[LURKERS] Civ 6 PBEM 15: May the Odds be Ever In Your Favor

[MJW (ya that one)]

Well it looks like woden wants you to use the kick to SP to check for Nan Madol or possible save mistake thing.

[Exrook]

I've looked at the save with 'reveal all', and Nan Madol is not one of the city states. Woden has the save, and we should be good to go.

[williams482]

Japper has easily the best start here, and Suboptimal's looks better than Woden's or Pindicator's.

[MJW (ya that one)]

Free settler from pantheon would be added to my banned list as well.

[Banzailizard]

In retrospect we should have cut out, or otherwise moved the furs in the first ring of Jester's capital.  No one else got lux resources that close which pushes them to expand.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

In retrospect we should have cut out, or otherwise moved the furs in the first ring of Jester's capital.  No one else got lux resources that close which pushes them to expand.

wait, are you saying it's an unfair advantage for Jester, or that it's going to lure him into poor gameplay choices by not expanding?

[Banzailizard]

In retrospect we should have cut out, or otherwise moved the furs in the first ring of Jester's capital.  No one else got lux resources that close which pushes them to expand.

wait, are you saying it's an unfair advantage for Jester, or that it's going to lure him into poor gameplay choices by not expanding?

To some extent I meant both actually; its a short term advantage but might lead to poor long term decisions.  That being said, I would stress the former as being more problematic. It looks like many lux resources near capitals are in areas of low production meaning a sub-optimal city will probably need to be dropped to claim them. Further, even if the map encourages a bad habit, if Jester fails to expand quickly enough that is ultimately his mistake.  The single fur is probably not major unbalancing factor either way as housing is the bigger growth cap, but I wanted to point it out.

[williams482]

Jester's play is baffling so far. His 1st and 2nd best tiles only get a little extra gold from improvements, so the early worker isn't a huge help, and he definitely has the production to kick out a settler as his second build. Instead, he's planning go to warrior -> builder -> slinger -> scout before starting to expand? Sure the land isn't that great, but he's going to settle it at some point, and the earlier the better.

I don't want to be overly harsh here, but I suspect the other three players would be well on their way to a commanding lead if they had been given this start.

[Banzailizard]

Jester's play is baffling so far. His 1st and 2nd best tiles only get a little extra gold from improvements, so the early worker isn't a huge help, and he definitely has the production to kick out a settler as his second build. Instead, he's planning go to warrior -> builder -> slinger -> scout before starting to expand? Sure the land isn't that great, but he's going to settle it at some point, and the earlier the better.

I don't want to be overly harsh here, but I suspect the other three players would be well on their way to a commanding lead if they had been given this start.

I agree with you on this almost entirely. There is some benefit to the builder first in that it boosts the all important craftsmanship civic, and it lets him scout more for a second city site.  I think a settler might still have been better, but this was not a terrible decision.  The slinger and scout are confusing though, especially in that order.  Scouts are far more useful out sooner to try and meet city states, not after you've already built 4 units. I am not sure what he plans to do with those units, and I do not think he is sure either.

I think that Pin and Suboptimal will be the most interesting pair to watch, and not just for the quality of their play.  Pin will have a defensive position he can strike out of with the Inca tunnel ability. Suboptimal though has less blocking him to claim more of the land between them, and more of an incentive to claim that northwest peninsula.  Pin has to cross dessert and mountains to get there.  I expect they may stalemate with Greece having a bit more land but being unable to break into the Inca homeland until midgame navies let him get around the mountains.   This may all be moot if Woden just eats Jester.

[williams482]

Looks like Jester won't have a settler out until the early t30s? That's solid in IV, but not so much here.

I'm just pilling on here, but yikes. Not going settler second was questionable, building anything other than a settler after that slinger (repeat for every subsequent build) is pretty much inexcusable under these circumstance.