Dantski's 2015-16 spam thread [spoilers mb]]

[Dantski]

Does this forum even require a first post to be full of rubbish anymore?

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

[Dantski]

Since I have no clue what I'll be playing or what the map will look like (please don't re-use PB2 map and stick me with the worst start again!) all I can do is cast my unqualified eye on the other people in the game and rank them totally unfairly since I don't know them or haven't followed any of their games.

Old Harry (with occasional chirping from Fintourist) - Probably the best team providing Harry wasn't the one dragging them down in the past.

Molach - While Molach has been around RB for some time I don't ever recall seeing him play a game (I think this included him not showing up to my Hearthstone tournament!). For that reason alone he must die. Probably an average threat.

Ipecac - No clue

Gavagai - I only know him from PB18 where he logged in and took screenshots for the lurkers, otherwise same as Ipecac

Dantski and V8mark - One player who has made zero impact on the few games he;s played (and those were a long time ago) and some other British guy. Cannon fodder for the better players.

TheWannabe - I just don't know

Greywolf - Pretty common name and I'm sure this isn't the guy who started the RNG god SG on CivFanatics years ago. He says he doesn't always win on Deity so probably better than moi.

Alhazard - With that forum name the lurkers need to fill his land with fallout.

ReallyEvilMuffin - Sounds like someone playing anonymously, hopefully its Barry Lyndon level of competence and not Krill.

2metraninja - One of the weaker players in the game perhaps, probably a good person to start next to.

[v8mark]

Dantski and V8mark - One player who has made zero impact on the few games he;s played (and those were a long time ago) and some other British guy. Cannon fodder for the better players.

Note that this works whichever one of us is which

Although I did just win a Monarch SP game as Victoria. I'm pretty sure that means I'm a big threat here.

Anyway yeah, I'm far away from being plugged in to the RBCiv MP scene these days, so I really don't know who's who in terms of skill. Looking forward to being a part of this one anyway.

[Commodore]

No BFC yet, but:

Dantski + V8mark

Roosevelt Roman
Catherine Byzantine
Shaka Celtic

[v8mark]

Just for the sake of reference, here are our choices. I'll write a bit more about them when I've thought about it a bit more:

Shaka (Agg/Exp) of Celtia (Gallic Warrior/Dun, Mysticism/Hunting)
Catherine (Cre/Imp) of Byzantium (Cataphract/Hippodrome, Wheel/Mysticism)
Roosevelt (Ind/Org) of Rome (Praetorian/Forum, Fishing/Mining)

[v8mark]

Btw I'm assuming this isn't an a la carte menu and we're locked into those specific combos? We couldn't pick Shaka of Rome, as a completely random and not even slightly strong example?

Edit: It seems we can't, looking at the new game thread.

Other settings from that thread: GLH is off, Cylinder, Monarch, Standard Size, Barbs On, SoZ On.

[Dantski]

My first thoughts with those leader options is that my BFC must be bloody amazing since I got terrible choices!

Of the picks available I'm leaning towards Cathy and Byzantines since I'd rather expand peacefully and go to war later on which the Byzantines can do pretty well with their UU.

Going to quickly load up civ to see what the Hippodrome and Forum actually do.

*** SHORT INTERMISSION***

Well assuming the mapmaker gives me horses (wink, nudge) its a fairly good replacement for the theatre which is something I probably will never build because I need military or economic techs badly.

Forum is same as market except 25% GPP so the Byzantines win the unique civ stuff from my perspective since I don't want to play a rush Praets game and then be crippled economically (seriously one of my biggest Civ weaknesses is developing commerce ASAP).

Oh hold on a minute lurkers, Catherine is Cre/Imp not Exp. Well I love me some Cre trait so I'm definitely happier with that now.

Looking at the other picks, Shaka of Celts seems incredibly weak and with awful starting techs. Frankly its a no go.
Roosevelt of Rome is solid but I don't think Rome will be much use to me this game considering how I want to play.

[v8mark]

My bad on Cathy.. that'll teach me to insert traits from memory without checking them first.

In any case I agree with your analysis. I think Cathy of Byzantium is a slam dunk. I seem to remember Byzantium coming quite high up on tier lists of 'strongest MP civs' because of the unique unit which is really really good. And Cathy is almost definitely the best leader of the three. The only slight negative is the Mysticism start... but Celt starting techs are worse and I wouldn't want to play Roosevelt who is probably one of the weaker leaders in the game, particularly given Monarch difficulty and relatively little maintenance costs for Org to mitigate.

Thinking about it, maybe Shaka's a better leader than Cathy. But we're not picking the Celts. Byz is too good to turn down IMO.

[pocketbeetle]

Checking in to make it a veritable "God Save the Queen" medley.
I'll try and restrain myself from globally lurking.

Agree Cathy is a no-brainer, aim to city spam and grab land.
Token offering of the post: REM and Gavagai definitely solid players, they're in other pitboss games running atm.

Tally ho!

[Commodore]

Dantski
Victoria French
Cyrus Indian
Darius I Ottoman