Beginning strats

[Kiech]

Lots of this is going to depend on the mapmaker and how close we all are and whatnot, but I think we can safely make a few assumptions already.

SoZ - Team TNT (Persia) will make a direct B-line to the SoZ. They are crazy if they don't. They have the 2 prereq techs for Math and can easily run a min turn tech rate while prebuilding with the Pyramids or Colossus. As they have the Industrious trait I don't really see any way of stopping them either.

Colossus - This is a tie between team TNT and MIA (Greek). I suspect that MIA will go for Writing, and over to the Great Library or do the Republic slingshot. But to get anywhere with the science MIA will really want the Colossus as an early boost. Again, if TNT wants it, and they get a half-decent starting position, it will not be a problem for them, however I think they may value an early SoZ over the Colossus.

Pyramids - everyones favorite pre-build. Look for this to be built early by KISS (Celts) if another civ isn't around.

Great Library - I assume MIA has its eyes on it.

Strats for all:

TNT(Persia): Grab Math and SoZ, Ironworking, Warrior Code, then straight on to Monarchy or Republic. Whoever is on the same continent as them needs to look out because they will be VERY agressive. SoZ, Pyramids, and Gardens will be their target Wonders.

MIA(Greece): Straight science. They have the defenders to make it happen, and know that they won't have to worry about powerful MA UU's to slow them down. Colossus, GLibrary, Maloseum and possibly the Lighthouse will be their only AA wonders. Once they hit MA they will go for the continent lock with Knights templar and the Education path. Don't look for early attacks from them, unless it is prudent.

KISS(Celts): Ironworking fist, questions later. They will need to stop and research Warrior Code for the barracks, luckily. But once they find the other civ, they will simply pump out their UU until the other civ is dead. Kiss has a few good players, so I am going to guess they will go for Monarchy as well, just because its the fastest route out of Despotism for them.

That leaves us. Bronze Working seems to be the best start for us to take, so we have a chance to defend against TNT and KISS. Our best hope is to simply expand expand expand with no care for wonders except perhaps the Pyramids (which others will want) or the ToA and Oracle. In fact, I think Infinite City Spawl or a variant of it will be our best option. If you are unfamiliar with it, basically every single City is only 3 squares away from another, and you constantly expand outward as much as you can. This is the most defensive strategy out there, but requires a lot of work and paitence. Once we reach the MA we can start destroying our 'filler' cities to avoid corruption. The only real goverment to grab here is Monarchy, so we should shoot for it quickly. Getting ToA will maximize our culture, and start us off down the 100k path. For techs I say BW, WC, IW then straight on to Monarchy for the AA. The only real problem with the Inca is the UU - it costs too damn much for really no reason other than Atari wanted it different than the Jaguar warrior and figured that a bonus movement thought hills/mountains would be worth the cost. We should explore with just Warriors and our starting Scout to avoid the very early Golden Age.

One City Challenge will be DEATH for anyone who tries it.
One Built City and 5CC are interesting options, but again lead to certain death.
Modified OBC is possible for us. We don't build settlers from our Capital and pray to pop a settler and simply spawn from there. It would probably be our only way of attaining Pyramids or Colossus. In fact if our starting position is *spectacular* I would definatley go for this option.
Lucky for us we won't have to worry about 'always war', but it will proably feel like it.

Lets pray to our Donuts for Guidance!!!

 

[zyxy]

Good idea to start some discussion!
I hate to break it to you, but we are the Iroquois. And do we really need WC for rax? Must be a mod.

For reference, the traits, starting techs and UU for each:
Team Doughnut (Iroquois): Agri & Comm, Pott and Alpha, Mountie (3/1/2, 30 shields)
Team TNT (Persia): Indus and Sci, Masonry and BW, Imm (4/2/1, 30 shields)
Team M.I.A. (Greece): Sci and Comm, BW and Alpha, Hoplite (1/3/1, 20 shields)
Team K.I.S.S. (Celts): Agri and Reli, Pottery and CB, Gallic swords (3/2/2, 40 shields)

Most important part of strategy is probably diplomacy, of which I know nothing. I guess we'll have to find at least one ally. It will depend on the map who that will be. Making early contact should be an advantage, having curraghs right from the start will hopefully help. Greece can do this too.

I really don't know how important all these wonders are. They all cost a lot of shields that can also be poured into units or infra. Early UU's all around, means everyone will be looking for war (except perhaps Greece). My guess is that the game will be decided by military, no need to worry about 100K or 20K victory, and so I wouldn't bother with wonders too much. Even Pyramids are not so great, as the wonder costs nearly as much as 7 granaries. When do you ever build 7 granaries? Better to construct 1 or 2 granaries early on and forget about Pyramids, I think.

EDIT: just saw that cost of SoZ will be raised to 300 shields (no ivory required). That's 10 mounties, this makes it somewhat less desirable. If we really want, we would have a decent chance to get it: research masonry, and start an early prebuild while researching Math. The only civ that has virtually no chance to get this wonder will be Celts.

Looking at the traits, my guess is that Celts and us should have the fastest starts (Agri), but Greece and Persia will gain in power later on (builder traits). Our second trait (Comm) is much stronger than Celts trait (Reli), and would allow us to stay in the game later on. Still, earliesh war is good for us and bad for Greece/Persia. This is somewhat of a problem, because the first civs to go to war risk that they will both lose. Otoh we hold a small advantage: we don't need a scarce resource for our UU.

We play continents, so likely no very early war (or even contacts), and we can hold off on BW I think - but it's always a gamble. We could start researching Wheel. It's good to know where the horses are, and chariots make decent explorers. Also, nobody has it, and our civ has the most need for it. BW is held by two civs, so I would not research that right away.

For government I would prefer Republic over Monarchy, but it of course depends on the terrain (luxes etc). Your ideas on close build might be good, again depends on the availability of luxes.

I don't understand your comments about OCC and 5CC variants. Why would you even consider such restrictions?

 

[Kiech]

...

I thought we were inca...

I blame it on a bad donut.

...

Ok, my strat for us was off then. No scouts for us. We go wheel first, hoping to grab BW and CB via our warrior explorers. We can still do ICS/happiness wonders if we want, but a more science-fixed civ sounds better. We should not try for the slingshot to Republic, but instead try to beat MIA to Philosophy and then pick Lit or MM and get Glib or Glight depending on how many civs we are able to find.

 

[Zorn]

With the map being continent, I suppose it will be two landmasses with two civs on each.
Let`s suppose that the greek will be content with building, while the other two go for troublemaking.
If we share our island with the Greeks, I think we can agree with them to just build up peacefully, and let the other guy on their continent kill each other. With our agricultural trait we should be able to grow faster.
If we are together with the Persians, that`s fine too. Our horses will run circles around their immortals, picking them one by one.
If our neighbour are the celts, things will be more ugly. Mounties don`t compare so good to gallic swordsmen.
Of course, that is all only valid if our opponents do the obvious...

 

[Kiech]

Ok, its pretty much confirmed, everyone has a very similar starting postion. What does that mean? It means we shouldn't let our eyes get too big when deciding what to do.

 

[Tomoyo]

I vote that we, after getting HBR (which will be right after we perform a philo slingshot), build up MWs until we puke, even if just for defense, because it is gonna be the best unit we'll have, covering the most ground of all our units and still packing the most punch.

I don't think we should try for any wonders except the Great Library. I'm not so sure about the Library, but we, growing a bit faster than the Greeks, should have the best shot at it.

 

[admiral-bell]

SoZ and Great Library. we need tech and MILITARY POWER

 

[DaveShack]

I'll make a huge assumption here that we're on a continent with one other civ. Unless MP doesn't require us to have contact with the two civs who have a tech, The Great Library is utterly useless until we make contact with a 2nd rival, and then only matters if we are behind in tech. If we're behind then we might already be in danger -- and if we're not behind then we would have wasted the shields.

 

[zyxy]

I vote that we, after getting HBR (which will be right after we perform a philo slingshot), build up MWs until we puke, even if just for defense, because it is gonna be the best unit we'll have, covering the most ground of all our units and still packing the most punch.

It might be cool to build chariots and do a mass upgrade. It's a cheaper way to get MW, but the main advantage is that chariots are as strong as warriors according to the F3 guy (of the other teams), so we can have a little surprise attack .

Main advantage of GLib is that you can stop research and hoard the gold.