Do the industrious leaders do well when there's more of them? Kind of counterintuitive, but Augustus, and De Gaulle both did noticably better than normal this game. Maybe not Louis but he had a hard time getting doubleteamed.
I was thinking that a lot of AI industrious leaders fall into the trap of building too many wonders, but with 3 of them in the same game it sort of spreads out the load and lets them build settlers.
I doubt it. If I'm correct, the Discord's resident AI code expert has determined that Industrious does NOT make the AI more likely to build wonders. It just makes it finish faster. (Plus I think a lot of Industrious leaders have high wonder build ratings, for obvious reasons.)
I think with Augustus and De Gaulle, it was more a case of having things break their way in terms of the geopolitical situation.
Thanks again to Sulla for running these games. The first wildcard game was very entertaining, with some odd twists and turns. Plus it is always interesting to see how the raging barbs affect things. I understand why they are not used for regular games, but it does make things different so it is good to see them occasionally.
Somehow, my name is at the top of the picking contest after WC1. How did that happen? Someone please explain this to me. I was having a pretty normal first half of the season -- nothing special, average scores -- but my picks for the last several games have done very well. I am not sure what is going on.
Wildcard 1 was a fun one, enough twists and turns to keep it interesting throughout. We'll see what sort of mess the Wildcard 2 group gives us!
Guess who random.org picked to win this week? Washington, of course! Specifically, a Turn 395 Domination victory for Washington after 17 wars, with Cyrus coming in second place and Brennus as the first to die.
(August 19th, 2024, 20:00)Eauxps I. Fourgott Wrote: Guess who random.org picked to win this week? Washington, of course! Specifically, a Turn 395 Domination victory for Washington after 17 wars, with Cyrus coming in second place and Brennus as the first to die.
Wow. Random.org has been hitting the sauce again, I think. Or maybe something else. That would be one long and bloody struggle. Almost 400 turns and 17 wars? Maybe if this had been a single wild card game with the entire 13 AI field....
Another entertaining wild card game, as the playoff slate is finalized for season 8. My picks returned to a more usual (bad) form, so whatever strange voodoo was in effect seems to be over.
Given how much impact religion had on this game, I think the alternate histories will end up showing a very different picture. How often will Sury even attempt an early religion from the start?
My pick of Sury to win was based on expecting the Khmer to get more land than they actually did. The barbs really slowed Sury's expansion and development. Also, Alex had a surprisingly good land grab. His economy was poor and he did Alex things, but he did get a lot of cities.
Washington also survived due to the shared religious faith with his eastern neighbors, and became a lot stronger than I expected. He even managed to avoid dying, surviving in exile in that last far northern iceball fishing village.
Willem did somewhat better than I expected, but not really enough to matter. Cyrus was similar, doing OK with his chunk of land but not really making a difference in the game overall. De Gaulle was disappointing; I had him picked for second due to thinking he would get a nice chunk of Washington's land.
Brennus of course far exceeded my expectations. I guess that amazing seafood start was so awesome that even the AI could not screw it up too much. But kudos to Brennus for pushing his religion hard and spamming the missionaries. It made a huge difference.
Thanks as always to Sulla for running these very entertaining games.
(August 23rd, 2024, 16:21)haphazard1 Wrote: Another entertaining wild card game, as the playoff slate is finalized for season 8. My picks returned to a more usual (bad) form, so whatever strange voodoo was in effect seems to be over.
Thanks as always to Sulla for running these very entertaining games.
I got 0 points. And my hometown of Nijmegen turned Greek. Still I enjoyed the game very much.
Doubting the power of Mansa Moneybags was a bad idea, despite that heavily forested start. If Pacal had not somehow found a way to misplay that incredible start, the game could have been wildly different. Oh well, maybe the alternate histories will reveal how likely that was. It sure seemed like Pacal could have expanded peacefully to get 3-4 additional cities, rather than going to war. Or he could have just managed basic competence in that war.
The biggest surprise to me was how well Elizabeth did. Slightly better tech choices late and she would have won easily. Or using a few late great people for a golden age to help complete the space ship parts, rather than founding multiple corporations. Of course, Mansa could also have won a number of turns earlier if he had not stopped running the slider for a while. No idea why the AI does that sometimes. The end was almost like Mansa and Elizabeth were both trying to throw the game:
"You take it!"
"No, you take it!"
"No, no, I insist!"
Also, Sulla did a pretty good impression of Raging Pacal with his reactions to the Mayan's stupidity. Thanks as always for running these very entertaining games, Sulla.
That tech path at the end of the game was rather surprising. As Sulla commented, Liz has very non-military tech preferences. (Gold and Culture, if I am remembering correctly.) So going for both Laser and Stealth seemed rather strange. I am not sure which flavors are associated with some of the late game techs like Fusion or Refrigeration and such. I may have to go look at the XML to see just how the space ship techs are coded.
How did that happen? Someone please explain this to me. 
I was having a pretty normal first half of the season -- nothing special, average scores -- but my picks for the last several games have done very well. I am not sure what is going on.
Specifically, a Turn 395 Domination victory for Washington after 17 wars, with Cyrus coming in second place and Brennus as the first to die.
That would be one long and bloody struggle. Almost 400 turns and 17 wars? 
