(Spoilers) Superdeath's Mean Green Eating Machine

[superdeath]

What to chose.. What to chose.. I almost hate being first to pick for this style PB.

[superdeath]

I had a choice between the following ideas:

Chose Egypt and hope for a decent eco leader on the return.. Kinda unlikely.
Chose India or Inca and hope that the land that Commodore graciously builds for me is good ( it never seems to be.. )
Choose a leader, and get stuck with a sub-par "okiedokie" civilization.

So i went with Rome as i can pair it with any number of AGG leaders for a strong early/mid-game attack. All the AGG leaders cant possibly be taken by everyone before it gets back to me... Right? RIGHT?


In an ideal world id get either Ragnar, KKhan, Genghis Khan, or Shaka. Id "settle" for Boudicca if i need to, but i suspect one of these greens will grab it for the W.O.W. factor.  Gameplan is REX , find iron, cottage economy, build/whip praets and go kick someones teeth in. Unless i magically get put next to Mali ( Again, when i chose a "rush" choice ) or GKC.. i suspect i should be able to roll over someone with AGG praets. Wish me luck.

Luckily, in BTS not much stops 8str + AGG praets if they are attacking cities. Best someone can hope for ( as i recall ) is AGG axes promoted to shock. Non-Agg neighbors are going to be in a world of hurt as praets have a fairly long shelf life. Can they be built even if Maces are able to be built? Cant remember..

[superdeath]

I really need like 15 more pitbosses to keep my mind busy so i can stop screaming internally at how fucked i am IRL.

[superdeath]

Plemo dies first if i can help it. Im fine with someone choosing Ragnar, thats not the issue.. ( although i was hopeful it would return.. ) But, Ragnar of NETHERLANDS?? UHHHHH...... . . . . . Plenty of good civs left. Thats just a horrible pick. This is most certainly a greens game by far. Maybe i can snag Shaka instead? Shaka>GKhan>KKhan> BootyKa. Im guaranteed one of those at this point. I need the AGG to make praets that much more of a pita to deal with... so i cant sadly take one of the remaining ( lol ) fin leaders. Hell, i might have KKhan be ahead of Shaka just for the easy borders. Going to abuse the hell out of my free time with this pitboss. Murder some people in their infancy maybe? 

[superdeath]

Superdeath ???/Rome
GeneralKilCavalry ???/INDIA
Giraflorens Rameses II / ??? On deck for Civ
Vanrober ???/Zulu On deck for leader
Lazteuq Pericles/??? UP for civ
Amicalola ???/Inca UP for leader
Mjmd Elizabeth/Korea
Ramkhamhaeng Wang Kon/Mali
El Grillo Hannibal/Egypt
Plemo Ragnar/Netherlands


Lets look at this closely.

Im going straight aggression. I can recover the economy with cottages.

GKC is going for the Commodore strat of "good stuff" im betting. Which is fine, but kinda unfair imo to the greens.

Giraflorens grabbed a leader that would have been there on the way back, but maybe he is secretly a Rusten in disguise?

Vanrober grabbed Zulu, not bad. No further comment at this time. Probably gonna pick Shaka..

Lazteuq picked Pericles.. another.... "secret" Rusten?

Amicalola picked Inca with the 6th pick. Kinda hilarious imo. I expect something good to pair with it.

Mjmd got a God-tier pairing.. i wish them luck. I also hope to be near them to stop them from reaching rifles when others hit longbows.

Ramk went first pick Mali.. guess he doesnt want to die early on? And then picked Wang Kon, denying others from using his amazing ( point wise ) combo of Fin + Pro. Well done.

El Grillo got my pb44 pairing. I hope his land lets him actually do shit with that combo.

Plemo is 110% the weirdest pick here. I expect him to attack someone with axes randomly.

[superdeath]

Superdeath ???/Rome
GeneralKilCavalry ???/INDIA ON DECK for leader
Giraflorens Rameses II / Persia
Vanrober ???/Zulu UP for leader
Lazteuq Pericles/France
Amicalola Mao Zedong/Inca


Persia is a great choice from Giraflorens. Immortals are a great ( and sad to see nerfed in current RTR ) UU. Being a 2mover that gets defensive bonus's is amazing. The +vs archery units is amazing as well. Gotta have spears!
Lazteuq got France, which ill assume was picked just for the great starting techs.

Amicalola got Mao of Inca. . Very nice. Another great pairing.

[superdeath]

Superdeath Shaka/Rome
GeneralKilCavalry Napoleon/INDIA
Giraflorens Rameses II / Persia
Vanrober Kublai Khan/Zulu 
Lazteuq Pericles/France
Amicalola Mao Zedong/Inca
Mjmd Elizabeth/Korea
Ramkhamhaeng Wang Kon/Mali
El Grillo Hannibal/Egypt
Plemo Ragnar/Netherlands

Going to do a full meme filled tier list now.


Tier: Veterans.

Superdeath. Shaka AGG/EXP of Rome. 



My goal was to get either Ragnar, or KKhan.. but Shaka isnt a terrible choice. It allows for some early game boost which is nice. The real reason i picked this is because whenever i play base BTS.. i always chose Egypt. ( vs ai ect ) I havent played Rome since the days of Earth 18 maps. AGG Rome vs some "greens"? Sounds like a chance to have some fun. I wont have the economic power of FIN, or the easy border pops of CRE, but BTS EXP is damn near the best trait imo. A 25% boost to worker production, and double production speed of Granary/Harbors? ( plus some minor health ) I wont say no to that! So long as i have either a coastal start with seafood, or a grain start ( PLEASE NO COW/PIGS!! ) I should be able to go either straight to BW-TW, or Agriculture-BW-TW. Im somewhat torn, depending on who is nearby.. on possibly grabbing a religion if i have a fish/agriculture start? Would help with border pops if none of the greens nab one early. Goal is to not start next to GKC or MALI. I think i can handle anyone else relatively. If im not roughly tied with my neighbors in city count by the time i get iron working, i will be after.


GeneralKilCavalry Napoleon ORG/CHA of India.



Extreme micro intensive early game (imo) to explode into Napoleons unrivaled Mid/late game combo? Yeah, a pretty great pick for someone with a couple notches under his belt. I expect him to be leading the pack and maybe try and pick up the mid's or something important like that to continue rocketing ahead until he gets to knights. His previous performance(s) have shown that while prone to tactical mistakes, he seems to know what he is doing micro and economic wise. His only worry here is that greens arent likely to give any shits about how quickly India gets going. They might still show up with a stack of 10axes just ready to ruin your day. I expect him to get more than his fair share of land, also likely to grab a religion for the culture.
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Top Tier pick/Probably a vet


Ramkhamhaeng Wang Kon FIN/PRO of Mali




Im not going to bother looking over the German forum for any potential games he has played in. Ramk basically took over hosting our pitboss games and for that most of us are eternally grateful. That being said, I was kind of sad to see Mali picked. Does he go for a choke? Does he become just this stubborn defender? With PRO Skirms, he can't be feasibly taken without catapult support, and with FIN he will surely reach the next generation of military tech before the likely aggressor. Only thing stopping him from outright winning this pitboss is imo, Mali's crappy starting techs. I fully expect him to be in the middle of the pack unless he gets a godlike capital.

El Grillo Hannibal FIN/CHA of Egypt



Ah, my pb44 combo. Its also my go-to combo in single player games prior to RTR.  I know next to nothing about the players from here out. Part of the perks of being "green" i suppose. I fully expect War Chariots to catch someone off guard, and for El Grillo's tech rate to be among the best until he gets stomped by someone. Ill be very interested to see how he handles this combo. Maybe he will get more green land instead of the plains-hell i had..
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Tier, Everyone else:

Giraflorens Rameses II IND/SPI of  Persia




Spiritual plus Industrious.. an odd choice for a base BTS slugfest. I like the Persia grab though! Immortals are always amazing IMO.

Vanrober Kublai Khan AGG/CRE of Zulu



Despite what the meme says... cheap maintenance reducing barracks + easy dot mapping isn't too bad. I'm just slightly salty at this choice.


Lazteuq Pericles PHI/CRE of France




I cant get behind PHI in a base bts slugfest. I just... cant. CRE is good, France has excellent techs, but its UU/UB wont save him from an early death if im his neighbor.


Amicalola Mao Zedong PRO/EXP Inca



I must say, well done on getting this pairing with this many people in the snakepick. Well done. If this guy isnt ahead in city count/development along with GKC... then he will be forever behind.

Mjmd Elizabeth FIN/PHI of Korea



Ill be honest, i almost posted in the tech thread because i thought that Korea always had Agriculture, which would have put him over the max points allowed.. If he isnt super far behind by the time longbows are popping out, i expect him to be able to take the tech lead.


Plemo Ragnar AGG/FIN of Netherlands



This pick just looks like a spiteful weird pick to me. Picking Ragnar, but picking a very late blooming civ when there were plenty better choices? I hope Mali chokes them.

[superdeath]

UHH.. This isnt bad. I was expecting alot worse to be honest. Commodore what did you take away from me to give me this.. No copper? No IRON?


Anyway, Agriculture-BW is the tech path. I can split off 2-3 cities off of the capitals food sources. City NW of the cow maybe? City SW-W of the rice on the plains hill? Looks coastal with some lakes... MOAI?

Now if i just dont have an aggressive neighbor that will take advantage of my early game... Ill be sitting pretty.

[superdeath]

Got a nice double turn in.


Plains cow is kinda meh as a resource, but lighthouse-able lakes + fish make those hills ( and plains cow ) a nice praetorian production city

[superdeath]

I like what im seeing. Although i AM sad that i didnt get Ragnar now... Soooooo many FIN lakes.