[SPOILERS] yuris125 trying to find three weaknesses

[yuris125]

I promised myself I wouldn't play more than one game at a time, suddenly I find myself involved in four

[yuris125]

I wonder how long this game will last... or rather, how late a UU can be to be not too late

Very tentatively thinking Toku of Germany. Admittedly, Commodore did a Germany game with a careful Chemistry bulb not too long ago, and conceptually Chemistry bulb is not that different from Astro bulb. But still, it could be interesting. Knights will probably be the key unit for this game, as they usually are, but the path to Chemistry likely lies through Guilds anyway, and we banned everything that can power up 2-movers

Not in a rush to make a decision, of course. Just might as well post my thoughts as they come, for whatever they're worth

[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 might change for mostly-aesthetic reasons, so maybe don't trust the fog too far!

   

Good luck!

[yuris125]

Thanks So right off the bat I have no idea if I should move to a plains hill or settle in place. Moving on classical start doesn't matter too much, since we spend the first turn in anarchy anyway. But based on this screenshot, I would want to move NNE, so that I still have food in the first ring, and that would mean two turns of movement

We'll see after moving the units on the first turn

With regards to the pick, here are civs which I can see being in contention
* America. Has to be considered whenever we play CtH. No military advantage, but very strong UB. Also I haven't played CtH America
* Arabia. Camel archers not requiring resources shouldn't be much of an advantage with a map where we're guaranteed to have resources, but CtH gives them March. Don't think it makes enough of a difference to pick it, there are stronger options when I have the second pick. UB is meh
* France. Musketeers can be very strong with Nationhood, otherwise they're weaker than knights and later in the tech tree. Since this is a "roomy" map, there's potential for draft to be strong, if we get there. Also can benefit from Agg/Pro. UB might as well not exist
* Germany. Grenadiers available at Chemistry, benefit from Agg/Pro just as France. Even deeper in the tree than musketeers, and only 1-movers, but strength 12 is a lot of strength. UB is probably too late to matter (factories available at Steam Power)
* Japan. I actually think Japan is very strong in these settings, and someone will almost certainly take it, only reason it won't be me is because I'm playing it in another game
* Korea. UU is a catapult with bonus vs melee. Siege units will probably be a game-deciding factor, along with 2-movers, but I strongly doubt this bonus will matter - melee units are likely to be out of favour in a world with longbows and crossbows. UB is a university replacement, and Education will almost certainly be off the main research path in this game
* Rome. Praets are always scary, but probably less so on a roomy map - it will be difficult to build a sufficient stack and march it to a good position before longbows and crossbows are in play. UB is whatever

And that's really all I see

For traits, I think I want to be Agg. Every time I played a military-focused game, I regretted not having Agg. This is technically not an always war game, but I still expect having to build a tonne of units, and Agg really does help with army maintenance. That makes me want to have a strong unit which can benefit from Agg extra promos, and since mounted units don't benefit, and there's no melee units I'm considering, my preference is to have a gunpowder UU. So basically France or Germany. And if I'm taking a gunpowder UU, I might as well take Toku with it for the extra promos, as well as for easier defence to get there. I don't think Pro trade routes will be particularly strong on a pangaea map, but the promos will be helpful both for defence to get to gunpowder units, and for attack with gunpowder units

I'm not dead set on Toku by any means, and would be ok to take Boudica or Alex. Or, given a roomy map, maybe even Genghis Khan. With second pick, I'm guaranteed either France or Germany, and then we'll see how the draft goes and what makes the most sense

[yuris125]

Scooter first picking Willem makes me doubt myself, since it's a leader who doesn't help with military at all. Maybe all my thinking about how this game will go is completely wrong

That said, Fin is a trait which shines in prolonged games, and if Scooter thinks the game will go long, Germany's early factory UB could well come into play. I was leaning Germany anyway, so I'll take that and see how it goes

This reminds me, having a factory UB suggests I want Org, which should be a strong trait on a roomy map in any case. I'm very undecided on the leader pick

[yuris125]

Remains to be seen what Commodore takes, but with everyone else taking economy-oriented leaders, I'm actually thinking Frederick (Phi/Org). The bulb path towards Chemistry needs at least one engineer for Gunpowder (technically Gunpowder is bulbable by a scientist, but it's lower priority than the entire Astro line, so not really viable), and an engineer would be a pain to produce without Phi

I think Agg becomes less important if others don't take it, and everyone is equally struggling with army maintenance costs. And promos should matter less if I have a stronger unit earlier than others

[yuris125]

This is the main beeline path towards Chemistry




It is also necessary to research IW and Alphabet to unlock bulbs, and I don't know if we can afford to skip Currency. CoL needs to be skipped to block Philosophy bulb (or we can commit to bulbing Philosophy as well, scientists are not that hard to produce)

Machinery, Engineering, Guilds, and Gunpowder are all bulbable by an engineer. I'd like to get at least two. Producing two engineers when we can only work one specialist per city..... it probably is not impossible without Phi, but Phi would make it so much easier

[yuris125]

I'll be honest, I don't understand Cornflakes's Greece pick. Greece UU is a strength 5 spear with +25% hill defence. Yes, it probably can hold its own against knights, eliminating the need to build pikes, but there's no way you delay researching Engineering, right? Increased mobility is arguably even more important than the pike unlock. It probably also makes any attack with horse archers or war elephants non-viable, but by the time Cornflakes had to pick, it was clear no one was planning early aggression. UU is nothing special, a coliseum with extra happy and culture, and Cornflakes didn't take Chm to get ot for cheap - in fact, I don't see any synergy at all between Gandhi and Greece. I'm sure he has a plan and I'm missing something, I just don't see it - to me taking Greece when Japan and France are available is hard to understand

Scooter's pick is probably the strongest if we get to late game and he's in a strong defensive position. We all know the strength of America, and Scooter gets those powered up libraries cheaply, and supports them with Fin in the late game. Commodore took the one available civ with extra power to knights, and that makes sense to me as well, Arabia was on my radar after all. Will he try to stop my plans by following a similar bulb path, but stopping at Guilds and unleashing camel archers upon the world?

[yuris125]

After the initial unit movement, I didn't like the idea of moving the settler




The tile I was considering moving to is NNE, which would be a 2-turn movement. I would lose the second food source without knowing if there is a replacement, and worker would have nothing to do for 2 turns. It's just too much of a cost

In a game like this, settling on flatland is a little scary, but let's be honest, if my capital is under threat, I likely have bigger problems

So I go ahead and settle in place, revolt to slavery and OR, and start farming the corn. Unsure if I want to build a granary or a second worker first, hopefully will have time to test. Reserach not picked yet, but will probably be Math into Metal Casting

End of turn also brings a quest




9 libraries? I probably will get them - if I have 9 cities

[yuris125]

Found my horses




For the first build, this may be very wrong, but I actually decided to go with another scout. We are playing with huts, we will need to fogbust, and I think there's plenty of value in getting more scouting. There's also decent merit in waiting for religion before starting granary, to benefit from OR. Worker first would almost certainly be worse in this case, as there are several good tiles I want to grow onto

For tech, I don't see much happiness around yet, and there would be value in going Monarchy first and revolting to HR early, but I think there's enough forests around to make Math first more valuable. But also the earlier I research Monarchy, the less painful anarchy will be. Probably Math - Monarchy - MC?