[PB56] NobleHelium Tells It Like It Is

[Gaspar]

I like bankrupt retail chains, fwiw. There are a LOT to choose from.

[NobleHelium]

I will now rate and/or comment on the picks.  THIS IS ONLY ABOUT THE PICKS.  I am NOT ranking the players along with the picks this time, although there will also be some comments on the players.  Other than the clear winner in Victoria, these are NOT ranked in order.

Victoria (FIN/IMP) of England played by Amicalola

This is the best pick in this game.  I think stock exchanges and redcoats are both a bit overrated but banks are really quite cheap with FIN.  Fishing/Mining is a reasonable set of starting techs for this map, although it is not great for our start specifically.  But if he started with an inner ring PFH for example things become substantially different.

Nebuchadnezzar (IND/PHI) of Inca played by El Grillo

Pretty soon I will be able to spell Nebuchadnezzar thanks to CtH.  This is a very intriguing pick, using the civilization as a crutch for an expansion trait to pick an all-in ultra synergistic leader.  Will be interesting to see how it works out for him.  I might be inclined to experiment with Inca in a future game where there is a dry grain at my capital (this is not a hint to give me a dry grain in my next game - I prefer wet grains, thanks).  Grillo is certainly one of the better players in the game.

Catherine (CRE/IMP) of Mongolia played by giraflorens

Catherine was no doubt picked by mackoti and it has his fingerprints written all over it.  mackoti is particularly fond of CRE and he recognizes the power of IMP and CRE in the current RB map meta.  It is the equivalent of Suryavarman in BTS.  This is a good pick but we'll have to see how the lack of a pure economic trait works out for them.  mackoti is good at working the economic angle of CRE with its cheaper libraries, however.  Also mackoti has backdoored into countless Pitbosses and could be eyeing this game for a backdoor.  I generally despise backdooring into games, although it's not as bad as smurfing or abusing grey areas in the rules.  Mongolia is a pretty good civ, although I'm not sure it's that good for this game specifically.

Suleiman (IMP/PHI) of Khmer played by civac2

Interesting pick.  civac is used to single player and also used to base BTS with no bans.  He is very fond of stacks of elephants and catapults, which excel in single player and are also popular in the Civforum.de meta.  However things are a bit different here at RB.  Certainly that is a good defensive stack and can take a border city or two, but it's not necessarily the most effective way to expand your territory via war. (In Deity difficulty it can make the most sense to only aim for 1-2 cities because more would be very costly in maintenance.) Made a ridiculous vote for Restricted Leaders in the pregame, which everyone ignored and maybe someone other than me stifled a chuckle.  Anyway, it's clear why he picked the civ so that he gets access to normal unnerfed elephants.  Philosophical is also not a surprising pick, because SP players tend to be fond of making GP bulbing plans at the start of the game.  I prefer not to lock myself into a rigid gameplan, because no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Genghis Khan (AGG/IMP) of Rome played by Mjmd

Mjmd has finally decided to try something other than India and decides to mix it up with a relatively obvious AGG pairing.  Perhaps he's specifically trying to improve on his warring with this pick.  He may conquer a neighbor if he spawns next to one of the weakest players.  He is also improving quicker than I anticipated and I think he is legitimately one of the better players in this game now.  But I expect his pick to hamper him long term.  Rome is one of the best Fishing/Mining civs, either better or on par with England.  Also, I am NOT fond of how he posts (complains constantly, spams ellipses, general grating tone) and how he tries to call dibs on turn splits via PMs.

Gilgamesh (CRE/PRO) of Carthage played by Jowy
Wang Kon (FIN/PRO) of Spain played by Ruff_Hi
Washington (EXP/CHA) of the Ottomans played by Mr. Cairo

These are obvious synergy picks but overall I am not impressed by them.  Synergy improves the sum of the parts, but sometimes it's better just to have better parts. I would have picked Mao as Jowy because cothons are more expensive than regular harbors.

Sitting Bull (PHI/PRO) of Byzantium played by Lazteuq

Byzantium is likely awful to start with in a start similar to ours.  He also has no expansion traits.  I expect he'll be squeezed by his neighbors and not build more than four cataphracts, if he gets there at all.  Good target for Mjmd.

[superdeath]

I assume "mackoti backdoors" means that he just becomes the primary turnplayer? Or is it just giving more advice/micro than even a fintourist/hitru dedlurker would?

[NobleHelium]

I assume "mackoti backdoors" means that he just becomes the primary turnplayer?

Yes.

[NobleHelium]

Played turn 0.



There is silver on the presumed island across the channel. We can settle that spot after the t50 border pop, although we aren't likely to have Sailing by then. We can also settle on the PH which gets the PH bonus and shares fish with the capital, but does not make use of the clam.

Gira logged in several times but did not settle or end his turn. Perhaps he needs permission from mackoti before settling.

I decided to go with Magic cards and will be mostly using one-word card names.



Brainstorm is one of the most famous cards of all time for serious players. By putting cards back into your library (deck), you can then shuffle your deck using another card and in essence get rid of bad cards in your hand and replace them with three new cards. Drawing three new cards for one mana is extremely above par and it is thus one of the most powerful cards of all time. There are also various additional applications which I won't get into right now. This is a suitable card for the capital of a game which is centered around thinking.

Also, I don't care for the old fogey obsession with the old card frame or original art. (This is one of the newer art versions of this card.) Most of the old Magic art is awful because they weren't able to afford higher quality art back then or pay the artists enough. New art is generally much higher in quality. The new card frame is also much more readable than the old one, which is why they changed it to begin with.

[superdeath]

i sure hope that Fireball makes the cut

[NobleHelium]

Probably, if you gave me a fiery city location nearby.

[superdeath]

Probably, if you gave me a fiery city location nearby.

So nothing but desert right?

[NobleHelium]

There are plenty of desert-related cards to use.

[superdeath]

Perfect