[PB57] Pindicator searches for his mascot

[Serdoa]

General's Cry is very fun in my opinion. If you can get the new shoes that produce corpses behind you, you do not need to use cyclone->desecrate even. Just walk around (but it works well with Cyclone -> Desecrate, just be wary of corpse exploders). I actually used Blade Flurry with the clones which I thought would be shit but worked out very well. Better than Earthquake and Earthshatter, which both felt like the clones needed too long till they affected anything. Consecrated Path is the obvious choice of course, but ... well, that wouldn't be off-beat. Really off-beat could be Charged Dash for the clones - I only tested it briefly, it seems to work but probably needs area to have enough impact (if it is viable at all).

You could use Dominating Blow with such a build. I would do Berserker though as that new node that gives 50% more damage for exerted attacks if you sacrificed rage is really strong as all attacks by clones count as exerted. The build really needs that first lab, before you get that node it didn't feel very good. Though obviously you could start with Dom.Blow and then change over to Generals Cry later on. 

Animate Weapon I don't like. They are not aggressive enough - in older versions the weapons flew in front of you, now they trail back and you get stuck in monster hordes. Basically they acted like Arakaali's Fang spiders and now like Zombies...

[NobleHelium]

[pindicator]

Well hunting/ mining looks like a great starting combination no matter which civ it comes with

[pindicator]

My turn to pick, and I guess the fire has gone out for Ethiopia a bit. Not that I won't take it, I just want to look at other civs a little now too.

I will be picking a civ first, though. With Gavagai taking a leader that means we'll have second-to-last leader pick and with a smaller number of players I'd like to wait and see what falls before making my choice of traits.

[Tarkeel]

With Gavagai taking a leader that means we'll have second-to-last leader pick and with a smaller number of players I'd like to wait and see what falls before making my choice of traits.

I think you missed that this game is a line pick, not a snake pick, which means you don't know how many have picked a leader when it comes back to you.

Full pick order:

Gavagai
Cornflakes
Pindicator
Old Harry
The Black Sword
Gavagai
Cornflakes
Pindicator
Old Harry
The Black Sword

For what it's worth, I think Ethiopia looks very interesting in the RrT version.

[pindicator]

Oh yeah, it does work like that. Well, I guess it shows how much attention I've been giving this game lately. (More of my time is focused on wrapping my head around the concept of a toroid for 58.)

Anyway, I talked myself out of Ethiopia. Also because I've always wanted to do an RtR game with the Aztecs and then Krill went and buffed their UB even more so I figure this is a good time for that.

[Tarkeel]

I'm not looking forward to having to play on said toroid. I really wanted to make Asoka of Azteca work in a game, but 58 is not that game.

[pindicator]

With 500 points we're looking at 3 cities, 3 workers and a scout as the most likely starting allocation.  Just going to call that the default and we can entertain anything more radical later.



Could also consider 5 cities and nothing but I'm not sure the growth will be as good.  Also you're probably picking blind for the last 2 city spots since you can grab all the food with 3 cities.  Still, if I had time on my hand that would be a good thing to compare (or read back over 53 to see what they did).


So the 3 city locations that jump out to me are:

1. 1 South of the sugar
2. SW of the plains cow (highlighted)
3. 1E of the corn (sharing corn and sheep, picking up the elephants)

Alternatively, you can try for settling on top of the sugar and go:

1B. On top of sugar
2.  SW of the plains cow (same as before)
3B. 1S of the corn.  Normally I'd want to say 1E of the corn again to pick of the elephants, but there's no guarantee of what's in the fog.  Well, you could quibble that the tiles you can see indicate water west of the sheep and a quick access to the clam.  Noble: can you clarify if fog gazing is safe or are these subject to change?


Yet wait!  There's a juicy island that we really need to look at settling because that's going to be 2c trade routes straight-away and before Sailing.  And yet without a fishing civ is this really advised?   Somethign else to look into.  If say I were to put my 3rd city on that island instead of putting where it would share corn/sheep then I would be trading early production for early commerce.  Normally not a good comparison, but how much are we looking at?  Sims are needed.  Is there time to do them?

Christmas is coming and it is looking busy, even without the normal gatherings.

[NobleHelium]

I make no assurances as to the accuracy of the fog.

[pindicator]

Some quick thoughts on a leader as I procrastinate this Christmas morning:

PRO and ORG seem like winners for getting the whipping going in new cities. However, this is also RtR where slavery is not a strong civic after the mid game, and so even with Aztecs I wonder if I should embrace SPI for swapping civics. Could run a pattern of:

T1 - revolt into slavery, round of whips
T6 - 2nd round of whips, revolt into serfdom/ whatever
T11 - revolt to slavery, whips

I also want to play IND because it feels like one of those traits I never pick. But maybe I just accept SPI as IND-lite for the quick Org Rel.

So that gives me Saladin and Asoka as possible leaders.

But what about IMP?