Gaspar & Noble make their triumphant? return; mostly just get asked about "The List"

[Old Harry]

Hitru is the single most perfect civplayer to exist past, present, or future. If he's ever failed its because his mortal instruments are at times mildly flawed and cannot execute the pure beauty of his vision.

Who are you calling a mortal instrument you mortal instrument.

(Hitru is a great dedlurker, but I'd love to see what he could do with his own civ some time.)

[Gaspar]

Hitru is the single most perfect civplayer to exist past, present, or future. If he's ever failed its because his mortal instruments are at times mildly flawed and cannot execute the pure beauty of his vision.

It is easy to be perfect when you are in the darkness.The light shows all the "sins" and imperfections.That beeing said I dont think he is seven or TBS level.

I know you dint want to play with me but i hope posting is ok , if not I will delete the post as this days the atmosfere on rb is not anymore what was.

You are of course welcome in the thread, mack. I will probably not make any jokes at your expense this game even, as we have plenty of material among the current group of players.

[Gaspar]

(Hitru is a great dedlurker, but I'd love to see what he could do with his own civ some time.)

Once I'm done with the previews, maybe I'll do a #top5 for dedlurkers. #content #ad #blessed

[NobleHelium]

Hitru is the single most perfect civplayer to exist past, present, or future. If he's ever failed its because his mortal instruments are at times mildly flawed and cannot execute the pure beauty of his vision.

It is easy to be perfect when you are in the darkness.The light shows all the "sins" and imperfections.That beeing said I dont think he is seven or TBS level.

I know you dint want to play with me but i hope posting is ok , if not I will delete the post as this days the atmosfere on rb is not anymore what was.

You are welcome to post in our thread anytime mackoti, I certainly did not mean that.  I am just not interested in playing another game against you because it was beyond tiresome when every game ended up that way.  I believe it's better to be more direct about this than to regret it later.

[Thoth]

(Hitru is a great dedlurker, but I'd love to see what he could do with his own civ some time.)

Once I'm done with the previews, maybe I'll do a #top5 for dedlurkers.  #content #ad #blessed

Once you're done with the dedlurkers you should do a tier list for global lurkers as well. 

[Gaspar]

Once you're done with the dedlurkers you should do a tier list for global lurkers as well. 

Heh, maybe. I generally prefer dedlurking myself so I might be biased against globals. But one cannot have too much spam content generation.

[Gaspar]

I think I've mostly found my groove here...

The Enemies - Or how to lose a PBEM in 180 days

Volume IV - Serdoa



How I imagine Serdoa playing Civ... I wonder if he ever got into Football Manager.

Wang Kon of Russia (Protective, Financial, Cossack, Research Institute, Hunting, Mining)

[video=youtube]http:youtu.be/wHylQRVN2Qs[/video]

Mr. Wang Kon says I will prooootect you...

What's New?

• FIN is +1c on 2c water tiles, 3c land tiles, double production of bank
  
• PRO gains +75% domestic trade route yield
  
• Research Institute replaces University instead of Laboratory, only +1 free scientist
  

Known Knowns:

Serdoa is master of spreadsheets as we all know.  He's actually quite a versatile player, as he's had success with both buildery and militaristic strategies.  Much like Lewwyn, on his best day he can beat the best players on the site and on his worst day can lose to some really not that great players.  Unlike Lew, who's main issue is how seriously he takes the game, Serdoa's is avoiding getting stuck on a bad idea (i.e. planting his capital one off the coast, etc.)  Gun to my head, I would rate him as the strongest player in this field but he's not you lost before the game started strong like mackoti.  I've played against him a couple of times before and one of his strengths is really that you don't know what his plan is ahead of time.

Wang Kon is probably the best pure econ leader in CtH, with PRO to boost your early game and FIN to boost your mid and late game.  If he's not the tech leader on t100, he's done something seriously wrong.  Russia, well, boy, I don't know.  The RI is decent I guess but its still attached to a building that's too expensive and he gets no cost reduction with it.  Cossacks are ok, nothing like vanilla where they were OpieOP.  

Known Unknowns:
So yeah, why Russia?  I guess maybe he just wanted something different?  Hunting/Mining is a pretty good start tech set for this capital but uh, isn't Khmer just a better civ?  I'd certainly rather have Ballistaphants than anything Russia provides.  PRO/FIN wants a lot of coastal plants in CtH so Noble and I were sort of expecting something like a Carthage pick.  

I would expect a buildery approach here, but Serdoa is certainly an opportunist - if he smells the opportunity to snuff someone in the cradle, you can be certain he will do it.


Serdoa Profile

Peace Weight: 4/10
Unit probability: 7/10
Wonders: 8/10

Flavors: Micro, Microaggressions

Serdoa Yearbook

Path of Exile Unique he most reminds me of:

The quote works, but so does how the map works.  Also, if any player in this game were to be a map, its Serdoa.
Likeliness to Succeed:

Quality of Selection:


Exploitable Weakness: Tunnels on a bad idea, ????, phract food
Biggest Fear: Is the first civ we meet
Pregame Prediction: 2nd

[Gaspar]

Finishing up...

The Enemies - Or how to lose a PBEM in 180 days

Volume V - Rusten & Hitru



I haven't read a ton of Rusten's games, but the man loves him some Oracle.

Justinian of the Aztecs (Spiritual, Imperialistic, Jaguar Warrior, Sacrificial Altar, Hunting, Mysticism)



What's New?

• Mysticism +10 cost, +1 commerce in cap
  
• IMP gains double production of stable
  

Known Knowns:

Rusten loves himself a plan.  He also seems to love the Oracle.  He's clearly a solid player with good micro skills but a lot of ideas he comes up with seem... short-sighted.  Or at a bare minimum, he plays very differently than we traditionally play at RB.  I guess he's been around a long time but I can't say I remember him.  Justinian is a leader we definitely considered, me more than Noble, but he was definitely on the short list.  IMP is the new EXP and SPI is just always good.  Rusten also likes religion even more than Noble does, so I wouldn't in the least bit be surprised to see a henge play here.  I will be absolutely stunned if he doesn't found one of the early religions and given the glut of Mysticism civs, wouldn't be surprised if he teched it before worker techs to ensure he grabbed it.

The Aztecs are probably an underrated civ.  I know I don't rate them that highly.  That said, Sacrificial Altars are cheaper courthouses and reduced whipping anger is quite nice, particularly in the build-up to a war.  Generally speaking, because our maps are usually not light on the luxes, its less of an issue, but if the food rich cap is anything to go by, well, then we might have something here.  

Known Unknowns:
How about hitru?  Everyone says he's the dedlurker with the mostest, will he be able to steer Rusten towards a more... traditional opening?  Is there a Jaguar rush in the offing?  What if his plan ends up being the same as mine and Noble's and he sells out harder for it?


Rusten Profile

Peace Weight: 5/10
Unit probability: 7/10
Wonders: 10/10

Flavors: Religious, Plans to build the Oracle

Rusten Yearbook

Path of Exile Unique he most reminds me of:

The cracks are the Oracle.
Likeliness to Succeed:

Quality of Selection:


Exploitable Weakness: Does the Oracle thing, does the thing people who build the Oracle do (lose)
Biggest Fear: Rusten & Hitru is actually a weird anagram for Seven and novice.  
Pregame Prediction: 4th

[Gaspar]

And finally

The Good Guys - Or how to win a PBEM in 180 days

NobleHelium & Gaspar



He. Just. Won't. Stop. Talking. About. Tile. Culture.

Augustus Caesar of Byzantium (Imperialistic, Industrious, Cataphract, Hippodrome, Mysticism, The Wheel)



What, you were expecting a Hippodrome? KEKW

What's New?

• Mysticism +10 cost, +1 commerce in cap
  
• Hippodrome adds +2 artist slots
  
• IMP gains double production of stable
  

Known Knowns:

We're pretty good. How good we are has a lot to do with our respective morale and interest in the game we're playing.  If both are high, we're right up there with the best non-elite players on the site.  If both are low, we absolutely suck.  I'm the big picture guy, Noble is the details and focus guy.  This game will probably have a higher Noble percentage than our average game because I work too much these days.  This can only increase our odds of winning.  

Why did we pick what we picked?  Well, a couple reasons.  Firstly, we wanted to try the new Mysticism.  We were intrigued by the possibility of playing something we've never played before.  And the fact that the Byzantines appear to be up for a nerf in 1.5 made us feel like this might be a last, best chance to try them out.  All memes aside, Cataphracts are the best UU in base BTS, non-Fast Worker division.  Byzantium doesn't get picked that much in our games because the start techs are terrible in base BTS.  Its not a factor in anyone choosing it because TheatresLOL but the UB is also at least not worse than the base building here.  

Given that choice, and the start, we felt we had to choose IMP.  IMP and EXP are the faster start traits because LOLCRE and EXP was out because Pottery is going to come in later than usual and the worker bonus was removed.  If we didn't pick IMP, we were going to have an extraordinarily slow start.  (We will still have a slow start.)  Once we locked in on IMP, it was basically down to Justinian, Cyrus and Augustus.  Rusten picked Justinian and removed that option.  We basically decided if nobody else picked IND, we would take Augustus, if someone took IND, we would take Cyrus.  Nobody took IND, so we did.  I was more excited to choose Cyrus, truth be told, because I like the possibilities of CHM/IMP Byzantium but IND will help us get to Phracts faster.  IND was also indirectly buffed by 1. Nerfing of resource doublers and 2. Reduction in cost of Metal Casting.  So I think its a top tier trait in CtH.  Also, Noble loves wonders.

Known Unknowns:
How much will we be able to leverage IMP?  We've never used it before, so will we even know how to leverage IMP?  Do Phracts put a giant target around our neck that will make it harder to reach them?  Will we stay engaged?  Will we avoid boogeyman syndrome?  Will we reach Act 10 city names?

NobleHelium & Gaspar Profile

Peace Weight: 3/10
Unit probability: 6/10
Wonders: 8/10

Flavors: Bickering, Cassandra

Noble/Gaspar Yearbook

Path of Exile Unique he most reminds me of:

If nothing else, you always know where we stand.
Likeliness to Succeed:

Quality of Selection:


Exploitable Weakness: Tunnel on bad plan, fall behind early, lose interest, die before phracts
Biggest Hope: Tunnel on a good plan, keep pace early, gain interest, kill everyone with phracts
Pregame Prediction: 1st

[NobleHelium]

I don't think the BTS hippodrome is worse than the base building.  But I'd also never consider going for Cultural victory. (In before we go for Cultural victory this game.) Although actually I think we've built like 1 theater total and it was in our NE city where it provided an extra happy as well as two artist slots.

Oh, so you are picking an IND leader then?

I would say the same thing regardless of what we picked, we've certainly built plenty of wonders without the trait.

If nothing else, you always know where we stand.