Sure, and then get Dan, Mad and Makkie (sp?) to all join in the DCL
I couldn't coax any Polycast regular to join forum games even back when I hosted similar series in Civ IV (I was a map creator for a long time, for a while of multiple series). It's just "Maki" for short.
Mad is all over the place doing various games now, doubt he'll turn up for DCL but maybe he'll prove me wrong. For now I think I'm all you're getting from the panel, too bad I suck right now <3. Once I win reliably on immortal again I might start turning up in DCL, not sure yet if I'm going to put enough time in for that.
I'm hard pressed to want to go standard tradition opener, I find myself gravitating towards honor, AI abuse, and xp farming, but I'm still doing derps like being weak in money but using internal trade routes and only recognizing that later
. I have a little ways to go. I've long studied the general theory of post-expansion gameplay of course, which is why I can basically just hop back into high-ish difficulties, but it's one thing to understand theory versus consistently make the right decisions.
Even so, the education timing seems reasonable with tradition opener. I'm getting ~t90-95national college with honor in many cases, but I've done tradition openers too this week and foodstacking cap with aqueduct + managing happy leads to a lot of beakers and production fast (with stolen workers + chops, very fast). I noticed I'm overbuilding units too early though, that's a pretty heavy drain on finances, though with honor you want to xp farm fast. Maybe I'll use a few external routes there if I don't have good money tiles. It's hard to pay for 2-3 scouts, 4-5 workers (all stolen!), 3 archers and a warrior so early so I'll want to reel that in a bit in favor of more culture at first too I think.