[SPOILERS] Athlete and Lewwyn are SHAKA OF THE VIKINGS

[athlete4life10]

If you're a player bugger off until I kill you (in game)!

And because putting some random pics seems the thing to do:

[athlete4life10]

This post is to have links for easy reference for me and where I'll attempt to keep my C&D dept!

How to grow onto Cottages
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=301724

Great People Tech Preference
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy...e_tech.php

Link to Power info:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy...aphics.php

Espionage Stuff (courtesy of T-Hawk):
http://apolyton.net/forums/showpost....&postcount=200

TheirEP = Their Espionage Point count against us
SabotageCost = Cost shown for the Sabotage Production mission
InvestigateCost = Cost shown for the Investigate City mission

Hammers = (SabotageCost * (TheirEP + 100)) / (3 * InvestigateCost)

Score Stuff (Beautiful Post BTW!):

I think these are smart questions to ask, and fortunately I can answer all or almost all of those questions. So here I go. Almost all of this was learned of from Realms Beyond members and pieced together on my own and self-tested, so only the explanation and verification and not the content is my own work. Perhaps some of the demo people would prefer to keep their tricks little-known, but I'm of the opinion that it's better to be open and share with everyone. I can do an article in a public place if one is desired as I have gathered all the information in this area that I could find and put it together for my own use as I couldn't find a good article that had it all. For now I will answer your direct questions as you were clever enough to ask. I still think this falls under game mechanics questions and is not related to your game in particular. I think questions about how the game works are always fair game.



The population score is map dependent. No way to tell ahead of time what each pop point will be worth. It depends on the total amount of food on the map. Hover over your score and look at the Pop score. It should have a fraction x/y. Each pop point is worth (5000/y). The reason for the variance is the way the number is rounded. As with most decimals in Civ it is FLOORed, meaning it is rounded down to the nearest integer. So say that (5000/y) gives you 4.61. If your pop is 1 your pop score is 4 (4.61 rounded down), but when you go to pop 2 your pop score is 9 (4.61 + 4.61 = 9.22 rounded down). This is an increase of 5 instead of 4. That's all that's happening here and with other scores that vary (they all do to an extent).



Land Area is only a little more complicated than the Pop score. The Land Score is also map dependent, so again hover over score and note the Land fraction x/y. This time each land tile is worth (2000/y). The only thing that's a little trickier is that you don't get the score bonus for your land tiles until they've been inside your cultural borders for 20 turns. The rounding and point variance is exactly the same as described above.



Points per wonder don't vary from map to map. They are always worth (5000/310) each. This comes out to about 16.13 each. The rounding is the same so if you build enough eventually you'll get a gain of 17 instead of 16, not that most people build that many wonders, but it could happen. Not sure why it says 5/316 after palace score. It should say x/310 (I just checked to make sure). The number 310 is 5 * 62 (the number of wonders available to build), so in the fraction x/y, I think x is the number of wonders built * 5. But that's not your Wonder Score. When you settle your capitol your Wonder score is 16.



You are correct that that is only for Ancient Era techs. Tech Score is not map dependent either and each tech is worth (2000/334) * Era. Ancient Era is 1, Classical Era is 2, etc. This works out to Ancient Era techs being worth about 5.99 points. This is why everyone starts with 11 points (before you settle your capitol you don't get Pop or Wonder points). 5.99 + 5.99 = 11.98. This is 11 points rounded down, but for a while after that techs will be worth a multiple of 6 points. So The Wheel is 5.99 points and Alphabet is 11.98 points. You add all the techs you have together and then round down to get the Tech Score.



I have found descriptions of how score is calculated on CFC, but no real complete guide on the practical use of it. Some are taking to using NoScoreMod these days to eliminate this part of the game. I have mixed feelings as to whether that's a good thing or not.

The score is not dependent on Difficulty. The Land number for the map does indeed take the total available land tiles into account.

For this game:
Land = 2000/737
Pop = 5000/819

[athlete4life10]

So I've chosen Shaka (AGG/EXP) of The Vikings (UU = Beserker, UB = Trading Post)



I wasn't going to be really bothered about picking in any particular spot except I really didn't want first pick. Really because I didn't want to choose between Sury and somebody else. Sury is easily the best leader out there with FIN/PHI excluded, so I was super happy when he was off the board. I really wanted to try a leader/civ combo that I hadn't used much (or at all) and that's precisely what I got! I had a short list of civ's I had in mind and most were "uncommonly used for MP" so I figured I should choose a leader first. I wanted to try an AGG leader so it was just what other trait to pair it with.

I eliminated CHM/PRO right off the bat cause I just didn't want them. IMP was a pretty easy choice to ditch as well. I think it could be extremely useful on a lower difficulty level and I think Sunrise will put it on noble difficulty. I really wasn't interested in 2 warmongering traits though. That left EXP/CRE/ORG/IND/SPI. ORG (Hammurabi) and SPI (Montezuma) I really had no interest in. Because I think it will be a low difficulty I don't think ORG will be very useful and there won't be enough civic swaps to really benefit from SPI. I didn't want CRE again because I just did that in RBPB2 so I was pretty quckly down to Shaka and Stalin.

I really liked the idea of taking Stalin and trying to get the Oracle (I think it could be a huge wonder to get this game) but I thought Shaka would prove more beneficial overall. Plus it's a trait I don't really play with a lot so I figured it should be fun.

My short list of civs (in order of favorites) looked something like this:

Japan
The Vikings
Mali
Sumeria
Babylon
England

I was considering England because they start with mining and I like both their UU and UB. I just expect the game to be well in or out of hand by the time we'll get to any of those though so I scratched them.

Babylon was next because they start with The Wheel and Agriculture. As my cities grow I tend to find health more limiting than happiness (though early happy is always the issue) and their UB offers health (however I'm not CRE to get it at 1/2 price). The UU isn't terrible but I didn't really want it so they were out.

Sumeria I spent a good time thinking about because I was AGG, and AGG Vultures aren't bad. Especially when I can promote them to shock right away with a RAX. Combine that with Courthouses available at Priesthood and my love of building the Oracle, I was very close to picking them. Ultimately it was the consistent stance by Speaker and Sullla from RBPB2 that Ancient Wars really aren't worth it. If there's any way to avoid it I should. So I decided if I wasn't going to use the AGG Vulture's, Sumeria would be a wasted pick.

Mali was probably my favorite pick until I decided to go with Shaka. If I had decided on Stalin, I probably would have picked Mali, with the intent to Oracle --> Metal Casting for cheap forges. Combine that with Skirmishers to protect against an early rush, this could have been fun. Once I picked Shaka though I basically eliminated Mali. I tend to avoid Archery for as long as possible and without the lure of IND for cheap forges I became disinterested.

That left me with either Japan or The Vikings, both of which could be fun because they aren't normally chosen. The lure of both of these civ's was really their UU. If I play my cards right I might be able to reach it before one of my neighbours can get to Longbows so I could have a fun war with them. Ultimately I didn't pick Japan because I wanted to get some use out of the UB as well. I just have to really hope there'll be a reasonable amount of water on the map for me to take advantage of. Really Ragnar is the best fit for The Vikings, but Shaka should be a suitable replacement.

[athlete4life10]

So now on to my competition!

Let's start by officially announcing the diplo slate has been wiped cleaned on this end. Also I think all of us are probably pretty evenly matched in skill so this should be an entertaining contest!

Nakor aka Zara Yaqob of Byzantium

So I'm going to have to kill Byzantium all over again?
Starts with Mysticism/Wheel and a Warrior

Picking last has some benefits though I'm not overly keen on the picks. Zara is probably the next best teching leader out there once Sury is off the board so I get that but combining him with Byz doesn't seem right. Cheap Hippodrome's and libraries while having a great UU I guess are the main benefits. And free border pops. I really think ORG is not going to be very worthwhile though I guess we'll still see. Not terrible picks and 1/2 CRE leaders out there so it'll be annoying to start next to either one though not the end of the world. I'm not sure if I want to be around when Cataphract's start showing up though!

Jowy aka Boudica of Rome Oh and purple shaded civ #2 (me being #1)

Starts with Fishing/Mining and a Warrior.

I'm praying not to end up next door to Rome. I have it in the back of my head that Jowy will be a little eager to war with me this go around, no real reason for it though. With those picks he's clearly going to try to crush somebody! No real economic trait though so once I outlive him for the first 100 turns I'll be OK.

SevenSpirits aka Isabella of India Purple shaded civ #3

Starts with Mysticism/Mining and a Warrior

At first thought, I didn't really agree with his Isabella pick. Obviously EXP is nice with India but SPI? I really didn't think it would be much help. As I pondered it more though I think this is an OK trait. We have random events turn on so if he remembers to he can minimize his time in slavery avoid losing any turns that way, along with the no anarchy. Could give him that needed edge at just the right time. This doesn't make it a great trait but it's still a good benefit. It just remains to be seen on how well he can manipulate the fast worker into an economic advantage. I won't mind starting next to India.

The Reverand Doctor aka Suryavarman II of Babylon Purple shaded civ #4

Starts with The Wheel/Agriculture and a Warrior

Sury I get. Best leader by far for this variant. Combined with Babylon? Not so much. The UU is mediocre and against AGG Praets won't be terribly better than a regular archer. The cheap UB will be nice as I'm a big fan of more health, though he'll have to make it far in the game to make real use of it. Being one of 2 CRE leaders will make it annoying to start near him but truly I won't mind. Expect The Rev to get out to a good start as he's got the 2 best techs to start with Sury!

[athlete4life10]

OK so I've been flying around a lot of thoughts and what not and I do have a general gameplan I want to follow right from the get go. This could all change though once I see the map and the first few turns come by.

Firstly, I'm the only one with a scout start. With Huts on I'm not overly disappointed about this but I will almost 100% for sure be going with a warrior start because of it. At size 2 the plan is to go worker/worker/settler. Techwise, generally I plan on one of these 3 openings: Agri/Mining/BW, Mining/Agri/BW or Mining/BW/Agri. I'll need to run some simulations for this.

The big thing I want to accomplish is landing The Oracle. I haven't figured out yet if I really truly want to try and grab this yet but if I do I'm of 2 minds. The first is to just try and grab anything really early (like say Math) but I love the thought of trying to get to Machinery with it. Who knows. I'll develop some more concrete plans once I see the game.

[athlete4life10]

So I showed my nice paint work on Shaka to a friend who kindly pointed out Shaka now has 2 mouths...oops!

[athlete4life10]

My starting spot:


After I've moved and planted:


Game Settings:


Thoughts to come later...

[athlete4life10]

Well...I gotta say what I saw when I got the save was completely unexpected...and I'm not thrilled about it. Yay for the water, but a barb city? Right beside me? Well there goes most of my plans...

So...everything really now depends on this barb city. What's in it? Can I get my scout by it? Why this sucks for me is because I lose all my benefit of having a scout and now have to further prioritize military. I start with the worst techs...My fault I know...it's really that my only advantage I had was I had a scout that might be able to secure me some extra huts. Now that's gone. Well...maybe I can sneak the scout by the city before it'll start attacking out...who knows.

Anyways, some meta-gaming now.

I've decided on worker first going mining-->BW. I'm relying on having bronze but I almost believe we'll have horses on one of those 2 tiles to my east because I have the pigs to make me go down the AH path. If I don't have copper it's only going to delay taking that barb city down. And I have to assume that we'll have copper or horse...else how are we going to take the barb city? Archers???

Grr...this has already proven really frustrating...not what I was expecting at all! Kudo's to you bob for providing a challenge right away! I may not be(come?) the biggest fan of the map but you've certainly provided something different!

Athlete

[athlete4life10]

Well I should be able to post a screenshot of my little bit of land tomorrow but I must say not having a way by the barb city sucks ass. There goes any advantage I hoped to have by starting with a scout...

Plan is Worker-->Workboat while going Mining-->Bronze Working.

After that who knows stupid barbs...

Athlete

[athlete4life10]

Well an overview shot:



I was hoping to have a turn this morning to be able to play and post from there but The Reverend must not be up yet ...no biggie.

Well this BLOWS...being completely stuck on an island with no way off right now. So much for starting with a scout...I'm already done scouting!

I'm gambling that I'm going to have copper because if I don't this is going to really, really suck!