Question for the lurkers, does the singleplayer trick of deselecting a tech for the first 5 turns work in pitboss too? Is it still 5 turns with no penalty and accumulated OF?
Well, the sims completely disturbed my initial predictions, with Monarch and Tiny costs meaning that food/hammer stuff like worker turns and growth took far longer than tech timing. And while I had predicted Worker-Mining > Worker-AH > WB first AH, the complete opposite was true. The times for size 4 capital working all resources were turns 34, 33, and 32 respectively. The reason this ended up happening is that the worker improved the tiles and started chopping before the capital his size 4. In other words,
production and tile improvements exceeded the rate of population growth. Because unlike a grain start, I wasn't improving my corn or wheat or wheat first that boosted pop size before swapping to civvie units, I was just getting raw hammers. So that's interesting but not super surprising when explained.
I followed through and had 2.8 settlers, 2 workers, and 4 tile improvements by turn ~45-47 when I stopped the BFC sims. Which is solid, but not at all exciting for IMP.
Now it's possible that the best opening is actually to stop growing at size 3 and maybe split off the crab to the second city. That might change the choices made with tech path and build order.
I better stop talking about micro before y'all eyes glaze over. I realize that like golf or boardgaming, however fun it may be to play, civ micro is a wrist-slittingly boring spectator sport.
Sooooo..
PICKS!
or "picks" because the computer made them.
I'm sure Commodore will do some much more witty and incisive player commentary but here's my feeble imitation.
Quote:Commodore - Lincoln (Phi/Cha) of the Celts
Amicalola - Mao (Exp/Pro) of Persia
Nowfrogger - Darius (Fin/Org) of Sumeria
Ginger - Charlemagne (Imp/Pro) of Greece
Superdeath - Victoria (Imp/Fin) of Carthage
Gavagai - Shaka (Agr/Exp) of Ethiopia
We have 3 early push leaders, 2 Hedge Knights, and lastly, we have Mr. GNP of the Early Courthouses.
I'll note that in general, starting techs don't matter much on Monarch Tiny.
The Early Trait Gang:
Amicalola is a very strong and solid player from the Builder-then-Kill school, with ample chops in both departments. Persia is the not-zulu civ that one picks when they have AH resources in BFC. Immortals are a decent UU, can certainly rush just like Egypt, but rushes are bad if people are awake. Persia can put on a much better choke than Egypt with the Archer resistance and BFC, although Immortals don't have the staying power throughout classical and around HBR that a War Chariot has. However that's not really his style so I don't expect Amica to pull a rush unless horse pops in BFC or second city. Mao is a great leader for a horse archer rush or other classical shenanigans, efficient productive cities + early commerce and cheap, effective garrisons is a nice combo.
Verdict: Will greatly leap forward through the early tech tree and will use Immortals to ravage their fields like sparrows.
I think PB57 was the last game Gavagai played, and from what I read he was pretty checked-out, but has had some knockout performances in the past like PB42, which is probably my favorite story I've read (old Magellan be busted). He has a strong reputation, loads of experience, and a killer instinct, but mercurial temperament + random map is not a good combination. We can probably try to expect a pressure campaign with Agg very early, and he is on the do-not neighbor list for sure. Ethiopia is whatever honestly. Agg Oromos means he'll be impervious in Renaissance to all but Pinch Cuirs. Agg is pretty strong late game so if he does snowball off of someone-else's capital he's the likely favorite to win.
Verdict: Shaka the leader with Shaka the player. Will probably be able to adapt his mechanical playstyle to the map, but I'm predicting that if Mjmd (yes you get the blame
) didn't give him something sim, worthy, he'll go all in on throwing the kitchen sink at the nearest player.
Last in the early trait gang we have myself. My background is always-war ladder games, singleplayer, and PB63— that's about it. I'm not a fan of early traits (just do micro 4head), but Charlemagne is a good and synergistic leader if we have a couple islands offshore. He drops off in value really quickly, so as I mentioned earlier, if I'm not leading demos turn 60, I'm probably going to lose. Greece is a very nice civ for this psychotic player group. Phalanx and Pro makes a very nice, big beautiful sign board that reads "Fuck Off"
The Odeon is a Hamman at Construction I guess. Free specialists slots, if I find enough food to run them. Not great UB, beats the Bazaar and Stele lmao. Seriously though, what is up with the Bazaar and the Garden, they're the only UB (besides Terrace lmao) nerfed from their base bts versions, and neither was particularly inspiring to begin with.
Verdict: Self Pity
I'll post the remaining 3 player overviews when I get back from class.
and 
. The settings and the player roster truly allow for nothing else.
.
![[Image: vo7zMpr.png]](https://i.imgur.com/vo7zMpr.png)
Mama Mia that’s a nice capital. INB4 I’m boxed in by Gav’s Shaka. 
I can’t believe I’m on the back foot from the beginning, the snowball already ruined!