Sullla's AI Survivor Season Seven - begins today!

I think (hope) Shaka wins this. Pericles and Gandhi are super squishy targets and he will go after them in that order due to PW difference. A possible mistake for Shaka would be attacking Hammy first since he's further and has Bowman. He might have worse land than a few other civs particularly his capital but honestly I think the starts are mostly fair. He has really good spots for the next few cities and a ton of room.

Izzy is my dark horse and has a sheltered position with good land and will probably do ok diplomatically spreading her religion. I got her coming in second but wouldn't be shocked if she wins.

Pericles first do die.
 
Kaitzilla said:
Some things I learned about picks last time is that the Apostolic Palace is not in the game, so religious victory or holy wars are impossible.
Also, diplomatic victory with United Nations is super rare.
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Did he ever explains why he does it this way? Banning the AP seems bonkers to me. AP victories are very rare and it would surely handicap the religious leaders from being able to manipulate diplomacy.

Completely agree with Fippy's assessment. Stalin is the best overall leader and he has the best overall land. Generally I'm biased to pick Gandhi as his sneaky culture wins have cost me more games than any other AI, but you're right he doesn't have the right land or the right neighbors to survive in this game.
 
drewisfat said:
Did he ever explains why he does it this way? Banning the AP seems bonkers to me. AP victories are very rare and it would surely handicap the religious leaders from being able to manipulate diplomacy.

Completely agree with Fippy's assessment. Stalin is the best overall leader and he has the best overall land. Generally I'm biased to pick Gandhi as his sneaky culture wins have cost me more games than any other AI, but you're right he doesn't have the right land or the right neighbors to survive in this game.
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AP is banned because the AI almost always votes to end wars, making Domination wins more uncommon and the game less "fun" (based on previous explanations which can be found on Sullla's website).
 
drewisfat said:
Did he ever explains why he does it this way? Banning the AP seems bonkers to me. AP victories are very rare and it would surely handicap the religious leaders from being able to manipulate diplomacy.

Completely agree with Fippy's assessment. Stalin is the best overall leader and he has the best overall land. Generally I'm biased to pick Gandhi as his sneaky culture wins have cost me more games than any other AI, but you're right he doesn't have the right land or the right neighbors to survive in this game.
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On the AP - I think essentially the view from the community was that the ‘stop the war’ votes ruined the fun.

You can find Sulla’s explanation in his season preview here
 
I agree Stalin is in a great place, benefiting from the best synergy of starting location, expansion, and competence. Hammurabi appeals to me in a braindead AI sort of way... He starts with agriculture and will probably farm the rice. Not too much of a stretch to imagine him picking up Animal Husbandry, and then we have an OK capital that can probably churn out an early settler. Lots of room to expand plus the two mining luxuries, and I feel like if he does ten things wrong, he will probably still at least hit those points. If everyone else is fighting peace weight and religious wars, I could see him stumbling into a cultural victory.

I think Stalin and Shaka will likely benefit from carving up India/Greece. A religious declaration of war from Isabella could even prompt expansion west for Stalin. I do think a scenario that would spell his demise would be if Stalin followed Gandhi's religion, invaded anyway, and then somehow got dog-piled by Isabella and Shaka.

Shaka could take out Pericles first, but I sense that Stalin will not be able to tolerate peace weight tensions with a soft target like Gandhi, and Shaka will hone in on that on his own or join in. If Shaka targets Hammurabi the wonder builder, as suggested above, and there is a Babylon-Spain-Russia religious bloc, I could see the others partitioning Shaka.

Edit [a casualty of the two-tab post!]: Gandhi has bad neighbors and inadequate land, whereas Pericles' higher peace weight and decent capital could help him survive longer. As for Isabella, I actually like her position but worry about her expanding if she founds more than one religion.
 
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Oooh this is good news.
 
Things are slowly moving into place.


The preview video for Game 1:
(Game One is scheduled for 07 April 2023 at Noon Eastern Standard Time)



The link to the spreadsheet to make the game 1 picks!

Civ4 AI Survivor 7 Game One

docs.google.com docs.google.com


Sullla is the original Civ 4 fanatic and makes his home on a different forum at Realms Beyond.
 
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Saxo Grammaticus said:
Be that as it may, a certain CFCer :mischief: is responsible for the single greatest cache of AI intel that this very Sulla references as well...
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Sullla does have a link to Civ Illustrated yes. :D

It was definitely a team effort to dig up the info to make that thing.

I was obsessed with links and was willing to do the tedious work to put it up after we agreed on a sample for Alex.
My main contribution was the blended war declaration rating which has somewhat subjective weights.

At this point Sullla probably knows more deity AI vs. AI behavior than anyone after commenting 100 matches.
Hopefully it helped.
 
Made my Game 1 Picks finally.
Spoiler :

I don't like how Stalin will be facing possibly 2 holy cities stealing his tiles. hmm
Lots of food.

No wars are going to start until civs have Bronze or Iron.
Barb cities should grab a few spots with lots of resources.

Shaka is a bad techer, but he has the most land to expand.
Good production tiles.

No river or coast that can spread Izzy's religion early I think?

Civs in the middle almost never win, but this game feels like an exception.
Izzy has good amounts of room too, but no easy metal unless that holy city grabs an Iron.
Don't feel like Gandhi will survive to culture win. Stalin too reliable.

Shaka 1st, Isabella 2nd, Space, T348, 9 wars, Pericles 1st to die.

Hopefully Shaka does not attack east, west, east, west, and no tech :lol:
 
I'd want to pick someone other than Gandhi for FTD, but it's really difficult to see that happen ;)
Agree with Peri as 2nd best option.

Izzy might be a dark horse as winner, assuming neither Stalin or Shaka open borders with Gandhi and his Hindu won't spread to anyone other than Peri.
So all 4 AIs left might have Izzy's reli.
 
Oh ya, Izzy is neutral and will be 1st to Org. Religion most likely.

Missionaries with open borders would really help her cause.

If Shaka faceplants I will definitely root for her!
 
So I revisited my picks :lol: In terms of land and diplomacy, I don't think Stalin can overcome his starting position. Just look at the map: he can be forward settled by all three immediate neighbors. The best case scenario would be Stalin conquering Gandhi or Isabella, but I think border tensions resulting in a multi-front war is much more likely.

A Shaka--Isabella or Hammurabi--Pericles ticket seems the way to go. Religion and diplomacy should be very important and entertaining on this map. As for first to die, I could see a dog-piled Gandhi or Stalin/Shaka due to multi-front wars. Should be an exciting game for us to watch!
 
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This is a tough one. If my eyes did not deceive no AIs start with metals in cap - maybe by design. I'd say picking the 2nd choice is harder than the top pick. I have a feeling one of Shaka or Stalin bites it, but the one who lives could win. (those two could also just attrition themselves into oblivion. I've picked Shaka before and come close on that pick, but he always finds a way to lose it. Peri's start is strong with some good cities in his backyard, but I could see him planting a jungle city first that just stagnates for ages..
Stalin's start is, I think, deceptively strong, as he'll have some bonus hammers in Moscow early.

I feel like I'm almost flipping a coin between peaceniks and warmongers. However, the wildcard here is quasi-neutral Izzy. Assuming Izzy, Gandhi, and Hammy found the first 3 religions, Hamster could be Spanish Tapas for our queen. So instead of flipping a coin here, and going against my first instinct to pick Shaka here, I'm going to go with the beloved fanatic Izzy. She never delivers, but now it is her time. (ugh..just realize she does not have easy access to metals but maybe jumbos)

1st: Izzy
2nd: Peri
 
Plains-Cow said:
Is there a way to advertise this and that we're going to have live threads about the games?
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It's a bit awkward, can't go to Sulla's place and direct people elsewhere lol.

EDIT: We can probably push the publicity a bit here as it is a big event, @Blake00 @The_J.
 
Noble Zarkon said:
It's a bit awkward, can't go to Sulla's place and direct people elsewhere lol.

EDIT: We can probably push the publicity a bit here as it is a big event, @Blake00 @The_J.
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I didn't mean it as taking people from his twitch chat to post here. I meant advertising on the forum internally or maybe sending out a notification email. Make it a bit of an event. Just a gentle nudge, "Come join us if you're interested in sharing the events" kinda stuff.
 
Kinda tempted to take the easy answer and favor Shaka, but I'm curious to see what Hammy does all off in the corner by himself.
 
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