Civ/leader pick

[Lord Parkin]

So we're officially Huayna of Khmer. Not too shabby.

Financial:
+1 commerce on plots with at least 2 commerce

Industrious:
Production bonus of 50 percent on all Wonders (World and National)
Production bonus of 100 percent on Forge

UU - Ballista Elephant (War Elephant):
Targets mounted units first outside cities
Only Elephant allowed in this game

UB - Baray (Aqueduct):
+1 food on top of usual benefit

Starting techs:
Hunting
Mining

Key techs:
Worker techs - e.g. Animal Husbandry, Bronze Working, Pottery
World Wonder techs - e.g. Mysticism, Masonry, Priesthood, Sailing
National Wonder techs - Literature
Cheap Forges - Metal Casting
Enable Baray - Mathematics, Masonry
Enable Ballista Elephants - Construction, Horseback Riding

[Mortius]

World Wonder techs - e.g. Mysticism, Masonry, Priesthood
National Wonder techs - Literature

Add Sailing here - both for Moai and the Great Lighthouse

Enable Ballista Elephants - Construction, Masonry

We need Horseback Riding for our Phants too.

[stonaq]

Nice picture nabaxo!

[Elkad]

Enable Ballista Elephants - Construction, Masonry

I imagine you were pasting down the page and forgot to change Masonry to Horseback Riding.

Either that or our elephants are made of stone?

[Lord Parkin]

I imagine you were pasting down the page and forgot to change Masonry to Horseback Riding.

Either that or our elephants are made of stone?

Yeah, I missed that one.

Elephants made of stone would be interesting. Though perhaps a little too... immobile.

[Lord Parkin]

So, Gillette is left to pick their Civ, while Pirate and Troll have to pick their leader. Any bets?

8. Team Gillette as Pacal of _____
9. Team Pirate as _____ of Inca
10. Team Troll as _____ of India

Gillette's civ is the toughest one, as there are a lot of good options still out there. Perhaps Egypt, Zulu, or Byzantium.

As for the two remaining leaders, I'd be surprised if they weren't Financial. That leaves a pool of Mansa, Darius, Hannibal, Elizabeth, and Victoria. (And perhaps Ragnar, though he doesn't pair well with either of those civs.)

I'm going to bet on:

8. Egypt
9. Darius
10. Mansa

Tough choice though, could easily be wrong. Any other bets?

[Mortius]

Gillette's civ is the toughest one, as there are a lot of good options still out there. Perhaps Egypt, Zulu, or Byzantium.

Byzantium starts with Mysticism, Wheel and it would be a sloowww ... start.
Zulus don't work with non aggressive civ.
So I would bet on Egypt. Strong starting techs, strong UU, and still useful UB (for a religion bulb).
Mongolia is another viable option for them. Wheel, Hunting start, good UU, good UB, but unfortunately looses some of it's advantages without charsimatic trait.

As for the two remaining leaders, I'd be surprised if they weren't Financial. That leaves a pool of Mansa, Darius, Hannibal, Elizabeth, and Victoria. (And perhaps Ragnar, though he doesn't pair well with either of those civs.).

Mansa is probably the best of the remaining financial leaders, but I think they will be tempted to choose an expansive leader (for cheap terraces). If that's the case, they would probably choose Peter (expansive, philosophical) Isabella (expansive, spiritual) or even Joao (expansive, imperialistic) for full scale REXing.

That leaves us with the leader for India civ:

Mansa - if he is not picked before

Darius - would be somewhat weak at prince difficulty, but they can still take him for cheap buildings (lighthouse, courthouse, factory) especialy cheap courthouses look tempting.

Hannibal - with +2 happy at the start, he is quite a good leader, and I am affraid they can take him. And if they do, we would have a competition for Stonehange, and I am not sure we can best them here (they start with Mysticism and have fast workers).

I hope for something like that:
Pacal of Egypt,
Joao of Inca
Mansa of India

If that is tha case we can build our Stonehenge at will
Willem, and Inca are not interested in Stonehange at all.
Mansa of India - will probably grab an early religion (they are Spiritual and starting with Mysticism), and don't bother about Stonehenge.
Pacal of Egypt - with his starting techs (aggriculture, wheel) will not be in a possition, to contest us here, and with his UB he can still bulb religion later.

[Mortius]

Team Gillette chose Vikings.

It's a surprice, at least for me

What is behind that choice?

Vikings (fishing, hunting),
Berserker (maceman with amphibious promo and additional +10% city attack)
Trade Post - (lighthouse with + 1 movement points for all naval units build in the city).

What it means?

1. If the start is the same for all of us. They can start at the coast, at least they have such an option (as the only civ) if something good is in the fog, like gems or gold.

2. Starting at the coast and having lighthouse as UB, they can have a head up start for the Great Lighthouse. The most overpower wonder in the game.

3. With berserkers and 3 moves galleys (or 4 moves with circumnavigating bonus ) they can boat anyone with easy.

4. The good news - with such starting techs they are no real competition for Stonehenge.

[Lord Parkin]

Good analysis. I think you might be right about the Great Lighthouse gambit... that may well pay off dividends for them depending on the exact map parameters. Will have to keep an eye out on those guys.

I wouldn't say there's no chance of them going for Stonehenge, just a reduced chance. At least we can be fairly sure two of our rivals (Inca and Willem) won't be trying for Stonehenge. India may well be the main contenders besides ourselves, if they're interested in it.

[kjn]

I picked up LP's sandbox and played around a bit, since we have plenty of viable research openings:

AH (T13) -> BW (T26) -> Mysticism -> Wheel

Pretty standard opening.

Grow on warriors (3 built) and a barracks to size 5, then started workers (1 built) and settlers
Improved deer (T15); improved sheep (T20); built mine (T25); started chopping (T27)

The first settler is due T36, helped by two chops. We have two more forests to chop into Stonehenge (if we want to do that), meaning it's due T41 (T42 if we revolt to Slavery with the settler done) if I do my math right.