Nation choices

So, I guess I am EA Pan, with the standard Gorgon build. Been a while since I played EA Pan, but I know how it's done. I will need astral help, of course.

I dunno about Pan, man. I mean the Gorgon is nice and all but after last game she didnt come up to speed until almost turn 20. Thats just not going to cut it this time around, IMO. We need to take the kid gloves off and get vicious! I dont want to just hold the line till some SCs come around, I want to crush these noobs into the floor so fast and so hard that it makes their heads spin.

To that end, I propose we not fool around with thematic nation choices and instead pick the absolutely merciless heavy hitters. Caelum, Hinnom, Neifelheim immediately spring to mind.

It's the thematic response. And, EA Pan is quite good. I'll go with the Gorgon again.

I called out Sauromatia on the game thread, but that was just something that I said without too much thinking. I can switch to one of whatever final five the groups agree on. For the team and all that.

I think QM had a good point about taking the seas and as such Oceania being a nice addition to the team. Just to ensure we harass them and not the other way around.

Didn't TheDemon call dibs on Caelum?

I did want to play caelum. Once we have a private subforum I'll go into details as to my planned tactics.

lingchih wrote:It's the thematic response. And, EA Pan is quite good. I'll go with the Gorgon again.

Yeah, see my previous post - screw theme. We need to be in this to win or we might as well just concede again. You are proposing to take a nation and tactic that has already failed in a previous test just because the noobs are expecting it and the game thread has that name. Thats crazy. We need to pick powerhouses, not just nations that are good or ok.

For my part, I'll choose whatever we agree on as needed for the team role. One nation I will point out tho is Tir Na' Nog. I have a breathtakingly good expansion strategy for them - tho I am now hesitant to mention it if this forum isnt private? Are we sure its secure?

Well, what do you want me to play then? I'll stomp on them with Neifel Jarls if you want.

He's got a whacked out strategy guide for Niefel that actually sounds pretty good, but I've only played them the classic N9E9 send out the Jarls way.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=41832

So I'm going to take Caelum, EK cheese expansion strat, will focus on being the quick response team and the retreat cutter. Will have an awake rainbow to take advantage of easy research and 75 sites. Berserk mammoths if necessary, but I'm not going to build much of an army. I'll have a little extra gold the first 6 turns or so.

e: here's the pretender build I've liked the most in testing:
awake Master Druid, F2W2E9S3D2N4, 5 dominion, Order 3, Sloth 3, Cold 3, Death 3, Luck 0, Magic 1

that looks like a pretty cool pretender.

So... Is the following the final setup?

Qm - Hinnom
Lingchih - Niefel
TheDemon - Caelum
IH - Tir
atul - Atlantis

Final?

There was also some talk of IH switching to Helhiem.

One thing that occurs to me is that everyone but Atlantis is going to be expanding so fast with capital commanders, their early research will be awful. So I think that makes Atlantis our forger. Though probably they should researcher voice of tiamat first.

Yeah, what do you think, guys? Should I play Tir Na Nog or Helheim?

Choosing Tir Na Nog gives us great expansion, a good raider on our team, and a strong nature nation.

Choosing Helheim denies a strong nation to the noobs, gives us good expansion, a raider, but no new paths.


Cast your vote....

It sounded like you were pretty confident of your Tir build. Why not go ahead with them.

I am confident in it and they would totally work. The question is: can we get almost the same bang for the buck with a Helheim build (which we ran some test today in channel and it looks like we can) while at the same time denying Helheim to the noobs. I really do like Tir but after today I am leaning towards Hel.

qm brought up that I'm using yazatas, which reminds me, I will need to summon yazatas on turn 3, so if you get any early astral, sending it to me turn 2 will be greatly appreciated. I think Hinnom has 1 astral income on their cap. For the first summon alchemizing some gems shouldn't be a big deal and after that we'll see what's necessary.