[SPOILERS] Parity Parody

[suboptimal]

Hmmm...can we beat the duration of PBEM 18?  

Not likely.  With Thrawn and Archduke in the game we'll likely see much more player-on-player violence, and earlier.

How many lurkers does it take to screw in a map?

Three.  One to make the map, one to advise the map maker on what to do and a third to go "I told you so" when one of the players completely wrecks the map concept.

[suboptimal]

So I guess I should put something or more substance up than pithy answers to thread titles...

The Players

Archduke - well known quantity, never met a (smart) war he didn't like.
Thrawn - took advantage of the map in PBEM 19, made quick work of a duel with Ichabod, loves pins.
Alhambram - he's won a religious victory, got Hungary banned and did quite well as the pilot on our Viking scenario excursion.
Marcopolothefraud - currently playing against in PBEM 20; jury's still out.
Me - heh...heh heh....

My Expectations

- This won't be a pangea map so not everyone will be on the same landmass. That might make for a PBEM 14 or PBEM 17 type setup. This could also wind up being a naval game.
- Thrawn and Archduke are good at finding exploitable advantages to lead to early war. I expect one or both to attack neighbors and attempt to roll forward from there.
- We will not exceed PBEM 18's duration.

My Plan

The usual - survive as long as possible, try to continue to improve militarily (still have a low bar to clear there) and overall do better than the last time around.

I'm going to try to remain disciplined in my district construction - Campus & commerce districts with perhaps one or two industrial centers if I feel the game is going to start to drag out. I don't plan on making a priority unless for some reason my start position screams "Khmer". I don't know what civs I want to play yet, partly because we don't know what's getting changed until the patch comes out. If the changes aren't too crazy and Korea comes up perhaps Sulla will get to see them in a game again (and watch me do them injustice )

Other Stuff

I'm debating if I want to keep up with my usual spreadsheets for score tracking and city/civ development like I have in previous games. Part of me wonders if they cause me to get too focused on the micro while not thinking about the macro, part of me wonders if the time spent updating is worth the benefit (what IS the benefit, I suppose) and part of me is like "nooooo...keep dooooing the numberz"

The naming theme is also set, just need to build that first city to get going with it.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

How do you plan to win?

How does any particular action move forward your plan to win?

Those are the two questions you gotta keep in mind at all times to improve.

[suboptimal]

How do you plan to win?

How does any particular action move forward your plan to win?

Those are the two questions you gotta keep in mind at all times to improve.

Yes, and those are frequently the two questions I continually ignore.  Hmmm...maybe I should make answering them part of my turn reports to focus the mind a bit....

[suboptimal]

Developer livestream tomorrow at 2pm EDT. Won't be watching the livestream but will be checking the CivFanatics thread around 3pm to see what tidbits they gather.

[suboptimal]

Pregame Show

Here we go again. It’s an open pick with the potential for duplicate civs. So...what do I want to do and what civ do I want to play? Well, I know who I don’t want to play:

Arabia, Aztec, Canada, Dutch, Egypt, England, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Kongo, Mali, Mongolia, Phoenicia, Poland, Sweden

I don’t know how keen I am for playing a centric civ this game. I’m already doing that in PBEM 20 and think that sticking to more of a and focus this game is the way to go. No quixotic runs at victory conditions, either – this is going to be a build and fight game, particularly with the opponents I’ve got here. We currently don’t know what the map will be, other than not a pangea. That could mean a continents map or something like a heavily modified inland sea or naval map. For better or for worse I don’t want to play a naval-focused civilization and I don’t know that I want to play a civ focused completely on miltary, even if that’s what the game will likely be about and where my game is weakest (or should I go military-first to work on that).

My initial plan here is to establish an early defense while trying to build out a tech & commerce advantage to potentially take out a neighbor later. That means lots of Campus & Commercial Hub districts and/or an early game population boom.

Cree

The Black Sword showed everyone how it’s done with the Cree in PBEM 17, taking a lush start to a 200 per turn rate by Turn 105. I don’t know that I’m skilled enough to pull it off but might consider making a go of it if the start is particularly resource heavy. The two early trade routes can help to get early cities off the ground quickly and the Okihtcitaw is essentially a fast-moving warrior.

If I played them I’d try to roughly follow TBS’s game plan – rapidly expand and grow cities with internal trade routes and mekewaps, use trade routes to take territory and look to go on a Campus building boom in the mid-Classical.

Inca

The terrace farm can be a potent early game improvement, allowing for cities to grow rapidly if there are enough mountains around, and early rapid growth could be an advantage. I don’t know about the Warak’aq as a unit unless I really wanted to put on a heck of a zerg rush.

Like the Cree this would be about early rapid expansion combined with rapid city growth. The other thing that make the Inca attractive is the new Preserve district. Since the Inca can work mountains and mountains are always breathtaking appeal a Preserve with a grove in it can result in a big boost to the yields I wouldn’t otherwise be focusing on. They’d provide +2 on top of any from adjacent terrace farms. Conservation comes late so sanctuaries would really only be for yield porn.

The bigger question is whether or not there would be enough mountains on the map to make them feasible. The past several PBEM maps have not had much in the way of mountains to work with. PBEM 15 had vast chains of mountains that gave pindicator enough to work with. However, the maps for almost all PBEMs since then (and, I plead guilty, the map I did for the Thrawn/Ichabod duel) have not had much in the way of mountains to work with.

Korea

We’ve only seen them once (PBEM 14) and I don’t know that we’ve seen the full potential of the Seowon. With good placement it’s possible to also get some rapid growth out of farms and a good amount of science out of mines. The Hwacha is meh as a unique unit. The district appeals to my builder side and I have to wonder how well it could be used to gain an early advantage. If the terrain is hilly but not mountainous this might be a good pick to take.

This choice offers a bit of both worlds – cheap Campus districts with reasonably good built-in adjacencies and farms that can give a bit more food for good city growth if they can be placed nearby. It also deals with the issue of the lack of mountains for Campus adjacencies.

[Kaiser]

Here is your starting screenshot



Enjoy the game

[suboptimal]

Thanks for the map, Kaiser! Looks like you're using a non-standard script, what with all the grassland jungle and all.

[suboptimal]

Initial Start Analysis

Let’s see. First off, non-standard map script. Lots of grassland jungle and even a grassland hill jungle. Flattish to the NE, hilly to the SW. Likely have horses somewhere in those open grasslands and iron on one of the bare hills. There’s a river source at the N corner of the grassland jungle hill with the river flowing east into the fog, so that tile is fresh water. Graphically there appears to be a lake up near the top edge, 3x NW + 1NE from the settler.

The single tile lake would see a Harbor get built there, in all likelihood, rather than trying to jam a Commercial Hub somewhere. Likely on the southern edge of the rainforest belt assuming standard feature generation.

How does this start fit with my prior analysis?

Inca

One mountain. Nah.

Korea

A couple bare hills for a Seowon to the SW, one hill that I can’t use until Bronze Working is done to the NE and an open grassland hill to the W. Workable and likely better territory to the NW and SW for Seowon placement.

So, start possibilities:

Settle In Place

That gives me a plains hill capital but no 3 tiles in the first ring. Wines would be the second take, amber goes first, deer third. Slow growing start but a good Seowon spot on that grassland hill. I could put two farms between it and the city center, a third if I clear that marsh, and have two hills available for chop & mine. City #2 goes E of the grassland hill jungle, Seowon on the open hill and chop out all the rainforest for farms and mines.

Settle on Maize

Gets a 2 per turn start yield. Higher , grows the capital in 5 turns and could work the PFH with the second population for some reasonable early production. Puts the grassland hill third ring but also opens the grassland jungle hill to its NE open for a second city location. This spot would make me wait for a Seowon until I could get Bronze Working completed.

Cree

The resources make this an interesting choice. Mekewap between the stone and Maize is a 311 tile plus housing and there’d be room for three more, though they wouldn’t give additional or , just and housing. Science generation would be challenging as there really isn’t a good spot for a Campus. The early trader makes getting some of the flat tiles a bit easier. The $64000 question is “what’s the resource situation like in the fog?”. If it’s good then the Cree could make more sense here. If it’s not good they could be a bust.

Start possibilities:

Settle in Place

The “bonus” Mekewap is second ring, have a +1 Campus on the hill to the west. City #2 would go NE of the grassland jungle hill to get a Campus next to that geothermal vent. It’d be a +3 until I started chopping out rainforest. City #3 goes somewhere NW, Campus goes on the grassland jungle hill and the Government Plaza onto the marsh. If that is a lake up north then a possibility is to settle on its eastern bank – that would assure the trader running through the jungle adjacenct to the geothermal fissure. That would put the other city up here a bit east, running a trader there to capture the hill next to the fissure for another Campus.

I don't see anything else as viable for the Cree. A maize start faces similar challenges as Korea and I'd want to keep that amber in the second ring.

Anyone else?

One might think Brazil is tempting here. It is, but my expectation is that would force me towards the center of the map to take advantage of the rainforest belt. None of the other civs strike my fancy right now.

Who to pick?

Korea would generate much better science here, for sure, along with the possibility for some faster expansion with Seowon farms. The Cree also have possibilities, including more rapid scouting with their unique unit and its free promotion. Fast moving warriors that ignore woods/rainforest? Yes, please. There are possibilities for good Campus adjacencies using that geothermal fissure to the north and trader(s) to accumulate tiles.

I think playing Korea would be slightly more “mechanical” than the Cree – find a good Seowon spot, build it, farm/mine around it, repeat while trying to gain the upper hand tech-wise. The Cree would make for a more interesting but likely much more challenging game from my perspective.

I’ll need to think more on this tomorrow, when I’ll be able to ponder when I’m a bit more...awake.

[suboptimal]

The Final Countdown

So, decision time. It boils down to this:

Korea

Yes, the Seowon is a very good district and Three Kingdoms is a reasonably good ability and together they could build a science juggernaut. Their unit is not that good and the leader ability is marginal, at best. Just about the only advantage this civ has is cheap Campus districts.

Cree

The Mekewap is a good improvement, the leader and civ abilities lend themselves to getting some commerce going early and enhancing commerce later. The Okihtcitaw is good early, meh mid-game and useless late game. Of course the downside is that their science generation will take time to get going compared to Korea.

Of the two I think I would have a more interesting game as the Cree. I’m also having a slightly easier time sketching out a game plan for the Cree than Korea.

CONFIRM CREE

I’ll have more about initial plans later on today.