Civ Choice

[alexman]

Originally posted by Arrian
if you leave, we'll have to kill you.

Nonono! I'm not going anywhere!
I meant tell THEM to join another team.
I'll PM them...

Civ Choices:
I think we should definitely stick with expansionist.
Iroquois are my favorite because we might find ourselves at war at an unsuspected time. But the Americans are my second choice.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by alexman
I'll PM them...

To join our team, right? Just checking....

[FrustratedPoet]

The Americans have two great traits, but a useless UU. Picking them would also be a gamble, but one that could very well pay off.

[Arrian]

Why, exactly, is Exp considered so powerful? Yes, you will meet people quickly and scout out the land quickly. That's true. Yes, you will get better hut results. But this is on a standard map. You can do a pretty good job of scouting with warriors, and there just aren't that many huts out there.

I admit, I've never played MP, and do not yet own PtW. Therefore, perhaps I'm missing something about Exp that makes it more desireable... please enlighten me.

-Arrian

[alexman]

I have never played MP either, but I imagine that getting twice as many goody huts with no barbarians could be huge, especially if you get a settler early. I don't think any trait can beat getting an extra settler before 3000 B.C. You will get techs from huts, which will be even more valuable than in SP because of the limited trading. True, the map is not huge, but, depending on the situation, having knowledge of it before others can be a huge advantage. You can pick your allies and your enemies based on your early knowledge of the map geography.

Having said all that, I agree it's a gamble. Egypt IS the safe choice.

[Arrian]

You cannot count on getting a settler. Exactly as you say - it's a gamble. I don't like gambles... at least not against intelligent opponents.

-Arrian

[FrustratedPoet]

Knowledge of the map is a major plus. There is no way that any human Civ will ever trade their maps to anybody. They'd be crazy to. If we don't scout it we'll never know what's there.

[Arrian]

Ah, but the AI will tramp all over the human civ's lands just like always, and we will be able to trade for/take by force an AI civ's world map.

But I grant that having scouts will make knowledge of the terrain much easier.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

Re team members: I PMed Aeson. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Re Civ choice:

My basic argument is that we NEED to be Industrious, just in case, and we really should start with the ability to build either Archers or Chariots (I'll do some Warrior Bopping on AIs, but not on humans).

That means China.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Theseus
Re team members: I PMed Aeson. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

And here I was thinking that you were going to invite Coracle

[Theseus]

Wellllll, I was thinking of HappySunshine and 1337...

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Theseus
Wellllll, I was thinking of HappySunshine and 1337...

Certainly would provide color

I would like to see a four man team of Happy, Coracle, 1337 and panag.

Wonder how long they would last

[Theseus]

I can see it now...

Horsemen Rush, they lose their capitol on a CF, claim they won anyway, and wish everybody a nice day.

ROTFLMAO!

Back OT:

That actually illustrates my (warmongering) point... Lux and Glory just *might* go for a Rush of some kind, if nearby, and we HAVE to be ready. In the alternative, we should be able to do our own, if warranted.

[DeepO]

Without resorting to more spamming (thanks for the support, BTW ), I have to reask the question of Arrian: why expansionist? I could agree it's not as weak as in SP, but still... on normal monarch maps I can't see the big advantage. There aren't that many barb huts anyway.

My choices would certainly be
1. either religious or scientific as a must (cheaper cultural buildings at least, some other benefits as well)
2. industrious (to be on the safe side)
3. militaristic (when going for a total war).
(4. commercial if they changed the cost of commercial buildings to be halved in PTW, otherwise it's less useful. corruption won't be a problem anyway (we have alexman ), and that bit of extra gold only comes when you reach size 12 IIRC)

As to UUs: an ancient or early midieval UU certainly can be a big plus, but if you don't use it it's useless. E.g. immortals: they simply rock, and do that for a long time, but if you use them you need mountains of immortals, as you will lose plenty of them. If you're not focused on this, horsies can be a safer bet.

Of course I don't know about any of the new Civs yet, I expect the Celts to be a safe bet for their UU. Fast (so no need for so many of them), strong (beats everything, pikes included when you bring enough of them), defensive. They cost a lot, so when rushing you're likely to bring a mixed horsies / gaellic merc force, but every penny you gain can be put in updating another obsolete warrior.
Other UUs? The classics... WCs, MWs, immortals, Samurai. Riders are fun too, but I think the biggest advantage of the Chinese comes from their archers, not their UU.

So... either we fully go for using our UU, or we concentrate to have a balanced game were UUs aren't that important.

DeepO

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by DeepO
Without resorting to more spamming (thanks for the support, BTW ), I have to reask the question of Arrian: why expansionist? I could agree it's not as weak as in SP, but still... on normal monarch maps I can't see the big advantage. There aren't that many barb huts anyway.

good points about expansionist in MP
-huts always positive-more techs, maybe settler or city
-learn map quickly-humans will never trade us their map, so we must do all the work (along with the ai )
---the most important thing here of course, is that we are likely to find our opponent much earlier than he will find us, due to the scouts 2 moves. means we can start gearing up for attack right away.
-early contact with other civs

I've played mp with the iroquois, and the trait is useful. I don't know how to quantify it, but that early knowledge of the land is so incredibly valuable in the game.

Of course, the key is that you have to use that early advantage, which is how the MW is so ideally situated to an exp civ.

Think of the power ofattacking a civ when he hasn't even found our cities?