[Spoilers] Whosit is playing for second

[Whosit]

Hello.

It has been a long while.

I will start putting my thoughts together in a subsequent post, but to kick things off, my Civ picks:

1: Tokugawa of Japan
2: Shaka of Zulu
3: There is no three because no one would pick Shaka

Edit: Adding the game rules for easier reference:

Gives too much stuff:
-Venetian Arsenal
-Religious Settlements Pantheon
-Work Ethic
-Nan Madol
-Pillaging City-State tiles except for farms and fishing boats.
-Resource hiding ban. We would need more complex rules for a team game, but it is obviously intentional here.

Other:
-Tactical DoWs, especially regarding Australia.
-City-gifting must be approved by the wise council of lurkers.
-DoF blockades OKAY
-Scouts providing naval support OKAY
-Not accepting/rejecting DoF at once.

New stuff (maybe?):
-The player who proposed the DoF cannot declare war on the first turn after the DoF expires, unless the player who accepted the DoF is ahead of them in turn order. Not nearly OP as some other stuff but not having this rule gives "Player1" an edge for no reason.
-Ban mods because of what happened to Woden last game here. It didn't do anything because it was garbage time but it could be very bad if the game is competitive.
-Giant's Causeway

Saves:
https://www.playyourdamnturn.com/game/f3...e3537ed922

[Whosit]

Hm, perhaps I should have slotted Trajan of Rome before Shaka.

For those not familiar with my exploits in the past, the first leader/civ combo I played was Shaka of Rome in a Civ 4 game. Thought a little callback to that would be fun if I wasn't able to get my top pick.

I have never played a serious game of Civ 6 MP before, so I consider myself completely untested in these waters. I've been doing some watching of MP games and trying to learn the meta, though it looks like nearly all serious Civ 6 MP uses the Better Balance Game mod, so some specifics won't translate but I think general strategies can still be carried back to vanilla. 

Regarding my picks.... Tokugawa is one of my favorite leaders to play. I had noticed that MP players always play Hojo of Japan and never Tokugawa, so I assumed Toku was a weaker pick. I recently discovered a video saying that, actually, he's one of the strongest and is actually frequently banned. So wouldn't that be nice if I got him? Ha ha! I like the idea of keeping to myself, beefing up my domestic trade routes until I hopefully get a significant lead and can make some military gains. The Samurai UU is neat, but I don't think they can carry an offensive. I'd plan to use them on the defense unless I was somehow already ahead of a neighbor by the time I got them.

Trajan of Rome is still a solid pick, I think. Free monuments are still great, free roads are still great, Baths are great. Legions are cool, but again, probably wiser to use them defensively than start wars that early. At least against players. I know in one of the earliest Civ 6 MP games played on these forums that Legions were used to great effect on the attack, but I'm not that strong of a player, and balance may have changed since then.

Shaka would be a meme pick. I enjoy playing him in SP, but despite what one of my friends insists, I don't think he's actually strong in MP. He's a one trick pony, everyone knows it, so the odds of catching anyone off guard with an Impi attack seems unlikely. Still, if I were able to get some early Corps off a weaker foe, I could probably snowball with it. Still, if I ended up with Shaka, I figure I'll have a big target on my back since anyone with a brain would want to kill me before I got rolling in the Medieval age.

[MJW (ya that one)]

So is Trajan #2?

[Whosit]

Yeah let's say Trajan is #2. lol

[MJW (ya that one)]

You lost tiebreak...

[Whosit]

Alas, but so it goes.

Hopefully all the DLC stuff gets sorted. Trajan now feels a little pale compared to Tokugawa and Yongle, who both have ways to generate a ton of free yields. TBH, I slept on Yongle until just recently with the new challenge featuring him. I wasn't a fan of China in Civ 6, generally, but wow. Anyway.

Whosit= Trajan of Rome
Chevalier Mal Fet= Tokugawa of Japan
TheArchduke= Jayavarman of Khmer
greenline= Seondeok of Korea
Krill= Yongle of China

I'll do thoughts on picks. I don't know enough about the players, generally, to strategize around that.

Starting with myself, Trajan of Rome:

Among the base leaders, Trajan and Rome are pretty solid. Compared to a lot of the new leaders and Civs, however, I think he's fallen behind the power curve. This pick, as mentioned, is mostly a personal meme. Krill might be the only one for whom this even registers.

So, what does Rome offer?

All Roads Lead to Rome: All cities founded or conquered gain a trading post, and a road to the capital. Trade routes earn +1 gold when passing through Trading Posts in my own cities.

Legion: More expensive, more powerful swordsman with a build charge. Can build a fort.

Bath: Cheaper aqueduct that provides +2 bonus Housing and +1 Amenity.

And the leader,  Trajan: All cities start with a free Monument.

Trajan of Rome doesn't do anything special, but is flexible. None of the abilities are game changing. In fact, I'd say that Rome is as standard as standard gets. Free Monument is good, since every city needs one. Baths are good because, unlike in Civ 4, almost every city is going to need an aqueduct. Free roads allow more flexibility in choosing where to send early trade routes. Legions are... well, solid.

I don't think Rome favors any particular victory condition, though a well-timed Legion attack can definitely gain some territory. Strategic choice of trade route paths can lead to some bonus gold, though that's not nearly as good as what Tokugawa or other civs can generate. I will probably favor foreign trade routes over domestic ones.

So.... that's a bunch of words. What's my point? (Oh, how I ramble.) I think that playing as Rome is going to force me to be more opportunistic than I usually play. If I were Tokugawa I could just play in my little sandbox, but Rome's flexibility can be a weakness as much as a strength because it doesn't do any one thing particularly well. The biggest decision will be if I am for a Science victory or a Cultural one. I will try to get a religion if I can find a Natural Wonder early. I'm definitely going to want to be on top of my scouting game because if I'm fortunate enough to have a weak neighbor I'll want to pounce on them when Legions become available.

OK, that's a lot of words to say "I have no idea what I'm going to do" lol. I think I will play a new SP game just to refresh myself on what playing Rome feels like. I really do think that my local terrain and early game discoveries will determine the exact strategy I pursue, so I will have to wait and see what my start looks like. In a vacuum, however, I intend to play a hard farmer's gambit and push out as many settlers as early as I can with as little military as I can get away with. I'll either push for Holy Sites or Commercial Hubs depending on what the lay of the land is. TheArchduke is the only other player who has an incentive to go for a religion.

I'll discuss the other players in a new post.

Ah, lastly, I did decide on the most important part of any RB civ game: Naming scheme! See if you can figure it out. :3

[Whosit]

OK, let's put some thoughts down on the opponents.

Fiirst, greenline as Seondeok of Korea

I don't know anything about greenline as a player, aside from knowing that they are not familiar with the newer leaders.

As for the leader/civ, this pick is all about maximizing science. The Hwacha isn't a game changer and is likely to be a non-factor. Because the Seowon must be built on hills, that also explains why greenline wanted a "new" world age for the game. :P Likely to see a lot of science out of greenline, but Korea doesn't have a ton else going for it. Can get bonus food putting farms next to Seowons but I'm not expecting a ton of that.

Personally, I'd rather have the faster culture that Trajan provides. I've learned that Culture is a lot more valuable earlier in the game, and you can make up the science deficit later. This is because civics are a lot more front-loaded, and in competitive MP games, you basically want to beeline Feudalism for the Serfdom policy card. The sooner you get +2 builders, the better.

If I were to have greenline as a neighbor, I'd probably want to take an aggressive posture. Attack with Legions if I were somehow to get a tech edge, otherwise, use the Legions to defend aggressively placed cities.

Next up, Chevalier Mal Fet as Tokugawa of Japan

He got my first pick, ha. I talked about Toku a bit already, but it's all about getting big yields from clustering districts with Japan's bonus, and getting a big capital with a ton of districts to be a trade hub. For Toku, I'd pick Magnus as first governor to get the +2 food promotion since ALL your trade routes should be going to your hub city. Both Government Plaza and Diplomacy Quarter should be placed in Capital city since both give +1 food, +1 production to trade routes. Big focus on Commercial Hubs and/or Harbors to maximize trade route capacity.

If I end up with Mal Fet as a neighbor, I'll probably have to watch closely. Toku of Japan probably wants to be left alone to do builder stuff, so on the one hand, I think he's less likely to declare war on me, but on the other, leaving him alone too long would be dangerous.

Then there's Krill as Yongle of China

Krill, I know as a player. I recall them being cunning with a good strategic eye. I have no idea how much experience they have in Civ 6 compared  to 4, but they picked a monster of a leader so they must know what they're doing, lol.

Yongle is like Tokugawa but on crack. Once his cities reach size 10, EVERY population provides +1 science, +1 culture, +2 gold (those are the same yields each district provides to Tokugawa's trade routes, but at size 10 you can only build 4 districts). While I, personally, am always slow to get cities to size 10, focusing on food and growth is going to have immediate, significant bonuses. 

I think Krill is likely to become the game leader. 

If I had krill as a neighbor, Legion Rush. It would simply be too dangerous to let him live long enough to get several size 10+ cities.

Lastly, TheArchduke as Jayavarman of Khmer 

I feel like I should know TheArchduke better than I do. I know they've played in a lot of games here. I feel like Archduke is a solid player.

The Khmer are a strong civ that can get a ton of faith and food. Likely to go for the Riverside pantheon, and religious traits that boost food and housing. Once cities get an aqueduct, they get +1 faith per population. I'm not really sure what to expect out of this in MP because I don't think a Religious victory is actually viable, but if I were to guess, this would be a play to the Medieval age to get that one Gov Plaza building that lets you buy military with Faith. Could get a crazy big army out of nowhere with that.

I think that this is another civ I would strongly consider early aggression against. Khmer doesn't have a ton going for them in the early game, so as long as I were able to get a good number of Legions before they teched too far, might consider conquest.

I will state, however, I am actually TERRIBLE at rushing. That's one reason I wanted Tokugawa myself, and why I'm kinda glad I took Trajan over Shaka. I think I'm just a builder at heart, and it is very difficult for me to go into Full War Mode. I think I will play some practice games to work on my Legion timing.

[Whosit]

So I've rolled up a couple test maps using the few settings that have been provided:

Pangaea
Abundant Resources
Age: New
Low Sea Levels

And I rolled it on a small map because that's what would fit 5 players best, I think (better to take a player away than add one, I think). Anyway, the distances between me and the other Civs has been MUCH wider than expected. I think on Standard size maps with normal number of rivals there's often a lot less space? Obviously, low sea levels leads to more space, but I wasn't expecting it to be this pronounced. Not sure if anything else is factoring in.

Still, good to keep this in mind as a possibility. I don't want to go marching Legions 30 tiles away, after all.

[Whosit]

Oh, boy! I opened up  the first save file to see what I got for a start, and....

Oops, turns out I hit the wrong key for most of the screen shots, but I did get one with my capital founded! 

   
The city of Bombay is founded in this dry, dry plains.The warrior was initially directly west of the settler, and I chose to move it south to see if there were any more resources close by.

So, this is the kinda start I wish Krill got. Since this is a pure random roll, someone surely got a real juicy start, but I guess I can't worry about my neighbor's grass. Right now, that Spice tile is going to carry me for a little bit. And that desert tile to the north means that I can make a play for the Pyramids. I'm not sure how fast other players will go for wonders. I guess there's a fair number of forests and  rainforests to chop going forward, so that's something.

Now, the bad. Loooots of plains tiles. With the extra hills from the map settings, I don't even see a spot to make a Feudalism Farm Triangle. Getting enough food here is going to be a major challenge. I'm hoping that the tile picker will go for the honey to the west first, and I can probably buy my way to the fish if I need to. I also notice that I am flanked by volcanoes to the east and west, so that should be interesting. I also hate lake starts compared to river starts.

I could have wandered around looking for a better settle. In retrospect, I guess I could have spent a turn to go southwest and settle on that river honey. But I already played the turn and passed the save.

I didn't want to hang on to the save too long, especially since I got home late, but man, I think I'm going to regret settling in place!

Ahh, I already feel like I'm channeling the old Whosit, lol.

[Whosit]

Know I'm stuck where I am, I think that I want to work that 1f/3p tile to the south as soon as possible. At size 2, that's 6 food, 6 production, which isn't so bad. I expect the tile picker will go for the Honey first, so I'll need to save up for 8 turns to get the 50 gold needed to buy the tile.

I was planning to push hard for Currency to get early Commercial Hubs, but Bombay has no good place to put it. If I find a natural wonder early, I may pivot to getting an early Holy Site. I could get a +2 one southwest of the city (1 mountain, 2 forests). I don't think I could race the Khmer there, but getting religion bonuses to food would be nice for me, too. Actually, Krill might be after that as well.

So, Trajan of Rome may not be the strongest, but I have benefits kicking in REALLY early. I'll be the first one to early civics. I'll get to put God King in early and .... actually, what Pantheon do I want? I may wait a few turns on that to get better scouting info. If I have more Camp resources, Goddess of the Hunt could be nice.