Welcome to the metagame thread. Here we discuss many things, all of which are essential to the final victory.
There are 4 opponents, all with a variety of strengths and weaknesses. We will need to find out about their strategies and playing styles to have a chance of victory.
There is also a map. Right now, the map is unmade, but we'll need to be able to crack it when it comes out.
Following this post will be 5 different posts, one for each different opponent and one for the map.
Team Menagerie is led by Lord Parkin. Here is their stats:
Leader: Huayna Capac (Fin/Ind).
Civ: Khmer (Mining/Hunting)
UU: Ballista Elephant (Str 8, unlocked at Construction, will target mounted units first outside of cities).
UB: Baray (Aqueduct with +1 Food).
List of Members (Taken from Main topic)
Quote:Team Menagerie-trois, led by Lord Parkin
Link to Team Thread
Roster:
- HitAnyKey
- kjn
- nabaxo
- Elkad
- Herandar
- Sareln
- Azza
- TheArchDuke
- stonaq
- Joshua
- Mortius
Potential Strategies:
LP has always been a wonder-chaser at heart, and this time around he's the only IND leader. Expect many early game wonders to fall for him.
Early-Mid this team will be the most dangerous of the lot, due to the Elephants. Either we try to put him onto someone else, or we get our own defenses ready.
Leader: Williem (Fin/Cre).
Civ: Sumeria (Agriculture/Wheel).
UU: Vulture (Axeman replacement, Str 6 instead of Str 5, +25% to melee instead of +50%).
UB: Ziggurat (Courthouse replacement, 90 H instead of 120H, available at Priesthood instead of CoL).
List of Team Members:
Quote:Team Excellent Anger Management, led by Captain Krill
Link to Team Thread
Roster:
- Ruff_Hi
- Catwalk
- Square Leg
- Gaspar
- Ilios
- Lewwyn
- coco
- ironstar
- spacetyrantxenu
- Dicorion
- Qgqqqqq
- slowcheetah
- Nicolae Carpathia
- Gold Ergo Sum
Team of superstars. They have knowledge in many different areas of the game, and they will probably have the best micro among the teams. Weakness will be Diplomacy, as none of them are reliable diplomats (most are too prone to anger).
Early game will most likely be an Oracle strategy. They need Priesthood anyways for their UB (And i don't think they took Sumeria for the UU), and thus Oracle will come naturally.
Most likely will use the Oracle to be one step ahead of the competition, while using CRE to grab land. Will expand fast, with their bulbed tech to help them defend.
Leader - Mansa Musa (Fin/Spi).
Civ - Inca (Agri/Mys)
UU: Quecha (Warrior Replacement, Starts with C1, +100% against Archer units)
UB: Terrace (Granary Replacement, +2 Culture).
List of Members:
Quote:Team Pirate, led by Captain oledavy
Link to Team Thread
Roster:
- pindicator
- waterbat
- Shoot the Moon
- WarriorKnight
- kp
- luddite
- Mardoc
- Jkaen
- SleepingMoogle
- Nakor
- Xanes
- thestick
The biggest threats from this team are their versatility. Oledavy has proven himself to be one of the strongest players over and over again, and this time he's backed by a huge amount of names like WK, StM, Mardoc and Moogle.
Their Civ choice again allows versatility. They have good early defense, an excellent UB, and SPI to help them swap tactics if needed. They can potentially do anything if the game allows it.
Team Tropical Troll is led by Darrell and a huge amount of other people.
Leader: Sury (Exp/Cre).
Civ: India (Mys/Min).
UU: Fast Worker (Worker replacement, 3 Move instead of 2 Move).
UB: Mausoleum (Jail replacement, +2 Happy).
Members:
Quote:Team Tropical Trolls, led by Captain darrelljs
Link to Team Thread
Roster:
- novice
- Ichabod
- superjm
- Tatan
- plako
- Nydaeli
- naufragar
- zakalwe
- pling
- Brian Shanahan
- mzprox
- uberfish
- DaveV
- spacemanmf
- spellman
A huge amount of big names means that they'll be able to generate the most micro plans and find the best easily. Their pick of Sury and India means that their growth will be explosive, and they'll be the first to having more cities than any of us.
Their main weakness lies in the lack of financial. They will constantly need to have more cities in order to match up with the power of Financial, but due to killer maintenance, the new cities will need more time to catch up as well. A beeline to CoL or Currency might be needed before they can truly come into play.
Firstly, good initiative Amelia. The hard work is certainly appreciated and could make a real, tangible difference.
Amelia Wrote:Here are the stats of TEAM, captained by Krill.
Team of superstars. They have knowledge in many different areas of the game, and they will probably have the best micro among the teams.
I really don't agree with this bit at all. Team of superstars? They have fifteen players and I can't think of one that's won a game other than captain Krill (granted, whose won a fair few). I think of them in quite the opposite way, a team of very solid players who won't go down easily, but far from a superstar line up.
I agree on the diplomacy part in it's entirety, I reckon Catwalk will lead the line there as the least angry of them. Micro-wise, Krill is very decent indeed but most of the others are average at best. In my opinion, the best micro'ers in this game are Krill, Sevenspirits, Novice and Mackoti.
Amelia Wrote:The biggest threats from this team are their versatility. Oledavy has proven himself to be one of the strongest players over and over again, and this time he's backed by a huge amount of names like WK, StM, Mardoc and Moogle.
Their Civ choice again allows versatility. They have good early defense, an excellent UB, and SPI to help them swap tactics if needed. They can potentially do anything if the game allows it.
I agree regarding versatility, they may be hard to predict and that is a strength for them. However, Oledavy is far from one of the strongest players in terms of raw civ-ability. If you put him in an average group PBEM, i'd bet money quite comfortably that he would finish no higher than maybe second. pbem38 spoiler:
eg. he's currently in the 'second chance saloon' game, PBEM 38, and he's comfortably last as it stands.
Maybe i'm just becoming a douche in my old age hehe. I think we have four strong opponents, each having a very capable team. This game should be one to remember. Again, thanks for your fab work Amelia.
Agree with Kyan all around. I think the scariest team is actually the Tropical Trolls team - novice, spaceman, uberfish, Plako... If they all are active, that's a really strong team. Read PBEM17 - Novice and Spaceman used Sury of India and lapped the field so badly that a 4v1 happened - and considering the talent in that game that was an achievement.
On paper Team Pirate might not seem terrifying, but don't discount the cheerleader effect. Oledavy has an enthusiasm for big events and it's contagious. I do believe the biggest factor in T3's excellent PB6 performance was because oledavy was so enthusiastic that it caught on for StM and WarriorKnight. Both of those guys are underrated players IMO, and Pindicator is very strong too. They also tend to have the "most likable" team, and I think if they choose their diplomat wisely that'll be an advantage for them.
I think team Menagerie is actually the "weakest" team on paper, and I think that says more about the quality of this game than it does about them... Lord Parkin is a very strong player and he has Huayna which he loves, so I still expect them to play very well unless LP doesn't participate much. They'll get to dictate a lot of which wonders they'll get, so we'll need to spend some serious time thinking about which they're likely to target. Good thing to discuss actually - which wonders appeal to which teams.
Not much to add about TEAM. If Ruff is playing for real, he may take charge of diplo, otherwise, no idea. I think the performance of this team is heavily tied to how much Krill participates.
Early wonder thoughts: First, I agree that TEAM is going to try to build The Oracle, maybe planning on grabbing Metal Casting for The Colossus and forges. I think that the Tropical Trolls are going to try very hard for The Pyramids and The Great Library, Team Menagerie is going to grab Stonehenge and most of the other wonders, and everyone is going to want the Great Lighthouse.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0492.JPG]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/28594063/Maps/Demo/Civ4ScreenShot0492.JPG)
