CIV VI PBEM

[marcopolothefraud]

I think that's an unironically excellent idea. We still haven't played with Sweden, Kublai Khan, Gandhi, Kongo, Gilgamesh, Scotland, and tons of other bottom tier civs.

[suboptimal]

Ghandi (PBEM 3), Gilgamesh (PBEM 8), Kongo (PBEM 10) and Scotland (PBEM 14) have all made appearances in prior games.

[williams482]

Honestly, excluding the truly egregiously horrific, original-player-quits-before-playing-a-turn, spend-half-your-posts-ripping-on-your-civ level of bad, I think the lesser civs ought to produce some pretty great games against others of their ilk. I can personally attest that this game has enough interesting complexities that playing a (basically) vanilla civ is still fun. Games between actual strong civs feel like they are usually dominated by the handful of things those good civs do well, and although that's going to stay true dropping down a few tiers, having lesser tricks up their sleeves places more emphasis on strong fundamentals.

Which is to say, yes! I agree! Just don't make me play Canada ever again.

[Woden]

Honestly, excluding the truly egregiously horrific, original-player-quits-before-playing-a-turn, spend-half-your-posts-ripping-on-your-civ level of bad, I think the lesser civs ought to produce some pretty great games against others of their ilk. I can personally attest that this game has enough interesting complexities that playing a (basically) vanilla civ is still fun. Games between actual strong civs feel like they are usually dominated by the handful of things those good civs do well, and although that's going to stay true dropping down a few tiers, having lesser tricks up their sleeves places more emphasis on strong fundamentals.

Which is to say, yes! I agree! Just don't make me play Canada ever again.

I think we should make a real Canada map and have a "Provinces of Canada" game were everybody is Canada and they fight over who control Canada.

[Ichabod]

Good game, everyone. It was a very pleasant experience throughout this whole year. I appreciate the understanding about the various delays that I caused and that we kept it casual and fun-oriented. 

I loved the map. Very natural looking.

I got the Work Ethic change gifted to me, in a perfect setup. Still managed to get destroyed. 

By the way, the first time I've seen a Civ 6 nuke was in this game. It got old pretty quickly, I have to say. 

[Woden]

By the way, the first time I've seen a Civ 6 nuke was in this game. It got old pretty quickly, I have to say. 

Me too. First time really using aircraft too. 

As for nukes, I tested a bunch before I dropped the nukes since I never used them before. For future reference, the best way to defend against nukes is to have a fighter and anti-air gun in the city center. Nine out of 10 times that was enough to stop an un-promoted bomber from dropping the payload. Add a battleship and it is pretty much guaranteed to fail. You have to be able to bring the bomber health below 50%, then it won't drop the nuke. 

Lucky for me, I think suboptimal only had 1 city where I didn't try to nuke with bombers because of this. I had to use a missile, where I think SAMs are the only option to stop them.

Edit: And if you aren't aware yet, I have videos of a bunch of nukes in my thread. The animation is pretty cool.

[Woden]

@Ichabod,
Good job on stacking those combat strength bonuses. I think you had a +12 CS advantage on my first attack that I was able to negate over time but the second war, with your +9 for diplomatic visibility, plus everything else, was crazy. Without nukes, I don't think I would have been able to make any gains against you. Well played!

And @Kaiser,
Thanks for building such a great city in Gordon Malloy. Pulling 300 per turn let me finish the Manhattan Project in 5 turns and build a nuke every 3 turns. Without it, no way could I have launched such a devastating nuclear war.

[williams482]

By the way, the first time I've seen a Civ 6 nuke was in this game. It got old pretty quickly, I have to say. 

Me too. First time really using aircraft too. 

As for nukes, I tested a bunch before I dropped the nukes since I never used them before. For future reference, the best way to defend against nukes is to have a fighter and anti-air gun in the city center. Nine out of 10 times that was enough to stop an un-promoted bomber from dropping the payload. Add a battleship and it is pretty much guaranteed to fail. You have to be able to bring the bomber health below 50%, then it won't drop the nuke. 

Lucky for me, I think suboptimal only had 1 city where I didn't try to nuke with bombers because of this. I had to use a missile, where I think SAMs are the only option to stop them.

Edit: And if you aren't aware yet, I have videos of a bunch of nukes in my thread. The animation is pretty cool.

That is very useful information. Also explains why Foggy Dewhurst never got a bomb dropped on it, and reaffirms the point that there was nothing at all poor Canada could have done to prevent a nuclear onslaught if you chose to send one against us. 

And I should say: congratulations on an absolutely dominant performance. Well executed, well earned, and in the end completely unambiguous.

[suboptimal]

I guess the question with nukes is what happens if you send two. My recollection is that AA units only shoot once per opponent's turn but I could be wrong on that. That also explains why my capital never got the Uranium Hammer.

@Woden: what were your cities in your "industrial heartland" (IIRC south of Osgilath) getting in terms of production before they got obliterated? I thought I was doing OK with high 90's/low 100's at Truly & Cleggy given my terrain and layout but those must have been mid 100's, no? 300, well, that explains a lot.

[suboptimal]

I don't think any tweaks to AA are necessary. Thermonukes are supposed to be more powerful versions and if people are getting up through the tech tree then Mobile SAM coverage should not be too difficult (in theory).

I also think until/unless we see more games in the modern era we shouldn't mess with things. This game, compared to the 19 before it, was an anomaly partly because I think we all expected to get into the late game given the civs we were playing and played accordingly. (imho)