Let's take a look at the governors available today. Everyone's talking about Magnus, but what else is possible?
First up, we have Pingala:
Pingala I mostly used to passively boost my capital, but he was a low priority for upgrades after the first two - I didn't need the space race stuff until the end of the game.
I dunno, not sure how best to make use of him. Skipping him around to build libraries and universities is possible - I'm not going to be building theater squares - but it means foregoing the +20% science/culture. Early in the game, when most of my tech comes from the capital, he's at his most effective, I think (or is he most effective later on, once the capital has higher yields of everything, but a smaller overall proportion of the empire? Hmmm...). I'm not sure how his ability stacks with Korea's - do I get 10% + 20% for a 30% boost? 1.1x1.2 for a 32% boost? Dunno.
Liang
Liang I moved around a lot, particularly to new cities. I never worked my way high into her skill tree - didn't need the amenities, and there are better ways to build districts in singleplayer. The extra builder charge is nice - she might be good to create a dedicated builder city, moving her around as needed to get infrastructure up and running in the meantime. It's also worth moving her to the capital or wherever your plaza is just before a new government unlocks - the Plaza buildings are really amazing and worth getting up quickly.
Victor
Victor was, of course, useless in singleplayer, but I wonder if he might come in handy in multiplayer. +5 strength cancels out a GG, and his first-tier ability makes him a defensive GG. The two right-hand promotions are great, as well - well, maybe. Two ranged attacks is nice, and the ability to not be put under siege SEEMS like it'd be useful, but how often has a city actually been ground down via siege in our multiplayer games so far? It seems like far more often cities get taken by storm.
Plus, Victor takes a lot of investment to reach his full potential - I'd say 3 titles to really get him going. That's quite a lot, especially in the early game, and as Korea every new governor is another +10% science/culture in some city. I want lots of governors, not just one-super promoted one.
Victor I think will depend on the terrain. Emperor K's Bastions of Reliable Polacks would be a great Victor target, or Sullla's oasis city in PBEM1, but I can't think of many other fortress cities. If I find a good chokepoint that MUST hold against the Mongols or Zulu or something, I'lll look into him.
Reyna
Reyna I quite liked. Due to a quirk of geography, I had exactly one harbor city facing my ally, Gilgamesh - and my civics and alliance made trade routes to him fantastic. So I had something like 10 trade routes passing through this one harbor city. That added up to butt-tons of gold (technical term) by the end of the game. She spent most of the game ensconced there, boosting my economy. Later in the game, when I had thousands of gold to throw around, I'd move her to new cities, buy a key district or two, and then move her back. In MP, I don't think she'll be as useful - I don't expect players to have enough gold to often buy districts. She's still worth having for gold generation alone, though.
Magnus
Magnus you'll note I didn't upgrade much, because his best ability, doubled chops, comes by default. That stacks with maritime industries or limes, so he's going to be everyone's first target. I'm going to try to avoid chopping until I hit Political Philosophy and unlock him, but then I can go nuts. He's the one I'm most worried other players will out-exploit me with. His upgrades are pretty nice. Surplus logistics I took to upgrade my trade routes, but htat was a mistake - as Korea I generated plenty of food. The other ability, no pop loss on settlers, might be good - worth a few extra hammers/gold over the course of a game. The rest of his abilities are situational.
Since Magnus doesn't need to be upgraded to be effective, I'll probably be investing my governor titles elsewhere.
Amani
I tried to play around with the Loyalty system with Amani, but I didn't accomplish much. She's definitely worth upgrading, though. She makes the city-state game much more chaotic, especially when you unlock her final ability. It can be used to snipe suzerainity from any player at any time, with 5 turn's notice. If they don't have an Amani of their own ready to defend, then that city-state is yours for as long as you want it. Since some bonuses are so good, this has potential.
Plus, I really wanna levy a surprise military behind someone's lines and go raze a city or something. That'd be hilarious, even if not particularly cost-effective.
Moksha
Moksha bothers me, since moksha is not a name but a concept. Oh, well.
Obviously, he's all about the religion, but notice how defensive he is. Except for his final promotion, and the Holy Site bonus, all his promotions are aimed at making the city better defensively in terms of religion - faster healing units, DOTF-level religious units, total immunity to conversion...Like, he's great at blocking a religious win, but not actually all that effective at spreading your own religion, unless you HEAVILY invest in him. Even playing a religious game I don't think he's worth my time compared to Magnus or Amani or Reyna.
Anyway, there they all are. I'm going to think about potential plays that DON'T involve chopping out a thousand settlers and districts with Magnus.
Thanks for the Civilization and Governor overview, it's really nice to read your thoughts on them.
I'm currently playing a Cree game and the Governors are one of the hardest parts to wrap my mind around. There's just so many variables and options to choose from.
So far I have gone with Pingala in my capital, Magnus for chopping and also to boos trade routes. The increase to growth is quite substantial too. Thanks to Mekewaps and Magnus I had a really early size 15 city. Then I took Liang to boost my builders and Reyna as well as Amani just to play around with them. I am close to the Industrial era and have problems upgrading my existing governors though. I'd love to go higher with Amani and Reyna to play around with Loyalty and more money respectively.
So that's my quick take on the governors, will be interest to see what kind of plans you come up with!
I'm thinking about the possibilities of stacking Victor, DOTF, and a GG in the same city. Victor can give +5 to units in a city's territory, the GG can add another +5, and DOTF, if you land it, can get +10. Since Great Generals no longer stack, that means that anyone who lands DOTF just needs to grab the occasional GG and they can make any city all-but invincible. A +20 strength differential, for example, can be hit in the classical age if you spend your governor titles right, and make a swordsman (36 strength) equal to a musketman (55 strength). In other words, even being a full era ahead in tech wouldn't be enough to crack this nut - you'd need overwhelming numbers IN ADDITION to being a full era ahead.
This really makes me want to beeline a religion and see if I can grab DOTF. Just need an encampment or two, and the Mongols can go pound sand, +14 cavalry or not.
Okay, so MAYBE I can get 10 Governor titles if the game lasts through Mobilization. Here are the Civics that give governors, in order:
1)State Workforce
2)Early Empire
3)Defensive Tactics
4)Recorded History
5)Medieval Faires
6)Guilds
7)Civil Engineering
8)Nationalism
9)Mass Media
10)Mobilization
If I want all 6, for +10% science/culture in as many cities as possible, that would mean only 4 total promotions - which means Super-Victor would eat 3 of them, leaving only 1 for any other governor. And the last 2 would come pretty near the end of the game, and 2 more would come a long way into it. Hmmmm.
Okay, here's what we're going to do, faith-wise and governor-wise:
Pantheon is going to be either Goddess of the Harvest (Magnus!) or Earth Goddess. Lots of faith! Faith can buy anything in R&F with Theology and some Golden Ages.
Religion: We want some combination of Defender of the Faith, Choral Music/Jesuit Education, Wats/Synagogues/Dar-e Mehr (3 faith +1 for each era since it was constructed. Synagogue is probably better in shorter multiplayer games), and Church Property/Stewardship/Tithe. Stewardship might be real solid - not in high demand, and it essentially makes my Seowons 5 science instead of 4.
We'll be similar to Arabia, generating Faith and Science in equal measure. My Seowons don't jostle with Holy Sites for adjacency bonuses, so that's nice. If I can grab DOTF, and I'm next to a warmonger, I'll grab Victor (after Magnus), then upgrade Victor one level to make him a mini-GG. That can be accomplished at Defensive Tactics, so ~80 turns into the game. Hmm, too long if the Mongols come rushing quickly, but if Archduke waits for his Keshiks then I have plenty of time.
Otherwise, I'll use faith and production in equal measure, either enhancing my science with Jesuit Education or creating great culture with Choral Music (I prefer the culture). Who will I be racing? Almost certainly Emperor, and possibly Japper as well. In golden ages, I can buy builders and settlers with faith. If I need to fight, I can buy units in theocracy. Overall, I'll have a flexible, scientifically advanced civ defended by superVictor.
Next time I'll talk about era score and a plan to cope.
So, that's every era bonus, apart from dedications, I can achieve. Notice how aggressively it encourages multifaceted gameplay: Diplomacy, trade, religion, conquest, exploration - it's better if your civ tries many different things rather than 1. Speed, of course, is highly rewarded.
As I am starting a PBEM elsewhere playing Korea too, I am very curious how you are going to handle the issue of too much science versus too little culture. I found that a ratio of 2:1 can be easily achieved even when building lots of monuments etc. Unit go obsolete before you can even build some
I ran into the same issue, but to a lesser extent - I was just playing against stupid AIs, so I could use my science lead to grab lots of world wonders in vanity plays (I mostly wanted to test out the new ones) and to indulge more in theater squares.
Right now, I'm debating the merits of purposefully throttling my tech - leaving key military techs 1 turn from completion until other players catch up, while using the time saved to build out my economy more.
Then, once I'm ready - perhaps in the late medieval or early renaissance, when most of my opponents' will have obsoleted their own UUs (except Georgia, whose UU I'm not impressed by), I slam ahead to muskets, mass upgrade my swordsmen, and go nuts, burning hard for the next gen at the same time.
This all assumes I don't die to Sumeria right away, of course. Not sure how to handle that.
Busy day yesterday, guys, and I messed up my pictures of my start, so I'll officially start reporting later, whenever the save gets back to me.
In the meantime, let's indulge in the fun pasttime of evaluating my opponents and their civ choices!
Remember, all of these are lovely human beings and fantastic people, first. That's the most important thing. But how are they at civ?
The Archduke, leading Mongolia.
Everyone knows the Archduke by now, after putting in appearances in every Civ VI PBEM except #3 and #5. He started off shaky and unconfident, fumbling around, learning the ropes. Unfortunately for his opponents, every game the Archduke has played, he's improved. He went from near total-helplessness in PBEM1 to stacking GG and terrorizing his neighbors in PBEM2 to thoroughly defeating those neighbors and coming within an ace of victory in PBEM4 to finally winning it all in PBEM6.
Strengths as a player: Archduke's most visible skill is his ability as a tactician. No one has fought as many PBEM wars as he has, and the experience showed in PBEM6 as he calmly demolished suboptimal's army and steamrolled to victory, making it look easy. In PBEM4, he clearly won every battle he fought, from city-state wars in the beginning to the first war with Singaboy to the massive battles in the North Sea. In PBEM6, he also demonstrated solid builder skills - Macedonia I think rivalled any other civ even without absorbing Australia.
I listed Archduke first because he's the favorite to win this, especially with a great warmonger civ like the Mongols. The boost in firepower is intimidating, but that's really going to tip things in his favor is the potential 6-move Keshiks he'll have in the medieval era - these bastards are going to move like the wind, and hit like a truck. Stopping them will be my central challenge if I want to win (and I survive everything else).
Alhambram, leading the Netherlands.
Alhambram plays with a spirit of calm fortitude and good cheer that I've always admired and tried to emulate. He tends to be slow off the ground, but has a fantastic eye for spotting weaknesses in his rivals and exploiting opportunities. His building is okay, nothing spectacular, but gets the job done, and his tactics can be unimaginative, but he usually has a great sense of the larger meta-game and attacks when he has the upper hand. He probably would have won PBEM6 if not for the Archduke's Macedonia, so I've rated him second.
The Netherlands look like a great builder civ - the river bonus lets him be real flexible with district placement, and the trading ability might let him pull off interesting tricks with Loyalty. The UU probably won't be relevant, but it is just a straight frigate upgrade, and polders are great improvements - but I've also seen reports that it's tough to find eligible tiles for them. We'll see.
Rowain leading Sumeria.
Rowain is one of the last men standing in the long-running PBEM3 game. He took an unimpressive civ, America, and made it work for him, thoroughly choking suboptimal at the start and then finishing him off when he blundered into a war with Ichabod. However, Rowain's reports tend to be...brief (it's been pointed out that he could literally tweet them), and so I have very little clue about his internal play. He's clearly losing to Ichabod, but I think that's more due to Ichabod's very impressive performance as a player than any failure on Rowain's part. Not sure how to evaluate him, as a result.
Sumeria, on the other hand, is great. It got a lot of little buffs in R&F - for example, the Epic Quest ability syncs up with the Era score very nicely, as you're now doubly rewarded for doing something you were going to do anyway. The Ziggurat is a good source of science in the early game, all the more important since pop science is nerfed - I have my seowons to keep pace, and Alhambram can make some high adjacency campuses anywhere, but the Mongols, Cree, and Georgia may not keep up. Alliances are more important now, and Sumeria is better at those, so everyone wants to be your friend.
And the warcart remains stupidly good and I'm gnashing my teeth at their very existence.
Emperor K as Georgia
Emperor seems solid, as a player. He did okay in his first PBEM - Poland expanded well, and when he found himself at war with Alhambram, he made all the right moves. He does have a weakness in that he was often overambitious in that game - you can't get away with as much against humans as you can against robots. He was punished for trying to grab BOTH a Great Prophet and a Great General, and landed neither, and he planted one city too close to his opponent without adequate defenses, which in the end cost him the game. He did a great job defending, though, and was in large part responsible for stopping Alhambram winning, and he's done a great job leveraging Russia in PBEM7.
I'm actually warming up to Georgia the more I explore R&F. Faith is a really great currency in this game - so if Emperor can leverage protectorate wars, he can do anything. If he uses missionaries well, he can dominate the city-state game, too - and if you attack the city-states to take away the bonuses, he can use his special CB. Unless you just declare war on him, too. Hm. Well, maybe not so great. I guess it kind of is a lame civ in MP.
Japper as the Cree
Japper hasn't really gotten the chance to prove himself to me yet. In PBEM4, he overexpanded, and got himself wiped out by Singaboy. At first, I thought that was because Singaboy was brilliant, but after the game it turns out Singaboy took a lot of bold risks - exactly the right move, as Japper thoroughly fumbled the defense. As Norway, he should have been in his element on a naval map, but it didn't work out for him at all.
PBEM 5 spoilers:
In PBEM5, he started a war with pindicator before his allies were ready - and seems to have been thoroughly trounced, as he's now the proud owner of the smallest domination score in that game. He has the super-strong Roman civilization, but isn't crushing in culture - in fact, he's trailing America! And he did nothing with his Legions, which will soon be obsolete. Lest anyone think all you need is a strong civ and you'll succeed, let that be a warning to you. Player skill matters a lot more than civ choice. Cf. Ichabod's performance with the mediocre English civ in PBEM3.
PBEM7 spoilers:
Japper's haplessness has continued into PBEM7. Now, he's not responsible for Mike's woes - Mike planted a pink dot city with absolutely no defenders and promptly got it razed. Mike may have been counting on his stealthy gold buys to stay competitive - but if your gameplan requires naked cheating to not end disastrously, it's probably not the greatest of plans. So Cornflakes has been playing from a weak position to begin with. Japper, though, has no excuse. He seemingly learned his lesson in overextension from PBEM4, I guess - he's only founded 3 cities 75 turns into the game, when most of us are sitting at 5 or 6! Where did he spend his early hammers? Did he invest it in infrastructure? No, to my knowledge he has only a lone campus district at the moment. Did he invest it in religion? No - he's Kongo! Did he invest it in military? No - in fact he has the lowest military score in the game and his neighbors are sharpening their knives and licking their lips (well, Woden and I are. )!
The Cree are a good builder civ. Boosted trade routes, so you can get some great internal numbers on food and production. The UI is like a mini-Outback Station, too, and like Sumeria the Cree want people to be their friends. The UU isn't great, though. Lots of people disagree with me, but here's how I see it. You buy scouts to do one thing: scout. Their role is to fill in the blank spaces on the map. There's also a role for cheap fodder units for Retainers or anti-missionary patrols, but scouts succeed at that because they are cheap and they obsolete late so you can build 'em all the time. You DON'T build scouts as frontline combat units - you have combat units for that sort of thing!
The okihtcitaw can hold its own against warriors, but warriors grow old quickly. It cannot stand up to swordsmen, or to archers, or to chariots, or to horsemen.
Now see how the two strengths of the scout become weaknesses for the Cree? The okihtcitaw is not cheap. It costs as much as a warrior, in fact - 33% more than the scout. It can defend itself in the Ancient age, sure, but now what was the scout's strength becomes the okihtcitaw's weakness: You're stuck with a unit that's useless for combat until the Industrial age, when you can finally upgrade it to a Ranger. That means that for the lion's share of the game, the Cree are stuck with a unit that's no better than a scout but costs quite a bit more! Bah. This is one UU I'd rather NOT have.
Chevalier
As for me, I'm not predicting wonders here, people. I'm getting better at micromanagement, but managing build orders and chop overflow and optimal city placement is still something I struggle with. I think I do a good job analyzing and assessing situations, and have a good strategic sense about what's needed. However, I have no idea how my tactical abilities are, since I've never faced another human in warfare yet apart from a few moments in PBEM7.
My main goal is to not fall to builder-itis and make sure I maintain a strong military to fend off the Sumerians and Mongols. First goal will be to establish security, then a firm economic base, then explode my science and see what happens.
I decided to settle in place. There's 4 solid tiles to work in the first ring, fresh water, and luxuries nearby. To the south, there's thick hills and woods - good for Magnus chops, which I imagine are mandatory to remain competitive in this game. I thought about moving south across the river, to add some more hills to the first ring, but that would have meant pushing the mercury to the third ring.
Mercury isn't a great luxury, but to the south, I find chocolate, and a thick terrain of lakes. Food is a little thin on the ground - just some cattle - but there's lots of scattered hills for my Seowons, while the inner lake region can be filled with other districts. It will also provide some measure of defense, which is a priority with Sumeria and Mongolia around (more Mongolia than Sumeria - Sumeria's rush will come early enough that the terrain other than the immediate area around my capital won't matter so much. By Mongolia, I should be fielding a larger army.
A closer look at Just Read the Instructions:
Working the rice, naturally, for quick growth. After some debate, I start a slinger instead of a scout first. Here's why:
Exploring IS important in this game, no doubt. But it's more important to have a bit of muscle now. Consider -
1)The only first-to bonuses are for finding natural wonders and circumnavigating and whatnot. Of those, only natural wonders are relevant on an inland sea map.
2)There probably aren't enough natural wonders to get you a decent era score.
3)Therefore, most ancient age era scores are going to come from killing barbarians and founding pantheons and religions.
Now, a slinger is better at killing barbs, and better at deterring aggression while I grab a religion. Will it be enough to get a normal age? Eh, perhaps not. But I'm contemplating the potentially radical step of courting a Dark Age, to slingshot to a Heroic Medieval age.
My main idea is that the main drawback of Dark Ages is reduced Loyalty in all your cities (I dunno, I haven't had a Dark Age yet. I should try one out...). But in the early game, when everyone's still finding their feet and settling in their own neighborhoods, this is no problem at all. No one will settle close enough to me to threaten any of my cities...I think...since the fate of pink-dotters in these PBEMs has often been ugly. So, a Dark Age shouldn't cause me too many problems in the classical age. Then, the Medieval Heroic age, if I can land it, will give me a burst of strength right as Mongolia hits their combat strength peak - thus making me less of a target.
So, I build a slinger. I'll forgo the exploration points and focus on keeping the barbs down in my area. Once the slinger is done, it'll probably be time for a settler before builder - the builder will want to chop things, and I want to have Magnus available before I do that.
Okay, what else about my capital? There's a good Seowon spot 2 tiles south, where it can boost some mines and a farm. There's also a potential spot to the north and east, but I need to explore over there a bit more. I found that there's no trouble about district adjacency - there's always plenty of good spots, and Seowons like farms and mines around them anyway.
Finally, a look at the Great People, including the Great scientist I stand a good shot at grabbing:
Aryabhata, not Hyaptia. Well, Ages last a lot longer in this game - I might do something crazy and skip him in the hopes that the next GS is still Classical. Either one will be better for me, I think.
Um, anyway, taht's all I have. A capital and a rough gameplan in place. Am I being a moron? Tune in next time to find out!
)! 
