Innocent Ichabod takes on Tyrant thrawn

[Ichabod]

I'm here to kick some gum and chew some ass and I'm all out of gum... 

Wait, that doesn't sound right...

How much of a beating do I want to take? I'm considering taking Mapuche, because I like SA civs and screwing uo GA plans seems nice. Also considering Korea, because of cheap Campuses and early field cannons. Rome and Mongolia also crossed my main. Zulu as well.

How would you guys go about choosing a duel Civ?

[Krill]

So I'm happy to ded lurk you Ichabod, if you are going to be doing regular updates?

[Ichabod]

Sounds nice. I'll make a proper post about the Civs I'm considering then.

[Woden]

If you want to stomp all over your opponent, I would choose Alexander. No war wariness, science from building units, and General points from kills, what more could you ask for.

[Ichabod]

Lets try and find a civ to pick. We have the basic rule that is valid for all civ games; early bonuses are usually better than late bonuses. Since this is a duel, I think military bonuses will be of greater significance, as the game becomes zero sum. But there are economic bonuses powerful enough to warrant a pick as well.

Initial thoughts:

Considering:

*Arabia - The last prophet bonus is actually interesting in a duel, since you'll get your religion as soon as your opponent gets his. That does not change the fact that you'll need a HS anyway to actually found the religon (so you need the investment). Worship buildings are very late, because you need temples and temples are expensive. The Madrassa is an university replacement that should be available earlier, I think, but since we are playing with tech shuffle, that becomes more random. The Mamluk replaces a very useful unit in the knight, but the bonus is not that good, as units heal very little in foreign land. If we combine Mamluks with an Apostle with the Medic promotion, perhaps it gets better. Most bonuses are mid game stuff, which isn't the best. No straight up combat bonus. Interesting pick, likely not the best.

*Aztec - We asked for a map that would give space for some early development, so the eagle warrior loses a bit of its value. Still, it's a very powerful early unit. I don't remember if the ability works against CS units, but we have a house rule not to abuse CS's. The bonus for luxury resources can perhaps be good, but I should probably know a bit more about expected number of different luxury resources in a tiny map before commiting. The builder -> district is probably better mid/late, when buiilders can get supercharged, I don't think it makes that much of a difference.

*Cree - Good early development with the TR bonuses. If the Capital has a lot of pasture and Camp resources, we can take a longer look at this pick.

*France, with Catherine - +3 CS to all units from the get go. Spies are way better in a duel, if we get that late. Early spy will give +3 CS as well and, since they start as agents with a free promo, there's a chance for +6 CS. Interesting, but probably not strong enough.

*Germany - military policies are always useful. Extra district can help. Hansas are cheaper, which is always nice. CS's will be bascally free cities and the +7 strength makes them easier to capture with warriors. High chance that thrawn picks this, I think.

*Greek, with Gorgo - Acropolis is a UD, which are always nice for the cheaper cost (envoys won't be that useful, I think). Free wildcard policy, always helpful. Hoplite got buffed with the nerf to melee units CS bonus against anty-cav and with access to production cards. Extra culture from kills is nice, but even if this is an AW duels, I'm not sure if we'll be constantly skirmishing or if the game will just end after a decisive attack (which means that not a lot of combat will happen, in practice).

*Indonesia - Incredibly powerful naval civ. Depending on the map, it could be great. Even if thrawn counters this pick by settling inland only, reducing your opponent options by this much is already a great boon.

*Japan - Perhaps I value district discounts too much, but I really like Hojo's ability. It makes planning for discounted districts very easy. We can start with 2 HS's or 2 Camps and go from there. Meiji Restoration helps with culture and science. CS bonus can be meaningful in some scenarios.

*Korea - Unique Campus is great. Very cheap + 4 science adjacency from the get go is very good (and it may give some bonus to mines as well). It's not so easy to get +4 in a regular campus as the wiki says it is. Hwacha is a Field Cannon that comes way sooner, which is great. Not being able to move and shoot is certainly a problem, but even so. The plus culture and science for governors buffs Pingala a bit, but it's not that big of a deal. High chance that thrawn picks this. 

Not considering:

*America
*Brazil
*Canada Even the 
*China
*Dutch
*Egypt
*England
*Georgia
*Inca
*India
*Khmer
*Kongo

Banned:

*Russia
*Sumeria
*Scythia
*Australia
*Hungary

Second part coming a bit later.

[Krill]

Well, couple of thoughts from someone that hasn't played many duels and has very limited understanding of Civ 6 (but I like reading the reports, they are all generally more entertaining than Civ 4 reports )

Even though it's a duel it's not really zero sum; it would be if you could understand all of the consequences of the decisions you make but Civ 6 seems that complicated, and there is enough randomness in disasters, CS quests, barbs and the like that it seems shortsighted to view the game that way.

ie something that is meh for you and bad for the other guy at first glance, or considering immediate tactical considerations might actually be bad for you as it pulls you away from a threshold of achiving a win condition. I'm specifically thinking of the level of excess production, military power and such like, to achieve an objective can be so high that you need to focus on what helps you, perhaps more than what hurts your opponent.

All that to say: Find a win condition, and find one that has the least possible that can go wrong with it in terms of terrain, CS being unhelpful (I'm thinking a double or triple CS army levee crashing down on you etc) or your opponent pulling the trigger before you.

[suboptimal]

Good evening. Here is your start:




Please note that as a duel-sized map only one continent is typically available. After making a couple of attempts I left this aspect of the map as it was. As a result the inspiration for Foreign Trade is not available this game.

[Ichabod]

@suboptimal: Thanks.

@Woden: you are right about Macedonia. So right that we banned it.

@Krill: solid advice. Regarding win conditions, I think the best way to win is to achieve a decisive military advantage. That can be achieved with technological advantage or through military bonuses stacked on same era units (like, for example, getting corps with Zulu before your opponent + a GG). I think those are the two things we should look up in our pick -> science bonuses or straight military bonuses.

Our starting position feels really bad. Best tile to work is a 2/2, which is reasonable, I guess, but after that, we have almost no decent tiles in first and second ring. The land is terrible for districts as well, with no mountains or rivers. There's a chance that the in-place settle is coastal as well. Man, what a terrible start.

This start points me to Korea, I think. A Sewon in the Cap would get +4 science, while the best Campus I can see is... well, +0. I think thrawn will have something similar to this, so Korea would be a straight up science advantage. Tech shuffle changes things a bit, but I'm guessing we would reach knights way earlier than him with any other Civ. If I were to pick Korea, I'd likely move the settler to settle on the tea. That's tea already improved and +1 science per turn from the get go, + fresh water. If we can get a Sewon to the south (requires a hill 2S of the tea, for example), those two mines would get +1 science as well. Either way, we could always get a Sewon on the tile the settler started.

Any other Civ would make the starting terrain suck a bit less? I can see Japan, going for a district spam strategy and using the adjacency advantage. That would result in some good Campuses later on, specially if we settle our cities tightly packed. While we do this, the coastal bonus would help us a bit, perhaps. Another advantage of Japan is that it has the fastest religion possible, I think (since Russia is banned, maybe barring China).

I will probably go over the Civs I'm missing and think about it some more.

Any ideas, Krill? Thoughts about the starting position?

[Krill]

Asking me for advice is a bad idea. I know nothing.

Warrior rush? Celts?

[Ichabod]

Celts are from the new DLC, which we aren't using. I'd love them, though.

I choose Japan.