What Civ? Nomination Thread

[Bowsling]

Well, feel free to nominate choices for our civ. I suppose we can have a poll later to decide our team's official preference. Please nominate a maximum of 3 civs. And NOT the leader.
So I nominate:
Russia
Persia
Native America

 

[Provolution]

I think we need to anticipate the map-plan before we start nominating.

Pangea or islands may have a huge impact on this.

 

[Earthling]

Yes, it will. I unfortunately do not like those choices you made since there UU/UBs aren't that great...Russia and America maybe have one solid good leader each though, but it would have to be that leader.

I'm happy with typical choices of strong Fin/+ other good trait leaders, or solid military UUs and UBs. England, Persia, Rome, Mayans, etc... AKA the civs every other team will probably choose too

If I were to spice things up, I like the idea of some of the mid-game potentially strong civs with unusual strengths that other teams might not be able to match.

Ideas are:
-Spain (early religion, plus make good use of their UU and UB). We could even be bastards and torture someone with the AP (get in just one of their cities when they don't expect...)
-Ottomans
-Carthage (well, they have good traits too, their military is earlier, but no one ever seems to play Carthage)
-French

I agree we should wait on some final decisions though, Map in particular. Tech trading is going to mean we need to get in a 2-3 civ alliance really quickly and we won't have an edge on our own techpath/military so much, but oh well, we'll deal with it.

 

[Sherlock613]

In my mind, there are a few civs and leaders that are truly overpowered compared to the others. Financial is obviously huge, especially if we end up with no tech trading. Expansive is unbelievable with fast workers, and Creative is great for the culture and cheap libraries.

I would prefer to run a cottage economy over a great person economy, so that we aren't forced to go for Pyramids and screwed if we don't get it...

With that in mind, here are my prefs:

My top Leaders:
Pacal (Fin/Exp)
Willem (Fin/Cre)
**big drop off**
Elizabeth (Fin/Phi)
Mansa Musa (Fin/Spi)

Ragnar (Fin/Agg)- draft wars w/ England!
Huanya Capac (Fin/Ind)- early metal casting and forges
Suryavarman (Cre/Exp)
Peter (Phi/Exp)

Civs:
India (Fast Workers are the best uu)
Byzantines (Cataphracts...)
*drop off*
Ottomans- nice ub and uu (draftable!)
English- draft wars- great w/ Ragnar (Agg/Fin)
Incans- great with Pacal (Fin/Exp) for super granaries
Mayans- ball courts are a nice boost to happy cap that can delay going
to monarchy, and uu is fine


If leaders are unrestricted, I think we should go for a power pairing like Willem of India or Pacal of Incas. If restricted, I would go Willem of Netherlands or Pacal of Maya. Other interesting restricted choices could be Liz of England, Ragnar of Vikings, or Gandhi of India (this is the only non-Financial civ I'd take if we are restricted...).

I personally would be against Persians, Rome, and other rushers, b/c I'd rather build in the early game and dominate through the middle of it.

@ Earthling- Carthage (Chm/Fin) is fine, but I'd prefer Vikings (Agg/Fin) b/c I think Agg is a much more useful trait, especially if we end up in draft wars. Just my opinion.

Spain and France are good civs, but the traits would worry me. I think Spi may not be overly useful in a game like this, especially against Fin, Cre, and Exp. France has even worse traits. I would rather go Byzantine if we are going for a great medieval UU, but again that's just my opinion.

 

[Earthling]

Tech Trading is on, and Leaders are Restricted, but duplicates with another team allowed.

A lot of this unfortunately will depend heavily on the mapmaker, which isn't my preference of how this could have gone down, but it did. Several civs are utterly screwed if the map isn't favorable - particularly naval based ones, and those who'd like to get some wonders. So for instance Ragnar has little going for him over other Fin leaders if we're not promised a map with islands/other continents - and last demogame we all thought we would get such a map, with two civs with naval UUs, and didn't...

As far as wonders go that's also a similar concern - I would not want to have to rely on wonders like the Pyramids. Isabella seems out given our settings - if we of course had a reasonable chance of stone/marble then early wonders + solid midgame would be cool, but we could again end up like last demogame - the map maker removed all stone/marble for all teams.

Traitwise I agree Fin, Cre, and Exp are all good, as is Philo, for any map. Org and Chm really depend on the map - happiness and cheap courthouses and maintenance could be life savers (or facilitate strong play, allowing expansion/overseas/etc...) or they could just not matter.

I have never particularly liked India, despite the UU, but also don't support them due to plain lack of traits and openings. Either we get an awesome start and can wonder-whore, or we can't, and for them it's even more distinctive than for other civs, since they've got nothing special going with traits and middle or late game. The problem is I don't think the mapmaker will let that happen again - we get nothing special if EVERY civ is given stone/marble, or we'd get nothing to really help out as all cause other teams would cry foul if India had an advantage.

I don't see so many other non-Fin as viable either, sorry but Byzantine or HRE or Ethiopia just don't cut it for me. But that's just my thoughts, we need a team decision, and if we can't see any other weaker/unusual choices as viable, then we'll stick with an easy Financial civ choice that's all right too.

 

[galdarian]

Personally I reckon Bismark of Germany would make an interesting choice. Admitedly we would put ourselves at a disadvantage by not choosing financial if all other civ's are going that way.

With that in mind I'd list
HC
Lizzy
Ragnar

 

[Provolution]

PROPOSAL - Based on how I know the teams and players out there:

I know that the other teams got a very two-dimensional approach to these games, which is why I suggest a guns and butter strategy that ensures us survival based on basic team demogame strategies I know. The settings, mapmaker as well as the ruleset and other demands made the decision for me.

Civilization: China

Unique Unit: Cho-Ku-Nu (Strength: 6. , Movement: 1, Cost: 60, two first strikes, causes collateral damage (very good against stacks) and finally got 50 % bonus vs. Melee units.

Unique Building: Pavilion (enables us to withstand sudden luxury trade embargos using culture slider)
+3 culture
+25% culture*** (Killing feature for border grabs)
+1 per 10% culture rate
Can turn 2 citizens into artists
+1 from dye
Required to build Globe Theatre

Starting techs: Agriculture, Mining

Choice of leader: Mao Zedong
Traits: Expansive and Protective
These traits does not require us to connect too many health resources, health buildings and allows us to chop more forest (expansive), double production speed of granary, harbor, walls and castle are nice too. +25 % faster workers and very strong defensive archers in the beginning of the game is good too, given border friction.

+2 health per city.
Double production speed of Granary and Harbor.
25% faster production of Workers.

Free Drill I and City Garrison I promotions for archery and gunpowder units.
Double production speed of Walls and Castle.


My Second Option could be a scenario if the mapmaker signals there is to be islands and water

Civilization: Carthage

Unique Unit: Numidian Cavalry

Strength: 5 Movement: 2 Cost: 50

In spite of 1 less strength than horse archer, a well rounded unit that moves fast early game, as well as being dangerous towards melee units, not to mention most archery units as well. Since we are in a mode where we pick civs and leaders internally, in a scissors, rock and paper game, some surprise and a good start location may give slightly "oddball" civs like China and Carthage a good fighting chance.

Unique unit for Carthage; Replaces Horse Archer
Immune to first strikes
Doesn't receive defensive bonuses
Can withdraw from combat (20% chance)
Flank attack against Catapults and Trebuchets
Starts with Flanking I
+50% attack vs. Catapults and Trebuchets
+50% vs. Melee Units

Unique Building: Cothon
Can only be built in a coastal city
+1 trade route*** (the extra trade route is good early game if we got trades and multiple resources to handle)
+1 health from Fish, Crab, Clams
+50% commerce from trade routes

Starting techs:
Fishing
Mining

Leader: Hannibal
Traits:

Financial
+1 commerce on plots with at least 2 commerce. (yeah yeah, old story, which is why I put China as #1 in order to differentiate). But in a game like this, finances may be good to have.

Charismatic
+1 happiness per city. (Very helpful for early growth)
-25% XP needed for unit promotions. (Very good for building experience on early barbarians)
+1 happiness from Monument and Broadcast Tower. (One less happiness resource to prioritize)

-

 

[Bowsling]

I was writing these as nominations. Anyone can start a poll with these questions sometime soon.

 

[galdarian]

The main discussion happened in the cross post

 

[Provolution]

I think Carthage and Netherlands are quite up there as nominations, I also toss in China as well, for the sake of principle.