[Spoilers] SleepingMoogle's thread

[SleepingMoogle]

Hey there. This is my spoiler thread for PBEM7. Feel free to have a look around and poke fun at my moves. If you're another PBEM7 player, please hit the back button on your browser now, or feel the wrath of my guardian lolcat.

[SleepingMoogle]

Some early thoughts:

Going into the game without knowing what to expect is always fun. Aside from an initial preference to play on a high-food map, there's little else to go on. At this point, I'm not even certain that it was the participants of this PBEM that brought up the suggestion. Trying to guess what the finished map will look like and prepare for it is a bit of a fool's errand. Let's just say that I trust Krill to come up with something suitably diabolical to defy expectations in one way or another (Lush? Sure, lots of jungle for you) and look forward to seeing how much that particular assumption holds true once the first turn save is opened.

So instead of preparing for what might be, trying to minimize damage seemed like a better idea. I wanted a leader and Civ that had the potential to do well, regardless of the map type and settings. A handful of settings were agreed upon beforehand, and the most important of those was the combination of no tech trading, and the banning of leaders with the Financial and Philosophical traits. Being able to self-tech efficiently will probably end up being the deciding factor in the game. A leader and Civ choice that can rapidly expand would be good to accomplish this, and I am going into this game planning to win.

Without Financial and Philosophical, Expansive and Creative were my top two traits. I was second in the snake pick, and as Serdoa picked India first, grabbing Sury was an easy choice. There are few if any map types where faster Workers and cheap Granaries for early growth aren't a good thing to have, and the health bonus is always helpful too. Creative will make border pops easy, and half-price Libraries boost early research. Had Serdoa picked Sury, I would most likely have picked Isabella (Exp/Spi) instead. The option of swapping civics at will without anarchy is huge, and again a nice help regardless of map.

Most players went Civ-first in the snake-pick. It wasn't too surprising for India and the Incans, as Fast Workers are even better on Quick speed than they already are on normal, and the Terrace is about as broken a UB one can hope to have. When the pick came back to me, the Ottomans had been picked as well, so I went with my fourth choice, the Mayans instead. They were higher up on my list than Byzantium was.. much as though I appreciate the power of the Cataphract, this was about minimizing damage and it takes but one thing (the absence of horse and/or iron, or a map that is heavy in hills or forests for example) to reduce their effectiveness. That, and my RPB3 team already picked them. The Mayans come with the Ball Court, which gives a nice chunk of happiness around the time I may want to move out of HR, and being Creative, they come at half-price too. It looks like Ivory will be kept on the map, so this may not be as much of a boon as it could have been, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Along with the health bonus from the Expansive trait, my cities will be able to grow significantly.

Early actions will revolve around trying to figure out what type of map we're playing on, and setting up the Civ to quickly grow and expand. Worker first while researching techs to hook up food resources, and early Pottery for Granaries/cottages and BW for chops and whips is probably going to be the order of the day. An early religion is probably out unless it looks like I can land Judaism while researching Monotheism. Early wonders are out as well unless there is Stone or Marble near the capital. I'll also want to get out early scouting units to quickly explore the area around my capital and contact other players.

Let's have a quick look at the other players:

Serdoa: Joao (Exp/Imp) of India - Serdoa was first in the snake pick and picked what is probably the number one Civ, especially for a Quick map. Pairing it with Joao probably means he intends to REX. He may want to grab an early religion or Stonehenge to help with popping borders. Joao is a good pairing, though I'm not sure if he is the best.

Scooter: Bismarck (Exp/Ind) of the Incans - scooter picked his Civ first like Serdoa, and the Incans are a worthy pick for sure. Pairing the Terrace with an expansive leader should help his growth very nicely. The second trait is pretty strong as well since no one else has an Industrious leader. My best guess is that scooter's plan is to leverage it to get out an early Oracle or Pyramids.

Twinkletoes: Washington (Exp/Cha) of the Ottomans - Twinkletoes is probably the only player whose picks raised my eyebrows. The Ottomans are a good Civ, but good enough to pick before a leader? I'm not sure.. and his leader is unorthodox to say the least. Expansive is a good trait, but Charismatic when leaders like Bismarck, Isabella and Mehmed were still available? After playing around with it in other games, I probably appreciate the trait a little more than most, but it's still far from a top-tier one, and there's no real synergy with his UB and UU either. Maybe TT intends to rush Stonehenge for culture and happiness, and get a quick HE unit to build a Jannisary army down the line? It's hard to say..

DazedRoyalty: Zara (Cre/Org) of the Holy Roman Empire - Cheap Rathauses were the idea here, and probably a decent pick now that we know the difficulty was set to Monarch. Pairing it with the Creative trait means DazedRoyalty can safely ignore the early religions and focus on growth, which will probably be needed since everyone else picked an Expansive leader.

Looking at the above list, I expect the non-creative leaders to pick up the early religions, and either Twinkletoes or scooter to go for early wonders. That's fine with me, really. Unless Judaism remains available, I'll probably aim for Confucianism myself. Code of Laws should be possible to reach before DazedRoyalty gets there. Ignoring the early wonders may also give me a decent shot at landing the Hanging Gardens or Great Library. But that depends on the map of course.

One last note: I probably won't update this thread as frequently as the PBEM3 one, as I have little time available during working days. If anyone would like to a screenshot of something in particular, please feel free to ask and I'll see what I can do.

Editting in the rules for the game and some general settings:

Quick speed
Monarch difficulty
No huts or random events
No tech trading
Unrestricted leaders, no Financial/Philosophical traits, selected through a snake pick.

Play order:
Scooter (21:00-04:00 GMT) - realmsbeyondscooter at gmail dot com
SleepingMoogle (09:00-11:00 GMT) - SleepingMoogle at gmail dot com
Twinkletoes (09:00-14:00 GMT) - JBTwinkletoes89 @ gmail.com
Serdoa (17:00-21:00 GMT) - serdoaciv at googlemail [dot] com
Dazedroyalty (22:00-03:00 GMT) - dazedroyalty at gmail dot com

Other rules:
*Passive espionage only, Spies cannot be trained.
*No map trades until Paper tech has been researched.
*No contact with other players until contact has been established in-game.
*Unit gifting is allowed, but HE-like buildings require a home-grown unit.
*City gifting is allowed, but one-way only and no cheese gifting.
*Ivory is present on the map, but War Elephants are banned.

[SleepingMoogle]

I love you too Pocketbeetle.

[pocketbeetle]

I love you too Pocketbeetle.

Edit: Btw, did you know America has two different leaders?

[SilentConfusion]

Edit: Btw, did you know America has two different leaders?

If I recall correctly, America has 3 leaders.

Washington is EXP/CHA.

[pocketbeetle]

If I recall correctly, America has 3 leaders.

Washington is EXP/CHA.

*slaps SC for being too clever*

[SleepingMoogle]

Well at least I picked the traits of an american leader... *cough* Look at me making a fool out of myself before the game even started!

Alright, scooter's leader pick is a solid one then. I do wonder what TT is going to do with the Charismatic trait though. After playing around with it in other games, I probably appreciate the trait a little more than most, but it's still far from a top-tier one. There's no real synergy with his UB and UU either. Maybe rush Stonehenge for culture and happiness, and get a quick HE unit to rush a Jannisary army down the line?

[SleepingMoogle]

This is amazing. The idea of the PBEM was brought up what.. 3 days ago? And in that time, we settled on game rules, picked leaders and Civs, and had a map created. This is what makes Realms Beyond such an awesome community.

Krill sent around pictures with everyone's starting positions to ponder over, and here's the Mayan start:



What, no 18 gems?

Well, this start seems fairly obviously intended to settle on the hill. There's a fairly decent amount of (river) grassland, hills, forests to chop, irrigated Corn and Ivory (and perhaps fish on the tile east of the Settler? There's a swirl in the water that may be a resource but it's rather hard to see). All 7 water tiles are coastal, and I count 7 tiles for cottaging, 4 of which next to on the river. All in all it should make for a pretty decent commerce city.

The best move is probably to move the Warrior NE and see if there's a reason to move the Settler north. There is another river peeking out of the fog there, and there may be a location that allows for more cottages. It's unlikely since most tiles are already revealed, but perhaps the fogged tile NE-NE of the Warrior contains something interesting.

A second option is to take a gamble with the Settler and move him to the west or south. Given that the river bends back to the south, this might be another way to get more cottageable tiles in the city's BFC, but it will also get in those icky plains tiles and if there's nothing of interest to the south, the turn will be wasted. Still, moving the Settler W-SW for example would cut out all the coastal tiles and replace them with (presumably) river grassland and plains, and without giving up any hills. Or move to the hill the Warrior's on for pretty much the same effect.

Something to ponder about..

Assuming that swirl in the water isn't a Fish resource, the tech order is probably going to be Agriculture (Corn) -> Bronze Working -> The Wheel -> Pottery I'll want to pick up Hunting for the Ivory at some point, but being able to chop and mine the hills, and start cottaging the area, will probably have a better payoff.

Worker first seems like the obvious pick. It's a bit of a shame there's no high-hammer tiles in range, so the Expansive bonus can't be used right now, but c'est la vie.

I'll also need to think of a naming theme. Not having done so in PBEM3 was a missed opportunity in hindsight. And while I could remedy it at any point, I've been referring to the cities by their current names for so long now that changing them would just end up confusing everyone (myself included). Suggestions welcome.

[athlete4life10]

Worker first seems like the obvious pick. It's a bit of a shame there's no high-hammer tiles in range, so the Expansive bonus can't be used right now, but c'est la vie.

Is the grass/forest/phant not a 2F2H tile? Combine with that settling on a plains hill gets you 4H to start which is enough for the EXP bonus.

Athlete

[Krill]

It's a fish. And the elephant is forested.