[PB84] The Three Amigos

[Tarkeel]

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.

-- Henry V, Shakespeare.

[Tarkeel]

Reserved for ToC.

[Tarkeel]

Some thoughts on the map and starts, since thety are more or less the same.

* Distances are pretty large, so it should be possible to get second and possibly third ring cities before conflict, unless your neighbor is a psycho. I don't see any of them in this game?
* While distances are large, I think it's still possible to pull of a dedicated Holkan-rush to kill one neighbor, mainly because you get to know exactly where they are. It's probably not worth it, but someone picks Maya I might settle the capital on the copper.
* The starts are pretty tech heavy with wheat, deer, clams and sheep. Fishing and workboat first are not an option with clams, so optimal starting techs are probably agriculture and mining (as usual).
* Monarch costs aren't going to make ORG mandatory which is welcome.

Thoughts on particular civs:

* China (agriculture/mining) is probably once again the strongest civ, and if Bing somehow doesn't pick it I'm sure Xist will.
* Zulu (hunting/agriculture) is a civ I've long wanted to try and the first I pitched to my companions. While I don't expect anyone to win with a chariot rush, it's qutie likely to get some value out of harassment. Ikhanda's are also great, and it looks like we'll have quite a few cities here.
* Maya isn't unlikely to be picked for the Holkan-rush, but I'm not interested in that.
* The usual suspects are also in play of course; I would be surprised if Rome goes unpicked. Mongolia might shine in the right timeframe, and Byzantium might have the time and distance to come online.

Leader wise I prefer to pick something that has synergy with our civ, and for Zulu I believe the best pick is actually Shaka. Will mostly likely pick civ first here.

[Tarkeel]

For leader we're looking at pairing AGG with Zulu as our economic trait, with either CRE or EXP as the accelerator. With Superdeath taking AGG/CRE Kublai Khan, that leave AGG/EXP Shaka or CRE/EXP Suryavarman for immediate consideration. It's also possible to double down on economy with AGG/FIN Ragnar, but note that CRE/FIN Willem is taken by Mjmd.

Shaka feels like the correct choice here. I expect Rome and Mongolia to be picked and AGG will be useful to make those civs look elsewhere for their meal, while it still has good economic value on cheap Ikhandas and troop savings down the line. I've said it before but EXP is in a very good spot after the harbor bonus.

[Tarkeel]

6: Bing - Victoria (FIN/IMP) of Netherlands
I've played against Bing before in 62 and 74 but we've never had much interaction. He's a very interesting player though with a playstyle focused on short-term gains. He's unlikely to win, but he's far from food.

Victoria is perhaps the best leader on a RB-style map at Monarch, but this map is slightly less lush than usual, lowering the appeal of IMP. The Dutch are also most likely too late to matter in a game such as this, and have very slow starting techs.

5: Xist - Darius I (FIN/ORG) of Germany
Xist is one of the newer players at RB, coming from the German forums. He's aggressive and competent, and not one I'd like to neighbor, but our northern neighbor he is.

Darius is another fine leader, although perhaps too focused on the economy and ORG isn't that good on Monarch. Germany is another civ whose benefits come very late, but at least their starting techs are good.

4: Superdeath - Kublai Khan (CRE/AGG) of Sumeria
Speaking of aggressive, perfidious Superdeath comes flying with a suprisingly good combo. I had almost put down money he'd pair the Kublai pick with Mongolia for a reprise of PB71.

Kublai was one of the leaders we had shortlisted and Sumeria is good, which is my main reason for ranking Superdeath ahead of Xist.

3: Mjmd - Willem (CRE/FIN) of America
Mjmd is one of the good players who for various reasons always seems to falter at the finish line. The world war in PB66 is most likely his finest showing, while the OakAshThorn in PB62 an example of how he can throw all the toys away if he doesn't get his will. He's our other neighbor, so here's hoping we can come to a mutual beneficial understanding.

Willem is another fine leader, but Mjmd has an obsession about proving how broken America is, even after it got nerfed in 5.0.1.

2: Tarkeel - Shaka (AGG/EXP) of Zulu
On paper I have to good ded-lurkers in Amica and Froggy, but time will tell how sold any of us are on this game. I tend to do best when playing with someone who can focus on the micro-details, so I can focus on the larger game.

I'm a sucker for combining a good UB with a trait that discounts it, and having one economy and one expansion focused trait. I've long wanted to play Zulu, and Shaka is perhaps one of the best leaders to pair it with, although we'd happily have taken Kublai.

1: Civac2 - Elizabeth (FIN/PHI) of Egypt
Civac is perhaps the best of the currently active players, but has a tendency to play overly safe and doubt his abilities.

Egypt with PHI smells like a pre-planned play involving getting early prophets for religious play, so that will be interesting to see how plays out.

In summary, 4 of 6 players have FIN (and two of them have double eco traits) and the two that don't have courthouse-like UBs. Superdeath only gets his earlier and cheaper, while we get a new cost reducer in the Ikhanda.

[Tarkeel]

Let's take a look at our start:


Let's start with the obvious: Having all four food resources present makes this a very tech-expensive start, but at least it's equal for everyone. The wheat is wet but the deer is not forested, so agriculture wins out as the most important starting tech besides mining (as usual). The clams are just a distraction, investing 30 hammers for a 4f tile is bad even before you notice no 3 hammer or 4fh tiles to build it with. The best thing about the sheep is that they are hillside so they can be mined to delay Animal Husbandry.

The second thing that springs to mind is that these resources are exceptionally badly placed for our worker. The best that can be done before roads is to improve the wheat and then go to the mine the sheep. Which brings us to the point; can we afford to go Wheel-first? Since the game is currently set to large, this will delay Bronze Working enough that it comes too late to whip the first settler. We can however revolt while it is moving and then whip out the second worker instead, and if we don't road the sheep we can have trade route to the copper city before it is settled.

This also highlights one of the special features of this game: We already know where copper will pop up and can plan for it in advance. Here's a look at T34 on a quick-n-dirty attempt with wheel before bronze:


Our settler is in place to claim the copper and share wheel/deer with capital. We'll need some form of culture to claim the pigs, as the next ring is most likely located on the river between gold and rice. The northern dot is also likely to be settled early to claim ivory and wheat, while the southern site has a slow start to good potential down the line.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 0 (4000 BC)
Behold!


One of the unresolved questions was which naming scheme to go with. I proposed books but Amica suggested ridiculous Australian animals, so for now I'm splitting it down the middle with a book about how ridiculous Australia is: "The Last Continent" from Terry Pratchet's Discworld series. It was the first I rea of the series, and it hooked me.

[Amicalola]

Amicalola's 'Highly Qualified' Opponent Analysis
because half the reason I'm here is to talk absolute shit one last time.

King of the Hill 
I have no idea how this game format will affect things, but probably everything I say here is even more wrong than usual because I don't know what I'm talking about.  

Civac - Elizabeth of Egypt
Civac is a good player, and squashed me in my first ever real pitboss game. He is playing a pretty weird pick that is strong with micro, but he will bother to do that micro. He will look to eat or otherwise take advantage of Bing or Xist, probably succeed in that goal, and then probably win the game. Probably. 

Tarkeel - Shaka of the Zulu
Our pick is pretty weird - it's great if we have good micro, and garbage if we don't (as we will fall too far behind in foodhammers to matter). I think I am pretty good when I am engaged. Naufragar is pretty good when he is ruining my games. Tarkeel is pretty good when he has engaged dedlurkers. I don't know that any of those conditions are met right now, but maybe the stars will align and we will become a force to be reckoned with. 

Mjmd - Willem of America
Mjmd is pretty good at civ, and very good at arguing with trolls on the Politics subforum (which still exists for some reason). I don't think he's won a game (unless one of the recent ones I didn't watch), but that's unlucky rather than because he is bad. Maybe this is his day.  

Superdeath - Kublai Khan of Sumeria
This pick sucks for Superdeath - Sumeria is a garbage civ unless you do micro, and he will not - same for AGG. I like Superdeath, but I hate playing civ with Superdeath. He will not play to win, because he will find himself in an impossible position after 50-150 turns of no micro compared to Mjmd, CIvac, and Us. He will then throw a tantrum, and absolutely ruin someone else's chances to win. With only three real contenders (hey, I'm here to be blunt), this SD tantrum very likely decides the game - boooooooo. 

Xist - Darius of Germany
I don't know much about Xist, but he doesn't seem to have much success in games. His pick is an Amica Special (we love lategame combos), but unfortunately the Amica Special kinda sucks, so that probably won't help him. I suspect he will die or be irrelevent by the time the game ends. 

Bing - Victoria of Netherlands
Bing is not very good. He does not do micro, and gets eaten in (afaik) every game he plays. A large part of this game will likely revolve around who eats or otherwise squashes Bing (sadly this is probably not us).

[Tarkeel]

I agree with just about everything Amica has to say, except that I take issue with the notion of Bing being "eaten": Yes, he usually gets conquered, but he is not a savoury meal.

Turn 5 (3800 BC)
I'm not going to keep a detailed exploration log since the map is known, but we made our first contact:


According to top cities, his capital is the aptly named "Capital Ship" so I assume we're in for yet another round of sea shanties. Can someone please tell Mjmd that you are allowed to to do different naming schemes?

Anyways, our scout was heading that way because Mjmd is the most likely culprit for early Writing and open borders, and getting some early KTBs in is always nice. Seems like he had a similar idea, as this is about as early a meeting as you can get.

[Tarkeel]

Turn 16 (3360 BC)
Everything is proceeding according to plan, which is pretty equal for everyone. We met Xist at some point, and our scout is going counter-clockwise for contacts.


Our worker finished the wheat farm this turn, so I was going to show how we were #1 in demographics but Xist managed to log in and play before I got the screenshot.

Techs so far have been:
* Us: T8 (Mining)
* Civac: T6 (Hunting?)+T13 (Mining?)
* Mjmd: T6 (Hunting)
* xist: T6 (Agriculture)
* Superdeath: T8 (Mining)
* Bing: T13 (Bronze)
The known-tech-bonus counter in the research screen seems to have been broken in 5.0.1 so that's going to be fun.