[SPOILERS] Mardoc's Magical Mystery Tour

[Mardoc]

Way early to need a thread. Except from the perspective of

• being ready for my starting screenshot
  
• picking out a civ, and adept spell - and therefore strategy
  
• choosing a naming scheme
  
• opponent analysis
  
• Recruiting dedlurkers
  
• Catching up on the latest EitB changes, particularly any relevant ones
  
• Analyzing the previous starting adept game
  

Hey, look. That's...actually a lot of things to do, if I'm going to be ready by the time Bob gets the map going. He's generally pretty prompt, and Auroarcher asked for Torusland which doesn't often require much modification. I'd best get started!

[Mardoc]

First, and foremost - anyone want to come along for the ride? I'm usually on the ball about reporting, and explaining my thought processes, and I even sometimes listen to advice!

For instance: I haven't actually got any particular preferences in mind for this game. Always wanted to see a particular civ get their day in the sun? I might be willing to oblige!

[Mardoc]

Mana thoughts: I can either go for a spell that gives a handy early boost, and otherwise not think deeply about this, or I can pick an arcane civ and bend the whole game around my choice. Adept from t0 means that, with care, I can count on having an archmage candidate whenever I get to Strength of Will. Which...hardly ever happens in these days. So probably I'm going to pick out something good to have early game, and otherwise not bend the game around the adept.

[Mardoc]

More detailed mana thoughts:

I'm not going to base my strategy around an archmage. Mage-level spells, while handy, generally require more than one mage to be worth the investment. Therefore, I'm going to pick based on the adept level.

Elementalism:
Earth and Air are low-value. Boosting ships' speed is worth something, I suppose. Water and Fire, on the other hand, as the terraforming spells...those have potential. Which I will know once I see my start. Entirely economic boost.

Necromancy:
Shadow and Chaos are again low value at the adept level. Death could be very handy, disposable scouts, early-game security. Entropy could also be handy, at the tier 2 level: Rust could turn an axe rush from iffy to probably successful

Divination:
Sun, Spirit, Law, all pretty low value at adept level. Although Sun, at least, might have situation use to help secure a frontier. Mind, however, could be very handy. Boosting beakers from the get-go, eventual GSage

Alteration:
Nature and Life are pretty mediocre, more from being situational than weak per se. Body is awesome, a great help to an early rush, and Enchantment is just generally strengthening

Other:
Floating Eye lets you skip scouting entirely, while Slow gives immense security vs barbs and early rushes.

So basically, spells worth considering are:
Economic: Fire, Water, Mind
Early military: Ice, Death, Enchantment
Mid military: Body, Rust
Informational: Meta

I think I'm going to ignore the military possibilities, except for Death or civ's mana. We asked for a big, not-too-lush map, and it's a 5-player torus. A rush is unlikely to be profitable, therefore, not even an axe-era rush. Any later, and I should be able to make adepts who can serve, if I find myself in need of a particular boost.

Death, however, almost counts as economic, since it can substitute for so many early units. Save building scouts, or not worry about warriors nearly so much.

Meta is really tempting, because it pays all its benefits up front. You immediately get to have your scouting basically done. However, you still have to find the investment to secure the land.

But I'm leaning toward the economic spells at the moment. Boost our foodhammers, or our beakers, and you boost the snowball. Boost the snowball, and you can afford to convert it back into military later. I'm pretty sure Thoth used Mind to win the previous version of this (synergizing with the Grigori), but maybe I'd rather have foodhammers, depending on civ. Raging barbs might call for Death...maybe.

Also. If I want water mana without picking it as my initial spell, Elohim, Lanun, Kurios, Grigori. If I want Fire mana, Amurites, Clan, or Sheaim. Mind...requires Balseraphs, Malakim, or Svart, and Death is a Sheaim monopoly.

Immortal difficulty, Toroid, large map: I suspect I'm going to end up with Mind. About the only exception is if I lean on the 44% water and go Lanun instead. But that's organized enough that I can wait for my screenie before committing, I think.

[Mardoc]

EitB balance changes:
The list of changes in v12 is long...but most of them are tweaking. The only one that seems significant enough to change civ ranking is planar gates cut to 100h. Everything else is a little buff here, a little nerf there; probably puts the civs closer together than before, but not huge.

v11 and v10 were more significant, both the Luch and the Sheaim got significant buffs. But...I still don't think Sheaim are really viable in MP, and the Luch buffs were almost all to the golem line, which still isn't what makes them strong. Gut, not analysis, and I could well be wrong.

Map:

Sample torusland with auror's requested settings:


Most city sites coastal? Most coasts jagged? 200 tiles per player, with contacts through defensible chokes or the sea? I think I want Falamar!

[Thoth]

I think I want Falamar!

Again?

[Mardoc]

Again?

Well, if it works...

That said, I have been thinking about alternatives. It's not quite a Falamar-auto win game like I initially thought.

Sidar: Raging Barbs (and neither lairs nor wildlands), a free passive XP unit, wanes are back at lvl 5. That could add up to a bunch of wanes. Narrow straits would go well with divided souls, Hunting is still cheap so could come early. Not as straightforward as the Lanun, but they can still work out. Not sure if I want Cre/Cha Shekinah or Phi/Ind Sandalphon if I go this route. 13 XP for a shade is quite tempting, though.

Clan: Large lush map, raging barbs, OO very valuable? Sounds like someone fired up the Jonas signal!

Luchiurp: They've gotten a number of mild buffs. Still very powerful economically. Golems slow movement can be compensated by galleys on a map like this.

Maybe reasonable?
Calabim: Governor's manors are always good, no matter what else is going on. Did play them recently though.
Elves: can't get quite as brokenly good on a water map, but the tree econ can still be powerful. Take someone spiritual and they can still have some Cultists. Might fly under the radar while others fight. Probably Arendel of the Ljo if I go this route
Grigori: imitate Thoth, get super early GSage, win? Rather luck-dependent, though. Early adventurer isn't nearly as awesome a result
Balseraphs: generally powerful, free Mind mana is good.
Hippus: Rhoanna might be good at handling raging barbs and still growing weed-like
Malakim: Generally strong econ civ, Mind mana is good, Cultist rush could be fun. If Bob gives us desert at the start they could have a rocket start.

Def do not want:
Kurios: three 'super' cities that are half ocean?
Amurites: Still a late bloomer with a target on their back
Illians: Played recently.
Sheaim: Played recently. Probably have a target on their back from the SG, even though they took eons to get set up and running.
Doviello: rush makes little sense in a FFA. I can get Expansive elsewhere
Khazad: boring, vaults still seems like a malus rather than bonus (although I haven't tried them post-buff)
Bannor: boring, recently buffed but still boring.

Missing anyone?

[Mardoc]

Tentatively thinking something like this:
1. Sandalphon of the Sidar with Mind
2. Jonas of the Clan with Mind
3. Falamar of the Lanun with...map dependent or Death
4. Perpentach of the Balseraphs with Death
5. Somebody of the Luch with Mind

Subject to change upon starting screenie or second thoughts.

Gameplan is pretty similar with all of them: focus initially on economy and REX, snowball past the foes, crush them with regularly built units. Adept is a tech booster mainly, rather than something more hands-on. Lanun are so good at tech normally they can afford to have adept do something else, and Balseraphs have palace mind mana.

Why no Grigori? Mostly because I don't want to be compared to Thoth . Reading his PBEM11 thread, that approach definitely has potential...but I don't think I could execute with the same flair. Or luck.

So what remains? Got to do an opponent analysis, but that'll be easier post-picks. Got to recieve a starting screenie, which I have no control over. And I've got to pick out a naming schema.

[Mardoc]

Well, it's Friday afternoon and I'm bored at work, so let's do something more.

DaveV: Generally knows the game very well. Knows the civs, knows the code behind it. He's also, however, generally overcautious. His barbarian-repelling methods drive me batty - sacrifices improvements and XP in exchange for the highest odds battles. He scouts by ducking in and out of culture, to preserve his units from animals. He watches the graphs closely, and is quite capable of defending - but doesn't tend to go on offense, because he wants to prepare the perfect strike.

I would not be surprised to find him picking someone economic, and Meta as his spell. He likes to build, and he likes to be secure. You can't rush him.

But, I also expect that I can outgrow him and beat him in the end. He doesn't like to run risks, even slight risks. He'll probably build too many early warriors, expand methodically, fight defensively, and eventually be a good target, once we have a big enough army of high enough tech.

Ideally, we mostly ignore him, keep growing, hit someone else, and sweep him up to end the game.

Sadly, I don't have nearly as good feel for Aurorarcher, Jalepeno, and Molach, so I'll probably have to wait for their picks to have anything intelligent to say. In general, though, I expect a solid performance from everyone. No one seems to be noobish, they all have a generally good idea of the game. If the SG is any indication, they might build somewhat too few workers and use them inefficiently - but that's hard to judge from a SG, where priorities wobble back and forth like a pendulum.

[Bobchillingworth]

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