[Spoiler] RegentMan's Thread

[RegentMan]

Welcome to my spoiler thread for the Pitboss game! This is my first Pitboss game in over a decade! I've played two before, back in the day. However, I played them like I would in a single-player game, getting conquered very fast by my more aggressive neighbors. I'm hoping to do a little better this time around! I was very active at CFC when Civ III and Civ IV were the current entries, but have fallen off of the Civ bandwagon with the introduction of One Unit per Tile. I haven't participated at RB at all (minus one Civ III epic that I bombed), but I really enjoy reading the threads of users here, namely Sullla's website. Here's to me at least not being the first one eliminated!

We're doing a points-based snake pick for leaders and civs, and I drew last pick! While that means seven leaders/civs will be gone when it's my turn, I get to essentially double-pick my leader and civ, since the pick order reverses once it gets to the end. Here is the points list for reference:

5 Points to Spend
4: FIN
3: EXP, CRE, India, Inca
2: SPI, IND, ORG, IMP, China.
1: PHI, Agriculture Civs
0: CHM, AGG, All other civs
-1: PRO

I personally am looking for a leader with FIN, EXP, CRE, or PHI. Obviously I can't have a combo of the first three, so it'll boil down to what is left after seven people go ahead of me. Here are the leaders I am looking at:

Elizabeth (FIN/PHI) - 5 points, must pick a non-Agriculture civ.
Peter (EXP/PHI) - 4 points, can pick any civ.
Pericles (CRE/PHI) - 4 points, can pick any civ.

What civ should I go for? Heads up: I'm not anticipating executing an early rush or ancient war, so I won't be considering a civ that can do those well. Since I anticipate the seven choices ahead of me being leaders, I should be able to pick the civ that I want. I know India and Inca are top-tier due to the Fast Worker and the Terrace, respectively, but with my trait preferences, I will pass on those two. These civs seem to be popular:

The Ottomans (Agriculture)
The Byzantines
The Mayans
The Holy Roman Empire
France (Agriculture)
Babylon (Agriculture)
Greece

I'm debating mainly between the Ottomans and the Byzantines. Both have great unique buildings and units. The Ottomans are my personal preference, but I might want to snag Byzantium just to deny cataphracts to the others. Conversely, the others might see me as a threat as Byzantium, so maybe I will just stick with the Ottomans. I'll have to see what's left when my time comes!

Almost time to game! I hope to offer some enjoyment (and laughing at the noob!) to you all. I'm mainly in here to help refine my Civ IV skill. So long as I'm not the first eliminated, I'll consider that a personal victory.

Game Rules
1) Settings:
Pangea mapscript, cylindrical wrap, Emperor level, mapsize and other settings at mapmaker's discretion.
No villages, events, vassal states, technology trading.
Normal barbs.

2) Bans:
AP resolutions, blockades, active espionage (espionage is enabled in settings but no spies can be built; no limits on Great Spies), nukes, War Elephants, city and unit gifting (including city transfer as a part of a peace treaty).
No ban on GLH (should not be OP on Pangea), SoZ, Corporations.

3) Rules:
AI Diplo. No communication with other players in respect to in-game events other than offers in trade window. No use of texts, city names, unit names, numbers (specific amounts of gold) to communicate.
Otherwise, please follow etiquette rules as described in this thread: https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/show...p?tid=7311

[RegentMan]

The Players

1. Superdeath: Hannibal (FIN/CHM) of Egypt
2. Commodore: Brennus (SPI/CHM) of India
3. Irismono & GeneralKilCavalry: Roosevelt (IND/ORG) of Mali
4. Chumchu: Mehmed II (EXP/ORG) of the Aztecs
5. Gavagai: Ragnar (AGG/FIN) of Rome
6. Alhazard: Zara Yaqob (ORG/CRE) of Mongolia
7. Donovan Zoi: Mao Zedong (EXP/PRO) of Inca
8. RegentMan: Peter (EXP/PHI) of the Ottomans

[RegentMan]

All of my choices were open when my pick came around, so I had to decide who I would play as! Four players chose leaders and three chose their civilizations the first time through, so it shows what I know with this process! Rest assured, it will not be the first time I get something wrong in this game!

Ultimately, I chose to go with Peter of the Ottomans. I had Elizabeth all typed out and ready to go, but that meant I would have had to go with a non-agricultural civ, and I just wasn't feeling Byzantium. I knew starting with mysticism would be tempting for my single-player self to go towards a religion, and I really wanted to start with my worker and economy techs. There's no tech trading in this game, so I have to build a strong foundation, and I know I'm not a good enough player to start behind with a religion, then catch up on my economy. With the other non-agricultural civs I had lined out, I really only liked their unique building or unique unit, not both.

With the Ottomans, I start with agriculture and the wheel, so that knocks out two great techs I'd want immediately anyway. The unique building is the Hammam, an aqueduct that also gives +2 happiness. It'll be nice to have a happiness boost down the road (this game's being played on Emperor difficulty; I play on Prince!). The unique unit is the Janissary, a musketman that gets a +25% boost against archery, melee, and mounted units. I hope I can get a tech lead and maybe draft some Janissaries and take out a neighbor. I've never actually made a Globe Theater draft, draft, draft city, so I'm going to have to play some practice games and work on this skill.

I'm happy I got my top picks for both my leader and my civ! Now to wait and see what the other players end up with...

[Mardoc]

Welcome to my spoiler thread for the Pitboss game! This is my first Pitboss game in over a decade! I've played two before, back in the day. However, I played them like I would in a single-player game, getting conquered very fast by my more aggressive neighbors. I'm hoping to do a little better this time around! I was very active at CFC when Civ III and Civ IV were the current entries, but have fallen off of the Civ bandwagon with the introduction of One Unit per Tile. I haven't participated at RB at all (minus one Civ III epic that I bombed), but I really enjoy reading the threads of users here, namely Sullla's website. Here's to me at least not being the first one eliminated!

Welcome!  I look forward to reading along.

Almost time to game! I hope to offer some enjoyment (and laughing at the noob!) to you all. I'm mainly in here to help refine my Civ IV skill. So long as I'm not the first eliminated, I'll consider that a personal victory.

As a general thought: not first eliminated and winning tend to be opposing goals.  Because only one wins out of eight, the winner tends to be someone who took a crazy risk and got lucky.  Of course 'first eliminated' tends to be someone who took a crazy risk and got unlucky.

I can't give much advice as a general lurker, especially after the game starts, since I'll have spoiler information, but a couple generic tips to help avoid early elimination:
- Look prickly: have enough visible power, whippable population, and military tech that people don't look at you as a cheap prize.  Military builds are expensive, but not nearly as expensive as fighting a war.  The hard part is riding the line between 'enough to not be invaded now' and 'not so much as to fall behind and be invaded later'
- Build spears as garrison troops: many early wars start with chariot scouts seeing a city that they can take.  Usually you have time to react and whip something against a scouting axe but not against a scouting chariot.  Also, most serious attempts at conquest use 2-movers.  I don't mean exclusively spears, but make sure spears are part of your mix and anywhere you're going to have just one unit, it should be a spear, not an axe.
- Finally, you can get lurker answers to questions as long as those questions are specific and about game mechanics.  We can't answer 'what should I build next,' that's considered to be too much lurker involvement to be fair to everyone in the game. We can definitely help answer 'how exactly does this wonder work' or 'what are my odds of winning if I attack that city with this stack?'  Relatedly: it's frowned on for lurkers to volunteer information: can't say 'Your plan of X won't work because' but if you ask us if X will work we can respond.  Those restrictions can often make it seem like lurkers are less friendly/invested than we really are.  It's not that we aren't following your thread avidly, it's just trying to be fair to everyone and keep the game about the players rather than the lurkers.

All of my choices were open when my pick came around, so I had to decide who I would play as! Four players chose leaders and three chose their civilizations the first time through, so it shows what I know with this process! Rest assured, it will not be the first time I get something wrong in this game!

You didn't necessarily get anything wrong.  The points system is specifically meant to push people towards a wider variety, and on top some of the players here consider 'haven't played it recently' to be more important than 'most powerful choice'.

Finally, the most important question: have you picked a naming scheme for your cities and/or units?

[RegentMan]

Hi Mardoc! Thank you for commenting. Those tips are some good ones to keep in mind, thank you! I also understand there'll be mainly reading going on and not a lot of comments here. I would hate for something to get unintentionally spoiled for me here or for another player in their thread. When I ask questions, I think I do so instinctively out of storytelling, and not "Hey you! Reading this! Answer me!"

Finally, the most important question: have you picked a naming scheme for your cities and/or units?

I'm still kicking the naming scheme around. My last Pitboss game, I used my favorite author as the name of my civilization, with my favorite characters/places of his as cities. Right now, I'm leaning to keeping it simple- playing as Regentia and naming cities after personal favorites, such as eggnog, roosters, and the like. I've never been one to rename units, though.

[Mardoc]

Hi Mardoc! Thank you for commenting. ... I also understand there'll be mainly reading going on and not a lot of comments here. I would hate for something to get unintentionally spoiled for me here or for another player in their thread.

We try to be social anyway, which is why I wanted to mention the limits, just in case you hadn't been lurking/didn't realize.  It's a lot easier to explain before it becomes relevant.

You just might get more comments about your naming scheme than your actual civ choices.  Plus of course we're generally allowed to talk about the past, it's not spoilery to say 'wow, that was a nice war'.

Oh, I forgot the one exception: whenever you ask 'should I go to war?' lurkers are always allowed to answer 'Yes!' War is always entertaining, lurkers like to see it. Just remember we don't have your best interests in mind...

When I ask questions, I think I do so instinctively out of storytelling, and not "Hey you! Reading this! Answer me!"

I like a good storyteller.  And anyway it was meant as a general bit of info for someone potentially new to RB traditions, not really connected to anything specific to the thread so far.

I'm still kicking the naming scheme around. My last Pitboss game, I used my favorite author as the name of my civilization, with my favorite characters/places of his as cities. Right now, I'm leaning to keeping it simple- playing as Regentia and naming cities after personal favorites, such as eggnog, roosters, and the like. I've never been one to rename units, though.

Well, yes, units aren't traditionally renamed, but I didn't want to assume you were going to follow RB traditions.

[RegentMan]

The game is afoot!




I'm thinking of moving my warrior SE first, but unless he reveals something drastic, I think I'll just settle in place. It's on a plains hill, which is a plus, but it'll be sad to waste the forest. The defense boost will be nice, as well.

It looks like I might be on the end of a peninsula, unless that southern unrevealed water is actually a fresh water lake. That'll make for less of a choice when it comes to expanding (gotta go west!) but it'll be easier to defend. Wonder what Mr. Warrior will find out in these next few turns!

[RegentMan]

I didn't see any reason to move the settler, so I founded in place.




Eggnog is the best beverage of all time, so my capital gets named after the deliciousness. We randomly agreed to a "no war until after turn 25" rule, but that didn't change my strategy as I was going to go worker-first anyway. Research set to hunting so I can get those two deer connected.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

For some reason the images were broken for me. I used the [ screenshot][ /screenshot] tag (without spaces, just added those so they would appear here) and it works better now. Generally I prefer this method as it lets users resize the image for their screen.

[RegentMan]

For some reason the images were broken for me. I used the [ screenshot][ /screenshot] tag (without spaces, just added those so they would appear here) and it works better now. Generally I prefer this method as it lets users resize the image for their screen.

Odd- they both are working fine for me. I'll try using that tag instead of the [ img ] tag that gets put in when I click the "insert photo" button in case others were having issues as well!

In other news, that water to the south is a fresh water lake!




I'm glad I explored down there early to avoid any surprises. It did look just like a peninsula with land only to the west. Now I have a southern expanse to explore!