Realms Beyond Forum

Players keep out 

Players/civs in order:

1. Pindicator / Aztecs
2. Cornflakes / Brazil
3. TheArchduke / Russia
4. Rowain / Gorgo's Greece
5. rho21 / Roman Empire.
6. Banzailizard / Germany

Stats Comparison

For a continents map I anticipate the game to play out in two distinct and equally important phases:

(1) Early game will be a localized competition against the 2 other civs on the starting continent. Either (a) work together in harmony, or (b) come out on top of a slug match ... further breaking down "b" into (b.i) don't get on the wrong side of a 2v1, or (b.ii) get into a position where the 1 can overcome the other 2.
(2) Late game will be intercontinental. Unless the Vikings are in the game, this will likely be at least 120 turns before making contact with the other continent. Navy will be extremely important, and likely the deciding factor in bringing the game to a successful conclusion.

Therefore I see 2 options:
1. Pick an early game powerhouse, conquer the two neighbors early, and use the sheer weight of the empire to dominate the seas.
2. Pick a late game powerhouse, try to either coexist in harmony or at least get on the right side of a 2v1, and then seize the reigns decisively in the later game once the civ blooms into its "golden age".

I want to go a little unconventional with the civ selection and pick something that hasn't been played effectively yet. Arabia I think is under rated, but I'm dedlurking EmperorK and convinced him to pick that and I don't want to copy that here. Might still slot that in as a 3rd or 4th option though since I do think Arabia has the potential to be a top tier civ. I'm thinking something along the lines of India (early Varu rush), Brazil (peaceful early game focused on culture, explode at Minas Geraes). If I had to pick an order right now it would be:

1. India
2. Brazil
3. Viking
4. Chinese
5. Arabia
6. Germany

I'm sorely tempted to take India and may pursue an early-ish rush. Varu at 40 strength are as strong as Legion, but provides an additional -5 that also works in favor of my other units (for an additional +10). I believe the -5 stacks with other adjacent Varu and also can be combined with +5 from GGeneral, but not certain. On defense, a varu fortified in a city will almost single-handedly be able to hold off a classical era army. Varu is effectively 45 STR which is almost as strong as Knight (albeit much slower) but is 3/4 cost. It is a classical era unit which means I don't need Monarchy to unlock the policy boost card, but it is strong enough to maintain its usefulness throughout the Medeival era, especially on defense where its slow movement is somewhat mitigated. And the -5 aura makes it combine will with a later knight army. The only downsides are that it can't be upgraded into, and it is rather slow at only 2 MP. A classical GGeneral can bump the movement up to 3 though and presents a truly terrifying 50 STR vs 36 STR swords.

The other set of Indian traits present a small late game buff. The ability to use all Follower beliefs with only 1 follower in a city means that India can potentially make use of Jesuit Education, plus Choral Music, etc. of any religion it can manage to acquire (and passive spread should be enough to get 1 follower along a border. The Stepwell will help achieve the boosts for reaching 10 and 15 pop and will ultimately (hopefully) allow me to grow and get an extra district down, and can help make better use of more marginal city sites later game. The biggest late-game effect though is probably war weariness. In the eventual naval/land showdown, the increased war weariness can wear down the enemy morale and production/research, and force earlier adoption of Retainers or other measures to alleviate amenities crunch.

Horseback riding is close enough in the tech tree that it can be easily achieved without any additional production from Campus districts. The +50% cavalry policy is close enough that it can be achieved without any additional culture buildings, although I'd probably want to put up a monument or two anyway just to keep moving towards PP in a reasonable timeframe. But early production can go into Encampments at cities #1 and #2 which could land the GGeneral by T70 or so. 3 cities founded by then plus a CS capture, with builders in place to chop-chop-chop, should be enough of a base to launch a swift invasion. Could even go all-in with God of the Forge pantheon.

Upon further reflection I'm revising the order to:
1. India
2. Brazil
3. Arabia
4. Germany
5. Chinese
6. Viking

Lowered the vikings much. I think they're a viable civ with the +50% to naval melee production. They just don't have a compelling strategy for me, and I found their play to be rather dull last time I took them for a test drive. I'd much rather exploit Brazil's rainforest bias early game and beeline the MG battleship, or try a faith+science oriented Arabia. As backups in slots 4-6 I have Germany for Hansa economy, Chinese for wonders, and lastly Vikings.

The play people are getting out of the Vikings right now is combining the 100% ship production policy card with the innate 50% bonus to get 150% ( ) chops. All you need for 150% is Foreign Trade and Sailing! It looks pretty bonkers, on paper at least.

Sure the Vikings can make good use of chop overflow, but a game play revolving around trying to chop ships for max overflow doesn't appeal to me at present (plus I already played Vikings in a duel game). In fact, I think I'll chop-chop-chop the Vikings right off the list () and replace them with Russia. And I've changed my mind on the ranking. Brazil is now my 1st choice. I was looking at that civ more, and I will enjoy trying to optimize an MG beeline much more than a Varu rush. Still keeping India as 2nd. Revised order:

1. Brazil
2. India
3. Arabia
4. Germany
5. Chinese
6. Russia

EDIT: These are my final selection, PM'ed to EmperorK

There's the pantheon that gives +1 faith to good appeal tiles. Considering jungle gives +1 appeal for Brazil, I wonder if a heavily jungled territory could make you swim in faith. Worth thinking about.

(May 17th, 2018, 10:50)Ichabod Wrote: [ -> ]There's the pantheon that gives +1 faith to good appeal tiles. Considering jungle gives +1 appeal for Brazil, I wonder if a heavily jungled territory could make you swim in faith. Worth thinking about.

That's certainly an interesting thought! One other thing the caught my eye was the combination of the pantheon that gives holy sites +1 adjacency from jungle, which apparently stacks with the Brazilian ability, both of which get boosted by the +100% policy unlocked at Theocracy. Thus a HS in the middle of a jungle would get (6 + 6)*2 = 24 from adjacency   Obviously that is the extreme, and 1/2 that is probably a more reasonable number, but still that's huge!

However I think culture is going to be the #1 priority for pantheon, and everything in general. If I can just reach MG while keeping up enough of a military to dissuade my neighbors from attacking, then I should be able to blow the game wide open at that point.

Spent some time musing over the civics tree, and I'm contemplating a beeline straight to Drama & Poetry (after picking up Craftsmanship of course). This will allow me to get Theater districts down earlier and at lower cost, while allowing me to delay landing the boost for State Workforce. This would result in delaying Political Philosophy and the 2nd tier governments by up to 15 turns, but likely half that since I'll be focused on building earlier monuments instead of an earlier district. The plan would roughly be:

• Only unlock 1 type of district from the science tree, so that I could get the district discount on Theater district as the 2nd type of district (as long as I build 2 of the 1st type)
  
• First type of district will most likely be Campus, but possibly Holy Site if I start near a natural wonder and a Religious city state (so that it can build the 2nd HS for me to capture)
  
• Calculate the number of techs I can research before increasing the cost of districts more than would result from 5 civics. Once I get to that point, leave all techs at 1 turn to completion. Priorities would be worker techs and whatever district I decide to build early.
  
• Delay building the 1st district, in favor of earlier monuments in my cities, timing it such that I complete 2 copies of my first district type almost simultaneously with completing D&P, which would be rather late for a first district compared to a normal game. (need to copies of the first district type in order to unlock the discount on the 2nd district type)
  
• Designate the largest jungle adjacency tiles to Theater districts, hopefully getting at least +3 on each of the first 2.
  

The idea here is to accelerate culture above all else. The Drama and Poetry boost is almost un-attainable anyway, so beelining it doesn't lose out on the boost. The alternative would be going the normal route of Political Philosophy first and trying to land an early Stonehenge in order to pick up the D&P boost. Once the civ picks are confirmed I'll take Brazil for a test drive and see if D&P beeline is actually viable.

Hello, folks. I'll be looking to dedlurk this thread.

Given the Brazilian rebate on great people, and the potential explosive faith generation with the rainforest pantheon, is there any merit to heavy patronage of early great people w/ faith in conjunction with the Oracle. I feel like a run on classical great people could be viable, especially as a complement to some base income from districts/projects.

Also, I doubt you can completely neglect tech. Since the script is Continents, you will have 2 land neighbors. I doubt you can afford to be more than ~5-10 turns behind on knights/crossbows. I am unsure how fast you can reach the MG compared to how fast other nations will tech to frigates/ironclads. While MG will blow either out of the water, if you lose your standing fleet or any coastal cities, I question how much recovery you can get out of the MG.