PolyCast Episode 194: "Ramble On"

Doing the best they can. The one-hundred-and-ninety-fourth episode of PolyCast, "Ramble On", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and "MadDjinn" with returning guest co-host Morgan "KingMorgan". Carrying a runtime of 59m59s, the summary of topics is as follows:

- 03m09s | Forum Talk
Comparing Civilization V to Alpha Centauri at length.
- 23m08s | Senate
All about the "progressive warhorse" that is the Polish civilization brought to CivV via its Brave New World expansion pack.
- 30m40s | Open Mic
Taking in a different approach to an Autocratic Cultural Victory in CivV: BNW as described by "Karmah" in an email and reflecting feedback from Episode 191 of the show (33m47s).
- 39m41s | Theatre
An overpowering realization and a hoarding opponent (recorded for Episode 163).
- 42m19s | Miscellaneous
A humourous yet poignant look at whether or not to move your Settler from its starting position in CivV.

- Intro/Outro | Miscellaneous
Legitimization through randomization, booking in advance, sales incentive and hope springs eternal.

Recording live before a listening audience every other Saturday, PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; listeners are encouraged to follow the show on Twitter, and check out the YouTube channel for caption capability. Sibling show RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution, ModCast on Civ modding, SCivCast on Civ social gaming and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.

Best Episode Ever!!

KingMorgan said:

Best Episode Ever!!

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Even better than the first episode you were on then?

Hi Polycasters!

I'm a bit behind with episodes, so I just listened to this one a couple weeks ago.

Your discussion of whether to move your starting settler contained the germ of a great idea, but I don't think you really unraveled it to its full brilliance

A common problem is that there's nothing beyond Deity in terms of difficulty, and lots of players (perhaps most, judging by this forum) regularly play and win on Deity, so how to increase the challenge? Lots of artificial ways, obviously, e.g. restricting yourself to playing without doing X, Y or Z. But your discussion made me think of an elegant and nicely graded way.

Very simply: Deity+N consists of a Deity game where you wait doing nothing until turn N, before either settling in place or starting to move your settler or warrior to find a better location.

I wasn't sure of a good choice for N, so I started with N=10. It actually took 3 attempts, so that's a downside: This method may be a bit fiddly. (The first time my settler got whacked by a barb. The second time, Augustus had already forward settled so close to me by turn 10 that I literally wasn't able to settle in place.)

Anyways, when I did get a good run on Deity+10, I got absolutely crushed.

Since then I've played a few other games. I think somewhere between 3 and 5 turns of waiting (N = 4 to 6) significantly increases the difficulty without being impossible.

This whole exercise really makes you appreciate how powerful the snowball effect really is: it's only a few turns, but the difference is huge.

jango76 said:

Hi Polycasters!

I'm a bit behind with episodes, so I just listened to this one a couple weeks ago.

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Hey jango -- appreciate your checking in when you could.

Your discussion of whether to move your starting settler contained the germ of a great idea, but I don't think you really unraveled it to its full brilliance

[..]

This whole exercise really makes you appreciate how powerful the snowball effect really is: it's only a few turns, but the difference is huge.

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Noted for inclusion on the recording of Episode 198 set for this Saturday.

Hi again jango.

DanQ said:

Noted for inclusion on the recording of Episode 198 set for this Saturday.

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Due to recording time on other topics, your inquiry was not discussed as expected. It is now to be include as part of the recording of Episode 199 instead.