Monarchist Cookbook Game 3, Hammurabi of Babylon!

[Bleys]

Many congrats to Nephew from me as well! If you play Civ on your Honeymoon, I will come to your hotel and smash your laptop myself!!

I am slightly concerned about the number of saves we'll have for the next round, though, what with everyone leading such full and interesting lives.

I hate to say this, but I am actually hoping we cut our current crop of saves a bit. I fully agree with Hermit, if we toss Daves save, we end up with a GREAT set of reasonable saves, with a bunch of different ideas and plans, EXACTLY what we wanted from this series. But 12 . . . wow, very hard to give them all the attention they deserve when trying to pick a winner.

 

[Winston Hughes]

This map is going to be hard to "settle-fogbust", and there is just too much of it to unit-fogbust as well.

Yep, that's a very big plus for the GW. On this map, I can see the barb threat lasting a good deal longer than it normally does.

Even with the GW, we'd have to be careful not to skimp on units, since an AI DoW could be a problem. But we could still save a good few hammers on building defenders, while, as you say, letting the AI contend with all the barbs.

I've also become a huge fan of getting an early settled GSpy. The fact that early EPs are so hard to come by is unsurprising when you realise how powerful they can be. Whether it's bringing down the defences of a holy capital, robbing a crucial monopoly tech, or simply keeping tabs on what your rivals are up to, the potential benefits are huge.

Of course, if we want to run scientists as well then we might miss out, but an early GS is hardly something to moan about either.

 

[Winston Hughes]

I hate to say this, but I am actually hoping we cut our current crop of saves a bit. I fully agree with Hermit, if we toss Daves save, we end up with a GREAT set of reasonable saves, with a bunch of different ideas and plans, EXACTLY what we wanted from this series. But 12 . . . wow, very hard to give them all the attention they deserve when trying to pick a winner.

hehe, having spent an hour doing the screenshot monstrosity you see above, I can certainly see where you're coming from. But I think it gets easier to judge the saves after the first round, as tech choices become more diverse and simple statistical comparisons start to have more meaning.

 

[Sisiutil]

By the way, I'll probably miss the next round. Gettin' married this weekend. The honeymoon isn't going to start until the following week, but the wife probably has other plans for my free time between now and then.

Gee, you think? Seriously, congratulations.

 

[ranion]

Many congrats to Nephew from me as well! If you play Civ on your Honeymoon, I will come to your hotel and smash your laptop myself!!

Indeed...

I hate to say this, but I am actually hoping we cut our current crop of saves a bit. I fully agree with Hermit, if we toss Daves save, we end up with a GREAT set of reasonable saves, with a bunch of different ideas and plans, EXACTLY what we wanted from this series. But 12 . . . wow, very hard to give them all the attention they deserve when trying to pick a winner.

Similar to Winston, I spent some time last night doing a fairly detailed analysis of all 12 saves (10 really, since we're dropping Dave's, and TMIT's was obviously the 'worst' ball of them all), checking tech rates and beakers invested and whatnot. He's right, it will become far easier to analyze in later rounds as the differences between choices become more apparent, but even in this round we can take the number from 12 to 5 or 6 without too much trouble by looking closely and seeing who was working towards the same ends and comparing the similar paths and discarding the less advanced, or less successful attempt. TMIT's joke game compared to Heurfanista's bowman rush of HC comes to mind. It's quite obvious that TMIT tanked his economy with umpteen dozen warriors to take over HC, where as Heurfanista used bowmen and managed a reasonable tech rate (albeit slower than most of the other games) and was able to keep his economy from crashing. It's actually in a reasonable position. Although I think it would have been better if he had dropped a city between Babylon and HC, if only for some fogbusting along the way and an extra city to produce his units with for the follow up strike.

Oddly enough, when I was checking the saves and comparing them, it wasn't gathering and entering the data that took the longest, (most of that has to be done anyways for a good choice), it was creating the templates to enter the data into. Writing up a tech list with costs, and making a nice sheet that covers all the angles, once you have one its easy enough to update throughout the course of investigating each save, but making one that doesn't miss anything is a real pain.

I digress, it should get easier to narrow the pack as rounds go on and we have full techs, diplomacy, civic choices, a full economy and even success at conquest to use as metrics as compared to the meager offering beakers invested and city placement that we have now.

 

[Bleys]

OK folks, we need to start coming to an agreement. The Best Ball is supposed to be announced tomorrow, so we should probably start narrowing the field. Perhaps we should start with everyone choosing their favorite 3 saves (you MAY vote for your own), and then narrow it to the "Best Ball" from there (you may NOT vote for your own save).

My votes are:

Winston
rolo
Bleys

 

[schwartz]

Top three:
rolo
Winston Hughes
futurehermit

 

[r_rolo1]

Bleys
winston
hermit

by that order

 

[Winston Hughes]

In alphabetical order:

Bleys
Edit: schwartz (sorry to Rameau's Nephew for the confusion )
WH

Bleys is in for the reasons I dicussed earlier, though I'm still somewhat concerned about how settling the gems and building the GLh (after the GW is finished) is going to affect our expansion and development.

As a result, I'm now leaning towards RN's save. With two good starter cities down already (both coastal), and a settler on the way that could take my favoured spot to the NW, a quick diversion to grab the GLh could work out very nicely.

(Edit: Oops, looks like I got confused - no settler on the way. Looks like I'll have to think again...)

(Edit2: Ah, it was schwartz's save I was thinking about. But he doesn't have Sailing or Masonry. Still, I'd better change my vote).

I hate voting for myself (at Diamondeye's expense), but since I'm picking what I see as the strongest saves, there's really no contest. Glaring mistakes aside, my save is set up just how I want it.

From that perspective, though, I'm kinda hoping mine isn't picked as the best ball. It's more fun to play from something less fitted to my own style of play.

 

[Bleys]

I am still hoping we can get some input from a couple of the "Emp+" lurkers, Sisuitil, Dave, vale if hes around, etc. I think they could provide some strong insight on which save has the strongest "potential" rather than viewing them purely on a current-status type scale.

 

[Sisiutil]

I apologize, but I don't really have time to contribute, given how frequently I'm updating the ALC right now. But I am enjoying watching from the sidelines.

I also think I should keep my big mouth shut because of my knowledge of the map and opponents.

 

[r_rolo1]

Knowing you, i'm betting in a isolated techie ( maybe Mansa or Pacal ) and in Izzy as the last civ in our continent

 

[Bleys]

Izzy I wouldnt mind, shes a wuss. Shaka scares me though, he dominates his area if he has room to get a few strong cities down.

But you're right Sis, my bad, you probably shouldnt comment on the save choices.

 

[ranion]

Bleys -> Winston -> Rolo

these are in order of preference, Rolo is good because of how close he is to the GLH and because he managed to snag the gems, he's half a tech behind the other two, but thats not going to be hard to make up. especially after the GLH drops

 

[Winston Hughes]

My final verdict: Bleys (he is the one that rushed HC with warriors, right? )

 

[Bleys]

So it looks like we can whittle it down to a few saves, so place your final votes:

Winston
Rolo
Bleys
Hermit

My vote goes to Winston. Rolo is a close second for me, because the GLH and gems have a LOT of potential, but Winston is in a solid position as well, and I am pretty sure we can still get the GLH from any save with Sailing and Masonry.

 

[ranion]

Bleys -> Winston -> Rolo

these are in order of preference

i don't think i need to say it again

 

[schwartz]

Rolo gets my vote.

 

[ranion]

so, current count is:

Bleys: 2 votes
Winston: 1 vote (1 close second)
Rolo: 1 vote (1 close second)

there have to be more people voting than this. c'mon people weigh in! lets see some of the more experienced observers making a choice too!

 

[Winston Hughes]

rolo already indicated that he'd vote for Bleys, so...

Bleys: 3
WH: 1
rolo: 1