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To be fair, I was following the recipe set by Krill pretty closely, and novice did the hard parts, so it's more like I'm eating the stew I chopped the vegetables for--quit ruining my analogy! 
Anyway, I'm not that familar with the changes done to SMEG offhand--I mean, I know the big concepts, but especially the latest stuff is really weird (and that last-minute civic rebalancing is a mess) and I haven't played any single-player games with the mod yet (that weren't directly testing something while I was working on it)
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(March 26th, 2015, 06:55)flugauto Wrote: Wow, that looks...relatively barren 
Yes, the two food is good (and basically expected at this point), but it's just all grassland, with barely any hills or plains. Not that that's bad obviously (I'd rather have grassland than plains, and there are multiple rivers), it just looks boring 
As for the actual pick, I don't know how much this start factors into it--then again, I'm still not sure of how everything ties together in SMEG yet. My gut says the civs are much more powerful than the leaders (since UU+UB seems stronger than a second trait), but I have no clue which one I want yet. I also want to do an analysis of the changes sometime (like I did with PB18 and RTR way back when), and hopefully I'll get a chance soon.
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Oh boy, this is going to be a long game. Finding stuff between all the different changelogs (the big SMEG and RtR ones, then all the incremental SMEG ones) is a mess. Hopefully I can get a dedlurker soon--once I die in PB18 I should be able to focus more on this (though PB23 will likely take up a lot of my time too  ) so you should get reports, at least to start. Having someone I know will read the reports should help my motivation though.
As for my actual pick process, I feel like it was between Germany and Mali--seriously, how did multiple +25% Forges get implemented? Germany's forge is probably worse (since you aren't guaranteed the precious metals, aren't likely to get them traded to you, and coal comes relatively late), but the UU is much better. For Mali, the UU is worse (since you probably aren't getting into wars during the age of Archers), but you get the 25% for units right away (and most cities you build a forge in will build at least some units). You also have a reason to build the UU sooner, since you have to go to Archery for Slavery.
As for the leader, I think it has to be something Philosophical. The IND/PHI combo seems good, especially since PHI got buffed so much. In fact, the test game I mentioned was Ethiopia+Huyana Capac (PHI/IND/FIN), and I wanted to try Stonehenge+Steele. I feel like there's something there with early Great Merchants and each one giving a permanent +2 food if you want it, but I would have had to actually make a micro plan, figure out when to get Stonehenge, then risk a lot of my game on that going right--I really don't want to plan that much
The one thing I don't know right now is what to pair with PHI--we'll see what's available when it comes around.
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It's good to know I'm not completely off base with my civ assessment, even if it means competing with GJ for wonders (though that's not nearly as big a factor with the reduced bonus). What does surprise me is all the Protective--sure, Inca is still a near-lock (since the Terrace wasn't significantly changed), and Tokugawa's decent for military (even if I'm not sure it's first overall, especially since it's not a civ), but Portugal? Even if we assume a coastal start, I don't like my UB as part of the naval trinity. In addition, I don't think the Carrack is worth it now that Caravels can carry settlers, especially since there won't be much ocean on Torusworld anyway.
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As I mentioned before, the second trait on my leader to go with PHI is a tough choice--my thoughts with Expansive are that the extra health lets my cities get bigger with more food, and the cheap Market/Grocer let me get more Great Merchants earlier (as I mentioned with Ethiopia--which also got picked, though I don't know how good how practical that is if you don't get Stonehenge). We also have another Protective pick (though GJ is also pairing IND/PHI like me)--does it still have free Drill? I think it does (and it was a higher-level Drill I think), but the SMEG changelog isn't clear.
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And we're off! The password is "malicrazy", just in case I disappear somewhere. Here's where we are on T1:
I guess I am going to have to go for Fishing sooner rather than later
No idea where I want to go for my tech path--something like Hunting->Agriculture->Mining as the obvious start, then we have the choice of which BW piece I want first, though Pottery and AH both give me improvements to my tiles. I assume I'm either whipping or chopping my first settler, so I need to figure out which is faster and which techs I can fit in that time--I guess I'm supposed to sim this out?
I also need to know what I'm building after my first Worker--probably a Warrior just to grow onto my second food tile? After I grow, we'll see how I'm doing and if I can afford to get my second Settler out quickly.
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T4, and we have a bit of new information!
Obviously the map info is interesting (even if it is really weird--lots of narrow passageways, and tundra Dyes, just to name a couple), but the scores actually tell us a bit more. This is the turn where everyone should be completing their first techs (as we did with Hunting), but notice that plako and GJ didn't! That means we have two civs almost certainly researching Mysticism, and that's an interesting choice. If you're going for the early religion, you won't have any worker techs by the time your first worker completes, will you? My Worker is completing faster than the average Worker though (20% faster, assuming your best tile yields 3 food/hammers), so maybe you can finish Mysticism/Meditation/(Worker Tech) by the time the first Worker finishes?
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It's time for another update, from T8 this time--apparently I like turn numbers that are powers of two
Hi Krill! Not exactly the best choice for a leader (since PRO means I can't kill him early, while FIN/PHI means he likely will out-tech me later), but at least he isn't going to kill me on T100 (assuming he doesn't kill me by T50  ).
Krill also has an interesting tech path, since he got his second tech a turn earlier than me and Thoth. Clearly he went for another first-row tech, and he's working a commerce tile of some kind--does that mean he got a precious metal in his fat cross? I don't know how many other tiles provide commerce at the start of the game now that rivers don't and water isn't practical to work even right after getting Fishing--is it just precious metals, Calendar resources, and furs? I suppose it technically could be a second pop as well, but pop only appears to be worth ~5 points on this map.
This turn we get a bit more as well, since only Thoth and I got a second tech this turn. Obviously plako and GJ shouldn't finish their next techs yet, but pindicator and Brick clearly didn't research a second first-row tech--they must be going on to a second-row tech (presumably one that builds off their first tech, since I doubt they'd go for Mysticism second after seeing two civs already go for it.
April 10th, 2015, 19:49
(This post was last modified: April 10th, 2015, 19:51 by Cheater Hater.)
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I'm serious, I'm not intending to update only on turn numbers that are powers of two--I just haven't had much to update about
Anyway, T16 finally has some interesting decisions for me:
So far I've gone Hunting->Agriculture->Wheel->Animal Husbandry, so I could hook up my food resources and get a bonus on one of them, as well as hopefully finding Horses for Chariots, allowing me to delay BW for a bit. Unfortunately, I haven't found them anywhere close (though admittedly I haven't scouted in every direction yet), and only found one source so far:
Presumably since Krill has them relatively close I will as well; hopefully my upcoming Warrior can scout out the immediate area a bit for me. Speaking of build order, my plan is to build Warriors until size 3, then build my Settler.
The tech path is much more interesting, thanks to all the new paths and dependencies. Right now my plan is Mining->Masonry (so I can chop out my settler), but then it's a lot more interesting as there are three realistic choices. The simplest choice is to get Pottery for the Granaries as well as a bonus on my farm, but I don't think I'll be getting Writing for a bit. There is a lot of seafood around my start, so Fishing probably needs to come soon (especially if my next settler settles seafood--I don't have a dotmap quite yet though ), and then that lets me get Archery for Slavery with both prereqs. Finally, if I don't find Horses soon, I might need to head for BW, as relatively useless as it is for my development.
Next, let's take a first look at my demos:
Unfortunately, my GNP took a hit since I'm researching a first-row tech right now
I obviously am not going to do super-detailed C&D for this game (since I'll be surprised if it goes much past 150 turns as a test game), but Mardoc is the only other civ to grow to size 2 this turn (and he also got tech 4 this turn as well)--am I supposed to go Worker->Worker? Does that mean other starts aren't nearly as sparse as this one appears to be? Worker->Settler isn't a standard path either, is it? Or maybe they just didn't upgrade their food resource (with Pottery/AH)?
As I said, I hope I'll get a report out before T32--I should get Krill's demos in a turn or two at least, and that should be worth a short report at least.
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