[SPOLERS] yuris125, Pitboss 71. The battle Warrior of Light is unlikely to win

[yuris125]

[yuris125]

For the last almost 2 years, I've been playing a lot of Final Fantasy 14, and thread will have a minor FF14 theme. Mind you, a minor one, I'm not exactly a good writer. I will strive to keep reporting as detailed as it was in Pitboss 68, but it will be more about thought process dumps than about good stories. Fully expect other threads to be better for storytelling

My goals for this game are:
* Don't mess up the early game, keep up with the others
* Have a plan for midgame and not waffle around and come up with a new plan every other turn like I did in 68
* Be better at diplo
* Don't be too disappointed when Mackoti inevitably wins

[civac2]

[yuris125]

Quick thoughts on Hammurabi of Greece:

Agg and Org both offer maintenance discounts, so we want to a big empire, either through REX or through combat. Nothing unusual then but it should be possible to REX without worrying too much about the economy
Phalanxes don't have much going for them, but them not dying to chraiots means it should be ok to just spam them and not invest in spears - at least until someone get horse archers
This combo makes it very easy to make maces with C2 + specialised promotion (cover / formation / whatever needed) - free C1 from Agg + 5 XP from barracks and odeons for 2 promos. Specifically maces - odeons unlock at Construction, around the time when axes become outclassed, and don't give the second XP point to Gunpowder units (guess pikes can benefit as well, but pikes aren't a great offensive unit). The big issue with maces is that they get hard countered by crossbows, but with Machinery disconnected from Engineering, maybe people will try to skip it? Something to keep in mind, anyway - this combo subtly pushes towards Civil Service and maces being a priority in medieval ages

Can't think of much else. If the plan is REX, we REX, but need to see the map to work out a more detailed plan

[pindicator]

The easy access to 3-promo melee units was one of the first things I thought of when I saw your combination. Excited to see what you can do with it.

[yuris125]

You know, I really didn't think it was an obvious interaction, and was happy I spotted it. Oh well, I'll blame it on rustiness that it took me a while to see it, I'll use this excuse till the end of times now

One more thought - there's no Ind leaders in the game, and I could use a jump along the tech tree to get to maces faster. Pursuing Oracle of Light could be worthwhile

[yuris125]

Yuris: Lieu Ye of Dutch

Well tbh now I see no synergy at all. I'm not loving Dutch in general, their uniques don't come up until late game (Economics / Astronomy may be mid-game techs for single player, but do feel like late game for MP), require different branches of the tech tree, and both these branches are away from the Guilds - Gunpowder - Steel beeline. Also Dikes (customs house replacement with +1 commerce from river tiles, 120h) don't seem amazing, how big a percentage of overall commerce production will they contribute at the point of the game when Economics is researched? I'll build them if the game gets that far, just for testing, but the gut feeling is that it will be peanuts, and 120h would be better spent on 1.5 knights. East Indiaman is a strength 6 galleon, seems like its main design goal is not dying to privateers (still dies to frigates). Again, I could be missing omsething, but I see this as a marginal improvement over galleons, nothing to be excited about

Lieu Yu (Pro/Org) is solid, RTR Pro is quite strong with cheap granaries. Seeing how Dutch lean towards coastal cities and Org gives cheap lighthouses, maybe playing for Great Lighthouse could be worthwhile? Somehow we still didn't get an Ind leader in now 13 rolls

But unless there's my overlooking an obscure synergy, the way to play the combo will be map-dependent. We will want riverside coastal cities to take advantage of Dutch uniques if we get that far, but who doesn't want riverside coastal cities?

Superdeath: Boudica of Mongolia

Oh dear oh dear. Not even because this is an aggressive combo in the hands of aggression-leaning player, but because of Superdeath's tendency to check out after a round of combat doesn't go his way

[yuris125]

I missed one Ind leader, Pindicator's Qin is Ind/Pro. Of Japan, too, I'm still scarred by Ind Japan in 68. Although in RTR both Japan's uniques are different

Doesn't change much, just need to account for it in my wonder plans

[Qgqqqqq]

Why did Dikes get changed? They were strong but fun imo. Didn't seem to need a full overhaul given how late they came.

[yuris125]

Don't remember to be honest - this change has been in RTR for a while. Although I see how they can be game-breaking if several players reach Steam Power at relative tech parity, a Moai in every coastal city sounds pretty absurd. Not game-breaking enough for a minimalist mod like CtH to change them (I see they're unchanged in CtH), but worth looking at for a more extensive mod like RTR. But it does look like bonus of the current iteration is too insignificant for how late they come into play. Will be interesting to see if I'm underestmating their value, if the game lasts long enough