[SPOILERS] yuris125 - Pitboss 17

[yuris125]

Well well well, Furungy is getting aggressive with Ragnar of Rome. I dislike Praetorians, 1 move units can be good against AI, but human players usually can defend. Especially considering IW is such an expensive early tech. By the time they come, human player can get Cats, which are good at countering immobile units. Plus, Axes behind Walls defend reasonably well

I don't want to be near him, as it would force me to commit to military much more than I want. But I don't think it's a winning strategy. As I said, I wouldn't expect early aggression to pay off in a 12-player game

[Mikehendi]

This draft pick is going very well for you. I agree that Suryavarman was the best option on the board with that fourth pick, and there was a sizable dropoff in power to the following leaders. I think this game helps show how lucky we were in the Pitboss 16 draft pick, getting Elizabeth with pick #10 when she was taken with pick #5 here. Pick #10 in this game was Louis, who is not especially good under these settings. People are taking even weak traits like IMP and AGG to get FIN trait in this game!

The teams at the bottom of the draft pick are not making very good civ picks either. The first four civ picks are China (good choice), then Persia, Mali, and Rome...??? Mali isn't bad, but much too overvalued as second civ pick. It should get picked around the 6-8 range. Persia and Rome are just bad choices. All of the Agriculture/Wheel civs are still in play, as are the Zulus, which is a much better Agriculture/Hunting civ than Persia. I would roughly value them like this:

Egypt > France > Sumeria > Ottomans > Zulus > Babylon

You are guaranteed to get at least one of these civs. Looking good so far.

[yuris125]

I would take Byzantium over Babylon probably. But yeah, I'm happy with how things are looking for now

Mali is tempting with an Ind leader, Mint is a reasonable UB, and getting it cheaply is a big bonus. I never saw it actually work, but people don't stop trying

Ragnar of Rome is similar to the argument we had about the Monty of Zulu pick in PB16. It makes some sense, but to make this pick work, he needs to heavily commit to Praetorians and kill a neighbour or two - and do to that, he's likely to fall behind those who are not his victims

Persia I also don't understand. UU and UB are both mediocre, and if they wanted an Agri/Hunting civ, Zulu is just better

[yuris125]

Suryavarman II of France

[yuris125]

Interesting that Zulu is still not picked

[yuris125]

- Zanth - Darius I of Babylon
- flugauto - Mansa Musa of Ottomans
- Jowy - Huayna Capac of Zulu
- yuris125 - Suryavarman II of France
- Catwalk - Elizabeth of England
- BaII - Victoria of Sumeria
- Sian - Mehmed II of Egypt
- Slowcheetah - Isabella of Netherlands
- Furungy - Ragnar of Rome
- Azza - Louis of China
- Nakor - Bismarck of Persia
- 2metraninja - Rameses II of Mali

Too lazy to do a full review of all opponents. Things that stand out are choices of Persia and Netherlands, can't understand either. Do like where I ended up, think I have a good chance despite not being Fin

[Mikehendi]

You got an awesome pairing of leader and civ. So we have France in both PB16 and PB17? I guess that's easy to remember.

A lot of those civ picks were very poor choices. Just to review, they went in this order:

China (good pick)
Mali
Persia
Rome
Netherlands
Egypt (somehow the 6th pick)
Sumer
England
France (amazingly the 9th pick)
Zulus
Ottomans (11th pick?!)
Babylon

I don't know how all of that happened. The Persia, Rome, Dutch, and England picks were especially bad choices. You have a great combo, along with Sian, Ball, and flugauto. I would be dancing for joy at somehow getting the Ottomans with the 11th civ pick, and that with India/Inca not even in the pool. You've got a legit chance to win this game, given such strong picks and a generally weak field of players.

[yuris125]

Ok, game is live. I don't see any useful moves by the Warrior, and don't see any options other than SIP anyway. So that's exactly what I'm going to do tonight...

[spacetyrantxenu]

Wait -- warrior or scout? You got a scout, right?

[yuris125]

The starting screenshot is showing a Warrior. So if I got a Scout instead, I'll have to find someone to blame
I didn't log in yet, at work