[Spoiler] OW PBC1 Chaotic Neutral

[Bruindane]

The old world manual: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hb4dmDK...2yrz1/view

https://www.thegamer.com/old-world-noble...landowners
https://www.oldworldwiki.org/index.php/Laws

[Bruindane]

The starting locations. I'll be quoting from the manual by Velociryx for my quick reference later.

Orator
Selecting the Orator archetype for a character immediately grants that character +4 Charisma and -1 Discipline.
If you have an Orator Leader, then you’ll gain a +40 relationship bonus with the heads of all of the world’s religions (including the heads of Pagan religions), and you’ll be able to recruit tribal mercenaries with Legitimacy. Further, you’ll gain +2 orders per year from each Friendly Family city.
If the Orator in question is a governor, you’ll see a -1 Discontent bonus per turn, per culture level in the city he or she governs.
Orators like Tyranny (+10) and other Orators (+60) but they don’t like Diplomats (-60), and they don’t like leaders who have more governors than they do (-40).

Tactician
Selecting the Tactician archetype for a character immediately grants that character +2 Wisdom and +2 Courage. If you have a Tactician leader, then all of your units will gain +2 vision, and ranged units in friendly or neutral trees will be invisible. Invisible ranged units gain a +10% to their attack strengths.
A General who is a tactician deals full damage during the melee counterattack phase of battle, making them unique in the game.
Also, if the General is also your leader, then when the unit he commands attacks, the unit attacked is stunned and unable to take any action on the following turn (which is a devastating combat ability – not quite as good as Launch Offensive, but very powerful indeed). Note that to help offset the power of this ability, the unit the Tactician leader is commanding will deal 20% less damage when attacking.

My initial thought is to pick a land owners family due to the two crop resources. As the last to choose a nation, I'll have a few more nuggets of information to consider later.

The Landowners
• All Landowner cities get +2 growth per turn
• All Landowner cities get +20 money per turn, per Crop Resource
• All Landowner cities get a 50% reduction in the time it takes to train rural specialists
• When you found the family seat, you gain +2 citizens and you can buy tiles for your family seat.
• Common Landowner traits are Tactician, Judge, and Builder

Egypt, Hatti, & Rome.

[Ginger*]

I'm liking Hatti for my start a lot, lots of forest to chop with spare orders, hills to navigate, and I can stack the Orator governer in the capital to increase the basic civics output and crank out specialists very very quickly

Not super jazzed by the Hatti uniques and families (aside from Landowner cap) compared to something more mainstream like Persia

Persia is my backup option I think, Orator plus some Statesmen family spam... could be interesting.

Artisans capital is another possibility though I usually much prefer to Artisan second city on those civs that have the choice


My 2c is that Rome looks good for your start but its generically considered OP so I doubt it makes it to you

[Ginger*]

The big losers from these starts are the Hunter families, although I have enough forests to feed Babylon's archer spam, opening Hunters here would suck, a lot.

EDIT:
Egypt also looks good for you since theres a little patch of desert there to build pyramids with your bonus stone, although Kaiser might have the same idea

[Bruindane]

I'll be able to take one of Rome, Egypt, or Persia (Statesmen). When you settle, could you capture the available wonders in the game, just to see what wonders such as the Pyramids are available?

The Statesmen
• All Statemen cities generate +1 Order per turn
• All family cities generate +1 Civic per Family Opinion Level
• The Family Seat can conduct a Decree
• All family cities gain Treasury 1 on founding
• On founding the Family Seat, you gain +400 Civics
• Common Statesmen traits are Commander, Diplomat, and Judge

[Ginger*]

Yeah I would recommend Egypt or Rome for sure

One problem to keep in mind with landowners is they get very unhappy if they do not have the most cities. But their snowball is pretty nice

I think both of us should try and plan our early games economically instead of a mil-unit rush. Tactician slinger can solo barbs easily, and additionally I can just buy their units from them with Orator.

Of additional interest for your start on the southern coast, if both Rome and Egypt are gone, would be to pick a civ with Artisans, for naval supremacy.

[Ginger*]

I can’t decide between Hatti Landowners and Babylon Artisans as the two choices of opener.
Currently leaning towards Babylon Artisans but giving up Hill movement, 2civics per city, and everything-chop sounds really rough

[Ginger*]

What keys take an Old World screenshot? Fn + PrtSc like Civ dont seem to work

Your start is fairly flat and without many forests, so I'd lean against Hatti and the wood-intensive Babylon. I would 100% recommend Rome if Kaiser passes on it, especially because landowners would allow you to purchase tiles for a second crop resource.

If Rome doesn't wheel then I think you might still want Babylon because it's just generically strong (20% growth and good unique units)? Or maybe Carthage because of the early game boosts (civics and mercenaries) that can keep you afloat and snowballing.

[Bruindane]

Steam supports F12 to take screenshots though I use my Mac's inbuilt screenshot commands. I took a look at the old world command options and I didn't see anything obvious to make it easier on the pc.

Did you take Eqypt?

[Bruindane]

Ready Player One and Three






If I could pick now, I'd favor

Artists
+4 culture per turn in all Artisan cities
• New Siege and Ship units start with the Ingenuity promotion (+20% attack strength)
• Mines and Lumbermills in Artisan cities are 20% more productive
• When you found the family seat, you get a free worker, and all urban improvements in the
family seat take -2 turns to build.

Babylon
All cities +1 science per turn
• +2 culture per turn from Treasuries
• +20% Growth

Interesting enough, I looked at family first and then the nation. The coastal start suggesting naval strength being important in the east-west mirror.

I don't see a good quarry site nearby, so that's a scouting priority. I do believe we can gift resources to each other, which is something to consider for earlier wonders.