The Antisocial Team

[Mist]

Come see us not report on how we don't get along with each other

And if someone asks, it's Ichabod's fault. He's the bad teammate here :neenernee

[Ichabod]

I've only joined this game because I want to see what Commodore writes about me in his pre-game commentaries. I hope someone kills us quick, since I want to read it. Yes, I'm that needy for attention (not the same level as Gaspar, that everytime a PBEM is ending, says it'll be his last one, just to get some love - later he joins the next one being made).

Yeah, the trash talking has begun.

By the way, I'm the only non-loser BTS player in this game. Bah, is tough being that good...

[Ichabod]

So, who are we up against, let's see:

[SIZE="3"]1. Gaspar and NobleHelium are Isabella of China[/SIZE]

Fairly good pick, albeit nothing too outstanding. Expansive is a very good trait. Spiritual can be awesome if you know how to use it (guess that's what Gaspar wants to get better this time from his past game), it's more of an active trait, while most of the others are passive (like financial).

China is famous for the Agri/Mining starting techs, which is something unique to them. Enables a lot of openings. You can go AH or BW straight away.

Cho-ko-nus can be a good defensive unit, I guess, being able to kill or do collateral, depending on your needs. But it's not a spectacular UU and our UU eats them for lunch, right?

The UB can give an extra boost for a culture victory. Doesn't matter much, though. Maybe it also gives a happy boost compared to regular theaters? Nothing spectacular, either way.

Gaspar and NH are both good players and, despite being in a loser game, they already won at least one game each. They seem to work well together (as a result, since the process can be stingy). Well, if they were able to at least keep a close distance to the Civseis Novice, 7S and Mackoti, they are probably doing something right.

The problem with their last game was lack of focus on their goals. They could have gotten the piramids, if they invested 100% at it! Yeah, I guess that's what they'll be going for here. Spiritual goes amazingly well with the Pyramids and their starting techs allow them a leeway to go for early masonry.

Thing is, using the Pyramids is not as easy as the Civseis (Civilization Saints) make it look like. Seems pretty straightforward, but it's not. Novice and 7S would rock doing a cottage economy, just like they do when using the Pyramids. But a noob player like me will do way better using a financial cottage economy. Are NobleGas good enough to use the Pyramids wisely? We'll probably find out, if I'm correct about this, since I'd expect some sort of beeline.

So:

*Probably going for Pyramids and the "recently found out to be über" Rep-Specialists economy.

[Mardoc]

Yes, I'm that needy for attention

I suppose that's my cue to post, and ask what you have planned for a naming scheme.

The problem with their last game was lack of focus on their goals.

100% agreed. Not just the pyramids (they'll probably blame Lewwyn for that one), they could have had the most cities, or the Great Lighthouse, too, if they'd gone hell-for-leather toward one of those. Instead they went for balance, which meant they missed a lot of things by just a couple turns.

OTOH, you're right, that losing barely to mack/novice/seven would still beat most people.

[Ichabod]

I suppose that's my cue to post, and ask what you have planned for a naming scheme.

I don't know. I have to talk to Mist about it. My naming schemes are very uninspired most of the time.

100% agreed. Not just the pyramids (they'll probably blame Lewwyn for that one), they could have had the most cities, or the Great Lighthouse, too, if they'd gone hell-for-leather toward one of those. Instead they went for balance, which meant they missed a lot of things by just a couple turns.

OTOH, you're right, that losing barely to mack/novice/seven would still beat most people.

Yes, they were all over the place in that game. Hopefully they concentrate so much in a single objective here that they get bitten in the other side by lack of a big picture context. One can dream, right?

[Ichabod]

[SIZE="3"]2. Oledavy is Gandhi of France[/SIZE]

Another good pick, yet worst than Isabella, in my opinion. Both Philosophical and Spiritual are active traits, so you really need to leverage them in the right way to get away with it. Philosophical has been getting some love after some recent good performances by Philo leaders. Again I repeat, I think it's more due to the skill of the players behind those leaders (Serdoa - who also had an airpoirt in that game, Mack, Nocive, 7S) than the Philo trait in itself.

Gandhi also seems an appropriate "I want the Pyramids" leader. Even more than Isabella. He'll want to spend short bursts in Caste System and Rep-Powered scientists for tech, followed by whipping gallore for infra.

That being said, whichever of this first 2 teams get the pyramids will put the other one in a very bad spot. Not because the "pyramids specialist economy" is the best one around, but because a SE with pyramids is objectively better than a SE without it. No offense to anyone, but if Davy wins, I think Gaspar and NH will lose a bit of motivation. If the other way around, Davy will try to come up with a crazy and creative strategy to bounce back up.

France is a pretty standard civ. Nice starting techs, enabling quick pottery (but pottery won't be that much of a priority for a non-expansive, non-cottage-spammer leader, right?). Salons are meh, in my opinion (am I sounding too blasé? - gratuitous french joke right there). Musketeers are cool, they can keep up with knights and currassiers, providing some defensive boni if you want to go deep into enemy territory. They also help defending cities and protecting from forks.

Oledavy is one of the coolest players around. His enthusiasm is cativating and his reports are the best. He seem to have grown as a player and he's very dedicated with his games, if they get rolling. Can he dedicate a lot of time to this with PB9 and the Demogame? We shall see (maybe this will be finished before the other 2 start, though).

For some reason, he likes the Gandhi/France combo, which I remember seeing him calling "his creation". I'm not enlightened enough in Civ to see the big sinnergy between these picks, though. And I think Davy may be overestimating the value of this picks, because this game will start at ancient, not at medieval times (when it's certainly better).

So:

*He also wants the pyramids.

*He wants a religion (forgot to point that out while talking about Gaspar - but this applies to them as well). Spiritual is really hindered without a religion. While it's possible to have free spreads in this game due to no AW, having your own religion is better.

I don't see they competing against our team in getting Buddhism/Hinduism, since we're the financial mysticism gods. So it'll be a fierce fight to Monotheism (Org Religion is also key for spiritual leaders) and caste System (same).

[Ichabod]

By the way, can someone help me setup a good sandbox? I know how to mess around in WB to build my own, but I'm not aware of things I should take into account.

Does my position on the map matters? How can I change it after I selected a certain one based on incomplete knowledge?

Do I have to try and imitate the same number of land tiles that I can see from the score?

Anything else you can help me with?

HELP ME!!!

[Ichabod]

[SIZE="3"]3. Commodore is Darius of the HRE[/SIZE]

Darius is one of the highly regarded full-economy leaders. Financial gives you money, organized reduces your expenses. The problem is that there's no help regarding the growth side of the game (like exp, cre or Imp gives you). So, even if you are likely to get a very good economy, you can fall on the expansion curve and pay for it later.

Commodore wanted a high maintenance map, to make his HRE + Organized pick worth a lot. Did he get it? I don't know, but I think Gaspar called him on it. Either way, I remember reading mackoti say that Courthouses are very good and people tend to underestimate them. Since it's Mackoti saying it, it must make some sense. Of course, he was playing with Organized Sumeria in that occasion, which makes things a bit obvious. Organized HRE is not that obvious, but it still is a good choice, nonetheless.

That being said, expect the following from Commodore: fast CoL for religion and Courthouses -> Bulb theology for AP. I doubt he'll try for early wonders, maybe Oracle, but I'm not sure. Guess he wants to expand/expand and than do the religious economy thing. Hm...

HRE is not that great of a civ. Playing with an Organized leader certainly help making it a bit better. I expect Commodore to go for techs way distant from Engineering, so I don't think we'll be seeing that much Landsknechts running around. Cataphracts eat them for dinner, by the way...

Commodore is a good player, I guess. He held his ground in the games he played, but maybe it was more of a diplomatic ability than a ingame one. I think I have a similar micro-level than him. One thing to notice is that he knows how to focus in his plans and he can keep focused even after the early game (something that I have difficulties with). So, whatever his plans are, we have to take into account that they won't be just plans.

So:

*Early Code of Laws (Oracle?) -> Theology bulb (needs a GPro, maybe he wants Stonehenge too based on that)

*He can be a contender for the early religions, with the Hunting, Mysticism start + Financial. I don't like this... He's likely to follow one of our possible tech paths. Annoying!

[Ichabod]

[SIZE="3"]4. Yuris125 is Huayna Capac of the Ottomans[/SIZE]

HC is obviously the best leader in the game. Everyone knows this. Right? Nah, I'm just kidding. He's a pretty good one, but not overly powerful against the competition here. Financial is kind of obvious. Industrious is a trait that really dictates your game-plan if you want it to be useful. You want wonders (yes, double prod forges and bonus while buiding national wonders is also pretty nice, but you want wonders)!

But Industrious really shines when going for early wonders. Why? Because it's more likely that no one has the resource doublers yet (which are more beneficial to non-industrious leaders) and because these wonders don't suffer from the "first to get to the tech modifier" so much, since everyone can arrive at the techs quickly in the beggining of the game.

This leads me to believe that Yuris wants early wonders. And the Industrious trait leads me to believe that he really wants Oracle for MC. I don't think he'll go for Pyramids. Stonehenge is a possibility, but not starting with Mysticism hinders it.

Speaking of starting techs, ottomans also have the solid Agri/Wheel opening, enabling quick pottery and no compeltely wasted worker turns.

The Ottomans are solid as whole. The hamman is a very good UB. The UU is one of the few that can defend well against Cataphracts, but that'd require a pretty fast beeline to Gunpowder, which is not easy/lucrative to do.

Yuris appears to be a very easy going guy and very optimistic. I don't know a lot about his civ skills, so I'd guess he's more or less in the same level as I am. I don't know much more to say...

So:

*Early non-Pyramids wonders, especially Oracle.

[Ichabod]

[SIZE="4"]5. Ichabod and Mist are Victoria of Byzantium[/SIZE]

Yes, our font is bigger because we are awesome.

Victoria is a very good pick. I already talked a bit about financial, so what about Imperialistic? It's probably the worst "help you to expand" trait, but it's still a "help you to expand" trait, which is very nice.

Since Imperialistic only gives the bonus to hammers, whipping/chopping settlers is better than whipping/choping workers, so we should slow build the latter (or time our whips/chops well).

Anyway, these traits urge us to expand and cottage. This is obvious. The devil is in the details, though, and we have to take care of them. We need to think about trying for some key wonders, how to get a religion, how to get/the best uses for GP. This can propel our natural trait strenghts into a powerful lead.

Byzantium is the home of the powerful Cataphract. Cataphracts are so good that they almost don't let you not go for them. So, I guess we are probably going for them... WE are likely going to be banned, so that's one obstacle out. I guess drafted Muskets may be the defensive plan of choice of most of our opponents. Either way, there's the old saying that goes "don't piss the guy with the Phracts!" and that can help us even if we don't build a single one of them. I don't like the idea of really rushing for Phracts like Commodore did in the past game, since then you won't have the production needed to build them. Anyway, the no-fishing GSci bulbs can prove worthy if we are indeed in a lakes map.

About our players, I guess I'll let Mist speak about himself . So, what about Ichabod?

Who am I? Why I am who I am? Thise are very difficult questions. I'm trying to solve them myself, so any help is appreciated. The key thing is: I'm trying to improve.

So, how can I improve? I feel that my main problem in civ games is not planning things well after the early game. I play mostly by gut, so it's enough when you have few cities. But when you start to get more, it gets difficult. Then I end up stopping expansion, losing focus, not making objectives and eventually, failing.

That being said, I always need to have objectives to look for and try to accomplish. I may not know the right paths, but at least I need to take one and commit to it. And I need to plan things more, in order to make them more efficient.

I think I won't be getting that much attention from the other players in the game. I'm still regarded as a FfH player and a not espectacular one. Besides, PB7 probably didn't change much about this picture. That's a big advantage, making me able to get unnoticed until it's too late, if the others aren't careful.

Anyway, I hope to perform well in this game. FFH PBEM X is coming to an end, so I'll have more time to commit to this. Now I need to make it happen.