[SPOILERS] Parkin brings the rain down in Africa: Churchill of Zulu

[Lord Parkin]

You know the drill.

Title relevance

Old title - Igor presses the BLUE button: Parkin plays the wrong game

[Lord Parkin]

Links to key game events are in next post.

Pregame Planning:

Thoughts on trait changes
Thoughts on civ changes
Weighing up civs (start analysis)
Weighing up leaders
Why Churchill of Zulu?
Pregame sim
Finalized snake pick: trait/tech breakdown
Finalized snake pick: best combinations

Light Entertainment:

Player analysis
Team anthems

Reserved for a contents post.

[Lord Parkin]

Selected Turn Reports:

Turn 0 (starting moves)
Turn 8 (HitAnyKey founds Buddhism)
Turn 33 (wetbandit founds Hinduism)
Turn 34 (city #2 settled)
Turn 39 (HitAnyKey builds Stonehenge)
Turn 40 (mackoti razes Gavagai's 2nd city)
Turn 42 (DouglasQuaid gets a Great Prophet)
Turn 44 (city #3 settled)
Turn 45 (city #4 settled)
Turn 50 (state of the world update)
Turn 52 (mackoti gets a Great General)
Turn 55 (contact with Gavagai)
Turn 58 (revolt to Slavery; Seven bulbs Maths with a Great Scientist)
Turn 59 (contact with mackoti; Gawdzak builds The Great Lighthouse)
Turn 60 (slowcheetah founds Judaism; city #5 settled)
Turn 63 (contact with GermanJojo)
Turn 65 (city #6 settled)
Turn 72 (Parkin builds the Oracle; Parkin founds Confucianism)
Turn 76 (contact with Haram)
Turn 78 (city #7 settled)
Turn 82 (Seven razes HAK's 6th city; city #8 settled)
Turn 89 (city #9 settled)
Turn 90 (city #10 settled)
Turn 93 (Gawdzak builds the Pyramids)
Turn 94 (city #11 settled)
Turn 95 (capital gets an Academy)
Turn 96 (Seven builds the Mausoleum of Mausollos)
Turn 97 (Gavagai builds the Colossus)
Turn 98 (contact with Seven)
Turn 99 (wetbandit gets a Great Prophet; wetbandit builds the Kashi Vishwanath)
Turn 100 (mackoti builds the Great Library; state of the world update)
Turn 102 (revolt to Bureaucracy and Organized Religion)
Turn 103 (city #12 settled)
Turn 104 (Seven captures a city from HAK; city #13 settled)
Turn 105 (mackoti gets the Great Artist from Music)
Turn 109 (contact with Gawdzak; contact with wetbandit; Haram gets a Great Scientist)
Turn 110 (city #14 settled)
Turn 111 (Parkin founds Christianity)
Turn 112 (Parkin builds the Hanging Gardens; Seven declares war on Parkin; Mackoti starts a Golden Age)
Turn 114 (city #15 settled)
Turn 115 (mackoti revolts to Vassalge; city #16 settled)

Reserved for a second contents post.

[Lord Parkin]

Traits

Here are my thoughts on the adjusted traits in the Tides of War mod. Overall I think Seven's done a great job of balancing them with minimal changes.

FIN: +1c on tiles with 3c or more

Financial is still very good. The main difference with the 3c requirement is that the trait takes a little longer to get going, but it’s still just as good as ever from the midgame onwards. Working the coast prior to Compass is now no better for Financial civs than non-Financial.

EXP: Double speed granaries, +2 health (no harbor or worker bonuses)

The Worker production bonus was the most important nerf here. The Granary bonus is nice, but it’s now the only thing Expansive has going for it. I wonder if it’ll see much love in this game, given that it’s now only useful at the very start of the game and is perhaps less interesting than the exciting new traits.

CRE: only +1 culture in all cities (still +100% production of library, theater and colosseum)

A simple but effective nerf which still leaves the trait interesting.

SPI: unchanged
ORG: unchanged
IND: unchanged

All unchanged, though Industrious technically got an indirect buff due to resource-based multipliers only giving +50% rather than +100% production. Mainly Marble and Stone of course, but this also applies to Copper and Iron (for Colossus/SOL/Eiffel Tower/cathedrals).

PHI: +150% gpp, double speed universities

A nice little buff which makes Philosophical a little more fun to play with. Still not sure it’s quite on par with some of the other traits – perhaps +200% would make it more appealing, or maybe it’d be too much. I hope a couple of people pick this trait as I’d be interested to compare their opinions.

IMP: +100% GG points, +50% settler production, and double speed markets and banks

The double speed banks really stick out at me as they make Wall Street a much cheaper endeavour (especially on Large and Huge maps). Double speed Markets in addition to that is quite nice. Still, those bonuses come quite late and Imperialistic still doesn’t have much going for it after the initial land grab. If it were me I’d be tempted to try bumping up to +200% GG points for fun, though perhaps that’d be overkill.

CHA: +3 happy in all cities, -25% XP requirements (no happiness from monuments or broadcast towers)

This one is so map sensitive it’s hard to judge. Certainly in the early game it’s not particularly useful as you want to be churning out Settlers and Workers rather than growing every city to size 7/8. During the midgame it should at least make for a nice large capital, but perhaps not many other cities depending on the resource distribution. In my own trials I found that later in the game I struggled to utilize its full benefit in any of my cities, which was a bit of a shame. Still, a solid trait that can’t do you harm (aside from the missed opportunity at another choice). Perhaps it'd be good to try +2 happiness and some other bonus in a later revision of the mod.

AGG: Removed, replaced with AGRICULTURAL (AGR): +1f on tiles with 4f or more

I was expecting this to be far more powerful than it actually turned out to be. In reality, if you don’t have many flood plains around, you’re just getting +1 food on each improved food resource. So for instance Rice is upgraded to Corn and Clam to Fish, which is nice and all but not really game-changing. You do get some cool tiles like 7f Pig and 5f/2h Cow, but tiles like plains Cow and plains-hill Sheep don’t even get a benefit.

You might think after Biology this trait becomes a bit of a monster, but it really doesn’t – you’re not going to be farming over most of your towns at that point in the game (and if you do you won't help yourself). I can certainly see Agricultural being more useful on a food-deprived map, but if you can rely on most cities having decent food resources available, it’s not a huge deal. Still a good trait of course, just not as good as I was expecting before I played with it.

PRO: Removed, replaced with PRODUCTIVE (PRO): +1h on tiles with 4h or more, +50% worker production, +50% workboat production

Productive is a nice, if somewhat inconsistent, trait. The +50% worker and work boat bonus early on is huge, and I fully expect that to be nerfed to +25% or removed completely in the next iteration of the mod (perhaps in favour of +20% to buildings or something).

During the midgame however, on most maps you see next to no difference between a Productive and non-Productive civ. Copper and Iron tiles become nicer of course, but you don’t typically see more than one or two of those. And sure the odd 5 hammer plains hills are decent, but hardly game changing – if you have the option you’re still better off settling on them for the 2 hammer city tile.

However, if you make it to Railroad, suddenly Productive becomes insanely good again. Every mine gets a permanent golden age hammer yield, along with most quarries. If the outcome of the game was still unclear at this point, this would easily push the stakes in favour of a Productive civ over a non-Productive civ. Assuming similar city numbers, you simply can’t compete with that sudden explosion in build speed unless you’re also Productive.

Agricultural vs Productive

With Productive, you have a trait that’s incredibly good at the start and end of the game but does very little in the middle. On the other hand, Agricultural grants a modest benefit consistently throughout the game. Of the two, I think I prefer Productive, though I’d be happy to play with either of them. I suspect Productive is more likely to be nerfed than Agricultural in later versions of the mod, so I’m keen to play with the current version if there are still good pairings available when my turn comes in the snake pick.

[Lord Parkin]

Some of the interesting new trait combinations:

AGR/PRO (Tokugawa) - Why not both? A fun and interesting combo, almost guaranteed to be picked by someone.
AGR/CHM (Boudica) - Decent synergy with more happiness to make use of that extra food.
AGR/PHI (Alexander) - Nice to have a little extra food to support those specialists.
PRO/IMP (Charlemagne) - Huge production bonuses on all the critical early units, then you're on your own until the mid-late game.
PRO/IND (Qin) - Extra hammers and cheap Forges, good combination for builders.
PRO/EXP (Mao) - Like a superpowered version of the old Expansive, great for an early kick-start.

I'm betting at least half of those leaders pop up in this game.

[Lord Parkin]

Civilizations

Some thoughts on the changes:

Inca: Terrace loses culture, requires Agriculture instead of Pottery.

The Terrace needed a nerf, but I'm not sure this was the way to go. Pottery's necessary for cottages, how many turns will you really shave off the one or two Granaries you might build before that tech in the average game?

India: Fast Workers cost 75h, not 60.

This nerf probably goes too far, making the Fast Worker arguably worse than the regular Worker. If someone else wants to give the new India a trial run they're welcome, but having tried it myself I think I'll give it a miss.

Egypt: War Chariot is a chariot replacement with 2 first strikes.
Mali: Skirmisher is a 4 strength archer replacement with zero first strikes.
Sumeria: Starting techs changed from Agriculture/Wheel to Agriculture/Mysticism.
Zulu: Impi is a spear replacement with 50% withdraw chance.

These all seem fine, though I'm not convinced the minor changes were strictly necessary for a minimalist mod.

America: UB is the Frontier Post, a Grocer replacement with 1 free merchant.

Good fun, I like it. Though I'm surprised there was no change to the American UU if the goal was to replace the barely-used uniques.

Germany: UU is now the Riesengarde, a Grenadier replacement with 14 strength.

Not sure how useful these will really be given that they're no better than Riflemen on the defence and require somewhat of an awkward beeline to put into action early. Will have to wait and see them in action in a game - hopefully someone picks the Germans and lasts long enough to give them a test. (I'm also surprised there was no change to the German UB.)

Russia: UB is the Research Institute, now a university replacement with 1 free scientist.

Very nice! Russia's now quite a decent choice - especially as a Philosophical civ.

Rome: Praetorian is now just a 7-strength swordsman.

Given that it gets free Combat I and is now 40 hammers rather than 45, this might even be a boost rather than a nerf.

Celts: Gallic Warrior gains Combat I.
Aztecs: Jaguar gains Combat I.

Much better deal for the Celts than the Aztecs.

Khmer: War Elephants reduced to 7 strength.

Not quite as powerful, but should still be decent in the field.

[Lord Parkin]

Note to self:

Pricier techs = The Wheel, Mysticism
Average techs = Mining, Fishing
Cheaper techs = Agriculture, Hunting

[Lord Parkin]

Complete and detailed analysis of all the players in this game follows, carefully taking into account all of the nuances of different playstyles and their possible impact on interpersonal relations later in the game.

Mackoti:

SevenSpirits:

Kuro:

Gawdzak:

Gavagai:

GermanJojo:

slowcheetah:

Haram:

HitAnyKey:

Douglas Quaid:

Lord Parkin:

[pindicator]

Brilliant player analysis

[Krill]

Parkin