Josh's Civ 4 memoir. Chapter 2

[Charriu]

JesseL and TBS - Churchill of Germany
Shocked that these guys chose Germany, terrible UU and UB but good techs, did they really choose germany just for the techs?? Ethipia has the same techs but yet a somewhat useful UB and somewhat useful UU, Russia has the same starting techs and a more will be able to use their UU and UB earlier so im just confused, do they really think this game will last last until theyre able to use tanks? I dont know whether theyre crazy or its me thats crazy. Churchill is good, with protective it makes me really think these guys want to play until they get tanks. Ill be willing to bet my house that they dont get to tanks but interested to see what happens. Tbs is well renowned so I guess I shouldnt underestimate but its really hard. 
Threat level: Crazy/5

I will win the game obvs but in a parralel universe I imagine Bing_xi_lao and GKC are very likely to win, so i hope they get stalled by one of the defensive players like incas or mali.

Josh out.

Germany is changed in the mod:

• Germany UB: Assembly Plant available at Steam Power instead of Assembly line, +2 hammer
  
• Germany UU: NEW Riesengarde - replace Grenadier, available at Chemistry, starts with Pinch
  

[joshybravo963]

Germany is changed in the mod:

• Germany UB: Assembly Plant available at Steam Power instead of Assembly line, +2 hammer
  
• Germany UU: NEW Riesengarde - replace Grenadier, available at Chemistry, starts with Pinch
  

Ah I should really learn the changes. Ok much better than previously thought , i guess with TBS mastermind you can defend until you find some sort of bulb path to get chemistry early, still unlikely to make much of a difference by that point in the game. 
New threat level: Not so crazy but clearly men of God to have the faith needed to last until chemistry and still be able to make a big difference/5

[Tarkeel]

ive officially decided that superdeath is my nemesis now so i hope these guys are close to give me more reason to take some sort of revenge and fix the error of my ways in PB59.

It really isn't good for you to carry baggage between games.

[joshybravo963]

ive officially decided that superdeath is my nemesis now so i hope these guys are close to give me more reason to take some sort of revenge and fix the error of my ways in PB59.

It really isn't good for you to carry baggage between games.

Im just trying to create drama and tension where there is none haha. I have nothing against him at all. And hes only dedlurking so wouldnt really mean anything even if I win. Only light hearted fun! Promise

[joshybravo963]

Forgot to say thanks Charriu! for correcting my misconception earlier, appreciate it.

Day 1. 

A new beginning and a new start, a new chapter. Lets hope I make less mistakes this time.
Settled on the spot obviously, and will send my scout north west and make it go around my capital. Excied and still hopeful. I hope to recieve the favour and hearts of the viewers in this Pitboss battle to the death. Bring it on.

   

Josh out.

[Charriu]

Your welcome.

[Amicalola]

I'm hoping Joshy will start to report as things get more interesting, but for now some tidbits to tide the lurkers over. We've scouted the north-west and west, which look like a coastal backline. So far, the map looks very food-rich, and happy-mediocre. Which makes our pick amazing, if it's really the case!

- - -

I promised Joshy I'd talk about picks, and then promptly forgot about it. So belatedly, here's that.

There's bias here, but the first pick I really like is ours! Charismatic looks amazing on this map, as does Imperialistic. As long as we can do a little micro and pick smart city sites early on, I think we will be very well-positioned to crush someone with a classical-era attack. Something else I really like about our pick is that I think it reinforces a lot of civ fundamentals that I struggled with initially:

- Whipping settlers (more intuitive with IMP) and workers. This pick intuitively emphasises food for whipping/growth, which you'd want to do in most games anyway. 
- working cottages early to pay for our expansion, which we'll be very glad we did later on.
- Whipping repeatedly during the expansion phase, then growing cities tall during the economic push for Currency and Construction, before whipping them to the ground again to build an unstoppable force.
- Fighting an aggressive war of conquest (I might need to learn with you here )

These are all things you'd want to do in any game, but our pick incentivises them strongly. So I'm really pleased, and looking forward to helping you out with any questions.

- - -

I think the other best picks of the game are Bellarch's Victoria of Inca and Bing Xi Lao's Hannibal of Mongolia. Bellarch is set up for an extremely fast expansion phase, and the ability to pay for it. Bing just needs 6-8 high quality cities by T80 (doable with the lushness of the map), and can then pick between a keshik rush or a knight rush; I like either.

In the middling tier we have Rekenner's Catherine of Mali, JackRB's Julius Caesar of Khmer, and Vanrober's Asoka of India. I think all of these have a clear gameplan, and could definitely still win. Rekenner can claim a lot of land, JackRB can do the same, and Vanrober can do some cool things with Serfdom. I think we disagree the most on Vanrober's pick, because Serfdom can be really strong in the right context. But I like the first picks better, and think the tool they're working with are slightly stronger.

Finally, as you correctly identified, JesseL's Churchill of Germany is definitely the weakest pick here. There's little in the way of power or synergy; Churchill is playable with some civs, but Germany isn't one of them. But good play, and diplomatic context, matter at least as much as picks; JesseL is still entirely capable of winning too. I'd just say he has the lowest chance in a vacuum.

[Tarkeel]

Playing PB58 (which was a game that went long) gave me some newfound appreciation of Germany. At first glance, having factories at SteamPower instead of AssemblyLine looks like "just one tech earlier", but that's very deceiving as you need a detour by Corporation. AssemblyLine is also a massive jump in beaker cost, so it could quite possibly be 15 turns earlier. Churchill is the prototype all-in-on defense pick to make sure you survive until your uniques come into play. I usually think that he's too much focus on one thing, but at 8XP his city defenders will have CG3+Shock or pinch.

[Tarkeel]

Any thoughts on the terrain/map/settling spots so far?

[joshybravo963]

Day 29

Nothing really new to report, some lucky scout Vs lion kills.
Surprised by how much land and food their is. Great for our imp/char start. 
Settler will be out next turn and will settle the clams up top. 
Initial plans to settle/whip like crazy and not let barbs get us. Let's see how that goes this time. 

   

Josh out.