[PB74] Far East, GT goes bananas

[GT]

 

Alright, this will be my thread for the upcoming PB74. Awaiting starting position now, to choose on leader/civ.

My choices are:

Brennus OR Kublai Khan OR Charlemagne of Zululand

I'm leaning towards Kublai Khan and accepting the Zulu's, so no reroll. Aggressive and cheap 20% off on cities isn't bad, rush possible with their UU. But let's see the starting position first..

And I'm having zero clue about rerolls, and even the mod played here :D First attempt with it..

I've played a few PBs in the German forum, not with the best success either. I'm clearly a beginner..

[Mjmd]

If you have mod or other questions feel free to ask.

[Qgqqqqq]

[GT]

I'll go with Kublai Khan of Zululand then

[klops]

no bananas?!?! disappointing start :D

[GT]

Who let the bananas out?

[GT]

After playing some time in the sandbox, I've come to the conclusion that no other start is better (and less dangerous) than a classic "mining/bronze" start, with a BT first, warrior, then settler.

Any other start has serious disadvantages which seems heaver than their benefits.

Animal Farming, then Fishing/working boat gets me a settler quite late at T34 (which would be ok), and a neat city at Pop4 to push units out, but Bronze at T38 and my first warrior at T27 only cries for "getting rushed by not-so-nice neighbors". Worst of it: My worker would be doing farms only starting T29 for quite a while..

Fishing first (with various different starts, either fishing boats or worker first), then mining, then bronze would get me Bronze at T28, which is acceptable, but after a quick start (working boat first) it would slow down due to a late worker. Or, worker first would mean profiting from the fishs way later..

While classic "mining/bronze and worker first" gets me a settler at T29 (with one chopped forest), a warrior at T20 (still not ideal.. I'm used to the archer-start on CivForum PB's...) and while a Pop2 city isn't ideal to build a Settler, I'd know already WHERE to settle 100% as Bronze would become available at T23.. Also, one freshwater rice farm at 5 Food/1Gold + 4 Prod/1 Gold from a plain hill mine isn't THAT bad.

And if I choose Fishing after Bronze, I could pretty well reach fishing when I chop my second forest into a working boat.. making my city grow to Pop3 fast.. but I tend to only sandbox till about T30-35, I'm not THAT crazy..

So, it seems we're off to Mining and a Worker first.. feel free to let me know if that's a crazy strategy, more than welcome for any input.

I'll spare you my LibreOffice Calc sheets :D

[GT]

   

Jackpot, Baby!

Will head for the party at 3-3 first, kinda obvious I guess..

Give me a tech, c'mon

[GT]

Commodore and Miguelito seems to be incredible lucky, finding a tech in a hut in T1 already..

Huts are disabled in the PBs over at Civforum, as they can tip the balance massively..

I guess RB prefers games to be more unpredictable?

[GT]

First hut: 64 Gold

That's better than some maps, but slightly worse than a Tech, I guess..