BING's EitB PBEM thread

[BING_XI_LAO]

I will pick Dain the Caswallawn of the Amurites. Illians and Sidar seem more complex to exploit, as opposed to a civ that simply gets boosted wizards.
I would appreciate a dedlurker, not necessary though.

[DaveV]

Dain is painfully slow. Several people have tried the Amurites in the past, and the only one I can remember doing much of anything with them was plako, who played a clever firebow upgrade strategy with Valledia, but ended up losing to my vampires. To make the Amurites work, you need a map that's big enough to be left alone for a long time, and rich enough in commerce for you to be able to research all the expensive techs you need.

If it's powerful wizards you're looking for, I think Auric is a better pick. CHA/ARC is the perfect combo for generating magic units with lots of promotions, and I think ice magic is the strongest sphere. You don't have to cast any of the rituals, although the priests of winter are really strong units for the time they're available.

But you're driving this bus, so pick the one that most appeals to you.

[BING_XI_LAO]

Hmm thanks for the advice. Problem with Illians is I would cast Stasis and annoy everyone.
What about Sidar?

[DaveV]

Sidar can do some cute stuff with their Severed Soul units, which can move through mountains and cross oceans and then teleport their summoner to their tile, effectively making your scouts and hunters 4-move units (but you'd have to research Knowledge of the Ether to enable them). Their world spell of invisibility for all units is very good in the right circumstances. I've never been able to do much with the wane ability, but great people is one of the weaker parts of my game. As for Shekinah, creative is probably my favorite trait in EitB, since culture is so hard to get. This might be lessened in this game by all the starting techs; I think all players will start with Mysticism and be able to build monuments (although that's 40 hammers that CRE leaders save). Arcane as a second trait means the RNG really wants you to play a magic-centered game.

[mackoti]

Hmm thanks for the advice. Problem with Illians is I would cast Stasis and annoy everyone.
What about Sidar?

Well in the end you want to annoy everyone so yeah. I think from your options(not that this matter) Illians are the best, would have been sidar if was the other leader.Priest are very close and you get very strong units without  a huge efort.

[BING_XI_LAO]

So:
Illians - won't playing them make the game tedious for everyone else especially in regards to casting Stasis about 20 turns in which I imagine is optimal (allow time for settlers and workers to get things set up and then BAM)?
Amurites - too much emphasis on lategame
Sidar - guaranteed use out of Creative and the mild income boost to all specialists. And the world spell is military, rather than annoying people or doubling down on lategame.

I think I will pick Sidar.

[DaveV]

Illians - won't playing them make the game tedious for everyone else especially in regards to casting Stasis about 20 turns in which I imagine is optimal (allow time for settlers and workers to get things set up and then BAM)?

I don't think any of the other players will go into vendetta mode if you cast Stasis; they'll be expecting it to be cast early. My opinion on the ideal time to cast is either right after barbarian warriors start spawning (i.e. after three players have established a second city), or right before you attack someone.

It is annoying for the other players to spend a bunch of turns just passing on the save, but you should view Stasis as a military spell, too - you get to research techs and build cities and units while the other guys are doing nothing.

[BING_XI_LAO]

It's less a concern about diplo and more about degrading the game quality! But ok, sounds like Illians is the best pick.

[naufragar]

Here is your start. Only trust your BFC. Everything else is shadow and illusion.

[DaveV]

Good:
+ good commerce
+ enough food to work all the special tiles
+ good production
+ lots of forests to chop (into The White Hand?)

Not so good:
- only 5 special tiles. Auric can grow to size 7 (8 with silk), while the other guys can only grow to size 5-6. It would be to your advantage to have more high-value tiles to work.
- it's going to take a *lot* of worker turns to improve seven tiles. You'll lose a turn moving onto the hill cows (an obvious edit); the silks need to be chopped before they can be plantationed, and you'll need to chop the forests south of the starting position to work those two tiles (plain cottage and grass farm?). All of the resources except the wheat will require roads to connect them.

If you decide to go with the Illians, I'd suggest researching archery first. Slingers are a significantly better unit than warriors now that the latter can't carry bronze weapons, and they don't require a building. It sounds like this is a pretty small map, so you may need to be able to fight early. Finally, +50% on all those forest chops would add up.