Recently I've been thinking about huge 100k games in PTW (or vanilla, but I've actually never played a vanilla game). For smaller map sizes, PTW is at a clear disadvantage compared to Conquests, but for huge maps, the benefit of needing only 100k may exceed the disadvantage of no Temple of Artimis, no agricultural civs, and no Feudalism pop-rushing.
I found my PTW disk and decided to give it a try. My first start, on Regent, had a food bonus at the start but was massively jungle all around (which I never got cleared away even in my core). I played it out anyway. I thought to play a fast research game to build the Internet, but I didn't think to give myself scientific opponents until after I'd started, so I didn't get much for bonus techs at age changes. It wasn't clear until the very end that I would not get miniaturization in time, so I spent a lot of money researching instead of cash-rushing for no benefit. I also didn't think to draft in larger towns until near the end, and I never optimized this, only occasionally drafting in towns where I could use the shields. Then, of course, I played my usual, sub-optimal game - not enough workers, insufficient expansion, poorly managed warfare started too late. Despite this, my finish date wasn't all that far off the leaders, so I think that PTW may be the best choice for huge 100k games.
It isn't clear to me whether I should rush to the Internet or not, but I like researching, so I'll try some games where I do. I've started a second game (again taking the first start I rolled). This time I have no jungle, though I do have a smallish desert, and a bunch of scientific opponents. I have only 8 opponents, because I don't like early war; I expect this is a mistake at regent. At least I can't mess up selecting the tribe, as Babylon is clearly the only good choice. There are a lot of empty slots and horrid times for 100k on huge, so I expect I'll play a few PTW games for a while.
I found my PTW disk and decided to give it a try. My first start, on Regent, had a food bonus at the start but was massively jungle all around (which I never got cleared away even in my core). I played it out anyway. I thought to play a fast research game to build the Internet, but I didn't think to give myself scientific opponents until after I'd started, so I didn't get much for bonus techs at age changes. It wasn't clear until the very end that I would not get miniaturization in time, so I spent a lot of money researching instead of cash-rushing for no benefit. I also didn't think to draft in larger towns until near the end, and I never optimized this, only occasionally drafting in towns where I could use the shields. Then, of course, I played my usual, sub-optimal game - not enough workers, insufficient expansion, poorly managed warfare started too late. Despite this, my finish date wasn't all that far off the leaders, so I think that PTW may be the best choice for huge 100k games.
It isn't clear to me whether I should rush to the Internet or not, but I like researching, so I'll try some games where I do. I've started a second game (again taking the first start I rolled). This time I have no jungle, though I do have a smallish desert, and a bunch of scientific opponents. I have only 8 opponents, because I don't like early war; I expect this is a mistake at regent. At least I can't mess up selecting the tribe, as Babylon is clearly the only good choice. There are a lot of empty slots and horrid times for 100k on huge, so I expect I'll play a few PTW games for a while.
And taking the first start I roll isn't going to make me faster. My second game is going better than the first, though, so we'll see what happens.
