[SPOILER] Dark Savant's thread: Competition for limited resources remains a constant

[Dark Savant]

England got taken by Krill.  That's beastly later in the game, but provides no advantage other than starting techs for a very long time.

Also, he has GermanJoey as a dedlurker, apparently.  Hmm.

TBW took Rome.

Those were both civilizations I would have been good but not thrilled with.

[Dark Savant]

Next off the block is Ethiopia.

Good techs for this start, and the new version can be leveraged to generate an early Great Merchant for an early bulb of Currency or Metal Casting.

I already played it, though; it's not high on my list.

No one is in a hurry to take Carthage, Portugal, the Vikings, or the Zulu?  I thought those would be picked relatively early.

Getting a civ/leader pairing I'll be happy with is clearly not going to be a problem.  

[Dark Savant]

Native America got taken by Elkad.  That confers a tremendous defensive advantage as usual, but even now that it actually provides some kind of economic edge, it wasn't high on my list.

pindicator took the first leader.  Pacal II got taken, the first choice in regular BtS became the first leader here.  Hmm.  I wonder if that'll cause a run on Financial leaders?

[Dark Savant]

Gavagai took Germany, which was high on my list.

Rusten took India, which wasn't; I didn't think anyone would take new India.

Let's look at the overall strategies I can pursue.

• Religion: probably a no-go; I can't take any civ that can hire extra priests, and more people are taking Mysticism civs than I thought would happen.
  
• Wonders: I might be the first person willing to take Industrious; I probably have significant breathing space for this.  Germany was the top pick for this, but that's hardly mandatory.
  
• Land military: +3 XP for RtR-Statue of Zeus is worth pursuing just for one city, and America, Greece, and Japan have all been buffed to get a lesser bonus in many cities.  Stacking one of these with Aggressive and/or Charismatic might be fun.  I doubt it's an optimal selection, but this is technically a test game.
  
• Sea military: Portugal and the Vikings are both still on the table, somehow.
  
• Great people: Hmm, perhaps I can pair the Khmer with Philosophical?  That not only gives me food to feed more specialists, I can also hire additional Artists in the new version of RtR.  Eh.  I'd rather play for wonders or war.
  

[Dark Savant]

Beardbeard took the Holy Roman Empire, which was the only remaining Mysticism start I had much enthusiasm for.  So many Mysticism starts!

Wonders or war?

Playing for wonders amounts to trying for either the Oracle or the Great Lighthouse.  Though if someone takes Bismarck, that becomes significantly less attractive.  My tentative plan is to play for wonders, unless anyone Industrious is taken before I pick, in which case I play for war.

I'm traveling to Los Angeles this weekend.  I won't be driving, so the car trip will give me plenty of time to overthink this.  

[Dark Savant]

I've arrived in Los Angeles, with only Adler to pick before me.

More leaders start getting taken:

Mehmed II, a fine choice, but not something I particularly want at the end of the snake pick.
Boudica, which was my first choice if aiming for war, but I have a backup there.

That means I'm guaranteed either Bismarck (Expansive/Industrious) or Tokugawa (Aggressive/Protective).

I'm not sure whether to take Carthage or Mali with Bismarck.  Nothing else available looks compelling paired with Bismarck; both offer an economy UB and an early enough UU to help keep trouble away while I'm building Ancient/Classical wonders.

If Bismarck gets taken, I probably won't be able to resist Tokugawa of the Americans, the worst combination in standard Beyond the Sword.

[Dark Savant]

Path clear to Bismarck of Mali.  Let's play guinea pig on wonder building!

I'm not really interested in the improved Mint so much as the capacity to keep early attackers out of my hair.

I have the option to choke someone else should the opportunity arise, too.  Unlikely; I probably can't afford to fund expansion and wonders and any sort of military venture, and the chance that the opportunity will both be there and a good payoff is not that high anyway.  But it's there.

There's also the question of which wonders to pursue, but I don't need to decide that immediately.

[Dark Savant]

Let's see.

Adler is Julius Caesar (Imp/Org) of Sumeria, which is a very solid combination to expand and actually afford it.  I would have wanted to take Sumeria if they had better starting technologies.
superdeath is Boudica (Agg/Chm) of America, which is now a combination to rush someone hard.  He's going to supply for the lurkers, as usual. 

Beardbeard is Charlemagne (Imp/Pro) of the Holy Roman Empire, which means he's going to be unusually difficult to attack in the Medieval Era in this version of RtR.

Rusten is Isabella (Exp/Spi) of India.  He gets to play the Spiritual game I wanted to try.

Gavagai is Stalin (Agg/Ind) of Germany.    Currently, the only other Industrious leader.  He's got a lot of incentive to try for an early Oracle, and little for an early Stonehenge.

Elkad is Churchill (Chm/Pro) of Native America.  I suppose that's one way of deterring getting invaded, isn't it. 

2MetraNinja is Mao Zedong (Exp/Pro) of Ethiopia.  That's a lot of early-game strength, and he's going to eventually get automatic Drill IV Oromo Warriors.

TBW is Shaka (Exp/Agg) of Rome.  That's still brutal to deal with, and the other player I don't have any desire to start next to.

Krill is Hannibal (Chm/Fin) of England.  I was wondering how many other people were going to take Financial.  And I thought part of the point of Charismatic was to build boats with more promotions, but this is technically a test game.

GeneralKilCavalry is Darius (Fin/Org) of the Aztecs.  I'm unconvinced Org with the new Sacrificial Altar is that great a payoff; I'd rather pair the Aztecs with Spiritual, to have both Slavery and Caste System available.

[Dark Savant]

That's a lot of Expansive players, isn't it?  (Then again, who doesn't like Expansive?)

That's not a lot of Industrious players so far; I thought more people would take that, it's significantly stronger than normal.  It's not because Industrious got directly buffed; it has more to do with the no wonder resource bonus option.

And the Pyramids are going to be very costly to normally construct, with both Industrious and Stone providing no bonus.  It might not be worth much if the map lacks food, but this map script typically provides a lot of seafood, so odds are good it will be worth it.  That means a good path of getting the Pyramids is using the Oracle to take Metal Casting, have a forge ready to build ASAP, running an engineer, and slam-dunking the Pyramids with the resulting Great Engineer.

Both Gavagai and I have UBs that are forges, which suggests we're both inclined to try for the Oracle.  Someone remaining may still take FDR (Ind/Org) and go all-in on the Great Lighthouse.  I reserve the right to try that instead if the Oracle doesn't look like a strong play.  (I've seriously tried for the Great Lighthouse in all games where I lasted long enough.  That failed by 1 turn in PB37 and 2 turns in PB39.)

And with all this talk of wonders, I need some way of deterring invasion.  An Expansive start and skirmishers should be enough.

[Dark Savant]

  I have a lot of pet peeves. 

One of them is the British military causing strange emphases in what people know.  Example: prioritizing knowledge about South Africa and the Zulu over sub-Saharan Western Africa, and the Horn of Africa.

You'd think Americans would emphasize the latter; most African-Americans are descended from slaves taken from sub-Saharan Western Africa, and Christianity in Ethiopia has a very long history.  Instead, you're more likely to hear about things like Nelson Mandela and apartheid; the Battles of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift; and oh the Zulu are the primary sub-Saharan African civilization in the first three Civilization games.

That got fixed in Civ 4; Mali existed in the base game, before the Zulu were introduced in Warlords.

People reading this probably know about the Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire.  Those aren't really distinct civilizations, in the sense that the Tang dynasty and the Song dynasty aren't really distinct civilizations.

So for a city naming scheme, I'm going to use actual sub-Saharan African cities that weren't part of the Mali Empire.  I'm assuming most people have at least seen the names of many of those cities.