Hard to say on that, Lew. He might just change the settings of his existing map. I don't think we should make too many assumptions on that front.
Regardless, I'm working a LOT over the next 4 days, so we should probably get some discussion going on what we'd like to pick so that I'm not flying blind when the pick starts. The primary reason, in my mind, for preferring a more forgiving setting towards expansion is because the less cities on the board, the greater the factor wonders are. In this field, its going to be very hard to land any wonders. Mackoti has a sixth-sense for when he can get them, Seven is the best player in the history of ever, novice is a micro-genius, and Serdoa basically gets every wonder whenever he plays. So any plan which relies heavily on landing wonders is going to be a gigantic fail in this field.
I had sort of hoped to get away from EXP, since I've picked it in literally every game in which I've been the primary player on my team. I've been Bismarck, Isabella x2, Mao, Mehmed. But if you're going to REX, obviously EXP is the best trait. That said, I don't really see what possibility we have of not taking FIN here. One of the other guys is going to land mids, so we'd have to wait until the monk wonders to juice up a specialist economy, which is probably suicide. I personally like to run a hybrid, but again, with the caliber of players in the field I feel like we're almost obligated to use FIN.
I like to pair FIN with a fast starting trait. The two fastest starting traits are EXP and CRE. EXP obviously lets you get your first worker out faster and get granaries down quicker. It also encourages you to use the whip more, frequently using overflow from the stuff EXP bonuses to get other stuff done. CRE saves you monument hammers and lets you space your cities more, with little concern for what's first ring or second ring. Of course, if we end up picking say, 3rd, there's an excellent chance both Pacal and Willem are off the board. In that case, the next best two FIN leaders are probably Mansa and HC, but both SPI and IND are slow-starting traits.
In terms of Civ, obviously India is far and away the best, letting you chop with impunity. Inca is obviously second best, for reasons not needed to be illustrated here. After those two, I'd probably debate between Sumeria, which gives you ghetto ORG or China, which has a great starting trait package and a UU that's useful for a very long time. After those two, Egypt for the Ag/Wheel starting trait package plus War Chariots and Ottomans for the same Ag/Wheel bit plus the semi-useful Aqueduct UB. Once you get past those, everything is more cute than useful.
Of course, everything I just said is sort of BTS-by-numbers - does anyone have an idea for something less obvious they'd like to take a stab at?
Regardless, I'm working a LOT over the next 4 days, so we should probably get some discussion going on what we'd like to pick so that I'm not flying blind when the pick starts. The primary reason, in my mind, for preferring a more forgiving setting towards expansion is because the less cities on the board, the greater the factor wonders are. In this field, its going to be very hard to land any wonders. Mackoti has a sixth-sense for when he can get them, Seven is the best player in the history of ever, novice is a micro-genius, and Serdoa basically gets every wonder whenever he plays. So any plan which relies heavily on landing wonders is going to be a gigantic fail in this field.
I had sort of hoped to get away from EXP, since I've picked it in literally every game in which I've been the primary player on my team. I've been Bismarck, Isabella x2, Mao, Mehmed. But if you're going to REX, obviously EXP is the best trait. That said, I don't really see what possibility we have of not taking FIN here. One of the other guys is going to land mids, so we'd have to wait until the monk wonders to juice up a specialist economy, which is probably suicide. I personally like to run a hybrid, but again, with the caliber of players in the field I feel like we're almost obligated to use FIN.
I like to pair FIN with a fast starting trait. The two fastest starting traits are EXP and CRE. EXP obviously lets you get your first worker out faster and get granaries down quicker. It also encourages you to use the whip more, frequently using overflow from the stuff EXP bonuses to get other stuff done. CRE saves you monument hammers and lets you space your cities more, with little concern for what's first ring or second ring. Of course, if we end up picking say, 3rd, there's an excellent chance both Pacal and Willem are off the board. In that case, the next best two FIN leaders are probably Mansa and HC, but both SPI and IND are slow-starting traits.
In terms of Civ, obviously India is far and away the best, letting you chop with impunity. Inca is obviously second best, for reasons not needed to be illustrated here. After those two, I'd probably debate between Sumeria, which gives you ghetto ORG or China, which has a great starting trait package and a UU that's useful for a very long time. After those two, Egypt for the Ag/Wheel starting trait package plus War Chariots and Ottomans for the same Ag/Wheel bit plus the semi-useful Aqueduct UB. Once you get past those, everything is more cute than useful.
Of course, everything I just said is sort of BTS-by-numbers - does anyone have an idea for something less obvious they'd like to take a stab at?
