Building concrete overshoes for peace and prosperity, Brian takes Keelyn for a ride.

[Brian Shanahan]

Yeah let's see how many Star Trek and/or gangster references I can get in with this one.

I think cities are named after Star Trek ships and captains, my own ones getting the good ships/captains (e.g. Kirk, The Sisko) and captured ones getting the bad captains (e.g. Duchess, Janeway).

Units then can be named after famous mobsters, whether real or fictional. We'll see who end's up sleeping with the fishies.

[Brian Shanahan]

So yeah my first pick was Keelyn of the Balseraphs. I've been playing a few games recently with her or the father (most of my SP games peter out at about the late mid-game, when I can win however I want but wading through units get tedious), and I wanted to see what I could do with her.

As regards a builder victory ToM seems the most obvious (collect as many nodes as possible hold one for meta, build buildings, etc.), followed by the religious victory (loads of religion, priest spam, GPros, etc.). I'm not too gone on cultural as there doesn't seem to be that many out and out culture helping buildings worth my while (unlike in BtS) and with religion not often getting a big culture hand (except OO) and no Sushi (used win culture victories in Monarch SP with Sushi and one religion, satisfying but often tediuos for the last 50 turns) it'll probably be slower than the other two.

As regards picking Keelyn of Bals, well why else am I talking about concrete overshoes in the title?

Further thoughts will arrive when I see the map and other picks.

[Selrahc]

I'm not too gone on cultural as there doesn't seem to be that many out and out culture helping buildings worth my while (unlike in BtS) and with religion not often getting a big culture hand

Each temple gives +20%, the carnival gives +20%. Stack em up properly and you're generating +100% culture or more in all of your big 3.

Meanwhile the civics and wonders can turbo charge you even farther. Unlimited Bard Specialists generating +10 culture a piece with another 100% modifier on top? Yowza. With StW so each citizen is only 1 food? Even better.

For an Arcane focussed leader like Keelyn, ToM would be the more logical approach. But there are a lot of powerful options that speed up culture victories in FFH.

[Brian Shanahan]

Each temple gives +20%, the carnival gives +20%. Stack em up properly and you're generating +100% culture or more in all of your big 3.

Meanwhile the civics and wonders can turbo charge you even farther. Unlimited Bard Specialists generating +10 culture a piece with another 100% modifier on top? Yowza. With StW so each citizen is only 1 food? Even better.

For an Arcane focussed leader like Keelyn, ToM would be the more logical approach. But there are a lot of powerful options that speed up culture victories in FFH.

True but that does take quite a bit of work and is not really a natural progression. You have to first chase religions (losing out is not as bad as in BtS, true, but it is better to be first still, some good holy cities could translate into mucho cash), then have to chase down to Liberty andCaste System (for unlimited bards and extra culture, they're at Merc and Taxation respectively) and while doing that get StW out of the gate too. Oh and I'd also have to build wonders and happiness buildings to help out as well.

It is doable, but IMO someone will build the tower or altar (or worse yet squish me) long before I get my pieces into place. If I were philo with a decent second trait to get the GBards kicking from festivals then it'd probably be viable but as is Tower is far better for me, lets me concentrate on the magic line, while also kicking out a force of skelly and spectre spamming mages to deal damage to any foo' in need of nuts!

[Brian Shanahan]

Well I got the save today and boy was it a doozy:

First let's look at the land:

The big patch of blue to the north was revealed by a hut bearing maps (a bit like a Greek bearing gifts that hut).

I settled in place, a watered corn, cows, fish and silk were a-ok. And add a plains hill for the hammer bonus and we're sucking diesel.

South we see pigs and bananas mired in jungle.

Now for some settings:

Aggressive AI is a wash and probably a default Bob setting (I think).
Wildlands give extra animals so expectations of tigers and guerillas out of the jungle are high. No axe is a bit of a bummer (for someone anyways) but liveable.

Now onto a special note:

My warrior has strong and heavy! (hopefully this is not an accident but design of the game) Could a lurker ask?

And finally demographics:

We won't worry about these til next turn but just to say everybody has started warrior scout.

OK now some thoughts about the other players:
Mackoti

Is playing:


Despite his emo get-up, Flauros plays like a warmonger. He has the financial muscle to get to Feud quickly to unleash his vampires on the world. I will have to be careful if he is near me and look to my back. The organised also helps with the builder side of the game, allowing him to cover his civic choices a bit better to follow a certain path. It also allows command posts to be spammed, helping the war side too.
Mackoti is a good aggressive player who does not back down and will always push his all in a fight. I was told by Acalostas that we were this close to going to war over Limerick due to Mack, so expect fireworks if we are close and dispute anything.

Thoth

Is playing:

Not really a strong choice for a builder type victory Spi/Exp don't lend themselves to ToM, Altar or culture too much. On the other hand he is an Orc, they don't do peaceful. Another warmonger that I have to handle with care.

Thoth is a good player what I remember most is him showing the power of the Malakim, but then getting crushed (eventually at that) after a bit of diplomacy bad luck in PBEM 3. I haven't followed him in any games other than that, but he is good and worth looking at.

OK these two are not out and out focused on the "builder" aspect of the game, though Flauros has civics help from organised. But they are IMO the two best of us so they must be considering something.

The next 3 are as yet unknown to me as I am no2 in the turn order.

AN Other

Is playing:

Spi/Ind lends itself to building wonders and changing civics lots. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Capria, if she is thinking that way, will focus on the Altar over the Tower, though she has decent mana from a Tower perspective. The Bannor are an out and out religious civ, focusing on the Order to get the goodies for their war push later on in the game with crusade, demagogs and other goodies. Early they are somewhat weak and could be prone to a rush.

Someone Else

Is playing:

Father Jack himself. A strong defensive civ, Philo allows a choice between Prophets for Altar or Bards for Culture. Sanctuary gives a thirty turn fuck off to any wannabe conquerors and can be parlayed wisely into the time needed for a peaceful victory. However no second trait does hurt and gives no opportunity to rush things along, or go warmongering (too much) if needed.



My Plans:
Tower victory if let alone. Skellington spam if not.

Frankly I've no set plans as of yet over how to play this one. But I will be looking out for war opportunities if and when they come along. Anything that hurts my enemy will help me.

My settling strategy will be as normal, pick up strong sites, back fill, etc. But I will also be looking for Mana nodes and will be plopping them as soon as possible.

But before I rush to KotE, I will be researching Calendar (already on)>AH>Fishing>Festivals to get my worker working, and my money pumping. I will also go as far as BW and get Exploration out of the way too.
After that it will be Edu>CoL to finish my financing options, a rush to Sorcery (with all 4 mana techs so not a straight rush) and finally for religion I will chose between AV or CoE for my religion. AV for the ring of fire priests and some nice units, or CoE for the hidden units and Gibbon. I will decide as needed.

These plans are still subject to much change, so if I go off and get stirrups it will be in response to crisitunities presented.

Oh and on a final note next turn my capital will be renamed Kirkville in honour of the 2nd best captain in the (fictional) history of Starfleet.

[Katon]

Thoth is a good player what I remember most is him showing the power of the Malakim, but then getting crushed (eventually at that) after a bit of diplomacy bad luck in PBEM 3. I haven't followed him in any games other than that, but he is good and worth looking at.

I think you're thinking of Ilios in PBEM 2. Thoth in PBEM 3 also built up an early Malakim lead, but the poor diplo luck happened to the potential dogpile and nobody ever came close to hauling him back.

[DaveV]

My warrior has strong and heavy! (hopefully this is not an accident but design of the game) Could a lurker ask?

Don't even have to ask: Bob stated explicitly in the map thread that he did this by design.

[Brian Shanahan]

I think you're thinking of Ilios in PBEM 2. Thoth in PBEM 3 also built up an early Malakim lead, but the poor diplo luck happened to the potential dogpile and nobody ever came close to hauling him back.

Yeah realised that about 30 seconds after logging off last night. Too many good games to watch on the site.

Don't even have to ask: Bob stated explicitly in the map thread that he did this by design.

Well thanks for confirming that. At least I know it is deliberate.

[Brian Shanahan]

So it turns out that Someone Else is CromagnonPI and AN Other is Tholal.

Tholal's only other game is 12 where I'm ded-lurking SL so I'm not sure if he's strong or not (maybe a short yes/no from a lurker on this?) and Cromag is by his admission kind of amateur at this so he's tagged as the weakest player.

For now I'm assuming everybody is equally dangerous but I wouldn't be suprised if Mackoti or Thoth run out my biggest rivals.

[Brian Shanahan]

Save played, kind of tired so report tomorrow.

I set a password see if it works:

Traen

Does anyone know how to set up the email send thing.