[SPOILERS!] I am Molach. This is my thread. Kublai Khan of Rome

[Ichabod]

Looks like desert, but the screenshot says 'flood plains'....hoping for flood. A natural start shouldn't have desert in bfc, should it?

If so theres enough food, and good production. But where is my commerce?

Natural start doesn't have desert on Capital's BFC. We have quite a bit of rivers, I think that's at least average commerce. If my eyes don't deceive me, there's 2 other fps and some grassland on the fog.

[Molach]

I want double dyes, thats commerce. Or gold. Hmm.

I don't see anything bad about SIP, except no hill. Wet corn is good, obviously, any other dir loses a turn. Not too bad since were obviously on normal speed, but still. 1 N gives a grassland for a plain, but loses a forest & why not just cottage that plain as it's riverside.

I'll trust the Commodore, unless a lot changes when it launches.

[Commodore]

In case it wasn't clear, yeah, that's a riverbend floodplain.

[Molach]

Looking forward to seeing you play Molach.

Hey, too.

So am I.

I'll have fun with this. Be fun to try a creative civ, have rarely done that in SP.

Either Agri or BW first
Agri- improve grain and FP is both good and keeps him busy a while.
BW - I'd think worker would complete before BW does, so no point? Or just build something else while waiting?

Bah my gut says Agri - BW. Prolly AH, Pottery, Writing with wheel thrown in somewhere. Then Iron. No rush, but perhaps early enough to still scare some people. Depends if I see Bronze or not.

[Molach]

While I don't really have much to say, my thread has been at the bottom of the pile for too long now.

Team Alpha Teleh is Hannibal (fin/chm) of Persia (agri/hunt) [apothecary:immortal]
Molach is Kublai Khan (cre/agg) of Rome (fish/min) [forumraetorian]
Team ʥ Sisu is Huayna Capac (fin/ind) of Russia (hunt/min) [research institute:cossack]
Team 1 Oxphenbutazone is Gandhi (phi/spi) of Netherlands (fish/agri) [dike:east indiaman]
Team 2 BaIIkuro is Joao (exp/imp) of Portugal (fish/min) [feitoria:carrack]
Team SpaceBrickNowhere is De Gaulle (chm/ind) of Byzantium (myst/wheel) [hippodrome:cataphract]
WilliamLP is Mehmed (exp/org) of Arabia (myst/wheel) [madrassa:camel archer]
Azza is Augustus (ind/imp) of China (agri/min) [pavilion:chu-ko-nu]
Retep is Asoka (spi/org) of England (fish/min) [stock exchange:redcoat]
Team Suttree is Fredrick (phi/org) of France (agri/wheel) [salon:musketeer]

Putting this here, for reference. Not really useful - if I were Ind, I'd see who I was competing with. Good there are 3 inds here. 2 starting with mystisism. Hopefully they will both go for same religion, meaning one of them wastes beakers for nothing.

Fun fact - I am truly unique. I'm the only one with aggressive, and only one with creative. Combine the two, and I seem to be type-cast into the villain role here - encroach on enemy rival borders and fight it out when there's a conflict.
Real game-winning recipe, there.
No, I won't be too hard on my pick, creative is very good, and being only one with creative is nice. Not as nice as being only one with Ind, but up there.

While I like to build all the shiny wonders and buildings in the book, this combo is probably very right for me - teach me how to play properly MP-like.

However I can tell myself that aggressive is at least a bit of an economic pick - it will enable me to cottage more. I got better military to counterattack and defend my poor growing cottages. Yup. Grasp any straw I can.

[Molach]

Coin flip question - scout move.

E (flood plain) -then NW, N, NE?

or

SW (cow) - then SE, SW, W?

alternative settling points could be
Plains forest W, W (loses lots of river tiles, a turn and a forest)
GLH at SW, W (loses at least half my river tiles & a turn & a hill. Gains hill defense)
Plains forest N (loses a turn & forest)
GL forest NW (loses a turn & forest)

or anywhere else (loses corn) - would need to find a super food tile to make that up.

[Ichabod]

I'd only consider settling 1N or 1NW, losing the wheat isn't worth the move. So, I guess i'd scout 1E, 1SW, to see what I'd lose by moving north.

[Molach]

Hm. Strategic resource SE? Might gain something moving N or NW. Lose a turn.
Probably gonna SIP as all the others appears to have done.

[Ichabod]

Well, settling 1NW will almost recover the lost turn by being able to farm the wheat 1 turn sooner (I imagine that's the best opening). You lose quite a bit of riverside tiles, though, so I don't know if it's worth it or not.

Iron in that no forest tile?

[Molach]

Molach settles in place.
He sees floodplain to the north, missed one 2 NE. But next city will enjoy that, no doubt.
Molach want food. Food is power. To obtain guns, germs and steel, must first develop agriculture, will take 9 turns.
(BW takes 15)
Starts training worker, will take 15 turns.

Will post some screenies once my border pops in 3 turns and scout has done a bit of movement.

My only mayor decicion: Should scout try to run straight and true and find enemies targets many distant civs or do a circle around my capital and find 2, 3, and 4th city spot. Huts are off. There is also the large circle around cap, to find all my 10-12 distance neighbours.

Second thing, which is further down the line - what to build after first worker? I'm perhaps a bit too used to playing SP FFH deity, so I think I need to build 3 warriors while growing.

This is, apparently, BtS. Oh my. Worker - warrior while growing to 2 - worker - chop settler - found a close city? I suppose this is what sandboxes are for, but wonder if there is a typical "What to do when you have 1 good food tile and plenty forests" scenario. Double workers, then chop a settler would get me up pretty fast. I'm thinking a quick pottery and cover my capital in those cottages - lots of rivers, and decent producion too.

I do hope there is iron on that tile, would suck if it was mithril, that is not on my immediate techpath.