[SPOILERS] Parkin brings the rain down in Africa: Churchill of Zulu

[Lord Parkin]

1. GermanJojo = Khmer (Hunting/Mining)
2. Kuro/Wetbandit = Tokugawa (AGR/PRO)
3. Gawdzak = Boudica (AGR/CHM)
4. Douglas Quaid = Egypt (Wheel/Agriculture)
5. slowcheetah = Napoleon (CHM/ORG)
6. Gavagai = Willem (FIN/CRE)
7. SevenSpirits = Russia (Hunting/Mining)
8. Mackoti = Charlemagne (PRO/IMP)
9. Haram = Ragnar (AGR/FIN)
10. HitAnyKey = Wang (FIN/PRO)
11. Lord Parkin = Churchill (PRO/CHM)
12. Lord Parkin = Zulu (Hunting/Agriculture)
13. HitAnyKey = Spain (Fishing/Mysticism)
14. Haram = Mongolia (Hunting/Wheel)
15. Mackoti = Germany (Hunting/Mining)
16. SevenSpirits = Pericles (CRE/PHI)
17. Gavagai
18. slowcheetah
19. Douglas Quaid
20. Gawdzak
21. Kuro/Wetbandit
22. GermanJojo

Heh, Mackoti and Seven added their picks within a minute of one another - obviously some coordination going on there.

I'm glad Mackoti took Germany, I'm excited to see how the Riesengarde fares under a competent player. Meanwhile Seven gets some nice synergy with Philosophical Research Institutes... not a trait I was considering, but I'll be very interested to see how Seven manages with it. The Pyramids will obviously be extremely beneficial for him, assuming he manages to get them.

So, we have 2 leaders and 4 civs left to be chosen. No idea on the civs, but perhaps we'll see India, Rome or America crop up. Quite a few powerful leaders left - plenty of good combinations with FIN, AGR, CHM and PRO. We still have Qin (PRO/IND), Hannibal (FIN/CHM), Gilgamesh (PRO/CRE), Genghis (AGR/IMP), Kublai (AGR/CRE), Alexander (AGR/PHI), and Stalin (AGR/IND) available amongst others. Though the two players yet to pick leaders are new to RB and we've had a few weird picks so far, so who knows.

[Lord Parkin]

1. GermanJojo = Khmer (Hunting/Mining)
2. Kuro/Wetbandit = Tokugawa (AGR/PRO)
3. Gawdzak = Boudica (AGR/CHM)
4. Douglas Quaid = Egypt (Wheel/Agriculture)
5. slowcheetah = Napoleon (CHM/ORG)
6. Gavagai = Willem (FIN/CRE)
7. SevenSpirits = Russia (Hunting/Mining)
8. Mackoti = Charlemagne (PRO/IMP)
9. Haram = Ragnar (AGR/FIN)
10. HitAnyKey = Wang (FIN/PRO)
11. Lord Parkin = Churchill (PRO/CHM)
12. Lord Parkin = Zulu (Hunting/Agriculture)
13. HitAnyKey = Spain (Fishing/Mysticism)
14. Haram = Mongolia (Hunting/Wheel)
15. Mackoti = Germany (Hunting/Mining)
16. SevenSpirits = Pericles (CRE/PHI)
17. Gavagai = Ethiopia (Hunting/Mining)
18. slowcheetah = Vikings (Fishing/Hunting)
19. Douglas Quaid = Elizabeth (FIN/PHI)
20. Gawdzak = Rome (Fishing/Mining)
21. Kuro/Wetbandit = India (Mysticism/Mining)
22. GermanJojo = Cyrus (IMP/CHM)

Well, all the rest of the picks were in. I was right about Rome and India, and wrong about both the final leader picks (though right that they might be weird).

Ethiopia was a bit of an odd pick unless for the techs. Perhaps Gavagai has a livestock-only start like us?

Should have seen the Vikings coming, I reckon they'll be pretty potent on this map. Wonder if slowcheetah has a seafood resource at his start or if he just decided to take the tech hit in favour of the UU and UB.

Elizabeth was a bit of a bizarre choice - Douglas isn't Sullla, right? Regardless, a bit of anti-synergy going on there.

Rome was a powerful pick, and paired with a Charismatic leader too. Better keep an eye on Gawdzak, hope he's not a neighbour (probably 50/50 chance with toroidal).

I'll be interested to see how Kuro manages with the more expensive Fast Workers. At least he's Productive - and Agricultural too for that matter. Theoretically he should be able to get off to a powerful start with this combination.

Finally, GermanJojo took Cyrus. In terms of traits and starting techs, his choices probably mirrored ours the most. Cyrus and Churchill have a lot in common, with one getting the bonus Settler production and the other the bonus Worker production.

[Lord Parkin]

Final picks:

Lord Parkin - Churchill of Zulu (CHM/PRO, Agriculture/Hunting)
HitAnyKey - Wang of Spain (FIN/PRO, Fishing/Mysticism)
Haram - Ragnar of Mongolia (FIN/AGR, Hunting/Wheel)
Mackoti - Charlemagne of Germany (IMP/PRO, Hunting/Mining)
SevenSpirits - Pericles of Russia (CRE/PHI, Hunting/Mining)
Gavagai - Willem of Ethiopia (FIN/CRE, Hunting/Mining)
slowcheetah - Napoleon of Vikings (CHM/ORG, Fishing/Hunting)
Douglas Quaid - Elizabeth of Egypt (FIN/PHI, Agriculture/Wheel)
Gawdzak - Boudica of Rome (AGR/CHM, Fishing/Mining)
Kuro/Wetbandit - Tokugawa of India (AGR/PRO, Mining/Mysticism)
GermanJojo - Cyrus of Khmer (CHM/IMP, Hunting/Mining)

Traits:

FIN - 4
CHM - 4
PRO - 4
AGR - 3
CRE - 2
IMP - 2
PHI - 2
ORG - 1
IND - 0
SPI - 0
EXP - 0

No Industrious, so everyone will be on an even footing there. (Hmm, slightly regretting not picking Qin now... oh well.) Otherwise this looks about as I expected - my personal top four traits (FIN/CHM/PRO/AGR) were the ones chosen most frequently, AGR/PRO possibly getting a boost from the shiny newness as well as being pretty decent in power. The traits that were unchanged (ORG/IND/SPI) were barely chosen at all, with only one dubious ORG pick. Nobody was interested in the new EXP, which possibly suggests that at least Harbors need to be added back to flesh it out a little. All my personal midrange traits except IND (CRE/IMP/PHI) were chosen twice each.

Most powerful leaders not chosen: probably Qin (PRO/IND) and Hannibal (FIN/CHM).

Techs:

Hunting - 7
Mining - 6
Fishing - 3
Agriculture - 2
Mysticism - 2
Wheel - 2

Hunting was a very popular starting tech choice, possibly due to the shiny additional Scout movement or maybe because of a lot of players getting livestock-only starts. Mining was a close runner up, good as ever for speeding up Bronze Working. Three Fishing civs went to players who may or may not have seafood starts. There were two Agriculture civs - one was us, the other Douglas Quaid. Also two Mysticism civs, both going to players who may be inclined towards early religion (Kuro/HAK). Finally there were two Wheel civs rounding out the total.

Interestingly, all four of the Hunting/Mining civs were chosen in this game: Ethiopia, Germany, Khmer and Russia. Perhaps it's a good thing I wasn't near the start of the snake pick, or I might have missed out on a civ compatible with my start! (Persia was the only other one I could have chosen that wasn't picked.)

[Lord Parkin]

Best Picks

Ignoring the players and just looking at the civs/leaders, let's rank the various picks based on how much I'd want to play them. This is of course somewhat subjective, but I think they can at least be roughly grouped.

Top tier:

HitAnyKey - Wang of Spain (FIN/PRO, Fishing/Mysticism)
Gawdzak - Boudica of Rome (AGR/CHM, Fishing/Mining)
Kuro/Wetbandit - Tokugawa of India (AGR/PRO, Mining/Mysticism)

HitAnyKey: I'm indifferent on Spain, but I consider Wang to be the standout leader in the current version of the mod. I was very surprised he wasn't chosen early in the snake pick, and very disappointed when he was snatched out just one spot ahead of me! I would have chosen him if HAK hadn't, though probably with a different civ.
Gawdzak: Boudica is another standout leader, with clear synergy between AGR and CHM. Not only that, but pairing her cheaper promotions with Rome which has the arguably buffed Praetorian... scary stuff. I'd love to try this!
Kuro/Wetbandit: Tokugawa is of course a fun choice, making use of both of the new traits. Pairing him with India was very interesting - you couldn't pick a better leader to work around the Fast Worker nerf. I'd definitely give it a shot if we were swapping.

Middle tier:

Lord Parkin - Churchill of Zulu (CHM/PRO, Agriculture/Hunting)
Haram - Ragnar of Mongolia (FIN/AGR, Hunting/Wheel)
Mackoti - Charlemagne of Germany (IMP/PRO, Hunting/Mining)
SevenSpirits - Pericles of Russia (CRE/PHI, Hunting/Mining)
GermanJojo - Cyrus of Khmer (CHM/IMP, Hunting/Mining)

Lord Parkin: I feel like I got a decent combination considering 11th place in the snake pick. No synergy, but both solid options. I doubt I'll use the UU much, but that's not a problem with a great UB and good techs.
Haram: Not really any synergy but solid choices all around. I would have picked Wang ahead of Ragnar given his place in the turn order, though.
Mackoti: Charlemagne is the master of city and improvement spam! I'd have been interested to try Germany, though it requires a somewhat unusual tech path in the crucial midgame period to put the new UU to good use.
SevenSpirits: This combination has Pyramids written all over it. If I were Seven I'd focus solely on that wonder then have fun playing around with specialists.
GermanJojo: A very similar pick to mine that would have worked fine with my start - just a little slower to get going. IMP is a little less interesting to me than some of the other options, but still a solid choice.

Bottom tier:

Douglas Quaid - Elizabeth of Egypt (FIN/PHI, Agriculture/Wheel)
Gavagai - Willem of Ethiopia (FIN/CRE, Hunting/Mining)
slowcheetah - Napoleon of Vikings (CHM/ORG, Fishing/Hunting)

Douglas Quaid: Okay, Financial is still a very good trait and Philosophical is interesting, but together? I mean, a citizen can't be in two places at once. Specialists can't work cottages, and cottage inhabitants don't generate GPP's. The nerfed Egypt isn't so appealing either. Not to my liking, though not strictly bad.
Gavagai: Willem isn't the problem here, it's Ethiopia. I guess he wanted the civ for the techs, but damn... you couldn't have chosen a much worse pairing. The UB is rendered completely pointless by CRE. Ouch. The UU is okay but arrives at an awkward point in the game.
Slowcheetah: It's nice to have faster Trading Posts and all, but Hannibal would have surely been such a better pick than Napoleon. He even would have got the faster-promoted Beserkers. A bit surprised at this choice given all the options still available when it was his turn to pick.

[Lord Parkin]

Time to update our thread title, I guess.

[Lord Parkin]

Light Entertainment Break

I've matched each team with a song that's related to some feature about them - e.g. name, leader or civ - if only tangentially. No offence intended to anyone, just some lighthearted fun.

HitAnyKey - Wang of Spain (FIN/PRO, Fishing/Mysticism)

A Little Number

Mackoti - Charlemagne of Germany (IMP/PRO, Hunting/Mining)

Springtime for Germany

SevenSpirits - Pericles of Russia (CRE/PHI, Hunting/Mining)

The Soviet Machine

Kuro/Wetbandit - Tokugawa of India (AGR/PRO, Mining/Mysticism)

You and Me

slowcheetah - Napoleon of Vikings (CHM/ORG, Fishing/Hunting)

Close enough

GermanJojo - Cyrus of Khmer (CHM/IMP, Hunting/Mining)

I'm sorry

Douglas Quaid - Elizabeth of Egypt (FIN/PHI, Agriculture/Wheel)

Before Total Recall

Gawdzak - Boudica of Rome (AGR/CHM, Fishing/Mining)

Don't Mess With Me

Gavagai - Willem of Ethiopia (FIN/CRE, Hunting/Mining)

Dare to take Creative Steles

Haram - Ragnar of Mongolia (FIN/AGR, Hunting/Wheel)

Yeah, I was stumped

If you made it though all that, congratulations!

[Lord Parkin]

Turn 0

Moved the Scout to the Marble and settled in place. We have Whales out to sea... otherwise nothing of interest revealed so far.

Naming theme is pretty simple - ABC's of animals, preferably African ones.

Working the riverside Pig (3f/1c) rather than the plains-forest-hill (4h) since this gets the Worker out at the same time as AH. No point building it earlier, and the extra beakers might shave a turn off a tech later.

There are 2059 land tiles, so 187 on average per player. We currently have visibility on 42 land tiles, slightly under a quarter of the total we might expect. Maybe 12-15 cities per player?

Looks like a lot of coast around our immediate area, so the Wharf may be a midgame priority. Would have been nice to be Financial, but still glad to be trying out Productive instead. Cheap Work Boats will almost certainly prove useful for future cities, and of course cheap Workers will be great for a kick-start.

[Lord Parkin]

Possible city names (feel free to contribute):

Antelope/Aoudad
Bonobo/Baboon
Chimpanzee/Crocodile/Camel/Caracal/Cheetah
Duiker/Duck
Elephant
Fox/Frog
Giraffe
Hyena/Hippo
Impala/Ibis
Jackal
Kingfisher/Kudu
Lion/Leopard/Lizard
Meercat/Mamba/Monkey
Newt/Nyala
Okapi/Ostrich
Porcupine/Puma/Peacock
Quelea/Quagga
Rhino/Rabbit
Salamander/Squirrel
Tiger/Topi/Tortoise
Umbrette
Viper/Vulture
Warthog/Wolf
Xenopus/Xerus
Yak
Zebra

[Gold Ergo Sum]

For more specific African flavor:
Duiker over duck
Mamba over monkey

[WilliamLP]

I loved the song list! (Dare to take Creative Steles, lol.)