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[Spoilers] Freddy is an Old Giza

Have I mentioned how Fintourist is the brains in our outfit?

Password is OH
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Player list

Dantski and V8mark - Darius I (FIN/ORG) Ottoman (Agri/Wheel/Janissary/Hammam)

2metraninja and OT4E - Julius Caesar (IMP/ORG) Viking(Fish/Hunt/Berserker/Trading Post

Gavagai - Louis XIV (IND/CRE) Dutch (Fish/Agri/East Indiaman/Dike)

Old Harry - Frederick (PHI/ORG) Egyptian (Agri/Wheel/War Chariot/Obelisk)

Alhazard - Isabella (SPI/EXP) Sumerian (Agri/Wheel/Vulture/Ziggurat)

R.E.M. - Wang Kon (FIN/PRO) German (Hunt/Mine/Panzer/Assembly Plant)

Molach - Stalin (AGG/IND) Mongolian (Hunt/Wheel/Keshik/Ger)

Greywolf - Zara Yaqob (CRE/ORG) Spanish (Fish/Myst/Conquistador/Citadel)

Ipecac - Napoleon (CHA/ORG) Native American (Agri/Fish/Dog Soldier/Totem Pole)

TheWannabe - Elizabeth (FIN/PHI) Arabia (Myst/Wheel/Camel Archer/Madrassa)


Map Settings:
Cylinder, Monarch, Standard Size


Rules:
- c. Events Off
- d. Huts Off
- e. Speed Normal
- f. Difficulty Monarch
- g. Barbs On
- h. See starts before picking Yes
- i. Version BTS
- j. Scout start Yes
- k. Banned: Nukes, War Elephants (except Khmer), Blockades, Diplo Victory, Great Lighthouse
- l. Not Banned: Corporations, SoZ
- m. Espionage on but no spies (if you get a Great Spy you use him for a Golden Age, Scotland Yard, or settle)

- n. AI diplo (Don't use city trades to signify stuff, no gold countdowns)
- o. No double-moving (don't be a jerk, aggressor gets to decide if they are first or second in turn order as long as it's not a double move, anyone who camps the end of the turn timer so their aggressor can't get the second half to be dogpiled)
- p. No unit trading
- q. No city gifts
- r. No tech trading
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Which leader?
I'm thinking about what traits I want to play, so any lurkers involved in picking handicap combos probably shouldn't read this. nono

What handicap?
I expect to get the shitty end of the map-stick cry, probably on a par with Gavagai and REM with 2metra not far behind. Alhazard, Molach and Ipecac should get something middling while Greywolf and Dantski I have no idea about - Dantski hasn't played since PB3 as far as I can tell - but I'd assume they'll get better land. Hopefully TheWannabe won't be too offended by his double floodplains-gold start...

I'm going to make some assumptions about the game setup in evaluating traits, then I'm going to pick randomly anyway crazyeye.

My trait history:
(ordered by how powerful I think they are in base BTS)

FINANCIAL shades - played three times (once in RTR) smilesmilesmile
EXPANSIVE flower - played once smile
ORGANISED read - not played

CREATIVE mike - not played
SPIRITUAL heart - played twice (once in RTR) smilesmile
IMPERIALISTIC bash - played in RTR smile
INDUSTRIOUS whip - not played
PHILOSOPHICAL contemplate - not played

AGGRESSIVE Argh - played in RTR smile
CHARISMATIC 2kiss - not played
PROTECTIVE Tinfoil - not played


The big three:
I'd like to avoid playing FINANCIAL again, which I imagine won't be a problem here nope.

I'm assuming that I'll have a relatively slow start, and if I'm going to stand a chance of winning I need to take over a neighbour who has good land. The best way to do that will be to get the fastest start I can. For that reason I'll happily take EXPANSIVE which I think is the fastest trait (remember to check the start can get four hammers for the worker bonus).

As good as ORGANISED is and as much as I want to play it at some point I think it'll be too slow and so counterproductive for this game. If I get a chance to pair it with EXP I will but not otherwise.

The fine five:
I'm usually torn about CREATIVE. Having free border pops could make for a faster start, but I feel like spending more time thinking about dotmapping does nearly as good a job without wasting a trait. However, I'm expecting resources to be pretty widely-spaced on my section of this map, so border pops will become more valuable. Also (must remember) barracks don't give culture and cheap libraries will be cool (they aren't the building I build most of, but I do build them early which we'll call a starting boost). And cheap theaters and BTS' more powerful drafting means the Globe could be handy. So I'm guessing this will be as good a game to play CRE as I'm going to get.

I think SPIRITUAL is always fun, but its not a fast starter and I've played it twice so I'll probably give it a miss.

We just got amazing use out of IMPERIALISTIC in PB18 - not just for allowing us to keep hold of dtay's coat-tails early on, but for the eight or nine great generals we produced during the game. I'd assume people will be wary of letting me do what we did to Pindicator here, but you never know how much attention folks are paying. It's another starting boost, so I'll take it if I have to, but I'd rather play something new.

I very rarely play INDUSTRIOUS or PHILOSOPHICAL even in singe player, so I'm not clear on how to get the best of them. For either an early metal casting is useful - IND for cheap forges, PHI for an Engineer to rush something or bulb Machinery. I'll have to read up on using PHI to get to Guilds or Gunpowder early. IND would also pull me to the Aesthetics line for early National and Heroic Epics.

Lead boots
AGGRESSIVE and CHARISMATIC could be situationally useful if I'm trying to eat a neighbour quickly. They both allow for amphibious tricks early on and with CHA the extra happy will be useful if I've got luxury-poor land, although I'll probably be low on food resources too, so won't be able to hit the happy cap rolleye. If I can avoid them I will.

PROTECTIVE will just prolong misery nope.

Which Civ?
My thinking on Civ selection is a bit less well developed thus far.
I'm going to pick whichever is the nicest colour.
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(October 23rd, 2015, 06:09)Old Harry Wrote: My thinking on Civ selection is a bit less well developed thus far.
I'm going to pick whichever is the nicest colour.

Or you could just ask for a different color. smoke

Played: Pitboss 18 - Kublai Khan of Germany Somalia | Pitboss 11 - De Gaulle of Byzantium | Pitboss 8 - Churchill of Portugal | PB7 - Mao of Native America | PBEM29 Greens - Mao of Babylon
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:P spoilsport.

If 2metra is teaming with OT4E I wonder if they join the top tier? OT4E is supposed to be an amazing dualist, but that didn't seem to transfer in pb22. Although starting next to dtay will ruin most people's game...
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Hey,

enjoyed your trait speculation post. In the scale of "casual clicking & intentional mistakes" to "extremely focused & sand-boxing until t200", what will be your approach? Feel free to respond in spoilers if you don't want to influence the lurker discussion. crazyeye

Will you know the map size / average no. of tiles per player before selecting your leader & civ? Trying to form a turn 0 overall strategy based on map info, settings, etc. is already interesting, but when one adds a handicap system into mix that's even more fun!

Here is my preliminary analysis related to the above:
Assuming high ranking --> shitty land quality: Go horizontal! That increases the share of city tiles / overall worked tiles. City tiles are same for everyone (yeah, yeah, PH & resource plants excluded here)!
Assuming low ranking --> great land quality: Go horizontal! There are a lot of valuable tiles available for grabbing!
mischief
Finished:
PBEM 45G, PB 13, PB 18, PB 38 & PB 49

Top 3 favorite turns: 
#1, #2, #3
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(October 25th, 2015, 09:52)Fintourist Wrote: In the scale of "casual clicking & intentional mistakes" to "extremely focused & sand-boxing until t200", what will be your approach?

Depends if I get a job in the first couple of months of the game. If so then I'll probably do a couple of passes on a spreadsheet, if not then all my spare time will go into getting that perfect launchpad.

I've got no idea what kind of map we're getting - I was assuming Commodore's recent love affair with Totestra would push him that way, but Joey's post in the tech thread makes me think he's going for something pretty outlandish. popcorn

Anyway it sounds like Darth Vader (IMP/IMP) would be your ideal leader here? (Yeah, I've seen in certain other threads how much spam posting about star wars can generate shhh )

BTW Xenu, I've decided I'm not picking anyone with light colours because of how crappy the signs look. So Egypt, Arabia, Germany, England, Korea and Greece at least are out.
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Noted. We'll make sure you only have Egypt, Arabia, Germany, England, Korea and Greece to choose from. smile

Hmm, Vader as IMP/IMP...doubled trait, would that make settlers even cheaper? Great Generals even easier to farm? I think you'd like that.

If you're looking for thread spam here's a topic for you. Assuming all leader traits could be duplicated, what Star Wars character would it yield and what would be the enhanced effect?

AGG/AGG - Maybe Anakin? Although...well, IMP....
CHA/CHA
CRE/CRE
EXP/EXP
FIN/FIN
IND/IND
IMP/IMP - Darth Vader (He does have the Imperial March...)
ORG/ORG
PHI/PHI
PRO/PRO
SPI/SPI

popcorn

Played: Pitboss 18 - Kublai Khan of Germany Somalia | Pitboss 11 - De Gaulle of Byzantium | Pitboss 8 - Churchill of Portugal | PB7 - Mao of Native America | PBEM29 Greens - Mao of Babylon
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(October 25th, 2015, 11:56)spacetyrantxenu Wrote: PHI/PHI

Han Solo? shades
Finished:
PBEM 45G, PB 13, PB 18, PB 38 & PB 49

Top 3 favorite turns: 
#1, #2, #3
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Yoda as Phi/Phi, Han Solo as Cha/Cha. Cha/Cha gives you a special effect : if the battle odds are under 10% you get a 5% bonus to the odds (capped at 10%). Can't think of a good Phi/Phi though.
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