RB Pittboss #1 - SPOILER - Washington/Carthage

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Welcome to my spoiler thread! Please don't post details of other people's positions or the PBEM game here.

If you're reading this, but shouldn't be - know that my numberless Warrior will soon destroy you all :mwahaha: :neenernee

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Without ado, here is my start:



It looks like I won't be having any happiness problems early on.
I'm standing on a plains hill, so I'll definitely settle in place and research Agriculture. A worker will only take 10 turns to build! :D

It looks like I'll have some food problems in this city, but I guess I can try to generate an early Great Scientist in another city.

General strategy thoughts:

Workers are very cheap for me, so I'll be building lots of them, to allow my cities to grow to their already high happy cap.

I can tell by the colour of the forests that I am near the South Pole, and probably on a peninsula - so my initial expansion will be toward the Northwest.

My immediate tech priorities are: Agriculture for the wheat, Hunting for the Ivory (I'm not quite sure about this one - it might be better to farm it early on), Bronze Working to [strike]get rid of[/strike] use all this forest, Pottery to speed the growth of my capital which appears to have only one food resource.
After that, I'll be going for Writing, and then I'll see what the diplomatic situation is like. Compass will be a slightly higher priority than usual, to unlock my UB. I'll also want Horseback Riding before too long, to let me build Numidian Cavalry

Wonders:
Stonehenge - this is one that might be useful as a charismatic leader, but I'm not sure if it's worth delaying expansion to get it. However, with 7 creative leaders in the game, and some less peaceful types filling the other slots, it might be around for a while. If it's still available after writing, I'll try to build it in one turn using overflow from the Library and chops.

Pyramids - I don't have the food to run specialists en masse, already have a high happiness limit, and don't have stone. Also, I fear this wonder might be the equivalent of the Giant Cranial Crosshair.

Hanging Gardens - it's powerful, but I don't expect it to remain unbuilt for long enough to make it worthwhile for me to give it a shot.

Military/peaceful development balance:
Paper thin military is not going to be an option, at least not if I want to survive long in this game. I'm not looking to raze or acquire any cities right now, for fear of becoming too unpopular, but, depending on my neighbours, I think I'll go for some early military buildup to secure favourable terms in any settling agreements I make.

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Some thoughts on the map and my opponents:

It's clear that my land and traits allow for a fast start - so I assume that either there will be some balancing factor or others have similarly good starts. However, discussion of whether or not the map is balanced is fairly pointless, especially in the player threads, as each player is out to prove that he has the best terrain.

*shadyforce - Willem (Cre/Fin) / Persia
shadyforce is an unknown quantity to me, but he looks to have gone for economic traits. Are immortals actually that useful in MP? (except against barbs) If not, then I'm not sure why he chose Persia

*Broker33 - Zara (Cre/Org) / Holy Rome
I don't really know Broker either. Zara is by no means a bad leader, but I'm a bit dubious about HRE. Hunting+Mysticism don't do all that much good as starting techs, and maintenance shouldn't really be a problem on Noble, should it?

*regoarrarr + Dantski - Hatty (Cre/Spi) / India
Solid leader, solid civ. I remember reading a couple of Dantski's reports, and I gather regoarrarr has been active in the demogame.

*Krill + memphus - Joao (Exp/Imp) / Inca
I believe Krill and memphus have quite some MP experience, so I'll have to treat them with respect while I work out where everyone is in the game. Expansive+Terrace is a great combo.

*dsplaisted + Fenton Denton Smith - Suryavarman II (Cre/Exp) / Mali
I don't know much about dsplaisted, but FDS has posted a couple of reports on Epics/Adventures. Suryavarman is a good early game leader, and I guess they chose Mali to reduce their need for early military.

*Dreylin + kalin - Catherine (Cre/Imp) / Sumeria
Dreylin and kalin (as a lurker) have both been active in the PBEM, so I'd expect them to be the same here. Top class leader/UB combo, but I'm not really a fan of the UU.

*mostly_harmless + Kodii - Louis (Cre/Ind) / Byzantium
I'm having a little trouble seeing what mh and kodii are up to here - the Byzantines have the awesome Cataphract, but I don't see any synergy with the leader they chose.

*Imhotep - Genghis Khan Temujin (Agg/Imp) / Zulu
A little too obvious? Nah - I bet he's just going for cheap maintenance-reducing Ikhandas . A strong MP player, I'll have to try to keep him at arm's length in the early game.

*sunrise089 - Mansa Musa (Fin/Spi) / Spain
I believe sunrise is also an experienced MP player, but he seems to be going for a religious/peaceful start. He's the only one I think will seriously consider an early Stonehenge, to generate a Great Prophet for a shrine.

*Ruff - Kublai Khan (Agg/Cre) / Rome
Aggressive Romans... ugh! I guess I'll have to hope not to get on his bad side.

[Sullla]

Thanks for posting some thoughts on your initial plans and assessment of other teams. It's going to be very interesting keeping track of 11 different teams at once!

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

I don't suppose there is fish 4N2E of the settler, in a place I can't work it if I settle in place.

Even if there is, I'm still not moving - it's not worth losing four turns at the start of the game.

I also wonder what is 2W of the settler - I'm not sure whether to hope for copper, horses or food (I wouldn't mind Gems )

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Finally, I feel I should introduce myself a little.

I have no serious MP experience, and have certainly never participated in a big game like this, so any help you lurkers can offer will be greatly appreciated.

I do consider myself a compentent SP player, and like to think I can MM accurately and think logically most of the time, so this is the area I'd consider myself stronger and would hope to squeeze more out of my land than other players get from theirs.

I've played and reported a couple adventures, but often I start SP games but don't have the motivation to play them out. This has happened to some Epics, which I'm sad not to have finished and reported, and also to private games. This won't be an issue in this game, as it's about one turn per day, and I have enough time to play at my own pace without the temptation to bang out 20 turns very quickly. I'm also active a little in the HoF and GOTM forums - more likely the latter unless there is an interesting gauntlet going on in the hall of fame. I've played a few SGs, but am down to "just" SGOTM - there doesn't seem to be as much discussion on the details in regular SGs.



As for my civilization and leader, I am Washington of Carthage.
I am Charismatic and Expansive - I think these two traits have great synergy from the economic point of view, as Charismatic gives me early happiness, and Expansive means I can grow more quickly (cheap granaries) and spend less time building each worker, allowing my cities to grow that extra citizen or two.
From the military point of view, Charismatic should make it relatively easy to get a level 3 unit by fighting barbs, so I hope to get the Heroic Epic quite early and really pump out some Numidian Cavalry. If it's not appropriate to use them for war immediately, then I suppose they can become a diplomatic asset, while I can generate a Great Merchant later on and use the cash to upgrade them to Knights or Cuirassiers - taking advantage of the free Flanking promotion they get.

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

And we have lift-off. I settled in place, and started a worker, to be finished in 10 turns.



As you can see, there is no second food resource, but I have a second silk, and an unforested river tile, which is a bonus.

This is a huge map, so tech will be slow early on, but there are about 2700 land tiles, so expect everyone to get 10+ cities without too many border squabbles.

I think I'm on a peninsula - but I'm not sure. That island to the southeast could actually connect to my land.

I have a screenshot of the demographics screen - but it will be more useful to post one once everyone has played a turn, so I'll hold off for now.

[haphazard1]

Thanks for posting your thoughts on both your civ/leader choice, and the other players' combos as well. As Sulla said, keeping track of all the teams is going to be interesting.

I also have almost entirely SP experience, so I look forward to your thoughts on how the MP aspect changes the game. Good luck!

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

A quick update: I've played my second turn now, and the warrior has continued to find nothing interesting.

Two civilizations did not settle on their first turn; Imhotep and mh/kodii.
I'd guess that they both moved onto the local plains hill.

I've been analyzing the demographics screen a bit (although I'll do a bit more in the morning); now that everyone has settled their first cities.



Let's take it line by line:

GNP - all those creative leaders have naturally high GNP - so I'm not worried about my rank. If you note the rival highest = 21, as far as I can tell, there are only a couple of ways to achieve that on the first turn.

The most likely option is, that shadyforce/Willem is working a 3 commerce tile with his financial and creative traits, which gives 12 bpt + 1 free bpt + 4 espionage + 4 culture = 21 GNP.

The only other plausible option I can see, is if Mansa Musa/Spain (sunrise) settled on a commerce resource, like river-dyes, and is working another 3 commerce tile (like a lake). That gives 14 bpt + 1 free bpt + 4 espionage + 2 culture = 21 GNP. I can see someone getting burned trying to compete with that start for an early religion.

Production, crop yield - there's nothing to indicate anyone settled on plains-hill-stone or on a food resource; [strike]beyond that the average implies that everyone is working 5 food-hammers, but there could be a rounding error.[/strike]
edit: no, it doesn't. I'd guess that the average is truncated, so it actually doen't tell me anything.

Soldiers - boooooooriiiiiing! Who wants any of those?

Land Area - this is an interesting part. The average tells me that there are 8 water tiles in my rivals' inner ring (10x9 tiles - 82 land tiles). My ranking tells me that there are three people with at least two water tiles, and I can see that there is someone with three.
This means there are only two possible distributions of water tiles among my rivals: 3, 3, 2 and 3, 2, 2, 1. This tells me that most players are landlocked, so it's probably some sort of pangaea or large continents map. I guess the coastal ones are the ones which start with fishing, and maybe a lake for Spain.

Approval rate - nothing to report. I'm charismatic, everyone else isn't.

Life expectancy - I'm #2, despite being expansive, having access to fresh water and 11 forests. My best guess is that one of the other expansive leaders has 12 or 13 forests in his fat cross.

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

I also have almost entirely SP experience, so I look forward to your thoughts on how the MP aspect changes the game. Good luck!

Thank you. If you or any other lurkers have any comments or questions, please, don't be afraid to post here. I don't bite! :wink2: