1st post spoiler space.
Y'all know the drill.
Y'all know the drill.
fnord
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[Spoilers] Ibuprofen and Eyeglasses: Thoth plays a Middle Aged game
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(February 10th, 2024, 11:07)xist10 Wrote: I recommended castles to another player. There's some potential in Fairy Tales for sure. But I'm currently leaning towards digging out my 1st Edition PHB and Best of Dragon Vol 2 and doing Pole Arms as city names.
fnord
Initial thoughts on traits/openings:
Cities start with granaries and Lighthouses included in the cost of the settler. Expansive is junk as it now only gives cheap Harbours, Aqueducts, and +2 health per city. Creative is weak as there are other tools to pop borders available (religion, Caste artists, teching/bulbing Music and building Culture) Imperialistic is THE non-kinetic expansion trait. Org takes a small hit without the lighthouse discount but is still very good to excellent depending on difficulty level (which we seem to have forgotten to discuss......  )Fin is good but boring as always. Spiritual is excellent with the boosted civics in CtH being available from game start. Being able to swap from Serfdom for accelerated worker turns to Slavery to whip stuff to Caste for border pops/ GP production is very powerful if managed well. It also saves 2-3 anarchy turns at the start of the game which is nice. Combines well with Philo for some fun bulb action early on. Philo: Good for some gambit bulbing openings such as running Artists to generate a GA to bulb Music and then using the Music GA to bulb Theocracy with an eye to building the AP either by hand or via a Great Engineer as 2nd GP. Also good for generating Great Scientists to bulb out Astronomy or up the University line towards Liberalism. Combines well with Spiritual and Industrious. Industrious: Solid I think. Forges are going to be wanted for expensive settler builds if Imperialistic isn't taken. Combines well with gambiting towards the Music/Theocracy wonders. Aggressive: 50% unit upkeep reduction will be excellent as always. I'm also liking the look of Barrage 1 for free on Siege. PB71 was the first time I've played with Barrage 3 cats and I was surprised and impressed by how well they tore up Commodore's knight stack. Cheap barracks + either Theo or Vassalage and I've got spammable Barrage 3 cats. Combines well with Spiritual, Charsimatic, and Protective. Protective: Boosted internal trade routes are nice. Free promos on Gunpowder units is meh. Cheap Walls and Castles ok I guess. Overall meh unless Tokugawa of France. Charismatic: Boudicea of Ethiopia or France. Get Guilds/GP, bonk heads.
fnord
So:
Gandhi of some civ for a bulb gambit opening with an eye to a monk economy with cheap temples and monastaries. Good buildery fun and doesn't use any conventional beakers to get Music or Theology. Requires running a few artists and Caste for 5t with either a size 3 city (2 specialists with Philo = 15 gpp per turn = 7 turns, can be cut by a turn if there is food in the box) or size 4 (3 specialists for 5 t =110 gpp so should be doable in 4t). The risk is minimal in terms of losing the Great Artist. But it does slow down expansion and growth but I haven't tested yet. Boudicea of either Ethiopia or France. Good fun here. Cheap Steles that never obsolete are a fun addition to a culture battle. Oromos are slow but fun with collateral resistance, easy access to counter promotions and oodles of first strikes against anything that isn't a Knight. Optimal? No. Fun? Yeah. Will I pick this if I get the chance? Maybe. I also like Montezuma of France or Ethiopia. Vikings if they're not banned and water is a factor is good, excellent with a Charismatic leader for some 4 move galley fun. Brennus, Boudicea, or Monty work here. Hmmmm.....
fnord
As far as the snake pick I'd rather be last to guarantee some synergy or first to guarantee either civ or leader.
I'll pick whichever one Scooter doesn't.  I'm almost certainly moving both settlers if I don't pick a Spiritual leader. The move is free with the turn zero anarchy. Spiritual gets a 7 turn worker out of the capital if settled in place and the worker mines the Copper. Turn 0 civic swap into HR, and Serfdom. Non Spiritual needs another 2 turns of anarchy if they want to adopt a religion or run OR before a Golden Age. I'm currently leaning towards Monty being stronger but I've never played Boudicea in an MP game and I've always wanted to so I might go there depending on where I'm at in the snake pick and how I'm feeling at the time.  Scout moves to the orange circle on t0. 2nd city settles either on t1 or moves to the orange circle if warranted by scouting. Moving allows a city on the original city site and preserves a riverside grass tile but leaves riverside Copper on flat grassland unworked for a long time. I'll need to do a bit of simming here once the picks are made.
fnord
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