Brick by Brick (Spoiler Alert!)

[Lego]

Welcome to my thread. I've lurked a long time but finally got the courage to play.

[TheHumanHydra]

It seems to have been decided that I will be filling in for Lego until he regains access to the Interwebs, possibly for several months. Hopefully I can steward his civ well. More thoughts will come when there is something to think about!

TheHumanHydra

[Catwalk]

Dedlurker reporting! If Lego will grant you influence on civ and leader picks, what are your preferences?

[TheHumanHydra]

Let's see ... no civs or leaders are banned. The "big four" are Pacal, Willem, India, and Inca, right? I'm not confident enough in my abilities to pick something really out there; at the same time, I don't want to pick anything too cliché. Let's look at the big four and create excuses not to pick them (I understand that most of the below is sheer folly):

Pacal - I don't like the Expansive trait. I haven't mastered the whole heavy whipping-Granaries thing. Usually I only build the latter when I need the health boost, or just before busting the happiness cap with Hereditary Rule; they're not a "first-build-in-every-city" thing like they are for some (most?) people. The health bonus is nice but not truly necessary; the bonus to Worker build speed is quite nice, but again, I can live without it. I know I'm a fool, but to be honest, I'd rather have Aggressive.

Willem - I like the Creative trait, but not as much as some others. The fast border pops are quite nice, but by no means essential. I don't like the cheap buildings so much - the Colosseum I rarely build, the Theatre is so cheap anyway; the Library is the only really useful one. I know I'm a fool, and I do like Creative, but to be honest, I'd rather have, say, Charismatic.

India - I like the Mausoleum, but it is a late building. I know the Fast Worker is the best unit in the game, but I have zero experience with it, so I would probably miss half the opportunities it offers anyway, and I'm not that interested in Worker shenanigans. I don't mind the starting techs, and I know I'm a fool, but to be honest, I think I'd rather pass.

Inca - I like the Quechua a lot against barbarians, but I have no interest in rushing that early. The Terrace suffers from the same problem for me as the Expansive trait: I haven't come to lean on the Granary so much as some (most) yet. Again, I don't mind the starting techs, and I know I'm a fool, but to be honest, I think I'd rather pass.

What do I like? Financial. Financial, Financial, Financial (but everyone says that). Frankly, I'm not confident enough in my abilities not to pick this trait. What would I like to pair with it? Organized. I like it's cheap buildings and its "big-picture" benefit, letting me run more expensive civics and keep my research rate up (civics that I find provide more benefit than, say, the Expansive trait). Philosophical. I'm not great at planning out Great Person use, bulbing, etc., but I do like having an Academy in (almost) every city, which is obviously Great Person-intensive. I like the cheap Universities too. I've been rediscovering the value of Industrious of late. I like Imperialistic on more cramped maps. I find Aggressive and Charismatic quite useful, and I'm not even a warmonger (in single-player, I quite often roleplay "the good guy," only fighting in a just cause. Don't worry, I won't be so scrupulous here)! I can never be bothered with Spiritual (again, I know I'm a fool ...). Games like PB2 make me think that Protective may be underrated, but I won't risk my (non-existant) reputation by suggesting we actually take it.

There, I think I've covered all the traits. There are so many civs that I'm not going to try and cover them now. Now, after all my exceptionally short-sighted comments above, I will admit that I am open to "forcing" myself to try and plan a different way, as a learning experience. I could try Isabella (Exp-Spi - blegh!) and try and learn how to use some of my most-underutilized traits. But if I was going to play to my strengths (if I have any - you may be wondering after all the above!), I would pick someone like Darius (Fin/Org), Huayna Capac (Fin/Ind), Elizabeth (Fin/Phi), or Victoria (Fin/Imp). Actually, Willem's is one of my most-played trait combinations; I was a little overly hard on it above just because I don't want to play with such an obvious leader (I would actually like to have Creative just as much as or more than Charismatic). I am actually open to playing something really wacky too if the audience thinks it would be entertaining (I got really excited about playing as Mehmed [Exp/Org] of Aztec in preparation for PBEM45, but then it ended up being impossible according to the points system we used there).

Well, this is getting to be quite the essay, so I think I'll stop there, and leave everyone to wonder at my folly. Catwalk, feel free to say to me, "smarten up, Hydra, we need to win this game, not sit around bashing the Expansive trait while everyone else bashes us with it!" and I will smarten up. Or, if you're insane (I don't know you yet!) you can egg on my insanity and encourage me to pick a really wacky civ/leader combo, and to heck with my lack of confidence! Or we could pick one of the strong, silent types - not too flashy, but solid enough to lean on. Readers, Catwalk, what do you think?

(All this, of course, assuming Lego doesn't just want to pick the civ and leader himself!)

[TheHumanHydra]

Uh, I don't know how this post popped up in between here. Sorry about that.

[TheHumanHydra]

Same thing happened again! Weird ...

[TheHumanHydra]

You're welcome! Feel free to give any directives you want from your phone and I'll try to carry them out, and whenever you are able to play a turn, just let me know so I can send it to you!

I guess if you were just going to pick a random leader, I might as well choose! I'm not sure how much input we'll get from general lurkers, as they're not normally supposed to do that sort of thing, but I suppose we could ask what they think would be most fun to see us play, as opposed to what they think would be best for us to play. How about it, lurkers? What civ and leader would you inflict on us?

[Lego]

Thank you for covering for me. My plan was to choose leader first and press random... The first non-protective that pops up, I'll play as him or her. Then I'd pick a civ accordingly. What could be more fun is to get the lurker a to pick the leader, no exclusions at all. Downside to this is I don't think it's fair to force that upon you. As you're playing the starting turns, it's up to you.

I should be able to read and post with my phone 3G most of the time but will only every now and then be able to look at andplay a turn.

[Catwalk]

Err... I suggest non-random picking

[BRickAstley]

Here's your starting tiles, consider these to be your definite setup.