Alexis the Monarch - Trying BtS For The First Time

[Bobchillingworth]

No, it'll just be a really mediocre city :P Plains hill plant + Wet Rice + Oasis + four cottages + a plains hill mine = pays for itself, plus some change.


Again, in MP I would not rush to found that city. I probably wouldn't get it at all, because I'd delay long enough that whoever was controlling Sumeria would probably lock down that rice for themselves. But in SP I def. would. Although also bear in mind that I'm just going off of what you've uncovered so far. If there's a lush shangri-la to your north, then I'd focus on that instead. But given that the map has shafted you on space for cities to your east and south, giving up the west seems pretty silly.

[LexiSilva]

Off Topic: So I play starts for the hell of it. Just exploring. And then I enter worldbuilder and I saw Moscow in a save have 3 clams and 2 corn! AND a stone!

[Bobchillingworth]

Hah. I once generated a start for myself with three gold, two corn, stone and a lot of FP. I didn't play on it, because I was rolling practice starts for the team PB which ran some years ago. Sadly the save has been long lost to time.

[WilliamLP]

Bob, yeah, it's a good point that optimal play vs the AIs isn't the same as what you'd want to do in a long game vs people. And on Immortal or Deity, doing well seems to actually require specific plays that exploit the AI's weaknesses and playing in a way that would just get you killed vs people. (And vice versa, playing carefully like in a human game would lead to the AIs quickly dominating you in land.)

My problem with single player Civ these days is that pitboss play has trained me to be OCD about every unit and tile assignment on every turn, which means I have a hard time enjoy just playing casually. (Put a worker on auto? What?!!)

[LexiSilva]

Sorry I didn't play today. Had to prepare for the funeral tomorrow. Not sure if I can play it tomorrow either. But Friday for sure!

[Lord Parkin]

My problem with single player Civ these days is that pitboss play has trained me to be OCD about every unit and tile assignment on every turn, which means I have a hard time enjoy just playing casually. (Put a worker on auto? What?!!)

I still use the Trade Network automation from time to time ("N"), with the option "Leave Old Improvements" checked. Handy for when you've improved most of your tiles and don't want to bother handling your Workers any more.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

It's rarely a good idea to start a city off with a worker build: it's a lot more efficient to bring a worker from somewhere else. Also, your second city really should have been 1W(Though I guess FIN coasts aren't worthless...)

[GermanJoey]

My problem with single player Civ these days is that pitboss play has trained me to be OCD about every unit and tile assignment on every turn, which means I have a hard time enjoy just playing casually. (Put a worker on auto? What?!!)

Heh, I actually do play single player this way... but, if you want to REALLY see OCD, you should check out some of the SGOTM games at civfanatics. These guys spend multiple months and thousands of posts discussing, arguing over, and simming a single SP game... its really something to see!

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=196

[haphazard1]

I would settle fewer but stronger cities, even if it leaves some unused tiles. You can always come back later and plant some filler cities to share some food sources if you decide it would be worth it. But especially early on I want the strongest cities I can get, as these early plants will become my future core.

I would go for (in order of priority):

- 2E1N of the stone Gets pigs for food, stone for wonder building (and cheap walls if needed), fresh water, some river tiles for commerce. It also helps block Sumer from expanding east into your northern zone.
- 2N of the northern corn Gets corn, incense, spices. Gives you control of the area to the edge of the jungles, which may or may not be useful depending what is up there.
- East of the capital, on the desert tile to reach the fish Gets fish and grass cows, coastal with 8 coastal tiles and 4 ocean tiles. Very strong Moai site, and can share some cottages with the capital.
- South of the capital, 1E1S of the pigs Gets pigs and corn, coastal with 8 coastal tiles and no ocean tiles. Also a potential strong Moai site if you don't want to put it at the fish city.

One problem with this plan is that the first three cities would all need a border pop to gain access to their resources. That will slow down development somewhat, but longer term you will have better cities. And only the stone/pigs city will really struggle, as your capital should get a second border pop in time for the corn/incense/spices city to work the corn immediately anyway. Fish/cows city can spend its time working cottages for the capital until it can pop borders, and the southern pigs/corn city has pigs first ring.

This would get you out to five strong cities, all the new ones close to the capital for lower maintenance, claiming at least one strong food source each, and picking up stone quite early when it is still useful for wonder chasing if you decide to do that. You also get two plantation happy resources for a bit later, plus the capital's wines at Monarchy. You might be able to get the dye as well, although it looks close enough to Sumeria that they will probably take it. The rice and sliks west of the desert are also likely to go to Sumeria unless you chase them very hard with your first settler. And given how crummy that land is, plus the distance from you and closeness to Sumeria...why bother? You can always take that area by force later if you decide to.

If you decide against going for the stone, then you could shift things around quite a bit. Your capital is too short on food to be a really strong hammer producer, so I am not sure chasing wonders is the best option anyway. But I rarely go for early wonders unless I have fantastic hammers at my capital or first city, so I am a bit biased.

Also, I have been playing a lot of FFH2 lately. All that desert just screams for a Water adept to Spring it into plains.

[LexiSilva]

I'm playing another game (On Emperor because I want to see what it's like to lose trying), and I created my first dotmap made only by myself.



How is my dotmapping?
(Minor) = Not very good site but why not
(Major) = WILL be City #2 because of the copper (The Mongols to the west are Genghis; I need a military!)
(Scout) = Not sure about the site; I need the marble but I need more scouting.