Bobchillingworth
Unregistered
As for actual thoughts about the game, I'm not sure if we'll have screen shots of our starts prior to submitting picks (I'd prefer not), or where I'll fall in the snake pick order, but I did manage to work up the wherewithal to read through the CtH changelog, and I think my ideal combo would be Churchill of Spain.
If I'm understanding the log correctly, Churchill should get an astonishing number of permanent bonuses from the Citadel, at half-price construction:
* 3 promo siege units in cities which also have a barracks
* Enough exp for 1 free promo on boats, or 2 with any of the exp-granting civics
* 1 trade route
* The standard city defense boost
* +1 culture
That all sounds pretty good, and going all-in on a UB sounds like a very "me" thing to do. Combined with likely founding a religion via the starting Myst tech, I should also have a fairly generous amount of happiness to make up for potential luxury shortages. It's too bad the UU's bonus against melee is unlikely to matter much here, though.
I'll go Spain first for my pick, if available, unless the start is absolutely screaming for another civ. That said, this isn't really a power pick so much as my being cognizant that I'm highly unlikely to win this game (I'll still try though!!!!), and therefore would prefer to do what I do best and attempt to identify a unique and exploitative strategy others may overlook, even if it ultimately isn't sufficient to secure victory on its own.
With only six players I'm guaranteed to be able to walk away with one of the classic OP combos, like Darius of the HRE or Ragnar of Rome, so plenty of viable fallback options if I can't take Spain (I suspect Churchill will not prove particularly popular).