I second this. I'm sure they're very knowledgeable of all the mechanics but don't know how to convert that to high level. Carl's justification for GC's +1 movement is....zone of control. "Yeah but look at ZOC from the city center" ignoring the accelerated carpet bomb of units across the map and the units that ignore it to begin with. With double general movement stacking with the +1 movement bombards can literally dance around units and still get a shot off thanks to 6 movement points. My promoted Cavalry literally had 10 movement points at the start of their turn in home turf. Also, now I'm not sure if he's joking, but I think he believes stone circles is a viable pantheon (it's terrible).
As far as the Mayans go, my early impressions aren't too positive. I appreciate the idea of strategic city placement, but too often the map scripting kills the dream. I rolled a bunch of starts, and while plantations were prevalent in more than half the games, the land was pure garbage overall:
- Excessive amounts of flat land (production is king). Does L6S have a flat land starting bias?
- Coast (lol)
- Mountains and deserts blocking expands within the 6 tile radius (12 buffed cities around the capital is max....can I even get 6-8 buffed cities that aren't total dumpster fires with this terrain?)
- City states just outside the range or within the range but I don't want to kill them because they'd actually be very useful for science victory. But they're blocking me either way.
- Simply superior city spots outside the ring. Sure you can settle these anyway, and I would but what if they block the 6 ring city locations?
Getting lucky with one or two +6/7 campuses with the rest being +3 or worse due to no plantations doesn't sound like a great science civ to me since all other civs are either Korea or can take advantage of mountains/reefs/fissures, which are often plentiful. At the very best it seems the adjacency will even out. 1/2 cost is really good, as well as the +5 combat strength, so it's not all bad. It will be interesting to see what unique strategies can be adapted with them. However, in the current state I don't see what TGM calls a "specialty science civ" being too noteworthy at science.
What's been everyone's experience with AI Maya? She didn't build any of her archers in my game and was way past the tech. She also didn't build one of her campuses until her sixth city - which I conquered and razed before she could even complete. She seemed to focus on holy sites, encampments, and also built an entertainment complex. But no campus in the first 5 cities.