(SPOILERS) Donovan Zoi Fights in Honor of Japan's Bad Name

[Donovan Zoi]

Did anything change for our restart?

Yep totally revamped.  My guess is either Japan or Norway now.  I'm a bit bummed as I liked our prospects from either Australia or Colombia.




On the plus side we have more radius food, can work a mineral resource at Mining instead of BW, and can SIP a canal site.  We can also settle 1NE on the forested plains hill and keep all the existing resources + the extra hammer; we'd just lose a canal site and freshwater bonus.

I think a Warrior move NE to the plains hill will be the best way to see if that site has anything else to offer that can entice us away from Tiny River  , but let me know what you think.  If it sounds good, I can move the Warrior NE and post a new screenshot.

Sorry for leaving you hanging for a few days, Cornflakes.  I am back in it now.

[Cornflakes]

Is Japan connected to the mainland on Earth map? If not then we need to be careful to leave ourselves as many valid city locations as possible.

Moving to plains hill still make back the lost turn of production. I agree moving to warrior to plains hill and then decide.

[Donovan Zoi]

Yep, I think NE to settle is the answer.  
--we pick up some hills for production
--possible Moai site with 11 coastal tiles
--farthest NE tile not workable for SIP

To give some context, 39 players have finished the turn so far and only 10 of them have SIP.  So we are in good company here.  

With the NE site, we can get a Workboat in 8 (1f-2h), or a Worker in 12 (3f-1c Rice).  Pretty sure the Worker route will end up as the best way to go, especially since we should tech Mining just as the Rice gets improved. Then Mining the Silver early can get us BW faster.

Thinking we may be in the Malaysia/Indonesia region now, in which case Sailing will be imperative.  Metal Casting becomes important too (for Triremes and Colossus -- if we are safe enough to do so), but that tech is much more expensive with base BTS. We are not going to have a shot at the Oracle (nor should we anyway), plus we are going to need AH quickly as well to find Horses and pasture the Cows.

Liking this a bit better.  I'll move the Settler/Archer team soon if there are no objections.

[Donovan Zoi]

Is Japan connected to the mainland on Earth map? If not then we need to be careful to leave ourselves as many valid city locations as possible.

Missed your question here.  Norway is obviously out.   I think Japan would be accessible to Asia by coast but, as you'll see, we do have settlement options via coast with this layout.  So we definitely have room for expansion. The question is -- how close is the nearest civ that will contest us for those sites?

[Cornflakes]

No objection to NE. I like that we could delay BW in favor of other priorities vs. the previous start.

[Jabah]

Can't you move the archer S or W before choosing (and bring it asap to city after) or is getting away from settler forbidden by the rules....

[Cornflakes]

How many land tiles are there on this map (to give us an idea how many we can claim peacefully)

Just brainstorming here for options after Agriculture > Mining ... Being isolated like this we don't necessarily need to pick up horses or copper early. By the time worker completed we should be able to definitively identify whether we are on a tiny Indonesia island or bigger landmass. If indeed we are on a tiny landmass with room for just 2-3 cities then we will need to think outside the standard play. We could conceivably go Worker > grow on Workboat > Settler and ignore early military completely.

Sailing will be a priority in order to continue expansion, so what about a beeline to Great Lighthouse? Tech Agriculture > Mining > Sailing > Masonry > Bronze Working. Build lighthouse while researching Masonry, then have 2 workers ready to chop forests as soon as Bronze Working completes. Silver will get us happy cap of 6 at the capital for rice + silver + 2 grass mines + grass forest hill + crabs. That is 12 hpt for 17 turn build of lighthouse + Great Lighthouse if all three forests are chopped. Excess growth can potentially be whip-overflowed to get out a galley while building GLH, and cities #2 and #3 can continue development.

Not sure if this is a good plant, just brainstorming options for a start where we are "stuck" on an island with archipelago prospects for expansion.

[Cornflakes]

By the way, I'm not offended in the slightest if you don't follow any of the wild plans I theorize throughout the game. I guarantee I'll post crazy plans to snipe cities of our friendly neighbors out of the fog or chase wonders that we shouldn't be chasing. My favorite part about Civ is goal-oriented planning.

[Cornflakes]

Great Merchant from the Great Lighthouse GPP can bulb Currency or ... Metal Casting for Colossus  ... or Code of Laws for a religion

[Donovan Zoi]

Looks like for awhile, each new post of mine will come with some kind of apology or disclaimer until I get better at this.  I wanted to get this out before I do more family stuff this weekend.

So here is an expanded view of our surroundings.  I usually don't make a play for it, but I am liking your GLH strategy based on what you've posted so far.  Even our internal trade routes will get the overseas bonus, so there is certainly a benefit to having 2 more of those routes per city.

I went with Agriculture and Worker first.  I ruled out Workboat first pretty early, but I think there is something to be said for going Mining first on the tech front.  It lines of us for AH or Sailing faster, even before BW.  I still haven't figured out any sims past T18 yet though.

 And your Metal Casting bulb is a big selling point for me, as long as we don't put too much blood in the water with 2 early Wonders.  A Galley or WB network should allow us some time to reach if we scout out to each coastal entry point to our cluster of islands here.

More later!