[spoilers] Commodore in the slightly less than sudden death playoffs.

[Commodore]

Three city elimination is a weird, weird format, should be fun.

Password:

Nebby

[Commodore]

Three-City Elimination; What Does It Mean?

Cornflakes has come to us here with a very novel game mode, the 3-city elim multiplayer game. From what I understand, this means that once a given civ has sustained three city losses, the whole thing goes boom, wiped off the map. I’m not certain about this, but I suspect this will lead to a very cautious game, where the victory condition is science (nukes), not tactical wars at key tech boosts (knights, galleons, cannons). Several interesting items:
• Classical Era barbarians are very dangerous. Not only are the axe/spear swarms prone to cap a city early, but strangely-positioned barbarian city spawns will make for weird poke-outs in natural territory very easy to capture in turn by a rival. Hrm. Will capturing three barbarian cities defeat the barbarian civilization?
• Pink dots are much more risky than normal. Exposing the investment of a settler and guard is usually worth it, but now the damage is much worse if the pink dot gets punished.
• Conquering a rival does not automatically mean “snowball to victory”. At best the conqueror nets +3 cities, and the immediately-cleared land is now an open land rush for everyone who’s remaining. Plus the conquest is more dangerous…
• Because attacking is now a lot more dangerous. I have never fought a losing war where I couldn’t at least bleed my attacker, retaking conquered cities or sniping exposed backlines. Those are typically worth it for a conqueror, but now that’s 1 or more “hit points” gone out of 3.
• Mobility is horrifying. Great generals are massively important with the ability to snipe cities with morale shenanigans, and the naval/coastal risk is so terrifying some player(s) might reasonably decide to settle exclusively inland.
• ISLANDS ARE A TERROR TO SETTLE. If you do have a script throw those valuable IC-TR islands, hesitate before settling, because those are much much easier to raze.
All of this to me implies a much more cautious builder game…which fits. It’s a long-held observation that Always War is the most cautious game style and Always Peace the most aggressive. Everyone is going to be focusing on the economy drag-race, even more skewed that way due to Classic Era start. Outside of possible early opportunistic rushes, watchers should be looking at a careful, canny game here.

All this informs what I want from the leader/civ picks…I want culture production to be high, economy to be solid, walls/castle discounts are very valuable, and for aggression I want either the very start of the game or later. Nebuchadnezzar is thus my first pick, with other Phi or Ind options nearly equally valuable. Those defensive/culture priorities see Greece, Persia, Rome, and Arabia all very nice, so I’m not worried about civilization options getting depleted in the snake.

[RefSteel]

Here's your starting screenshot. The fog is probably accurate since this is meant to be a minimally-edited map, but I suppose if there's enough time before the game starts, it's possible something substantive might change for mostly-aesthetic reasons, so maybe don't trust the fog too far!

Good luck!

[Commodore]

Thanks Ref, beautiful start.

I'll want to scout before settling but there's a neat little choice already, if I want a commerce supercap 2W looks perfect, while SIP gets six mines and two plains lumbermills for a 30hpt base very early hammer wonderspot.

[Commodore]

Going for the riverside/cottages.


Also, mass madrassa.

[Commodore]

Somewhat disturbing. No additional resources detected so far. Low gold amount from the hut, but enough to 100% metal casing ASAP. 
   
While strictly worse as a long-term capital, I'm glad to have copper in-culture in ~15 turns thanks to the Classic Era holy capital city.

[Commodore]

I have so much cash. Also the Single Best Tile gives me something with the copper city.
   

[Commodore]

More resources, albeit very few of them.


Very natural map, which is fun. Silver present makes me happier about my Metal Casing first choice.

[Commodore]

FIRST CONTACT.

Scooter, Willam (CRE/FIN) of America. Not the best of neighbors, but not the worst.

[Commodore]

As expected, Scooter DoW'd to snipe that hut. Bummer, but we'll survive.