[SPOILERS!] Grimace and wetbandit hope to stay on their side of the DMZ

[Grimace]

Welcome to the Grimace and wetbandit show! Starring Grimace!



Wetbandit!



EDIT: WilliamLP was falsely accused of being on this team. There is not, and has never been any truth to such a rumor.

Let the shenanigans begin!

[wetbandit]

Checking in. The WLP saga: I thought he was going to be part of the Dreylin Collective initially, then OH assigned him to you, and now Whosit believes he is his mentor!

Looking forward to a successful game. Do you have any mod preference?

[Grimace]

Checking in. The WLP saga: I thought he was going to be part of the Dreylin Collective initially, then OH assigned him to you, and now Whosit believes he is his mentor!

Looking forward to a successful game. Do you have any mod preference?

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what's going on. Either way I'm fine. I'd love to have a mentor, but I'm hoping it will just be a game where we don't die instantly.

I think we're using the (new) RtR mod. I already downloaded the new version, and I'm putting the changes into a stock BTS spreadsheet so we can start figuring out what leader and civ we want. I haven't played with the mod yet, so I'm not too familiar with its changes.

EDIT: I just realized there's no leader with Expansive and Charismatic.

Based on the RrR list of changes, my preferences would be Industrious (I love wonders), Charismatic, Expansive, Imperialistic...but not necessarily in that order. Expansive and Charismatic would seem to be a good combination, especially for early growth, and expansive has a list of 4 fast-build buildings.

As far as the civs go, I don't have an immediate preference. I'll have to wait till my spreadsheet is updated to decide on that.

What are your thoughts?

[Gawdzak]

Washington is EXP and CHM.

[Grimace]

Washington is EXP and CHM.

Ah! You are right. I was restricting by Expansive as Trait 1, and Washington has Charismatic as Trait 1/Expansive Trait 2, so he didn't show in my list. Thanks!

[Grimace]

So here are some of my ideas for leaders/emipires:

Washington of Babylon
Exp/Cha, Agriculture/Fishing -- Not the best starting techs, but good, solid ones, especially with a coastal start (and coast-based resource).
UU: Bowman -- very strong city defender, especially against the super-powered swordsmen in this mod (additional +50% defense vs melee, +30% vs swordsmen). I know the general policy is to go for offense rather than defense, but it seems to me that both are important in MP.
UB: Garden -- gives both a health and happy bonus, amplifying Washington's innate bonuses allowing for even better growth at Construction.

Alternately Churchill of Babylon
Cha/Pro, Fishing/Mining -- Protective makes those Bowman even better city defenders, allowing an additional promotion, and the health/happy bonus from the Garden still helps with the innate happy for CHA.

Huayna Capac of Mali
Fin/Ind, Mysticism/Wheel -- Not great starting techs, but the traits have great synergy with the UB.
UU: Skirmisher -- Not a bad defending unit...not quite as good a defender against swords as the Bowman, but better against other units because of the higher base strength.
UB: Mint -- Quick-built thanks to IND and gives +10% commerce (which stacks well with FIN and cottages).

Alternately Qin Shi Huang of Mali
Ind/Pro, Agriculture/Mining -- Good starting techs, PRO improves the UU drastically, still get the fast UB but not as much benefit as with a FIN leader.

Anyway, just tossing out some ideas. NEED INPUT!

[Grimace]

More thoughts...we could be the 300 pound gorilla in the game
Stalin of Rome
Agg/Ind, Hunting/Mining -- Decent starting techs...and Agg + Praet = fun!
UU: Praetorian -- slightly weaker overall than in BTS, but the +50% city attack makes this a fine unit for spanking your opponent 7 str + 10% (C1) = 7.7 + 50% city attack = 11.55 str when attacking a city before promotions. w/CR1 = 13.09 when attacking a city.
Regular sword would be 6 str + 10% (C1) = 6.6 + 50% city attack = 9.9. w/CR1 6.6 + 70% city attack = 11.22
(I think that math is correct.)
UB: Forum -- Not the greatest UB unless you're playing an SE game, but a market's a market.

or Shaka of Rome
Agg/Exp, Agriculture/Hunting -- The expansive trait makes UB a shorter build aside from its obvious other benefits, and you still have aggressive to boost the praet.

or Alexander of Rome
Agg/Phi, Fishing/Hunting -- A little ironic, but the Philosophical trait pairs nicely with the UB if we wanted to go the SE or Pacifism route. A little less useful if we do a CE.

or Hammurabi of Rome
Agg/Org, Agriculture/Wheel -- Organized is a nice trait to have the whole game.

[Grimace]

Another interesting one might be:
Washington of Carthage
Exp/Cha, Agriculture/Fishing -- This one would be somewhat map-dependent...not much point in playing Carthage if there's not a lot of coast.
UU: Numidian Cavalry -- a good, solid UU, assuming you're willing to detour to HBR and have horses.
UB: Cothon -- +1 trade route/+50 trade route commerce AND it's fast to build? Yes please!

[GermanJoey]

Anyway, just tossing out some ideas. NEED INPUT!

Well, do you know how picks are getting determined this game? I didnt see anything in the tech thread, but, although its not "standard," picks are usually done with a snake pick in MP Civ. This means that, after everyone gets a picture of their start, players will be arranged in a random order, then each player gets a turn selecting a leader or civ, and then the snake wraps back around again in the reverse order where you pick a leader if you picked a civ before, or a civ if you picked a leader. Generally, other than a few top-tier civs (india/inca/china/egypt/sumeria), most people pick a leader with their first pick unless they need very specific starting techs for their start to work. There's 7 players in this game, right? That means if you get the 2nd pick and take a leader, you'll have to wait until 5 other players pick their civ until you can too. There's advantages and disadvantages to being at the start or end of the snake.

Other than that, you should probably take a look at the changelog for RtR mod because some of the traits are pretty different here. Overall, they're much better balanced, so even a random leader could be OK, but your playstyle preferences and your start should also be pretty important considerations in making your pick.

So, with that in mind, what are your thoughts on the traits? and how do you generally like to play? Assuming that luck is on your side, what does your 1AD empire look like if you can get and build and conquer exactly like you want (within reason)?

[Grimace]

Hey GJ, welcome to the show.

It's going to be a snake pick (as far as I know), so I know we're not guaranteed the leader/civ combo we want, which is why I was throwing out several different combinations. Those include the changes for the RtR mod.

I'm a builder by nature, but it seems pretty rare that you don't end up warring at least in a little in these PB games. So I'm trying to find an interesting combination that should have some advantages without going to the standard civ/leaders that are often picked.

Maybe Huayna Capac of the English? FIN = fast stock exchange (+15% commerce), IND = wonder heaven! Redcoat = whoopass. No real advantage in the early game but really starts kicking ass in the midgame.