[SPOILERS] Oxy and suttree save the day, again!

[HBHR]

Done, the game hasn't started yet and we already have the best leader in the game

[Oxyphenbutazone]

Snake Pick:

Team Eagles & Condors - Kurumi / HBHR (with Oxyphenbutazone dedlurking) Pacal II
Team Dinosaurs - Whiteye / Raptorous Darius I
Team Master and Margarita - Slaze / Maga_R (with Jovan Kukic dedlurking) Willem
Bowsling / Aivoturso Mansa Musa
Team Orgynized - Lord Parkin / Arkipeller / Magno_uy (with WilliamLP and Dp101 dedlurking) Huayana Capac
Team Blame Caledorn - YossarianLives / Caledorn (with Scooter, Old Harry and Cheater Hater dedlurking) Inca
Team Care Bears - Yuufo / Bisons India
Dick76 / DMOC Sury
Team My Little Marathon Cannibal Pony - Classical_Hero / Halvgud Sumeria
Barteq / Geo (with Harami dedlurking)Ragnar
Barteq / Geo (with Harami dedlurking) Rome
Team My Little Marathon Cannibal Pony - Classical_Hero / Halvgud Napoleon
Dick76 / DMOC Byzantium
Team Care Bears - Yuufo / Bisons Victoria
Team Blame Caledorn - YossarianLives / Caledorn (with Scooter, Old Harry and Cheater Hater dedlurking) Isabella
Team Orgynized - Lord Parkin / Arkipeller / Magno_uy (with WilliamLP and Dp101 dedlurking) Netherlands
Bowsling / Aivoturso Zulu
Team Master and Margarita - Slaze / Maga_R (with Jovan Kukic dedlurking) Ottomans
Team Dinosaurs - Whiteye / Raptorous
Team Eagles & Condors - Kurumi / HBHR (with Oxyphenbutazone dedlurking) Native America?

I'll edit this post as picks are made

[suttree]

Anything but Agriculture/Fishing will be slower because you have to dump production into a warrior instead of a work boat after building the worker.

An interesting way to think about it: the city centre tile of the second city is equivalent to one unit of labour working a 4/1/3 tile, food hammer equivalent to the fish. As an investment, then, the second city costs 100fh, and provides a return equivalent to two units of labour, and a fish tile. But you can buy two labour and a fish (workboat) in the capitol for 30+26+28=84fh! Unless the second city secures an additional resource that your worker can develop, it's always going to be better to develop the fish before settling the second city.

[HBHR]

Darius I, good pick... make sense with toroidal wrap

[suttree]

That would be an interesting question to ask the vets - exp vs org on toroidal. The turn advantage from exp is just so great (and early). Darius of Sumeria?

[HBHR]

That would be an interesting question to ask the vets - exp vs org on toroidal. The turn advantage from exp is just so great (and early). Darius of Sumeria?

Great synergy. Ultra cheap, and really early courthouse the Vulture is powerfull and scary Wheel + Aggriculture is very good (sure, "it depend", but still being very good couple of techs in start)
I only hope another team pick Sumeria before "The Darius Dinos"

[Oxyphenbutazone]

Large/Monarch/Toroid+water makes ORG a great trait sure, but maintenance isn't THAT bad. Notice that in my sandbox the second city 3-tiles away from our capital only lowers the slider to 95%. I could see the case for ORG beating out CRE and SPI, that's more personal preference. But EXP->ORG under these settings IMO.

The idea I had for player analysis with so many players completely new to RB is to put up all of the different combinations, and if HBHR or Kurumi is familiar with the player, they can evaluate their skill level. I can do the teams that have established RB members and for the completely unknowns, we can just judge them based on the snake pick. Should be a useful tool to refer back to when we make our first contacts.

[HBHR]

That would be an interesting question to ask the vets - exp vs org on toroidal. The turn advantage from exp is just so great (and early). Darius of Sumeria?

Great synergy. Ultra cheap, and really early courthouse the Vulture is powerfull and scary Wheel + Aggriculture is very good (sure, "it depend", but still being very good couple of techs in start)
I only hope another team pick Sumeria before "The Darius Dinos"

Also, early courthouse mean more early spy points, and in no tech trading game, make a lot of sense (spy economy is very good in no tech trading environment, even in MP)
If them choose Sumeria, then Priesthood - masonry -Oracle-GLH combo is good option

[suttree]

Just noticed espionage is on.... Going to be a very buildery game with diplo and perfect visibility on your enemies. I think that magnifies the importance of the early land grab? With Pacal you'll have to put a lot of effort in to diplomacy.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

Ran a bunch of different starts with various starting techs:

Agriculture/Mining: Annoying because worker turns are wasted or we have to work the lake for commerce, not loving this start

Fishing/Mining: Very behind early on, but catches up with more extensive use of the whip, second settler is delayed eot36, but the third one comes out eot 45. The drawback is, both the capital and the second city are less developed, have less pop and we're running shorter on workers. It is decently ahead on commerce. We can get a third worker out before the third settler, but that delays the settler until eot 50, which kinda sucks.

Agriculture/Wheel: God awful. Too many techs that we need to research, so worker turns galore are wasted. I didn't even bother to see when the settler came out after seeing the first worker twiddle his thumbs for 5 turns. Fish is very annoying to hook up. Thank god we didn't pick blindly, our start would blow with these techs.

In other words, Dutch or Native America. All the way.