[Mjmd #60] Why even buy toys for kids?

[Mjmd]

For stone I would have to build a galley and get masonry and a worker there so definitely not for Stonehenge. I have noted for Maoi national wonder later.

Sugar can't be worked until Calendar which is a long ways away. Again everything is about speed. Sugar also isn't even the best tile to improve so I've even seen people settle on it later.

The normal rule of thumb is that workboat 1st is only valid if you have a fish and a 3 production tile. SIP has the forested plains hill, but not a fish. Math may be different in this case because I have to burn a turn moving, but I still like the extra food from the sugar better. It should also be noted that the 2 forests to the north for SIP are no where near where I want my workers. Usually you want your 2nd city connected by trade route, which means either close on coast or along a river. There is a river with floodplains down there I am dearly hoping has a single food resource in range of setting on said river and at least 1 of the floodplains. I may even farm a floodplains early depending. If I SIP there isn't any obvious spot for 2nd city around scout so I would either have to go north or end up in same area if I moved capital.

[Mjmd]

I wanted to mention that even in PB52 where I had stonehenge and was building missionaries it was still nice to have both. You go from 10 turns to 5 turns to pop 2nd ring borders which speeds up later cities a lot if their main food is in that 2nd ring.

Even if I get a religion it would probably depend on natural spread too for first bit. 40 hammers is just a ton early in the game. I did go into organized without a golden age in PB52 and it was great for me, but I don't think I built a missionary for a hot second.

[Mjmd]

And here is the patented Mjmd excel spreadsheet for picks.

I don't really put a lot of stock into the 'wants religion' column. I'm just too lazy to change my format. I have no clue why 2 cells are green. Tried changing even copy pasting cell format. Sure I could have typed manually on a different line, but eh.

[Mjmd]

1st off overall I feel like this is the most even field for a pitboss in a while. Should be interesting.

Mjmd: Augustus of India - the hero playing Industrious for fun while people think it needs a buff. Hoping people see the blatant STONEHENGE sign here. To be fair only 3 other people would build. I'm still debating going fishing after mining just to work the whale for extra beakers because I'm going to be going for priesthood which is a little out of the way so extra beakers may be nice but that extra 1 food and 2 hammers.... Probably depends what is at 2nd city. Overall plan GO FAST!!!!!

GKC: Kublai Khan of Rome - Agg Rome. Aggressive has the problem of it only works on melee units early and there aren't a ton of civs you want to build a lot of early melee with per se. Rome though. Rome is that civ. Praets have incredible shelf life especially Agg praets. Along with good starting techs Rome is top 5 civs (CtH or I would argue Vanilla, top 10 at least there). I choose Imp/Agg in PB56 and had a blast with them. There was a non zero chance if this game was slightly smaller I would have chosen again. GKC went with creative instead of Imperialistic as his early game trait of choice. Danger level VERY HIGH. If I'm doing well may decide to try slowing me down. If you aren't doing well, you're food. GKC is a solid player from what I've seen and I expect him to be a serious player in the game. Key question will be timing of attack.

Superdeath: Catherine of Egypt - if Superdeath does micro (or has someone to do it for him) he is actually pretty solid, if prone to attacking whomever has wronged him even if situation dictates otherwise. He will be neighbor. This is bad as in general I'm not scared of chariots with a medium size map. War chariots though......

Amicalola: Lieu-Ye of Carthage - best addition to realms in recent years. Had the pleasure of ded lurking 2nd (and 1st actual long game) at realms PB55. Took a surprising liking to micro after I stopped doing and I expect a solid performance due to this. Amica is a little prone to mood swings, which we all are, but performance can wax and wane. Organized and protective basically means Amica can settle infinite cities and not care early about finances. This is kind of a flex 'I think my micro skills are good enough to not need an expansion trait' or you know . Speaking of ..... Carthage is overrated. Has good starting techs. Pindicator made them look good vs Vanrober / Gira in PB52, but I think that was the exception not the rule and that was with overly buffed protective. If Amica can expand well I would expect a solid performance regardless.


Lazteuq: Justinian of Maya - being ded lurked by Civac. Lazteuq has the least credentials of the players in the game, but did do pretty well in PB51 and had excellent space facts in PB56 which counts for a lot. Civac is probably better (or at least more knowledgeable due to extensive lurking over on German forum) than everyone else here, so helps evens out. I know Mig won PB54 with Justinian and serfdom has been buffed, but yaaaaa I'm not fully seeing it. I think PB54 was more an acknowledgement that pyramids can still be really good and that Mig + Rusten is a good team. Maya in civ4 is usually associated with rushing as its special unit doesn't require copper and they start with mining. Something to be weary of but I would think we are a little far for that and India is one of the few civs that can put up a defense in time even in closer quarters. Its possible they think map won't have a lot of happy (which start shows none) and the want the UB.

Jowy: Darius of Vikings - Jowy has had some solid games since he came back and obviously an old school player. That being said he also had PB56 where he crashed and burned. Maybe fell into trap of trying to take someone with UU on 4 cities, but..... yaaaaa bad performance. Darius with Fin/Org has the two best late game economic traits. If you can get through expansion phase ok. Vikings is a civ that I've always wanted to try, but you never know water content / importance. Since Tarkeel said he was in inspired by PB58 and that is a very coastal map it is possible this is a calculated gamble and could get paid off big.

[Charriu]

And here is the patented Mjmd excel spreadsheet for picks.

I don't really put a lot of stock into the 'wants religion' column. I'm just too lazy to change my format. I have no clue why 2 cells are green. Tried changing even copy pasting cell format. Sure I could have typed manually on a different line, but eh.

Did you maybe had a search with CTRL+F in. With it fields turn green

[Mjmd]

I totally did. I'm definitely used to excel way more than google docs.

[Mjmd]

So not everyone is looking to be cozy. Does that affect your opening plans? And isn't IND a peaceful trait if you'll be building wonders rather than capturing them?

Conditional formatting in google can also colour cells over what you set manually. I use it often in my tracking/micro sheets to highlight the differences between turns.

It actually helped firm up my pick away from Victoria (Imp/Fin). One of the actual good players (TBS?) always says something to the affect of "traits with building discounts help you build other things instead". I am butchering that, but you get the gist. Basically between imperialistic and industrious I have discounts on most of the things I want to build early anyways (settlers and won't need monuments; hopefully forges as well which are maybe the 2nd / 3rd most best building in the game). The best and biggest discount missing is granary of course. But overall I can hopefully have a descent chunk of units out and have expanded fast enough to not too thorny for GKC of Rome (unless I look to be doing too good and he wants to throw his game). SD is more worrisome.

Slight PB59 spoiler

My leader in PB59 Zara organized / creative is probably the king of building discounts. I've loved cheap lighthouses in the early game as well there and creative has been extra good (which it isnt always). PB56 I managed to not build a monument until post turn 100, but I did build 2 libraries for cultural purposes). Point being Zara good leader for that.

I forgot to mention for Superdeath that he picked one of the two fastest leaders in CtH in Catherine (Imp/Cre). It is an all early game pick. Even though he is creative it is why I have a 'maybe' in the religion column. Egypt's UB being able to work early priests could be an option for an economy, not that SD always focuses on that

[Mjmd]

T2

There is an obvious name for the capital. The greatest toy little kids never seem to get tired of. Their parents!...!!!......



I've pointed out a better capital than current, but wasn't going to waste another 2 turns. To be fair current capital gets only 5f tile I see. I'll probably go with on marble and then 1N of incense. Unsure of order. Worker micro dependent and have to test if either actually gets trade (I don't think so with how capital culture perfectly misses some tiles). Preferred I would settle 1N of incense and then the marble spot would chop out stonehenge. Or I can slow build it and just put 2 chops and some overflow in. The signal that Industrious India is building should be strong enough.

Other obvious things of note:
- NW grassland silver!!! Strongest tile I can see.
-Moved capital is smack dab in a very skinny point of land, which is somewhat abnormal for Realms maps. I would therefore expect rush distance to be pretty far.
-What to do with scout? Do I go explore around the northern silver even though first city (or two) is likely south). See who is down here since I moved away from whomever is north. If I go back it isn't a lot of new info.

[Mjmd]

T6

Not a single comment on 'Parents' being the capital. Disappointed I am.




To the east is a line of jungle. It starts 9 tiles from capital, so rush distance that way is LONG. I think scout is not going to scout all the black at bottom of picture, just takes too long. I'm pretty committed to the marble spot (3rd). if there is a seafood just means there is a nice desert filler city. I'll probably end up farming some of the floodplain, which is partly why its moved to 3rd as that is just a lot of worker labor. The crab wheat site will get up and running faster. Anyways going to check out the grassland silver to the north.

[Charriu]

T6

Not a single comment on 'Parents' being the capital. Disappointed I am.

Isn't that expected for parents.