[NO 73 PLAYERS] Lurkers Monitoring Variance

[Tarkeel]

IMHO picking a killer military tech is inviting someone else to try to rush you before you get that first unit built. Zulu could be viable deterrence here.

Also, it's very possible someone gets to pick both the best starting location and civil service for a very boosted capital.

[naufragar]

IMHO picking a killer military tech is inviting someone else to try to rush you before you get that first unit built. Zulu could be viable deterrence here.

This is an interesting thought. In the time it takes to march a 120+ hammer unit one tile per turn, does the victim kill your capital with war chariots? Hell, you don't even need to pick Egypt. Just commit to being able to get a chariot or two pillaging tiles before the SAM comes out and the Rocketry player is doomed.

[Krill]

There is a strong argument for picking Egypt and AH and settling on horse. Back in vanilla release horse had no tech requirement to be made visible and t0 chariot rush was the dominant strategy.

The more I think about tech the more I think it will be really hard to balance. Snake pick opens up counter picks with Jo repmies. Blind pick is a race to the bottom.

[civac2]

I keep noticing players who forget that one of the last BtS patches nerfed Cristo Redentor so that it only gives you minimum anarchy turns for a swap instead of no anarchy.

I don't think that's true. Christo Redentor has a 1 turn cooldown but no anarchy.

[Krill]

After the starts are complete can 5 lurkers run a couple of snake picks to see if we are missing anything?

[Mousey]

Everyone in their threads is of course wondering about the later era techs, but I genuinely wonder about the value of taking a relatively early tech that others might overlook, e.g:
- Calendar for easy happy (very map dependent though) + guaranteed mausoleum that could apply to your first GA
- Construction if you have an ivory start, early catapults too (and bridges yay?)
- HBR, quickly get animal husbandry and go do horse archer stuff. Praying for horses though.
- Currency is probably a bit lackluster when you could take Corporation for the same effect, though it would leave the GLH open if you have lots of coastline.
They're certainly a bit less exciting though.

[Mjmd]

I think they shot some of the later game stuff in the foot by banning the first to bonuses.

[Commodore]

Agg/Sumer/Nationalism really is a quite decent pick I think, just better with EP economy. It's probably a good default with a hyper-boosted start.

[Thoth]

I'm unclear on the synergy between Vultures and Nationalism?

[Krill]

I'm unclear on the synergy between Vultures and Nationalism?

Essentially it is a counter pick if the tech picks go sideways.

Imagine if the tech picks go something like Artillery>econ tech>Rocketry>Gunpowder. What do you do, because you know that early warfare is going to happen? You need a high strength unit to deal with everyone else. Maybe Rifling would be the best choice. I suspect it is better than Nationalism, but it's worth considering with Boudicca/Sumeria because:

35 hammer strength 6.6 units that can take charge can actually handle artillery. There is the dual happy 10 turn timers for whips and drafts so there are a lot of ways to micro manage unit production for efficiency, there are no happy constraints with a 25 hammer +2 happy building (even though base BtS), which can be plowed into growth on a high food map, and the UB can be abused to get vision/open up tech stealing.

I don't think it's a a great plan, but in base BtS there would always be an AGG leader available, Sumeria is not going to be a highly rated pick either, so there may be a way to pick the best start and then see what happens down the line.

Personally, I prefer the idea of Joao of Inca with Communism and use the thousand warrior defence if someone comes calling.