[SPOILERS] The Wild Card

[Jowy]

This will be a fun one, I can already feel it.
For now though, chill with me while we wait
Keep calm and nostalgia!

Easy references:
RB mod latest change list
Un-modded List of Civs / Leaders/ Traits / Starting techs
Settings and picks

[BRickAstley]

LEADER/CIV:

The process voted on to use for leader/civ generation is as follows:

Day 1 - generate 17 random pairings and post in team threads. Team responds yea or nay. Yea leaders/civs are removed.
Day 2 - repeat for all nay teams. Again, yeas are removed.
Day 3 - double nay teams are auto-assigned

Your first generated Leader/Civ combination is:

De Gaulle of Russia

Please state in bold in your thread whether you want to keep or reroll this combination. If you do not keep it, you can have up to 2 more combinations generated for you.

[Jowy]

When in doubt, reroll!

[BRickAstley]

Can't properly format due to on my phone but you know the drill: Pacal of India

[Jowy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yj469n2J68&t=4m1s

[Jowy]

Is it too late to play this vanilla?

Financial changes from BTS:
- River tiles don't gain the bonus commerce anymore.
- +100% Production bonus when building banks.

It's a clear nerf alright, but financial is still very strong on a water heavy map like B&S. Will have to test whether the change means that there will never be a bonus commerce on a river tile, or if it means that the tile has to get 2 commerce from other sources than the river itself to get the bonus. The way it was worded in the documentation makes me think the former. Banks have always been a bitch to build, they are so freaking expensive, so I really like the new bonus to that.

Expansive changes from BTS:
- +35% Production bonus when building workers. (up from 25%)
- +35% Production bonus when building work boats.
- No more production bonus when building a granary.
- +100% Production bonus when building a market.
- +100% Production bonus when building a grocer.
- +100% Production bonus when building an aqueduct.

Love it. Cheap granaries are of course OP, and it's sad to lose them, but I like what we get in return. These two traits, on this map, have fantastic synergy. Cheap banks, markets and grocers for massive gold boost, extra commerce on all tiles except river, and even cheaper work boats to hook up those sea resources quicker! I'm thinking the reason for the +35% bonus on workers and work boats is so that 3 hammer starts can get the bonus working for them from the beginning. That worker bonus is also great with our civ.. Well, everyone needs workers, but ours are better!

India changes from BTS:
- Fast Worker down to 2 movement points
- Fast Worker starts with Mobility promotion (-1 Terrain movement cost)
- New starting techs are Mysticism/Wheel

Now this seems to be some serious nerfage. Maybe it's just me, but India seems pretty weak now, with weaker than before UU, weak starting techs and a relatively late UB. This also locks us to a worker first start, without having any worker techs to start with. So we can't really make use of the Mysticism start either since we need to go for a tech that allows us to hook up food. Unless we go full hippie with a scout first (for those huge map huts!) and religion first, then worker and a worker tech. We can build a scout from the beginning because it doesn't have a tech requirement anymore. Religion should be stronger than normal in a huge map with a lot of civs, it might make us a fortune, not that we'll be hurting for gold. The risk, of course, is that someone else also goes for a religion first and luck isn't on our side. Though Krill isn't in the game, and this is RB where everyone hates going for early religion, so I'd give pretty good odds on getting a religion.

I'm 99% sure I'm going to lock in Pacal of India. There are very few better combos, and if those existed, they'd be gone after two rounds.
I haven't had a chance to play with the mod yet, or read PB8. Been busy playing the hell out of the new Civ5 expansion, which is amazing btw.

[The Black Sword]

Hey, checking in.

Pacal of India does seem like an amazing combo, hard to turn it down. Going for a third option with no veto is very risky also.

I'm pretty sure you never get bonus commerce on a river with RB Financial, plenty of other opportunities for it though, particularly on a heavy water map like B&S. Expansive fast workers have some nice synergy as well.

Essentially the new fast worker will save a turn for every chop or mine it seems. Still probably stronger than anyone else's UU, if a little more boring.

Myst/Wheel is the price we pay for all the other stuff. Need to see the start before evaluating this but it could get nasty I imagine, especially if we get a fishing start which is fairly common on B&S. A religion would be great but with this many players someone will probably get a better set like agg/myst or fishing/myst.

Btw, when I saw the title, I thought you were going for a Wild Cards theme.

[BRickAstley]

I'm 99% sure I'm going to lock in Pacal of India. There are very few better combos, and if those existed, they'd be gone after two rounds.

Just let me know when you're done wishing for this to be a game of base BTS and wanna lock it in.

[Jowy]

Welcome officially aboard TBS

Yeah the title sadly doesn't refer to the series. I only found out about it when doing a google search to make sure the title didn't have an alternate meaning. Turns out Wild Cards isn't as obscure of a reference as I thought!

We'll have a better idea on what to do when we know our start. To bring that time closer, I will keep this pick, as I've heard that we'd be holding the game back by waiting on it.

[BRickAstley]