Khan's Thread [SPOILERS] A roll of the dice...

[Khan]

Ok, into the final. Let's finish this.

[Khan]

Rather excited for this game. Having looked at the two games, I think El Grillo will remain the toughest opponent. He did beat me comfortably last game after all.

If I can avoid all the early errors and not have a hundred set backs, then he is beatable but it will need to be one of those 'perfect' games. I am not underestimating Jowy or Greenline, I just have not seen anything yet that worries me too much. Greenline was not fantastic in his warring with Dreylin and I like to think that is a strength of mine so maybe that can be utilised.

I'll discuss picks and so on once we have that information.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Pics to follow

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Note the fish 1S

Pick list

We do reserve the right to remove picks should there be a consensus form. Duplicates will be assigned at random, please give me at least 2.

Map is as asked for, random, equalised starts, everyone should have a fair chance although significant differences in nature. Some wonder resources available, but not early. Noble tool thinks it is very equal. It is less lush than usual by RB standards. Made by throwing a normal torus, beefing caps and sinking land to make equal. Because BTS toro will be played on Noble. Does have the random improvements. No barbs again.

Standard rules - no GLH, no blockades, no spies, no being a jerk. Probably no war eles unless everyone wants them.

Wang Kong Pro/fin of Spain myst/fish
Mehmed Exp/org of Natives fish/agri
Monty agg/spi of England fish/min
qin pro/ind of India myst/min
Ghandi phi/spi of Dutch agri/fish
Ragnar agg/fin of arabia Myst/wheel
Brennus spi/cham of Celtica myst/hunt
washington chm/exp of Greece fish/hunt
Juils Imp/org of Carthage fish/min
Hasi cre/spi of byzantium myst/wheel
Tokugawa agg/pro of Inca agri/myst
Suliman phi/imp of Maya myst/min
Louis cre/ind of Portugal min/fish
Kubli agg/cre of eithiopia

[Khan]

Thank you REM.

My first thoughts on the map are that it would look so much nicer if it were green rather than brown. It also has a shortage of hills (2). I have two food tiles in the capital and one pseudo-food tile in the cow. 

I have livestock and fish as my food tiles and should therefore look to start with fishing, hunting or agriculture. This will take some simming but I suspect the fastest start might be settling in place and going max hammers (1f, 2h tile) into a workboat first. This requires fishing of course.

Let's see the leader options:

Wang Kong Pro/fin of Spain myst/fish
Mehmed Exp/org of Natives fish/agri
Monty agg/spi of England fish/min
qin pro/ind of India myst/min
Ghandi phi/spi of Dutch agri/fish
Ragnar agg/fin of arabia Myst/wheel
Brennus spi/cham of Celtica myst/hunt
washington chm/exp of Greece fish/hunt
Juils Imp/org of Carthage fish/min
Hasi cre/spi of byzantium myst/wheel
Tokugawa agg/pro of Inca agri/myst
Suliman phi/imp of Maya myst/min
Louis cre/ind of Portugal min/fish
Kubli agg/cre of ethiopia hunting/mining

There is a large disparity in traits here so let's cull the list. I will remove Monty, Qin, Brennus, Toku, Suleiman and Kublai initially just by instinct.

I see three possible options here, with a few options for each.

Option 1: Go Financial. I need to simulate a few starts. Is it viable to start without any of the key techs? If not, then Ragnar is out and that leaves Wang Kon as the only surviving financial leader. Otherwise, I prefer AGG to PRO and the civs are both minor factors.

Wang Kong Pro/fin of Spain myst/fish
Ragnar agg/fin of arabia Myst/wheel

Option 2: Risky fun. Hatshepsut of Byzantium. No key techs. However, Byzantium is really nice and Hatshepsut is a really decent leader in my view.

Hati cre/spi of byzantium myst/wheel

Option 3: Pick the good techs. Two of the civs have minor later game benefits assuming water (which there is a good indication there will be plenty of from starting screenshot). I will take ORG over CHM every day of the week and Greece is nothing special so Washington is out. I have had my fill of IND wonder-whoring for now and with the map on noble (toroidal), I think i'll have other priorities. That's Louis out too. EXP is miles better than IMP and that overrides any Carthaginian benefit so Julius is gone too. Is it just me or is Mehmed, trait wise, head and shoulders above the others? I'm not even opposed to Natives. Their unique building is a dud and the unit is less than spectacular but it's not a negative. I don't think Ghandi can ever keep up with those traits though.

Louis cre/ind of Portugal min/fish
washington chm/exp of Greece fish/hunt
Mehmed Exp/org of Natives fish/agri
Ghandi phi/spi of Dutch agri/fish
Juils Imp/org of Carthage fish/min

To summarise, I need to test the start, but my first choice will either be Mehmed or one of the financial picks. Hati is fun but is not the power play.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Thank you REM.

My first thoughts on the map are that it would look so much nicer if it were green rather than brown. It also has a shortage of hills (2). I have two food tiles in the capital and one pseudo-food tile in the cow. 

I have livestock and fish as my food tiles and should therefore look to start with fishing, hunting or agriculture. This will take some simming but I suspect the fastest start might be settling in place and going max hammers (1f, 2h tile) into a workboat first. This requires fishing of course.

Let's see the leader options:

Wang Kong Pro/fin of Spain myst/fish
Mehmed Exp/org of Natives fish/agri
Monty agg/spi of England fish/min
qin pro/ind of India myst/min
Ghandi phi/spi of Dutch agri/fish
Ragnar agg/fin of arabia Myst/wheel
Brennus spi/cham of Celtica myst/hunt
washington chm/exp of Greece fish/hunt
Juils Imp/org of Carthage fish/min
Hasi cre/spi of byzantium myst/wheel
Tokugawa agg/pro of Inca agri/myst
Suliman phi/imp of Maya myst/min
Louis cre/ind of Portugal min/fish
Kubli agg/cre of ethiopia hunting/mining

There is a large disparity in traits here so let's cull the list. I will remove Monty, Qin, Brennus, Toku, Suleiman and Kublai initially just by instinct.

I see three possible options here, with a few options for each.

Option 1: Go Financial. I need to simulate a few starts. Is it viable to start without any of the key techs? If not, then Ragnar is out and that leaves Wang Kon as the only surviving financial leader. Otherwise, I prefer AGG to PRO and the civs are both minor factors.

Wang Kong Pro/fin of Spain myst/fish
Ragnar agg/fin of arabia Myst/wheel

Option 2: Risky fun. Hatshepsut of Byzantium. No key techs. However, Byzantium is really nice and Hatshepsut is a really decent leader in my view.

Hati cre/spi of byzantium myst/wheel

Option 3: Pick the good techs. Two of the civs have minor later game benefits assuming water (which there is a good indication there will be plenty of from starting screenshot). I will take ORG over CHM every day of the week and Greece is nothing special so Washington is out. I have had my fill of IND wonder-whoring for now and with the map on noble (toroidal), I think i'll have other priorities. That's Louis out too. EXP is miles better than IMP and that overrides any Carthaginian benefit so Julius is gone too. Is it just me or is Mehmed, trait wise, head and shoulders above the others? I'm not even opposed to Natives. Their unique building is a dud and the unit is less than spectacular but it's not a negative. I don't think Ghandi can ever keep up with those traits though.

Louis cre/ind of Portugal min/fish
washington chm/exp of Greece fish/hunt
Mehmed Exp/org of Natives fish/agri
Ghandi phi/spi of Dutch agri/fish
Juils Imp/org of Carthage fish/min

To summarise, I need to test the start, but my first choice will either be Mehmed or one of the financial picks. Hati is fun but is not the power play.

Thanks for pointing that out - there will be ivory on the tile 2 of the FP, and there will be slightly more rivered tiles, and spices 8 of the FP. The pig will be grassland. My final balancing changes didn't take. Nothing too drastic and shouldn't really effect choices.

[Khan]

1. Mehmed
2. Wang Kon
3. Ragnar
4. Hatshepsut

[Khan]

Our opponents this game:

C is
Khan mehmed of natives
El Grillo wang job of Spain
Greenline ghandi of Dutch
Jowy Hatty of Byzantium

What do I learn from these choices? They were all first picks by the player which is interesting. I truly thought Mehmed was a clear favourite and yet the only person that agreed (in D) was potentially the weakest player so I don't know what to make of that. Perhaps I am overvaluing ORG on noble difficulty. We do have toroidal though and to be honest ORG was not the primary attraction. I am EXP for early game, I have perfect starting techs and i'm ORG for some cost saving down the line. 

El G gains financial so he'll have that major boon behind him. But his workers and granaries cost more. I was out-expanding him comfortably last game until the war. Greenline has made a very peculiar choice. I believe it is based off of the Dutch being so good on water-based maps. They take a long time to gain that advantage though and he'll be really slow out of the gate. 

Jowy, the most unpredictable player, gets Byzantium. Super! I just hope we're not direct neighbours or that I am far enough ahead that he can see the folly of attacking me rather than the dutch who are lagging behind. That's the plan for now.

[Khan]

Whilst I await the turn, let's discuss naming theme as that's clearly a big deal. I'm going with board games I enjoy for the cities. Capital will be Kingsburg. Not my favourite game, but it does seem mildly appropriate for a capital.  Workers will, of course, be meeples. I can't think of anything for the military units as they vary from game to game. I will likely leave those as default.

I have the best trait for early, proper, expansion in the game. IMP gets the settlers faster of course but a city working unimproved tiles is a hindrance. The plan is to always have most cities and then utilise the benefits of ORG to stay ahead and keep steamrolling. I have no intention of any early wars, but I rarely do. I will still be opportunistic if the situation calls for it but I really doubt people are going to send out un-escorted settlers near me again or have more weakly defended border cities. They should know I can't help myself. 

[Khan]

Some future city names to reference in case i'm being particularly dense one day:

7 Wonders
Blood Rage
Carcassone
Codenames
Coup
Dead of Winter
Dixit
Forbidden Island
Istanbul
King of Tokyo
Lost Cities
Love Letter
Mysterium
Palazzo
Avalon
Scythe
Smash Up
Spartacus
Splendor
Terra Mystica
Ticket to Ride
Yedo