Trying to not be a Casual-AT. [Spoilers]

[AutomatedTeller]

ooh - and we have picks for everyone!!

Dreylin and Auroarcher - Zara Yabob (Cre/Org) of Egypt (Agriculture/Wheel/WarChariot/Obelisk)
AdrienIer & Mardoc - Suleiman (Imp/Phi) of Aztec (Hunting/Mysticism/Jaguar Warrior/Sacrificial Altar)
Jowy - Joao (Exp/Imp) of Russia (Hunting/Mining/Cossack/Research Institute)
Ichabod & Bobchillingworth - Wangkon (Fin/Pro) of Byzantium (Agriculture/Wheel/Cataphract/Hippodrome)
AutomatedTeller - Gilgamesh (Cre/Pro) of Ottomans (Agriculture/Wheel/Janissary/Hammam)
Molach - Tokugawa (Agg/Pro) of Mongols (Hunting/Wheel/Keshik/Ger)
Mr. Cairo - Mao (Exp/Pro) of England (Agriculture/Fishing/Redcoat/Stock Exchange)
Gawdzak - Louis XIV (Cre/Ind) of Persia (Agriculture/Hunting/Immortal/Apothecary)
BRickAstley & Pirate Blood God - Shaka (Agg/Exp) of Vikings (Hunting/Fishing/Berserker/Trading Post)
Boldly Going Nowhere - Darius (Fin/Org) of China (Agriculture/Mining/ChoKoNu/Pavilion)
NylesStandish - Charlemagne (Imp/Pro) of India (Mysticism/Wheel/FastWorker/Mausoleum)
yuris125 - Pericles (Cre/Phi) of Germany (Hunting/Mining/Kannon/Assembly Plant)

Very exciting!!

Some interesting thoughts off the top:

Only 1 Ind civ, and that civ is creative. I guess I'd put adrien as the favorite for stonehenger. I could see Adrien picking up an early religion and getting henge and catching up on settlers via imp. He'd have a shrine very quickly. Interestingly, 2 of the 3 myst civs are imperialistic. I could see any of the imp civs going for it, as jowy could easily go BW first and chop it out.

Molach has a power combo. I hope I"m not near him. Keshiks with 1/2 price barracks and stables are not my idea of a fun neighbor.

As far as I can tell, he's the only one with really strong synergy between traits and UB/UU. he's definitely set up to kill someone. Course, I had a similar combo in PB 27 and went no where

My guess, and it's a pure guess, is that adrien leads after the expansion phase. Interestingly, the guy I'd pick in this is probably BGN, who won or tied for a win in PB 18, but I think he might be well behind in expansion. But his traits are good for the long haul. though, I think 2.0.7.6 is the wierd one, where financial has no effect on river tiles. Still, fin/org is a great teching combo and cho-ko-nu can rip through an opponent.

[AutomatedTeller]

so, time for predictions:

1st wonder: Adrien, Stonehenge.
2nd wonder: BGN, Oracle.
3rd wonder: Gawdzak, Pyramids

1st religion: Adrien
2nd religion: Dreylin

1st war dec: Dreylin
2nd war dec: Molach

1st to conquer another civ: BGN - Cho-ko-nu rule the world before LB and do ok even on them.

[AutomatedTeller]

T0, The One Where Restarts Happen




I move my trusty scout to the only place I can that gives me two moves and see nothing that would indicate a better place to settle, so I SIP. I need a naming scheme...

Set my tech to fishing. We have a large map, so I'll have to redo the SIM, cause I frankly don't know how to tech. It's possible that I should be going direct to pottery or BW and not going to fishing first, but it seems bad to lose my best commerce tile. Well, I know how to tech, but I'm really unsure what the right path way is.

[AutomatedTeller]

Boy, GJ is really doing it to us in this one

I have a lux that requires 2 techs to hook up and the first food I find is banana.. and even irrigatable!! So, it's basiclaly useless Plus, tons of jungle around.

[AutomatedTeller]

So, if I go fishing->mining-BW, growing past size II doesn't make a lot of sense for me. I can get my first settler out turns at size 2, by turn 29, with a chop and 24 hammers to overflow into worker #2.

I think I can get a turn 29 settler without a chop by mining a hill, as well. then, I could grow to size 3 before needing a worker and I can whip that.

Another option is to go mining->BW and build worker->warrior->settler wthe settler at size 1 with a chop. That gets me the settler at turn 25 with a wasted worker turn or turn 26 wiith no waste. That gets me fishing a little later, though, since I'm passing up a fair amount of commerce.

I think staying fishing first makes more sense - the extra commerce and size is good.

[pindicator]

We found an error with the sim. The technology costs in the sim are higher than in the game due to the map size being set to the wrong value. Here's a link to a corrected sim with the right technology costs:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B61HHk...mRnc2JmME0

[AutomatedTeller]

danke. It's large, right, when it was huge?

[pindicator]

Yep, I guess that was mentioned in one of the threads earlier but I didn't catch it until now.

[AutomatedTeller]

no worries. I had actually made my own little sandbox when I realized it was large. It seems like a lot of work for a casual game, but I'm glad I did it - there were a lot of choices to make in this start.

[AutomatedTeller]

T1, The one With Spriggan

The essence of good hunting is information, and my trusty scout, Scout, is on the case!!

But first:




Everyone settled on t0!

At a guess, everyone settled in place.


Demos:




There is probably a lot that can be discovered from this, but I don't see what is very interesting. At least one civ is researching a 2nd level tech, presumably BW, which is a plus for mining civs. Or, I suppose, one of the creative civs has fishing and is working a seafood. I could figure it out, I suppose, but that is definitely not casual


Exploration:




Thus, we find spriggan, which is just an empty plot, so I guess not all monsters will be resources. Pity, I liked Leviathan as a whale A spriggan is Cornish - apparently, a small, faerie like being. I don't know much about them, but they are apparently not all that nice. Note that there is another monster to the west - we can just see the edge of the black bubble.




My first city has been named, Ringsgroup. I'm not going to explain my theme for awhile. Eventually, people will figure it out. Presuming, of course, that people actually pay attention

Ringsgroup works a tile until we expand, and then it works either the deer or the sheep until fishing comes in, and then it works leviathan. It keeps working leviathan until the worker improves the wheat and then it moves to the wheat, grows to size 2 and starts on a settler. I'm not yet sure what the worker does after the wheat.

Options include;

Road the wheat
Move 1E to road the forest.
Move 1N of RingsGroup to road the forest.
Move to the open hill to mine.

My current plan is to road and then move to the hill, and then move to the forest 1N of the city to chop. I dunno if that's what I'll end up with - it somewhat depends on where my 2nd city goes.