Rusten and Hitru turn back the clock

[Rusten]

Other players get ye gone   
Lurkers enjoy your stay 

A pbem with a bunch of old resurrected vets, yet I think they might have started playing civ multiplayer after I "retired". Makes me appreciate how long this game has been in my life and how much I enjoy it. Hopefully this game will also be a fun and rememberable experience.

Happy to have Hitru with me again as in PB41, and it looks like Raskolnikov will chip in too. I will try to keep this thread more detailed than the PB41 one.

[Hitru]

I bought the game the day it was available in Finland and have newer stopped playing it, so I guess I'm supervet ( although I have played mp only here ).

[Charriu]

I don't know where I did get the base version, but I know that I got the full all expansion version from a co-worker, who worked at the publisher distributing the game in my country.

[Miguelito]

I for one got hooked on civ 4 by Sulla's PB2 report in what must have been 2013 or 12. I had played 2 and 3 a lot,  not sure if I missed 4 In 2005 or actively ignored it. So,  I might compete for latest starter ?

[pindicator]

Here is your starting position




Anything in the fog is subject to change.

[Hitru]

Thanks Pindi!

[Rusten]

Thanks for sharing everyone. And yes @Miguelito, that's very late! :D

I'm back home and can finally start contributing to this thread. I'll get more long-winded later, but to quickly get things started Aztec was a pretty easy pick whereas we're still undecided on leader (shortlist of 3 candidates). We would've picked Byz if it was available, but in no way surprised NoGas took it first. For me Aztec was a very clear #2 and it was one of Hitru's top choices as well, but I'm not sure how clear or where in his top 5 it was, you'll have to ask him.

Things we like:
-CtH slavery (vanilla) is ridiculous and having the Aztec UB is a great help. The starting BFC is very lush so we're hoping for similar terrain around the world. I for one can't wait to whip like a madman again, I used to have a bit of a reputation in the CFC SGs.   Ideally we'll be able to space out cities in a way that shares food resources between a whipping village and an infrastructure village, and in turn giving away the food resource once the commerce city has grown to its full size. The UB only reduces anger, it doesn't increase the whip efficiency, so the way to go is keeping a few cities small and whip it for 2 or 3 pop at minimum every 5 turns while the bigger cities still remain largely untouched and work grassland mines instead. At the lower sizes 1 food is going to be worth more than 2 hammers through the whip, which means that a single grassland pig tile will bring in more than 8 hammers per turn if we find the ideal setup!

It might not come as a surprise that all 3 leader candidates are IMP to ease the settler costs for this. You might even be able to guess all 3 taking the above (and below) into account! Here's your first chance to earn a cookie, guess away!

-Great starting techs. Aztec can deal with every situation and mysticism is good now. We're also very keen on religion as culture is harder to come by than in RtR and that leads us to the UB as well.

I know some people hate the UU (mainly singleplayer guys I feel), but I still think of it as a positive, although it didn't really factor into my decision much. I don't expect to catch anyone in this field off guard with it, but at least it provides something different, and swords aren't really used to break through city defences in multiplayer anyway. I'll happily take the tactical opportunities over the base strength for this unit. Easy access to woody3 for healing is nice too.

I'm sure I forgot something, but I'm only just unwinding from my trip and getting my civ brain going again.

Things we don't like:
-We don't have 12 strength cataphracts.

[Hitru]

I think Aztec was first civ in my list ( after the obvious byz). We will whip our pop like it's going out of fashion.

[Rusten]

I'd be doing myself a disservice and every member of this team if I didn't perform the hell out of this! I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more whipping!

[Miguelito]

I'll bite. João, Justinian,... no idea, Vicky? JC?