to highlight the story part of my reporting. Otherwise the thread would just blow up like crazy.
I think I will set myself a reminder to talk about long, medium and short term goals and constant intervals or when the time is right.

[Zalson]

mackoti's recommendation is really strong. I think the only issue I have is that I don't remember what the changes are for RTR besides +100% to granaries for protective.

[Zalson]

Found this for 2.0.7.4: http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...p?tid=8208

Agg/IMP leads to a more rapid start: bonus to settlers and -25% reduction in maintenance + cheaper border pops.

Cre/Pro is also a quick starter: +100% granaries, better archery units (and gunpowder), easier defense, and then free border pops and cheaper happy in the later game. although if we're relying on buildings for happy, we're in trouble.

Cre/Pro is, I think, a little simpler to play, in my opinion. You know you want a granary first and you know you want to pop borders. Agg/Imp expands faster with the minor, useful barracks building.

As for civ: i think we want Agg/Mining, Hunting/Mining or The Wheel/Agg. Fishing is a bit of a red herring right now; we don't want to slowbuild a workboat, I don't think.

I'm leaning Gilgamesh of China/France...

[Zalson]

What about Worker, (grow on something), worker, chop out the settler as a build order.

Tech choices would then be (if agg/mining)

Hunting > BW > Wheel

if Agg/Wheel

Hunting > Mining > BW

Not sure which is the most efficient.

[Cornflakes]

I'll dedlurk in a minimal way. Armchair quarterback, backseat driver, etc. etc. Haven't played a game of Civ 4 in years and never a game of RtR (have a foggy memory of possibly ushering a dying civ into the grave as a sub, but we won't count that ).

[Charriu]

Wow, thanks so far for your thoughts and suggestion. When I'm home and the kids are in bed, I will have time to do some simming and deeper thinking. Let me just share my inital thinking about traits from least favorite to favorite. I did these before you posted your suggestions:

10. Ind, Spi: Like I already said I don't want to focus on religion or wonders initially. These will just draw attention away from what I want to do.
9. Phi: The great people strategy can be good if done correct, but I'm not up for that as of now. The university bonus comes a bit late, but at least helps with oxford. All in all to few early bonuses for my taste.
8. Cre: I don't think that this is a bad trait on the contrary. The initial +2 culture are awesome and the library bonus are great. Theatre too if need be. The reason why I rate this lower is for a simple reasons: I tend to settle cities that are great on paper, but start slow because I neglect the first ring. With Cre I won't improve in that area. My thinking is that without Cre I will improve in the area of city placement.
7. Cha: The initial happiness bonus is awesome and helps with whipping and growing early. The experience bonus is good but not overwhelming, same for the library bonus. The other bonuses are a bit lacking or to late.
6. Imp: The custom house bonus is way to late for my taste and the great general bonus is nice but not awesome. This leaves only the settler bonus, which is great, but I feel a little overrated. If I'm correct the production bonus is only for the hammer part of the settler production and not the food part. I feel that you notice the benefit with this more in smaller cities with lower pop, but then the settler will still take a long time to build. The one area were this is awesome is with chopping.
5. Agg: I had this in PB39. The barracks were really great as I didn't have to rely on monuments for early culture. Maintenance bonus is really great. The promotion now really feels like the worst, but still great, part of this trait. This is still a hot contester for my trait
4. Fin: This was a great trait in normal BTS and was heavily nerfed in RtR. The bank bonus is a bit late so the only other thing is the commerce bonus. The only reason it is up here is, because I'm at the coast with seafood. I think after some simming I will no if it is really worth it.
3. Pro: The early defense related bonuses are awesome, but it won't help when I am on the offensive. I think the main thing going for this is the granary bonus and I see why. But seeing that I have 4 food resources in my initial BFC, I don't fear that food will be a problem.
2. Org: The civic bonus is a really nice passive bonus. May main reason for rating this higher is the lighthouse and to a lesser extend the courthouse bonus. I know that Commodore said not to trust the fog, but even then this still means that I am at the coast. My gut feeling says that there is more coast to settle some nice coastal cities. 
1. Exp: The health bonus is more neglectable and the harbor, aqueduct and grocer bonus are fine. The market bonus is awesome as some commerce cities tend to be lower on production. The main thing going for me here is the worker and workboat bonus. If I'm going for Worker, workboat, warrior, settler I will save a lot of turns on those two in the beginning.

[Zalson]

Protective is quite useful on the offensive: the extra first strike means that you get a free more often than not. The CG defense means that holding what you take is easier. And will a barracks and theocracy, that's CG3 units or Drill 3 units off the bat! But the granary bonus is the real winner.

We can definitely play Exp/ORG if you'd like -- but if you're trying to avoid falling into the TOO MANY BUILDINGS trap, having every building be 1/2 price might be too much temptation. Also, I don't think half-cost lighthouses are a particularly good reason to pick a trait, though. They're an easy 2x whip, even with the RTR malus against 2x pop.

Maybe Expansive/Protective (is that combo?) or Expansive/Agg? We can focus more first ring placements, for sure. That's what I'll cry for.