[PB60] Lazteuq and Civac

[Lazteuq]

Step one: find a good thread title
(Just a placeholder, I'll type more stuff later)

I'm glad we're a team, Civac. Do you have preferences for the voting spreadsheet? Or any fun strategies you want to try? I don't feel strongly about anything except I've been really falling in love with the Spiritual trait lately.

[civac2]

I was about to say that I have no strong leanings either. Spiritual sounds fun. Let's do that.

Edit: No strong feeling about any of the voting options except the map shouldn't be too big.

[civac2]

How is it going?

[Lazteuq]

Just finished writing about PB59 stuff.

Since you're in PB59 as well, I have to be careful about spoilers, but it's no secret that I picked a Spiritual leader there. A big part of my reason was Serfdom. I think the CtH Serfdom buff was really more of a spiritual buff. I've been messing around with Serfdom a lot in singleplayer and I think it has fantastic potential especially when combined with early Machinery and might even be slightly overpowered when combined with spiritual. What do you think?

Do you want to be a turn-playing teammate, or just a dedlurker? I'm happy either way, we might be more likely to actually win if you log in as well.
What are your thoughts about this field of players? I think we're reasonably evenly matched and I don't sense any sharks in the water, except maybe you, Civac. GKC might be the most experienced, but he also seems to be a little disinterested lately.

[civac2]

Amicalola and Tarkeel are singing the praises of Serfdom. Being able to run it and switch into Slavery or Caste at will does sound nice. I'm absolutely down for trying it.

I would like to treat this as a side game. I'm investing a lot into PB59. However, I absolutely can and will log in to play turns (especially early for turn speed), plan micro and engage in strategy discussions. I'd merely prefer if you played the majority of turns (at least later on when that starts to be a serious time sink).

PB56 decisively brought me back to earth after I was on a bit of a high earlier. Among the other players, Mjmd looked pretty strong in said game. GKC appeared checked out from the first game of his I observed. Yet, he keeps joining games. Maybe, he just doesn't want or have enough time to report. Didn't like Amicalola's early play in either PB56 or PB58. His economic management later on seems to pretty good though. Superdeath is an enigma. Dunno about Jowy.


Are you interested in a religion? SPI is a good match for religious play.

[Lazteuq]

Ok, that all makes sense. I'm absolutely interested in religion. With only 5 teams, we're basically guaranteed to get one if we try at all. Also the three early religions are on the Monarchy path anyways, so it's good synergy with Serfdom. I'm not very good at using religion though. In my previous pitbosses I've ignored it, and in singleplayer I don't actively pursue it. Now is a good time to try it.

I agree that Mjmd has looked good recently, and I think he's the most likely opponent to do sneaky and aggressive things. I think his way of playing is sort of similar to mine.
With Superdeath, I'm still a little unsure who he wants to be, but I think he'll give peace a chance again. He's definitely shown that he can resist the urge to early rush, and he's not the 1-dimensional character his reputation implies.
I see Amicalola as more of a builder at heart and still learning the ways of violence. Learned a lot of skill in the last year though. Probably will go for religious stuff.
I don't know what to think about Jowy either. He's been around forever, but seems like a more casual player than anyone else who sticks around on this forum for 10+ years. He seems kinda passive. In PB56 we successfully did a little bit of nice diplomacy.

I'd like to talk about what aspects of the game we're good at or enjoy most.
Military tactics is usually the most fun and engaging part for me, even if I'm not especially good at it. I really enjoy planning attacks and thinking through scenarios.
In PB56 where my cities had a lot of overlap, I had fun with tile micro, rearranging tiles between cities. Despite that, I don't consider myself a micro specialist, because I don't plan far enough ahead. I usually don't plan more than 5 turns in the future. I've never built a wonder in a pitboss game, and not much in singleplayer. Especially with only 5 teams, this would be a good time for me to finally learn how to build wonders in MP.
For some reason I always feel like I start playing poorly in the late medieval/early renaissance period.

What are your favorite aspects of the game, Civac? Are there any things you especially don't like or are bad at?

[civac2]

My strength are micromanagement (early expansion, overflow cascades for wonders). War tactics worked pretty well too so far. Big picture decision making and economic management could use some work.

The religious civics are all quite good. But they do require investment to spread your religion and are not critical in the way Slavery (or HR sometimes) are.

If we go for religion one or more wonder(s) that generate(s) prophet points is a good idea. Stonehenge and especially the Oracle are choices. ToA works but is risky as it also makes merchant points and is not useful by itself the way the Oracle and to a lesser dregree Stonehenge are.

[civac2]

We'll need to make a decision soon it seems.

Synergistic trait choices for the plan are PHI and IND. Those combinations would lack raw power though. Choosing an eco or expansion trait with SPI may be stronger even if there is no Synergy.

As for civs, the Inca may be a strong choice. They start with Mysticism and Mining. Their cheaper granary would give us a pseudo expansion trait. Of course, we will have to peruse the starting screenshot first.

[Miguelito]

Isn't Inca Agri/Myst?

[civac2]

Oh, it is. That's also fine.