[Spoilers] Commodore as Darius of the HRE

[Commodore]

Hookay. The scout is still wandering around, revealing sheep and far more continent than expected to the northwest. I strongly suspect we've got a player on either side, it's just a matter of how close they are. Good news is, after this turn, the warrior will be close enough to finished that we can avoid worrying about getting walked over.

With the western sheep revealed, a very packed-in dotmap suggests itself:



The second city would be yellow dot on this one, able to share the capital's wheat/fp cottage for rapid growth. The only food it would have "for itself", though, would be a farmed floodplain. Long-term, this is quite a weak site, maxing out at 10 or 11 pop without doing something daft like farming river plains. Which sucks. Maybe a little more could be squeezed out, but pre-Biology, this isn't a big city. It is, however, a fast starter.

And it leaves open Dark Grey Dot, which is a truly lovely site. Lighthouse'd, this is a ridiculously high-food spot that can probably effortlessly share the nice grass sheep tile with a pink dot reach location.

Northeast Grey is also a much stronger fishing village in this scenario, actually having enough production to make Moai in a decent time-frame.

Stronger than what, you ask? Well, if I wanted to get all I could from yellow dot, it'd look more like this:



Which would make yellow dot the Moai, probably, and the crown jewel of my empire. The flatland, boatable, greedy, slow starting jewel. I was also rejiggering some of the eastern sites, but that start leaving nice cottagable lands untouched/backfilled, and nobody wants that.

Unless I get really screamed at (Sven, your cue sir), I'm thinking the first yellow dot will be my second city.

[Commodore]

Apparently, we're in the midst of a blitz session this morning. I awoke to the save, and now Animal Husbandry is in:



And hay! It's horses!



Yeah. Yellow dot is my next settle.

Had a little scare, as Sven ended turn near a lion.



But then I remembered two things:
1. Forested hill.
2. Prince level.



A couple of annoying scratches later, Sven was happily on his way again, finding more clams. And hey! Whales.

EOT rolled around, Aquilonia grew, and my warrior popped.



Still last in soldier points, but now I'm also last in the hearts of my people.

[Commodore]

It's rather eerie to post into an echo chamber, let me tell you. Not much interesting happened over the rapid cycle of turns this weekend.

The randomest Aesop ever splashed in:



Research was set to pottery next. I hate the long bronze working delay, but a couple early riverside cottages will do wonders for my commerce.



My demos aren't screaming "worst Civ ever", but I'm not exactly making up my tech deficit here. At least I have enough warrior strength to no longer be last place in soldier points. Yeah, I was going to go worker-worker, but I hate to waste improved tiles. I'm back to pushing out a worker and a settler will follow, maybe being delayed long enough to grow another pop.

The western side of my continent is nice and safe (barring boats), so my first warrior is pushing to scout eastward. A lush handful of cities can grow here:



Further reflection tells me I could maybe shift things around a little more to squeeze in a fourth city here, but we'll see how things go. Once grey is settled and seals off the landbridge (assuming it's a bridge and not an isthmus), I'll be able to push eastward without worry.

Which brings me to a bit more of a meta ramble...if starts are, if not mirrored, then at least all broadly similar, then I do not expect to see a lot of early conflict (as if the builder-riffic picks didn't already assure that). I can see, what, eight strong city sites and several marginal ones, on turn 17, with no sign of rivals' scouting warriors. With any luck, the first focus will be on maximizing this great land and a world full of farmer's gambits. We'll need to push REX as hard as possible to counter the others' early advantages, but if this continent can be settled in peace then I am reasonably confident that the mid-game will be rife with opportunity.

[Commodore]

My it's heartening to have a fast-moving early game. Nothing much going on, first cottage is going down next turn, and my exploratory parties push outward:



Marble! I do love me some Great Library, if I can swing it, but it's probably not well-positioned for an early Oracle. My crystal ball tells me that someone's going to be wanting to sling Metal Casing ASAP.



Sven is slogging north through the jungle. I'm fairly sure this is some kind of contact highway.



And finally, warrior #2 is heading towards the tricksy ice bridge NE. In the lower left the second worker can be seen, next turn heading to the FP. Micro question: I moved the worker 1N, then ordered him to build road, then cancelled. That is how to do it, right?

[Commodore]

No new turn until I get back from work late tonight, but meanwhile, boredom during a training meeting can produce good work:

Heck yes I like my lands.

[Ceiliazul]

Hello Commodore, dedicated lurker here. If your worker pre-built a road this turn, that's perfect. Next turn he can move onto the FP and start the cottage immediately.

What turn is it now? How much of the worker production is complete on this turn?

-ceil

[Commodore]

Welcome to Realms Beyond! I'm honored you first-posted in my thread.

Turn 21 just passed. I had a minor heart attack, actually, this turn as Mr. Nice Guy's score hopped massively over everyone else, but then I recalled that he is creative.

I currently have two workers, Gaspar and Piet (shall I call the next Ceil or Ceiliazul?), both now on cottage duty:



Thus far, I have improved both plains sheep and the riverside wheat, massively upping my growth. Aquilonia is currently building Stonehenge until one more growth, after which I'll kick off an absurdly fast settler build. Then it's one more worker and back to Stonehenge for growth/failgold investment.

[Ceiliazul]

Do you have a sim worked up yet? I might work on one, just to follow along...

[Commodore]

No sim from me yet, Sven mentioned setting one up, but that was pre-hockey, so who knows. The settings are thus:



As far as turn 22 went, nothing very thrilling. Capital grew to 4 and a settler was started, due in five turns.

My scout found more land, I wonder who owns this.



Northern warrior checked, looks like another land-bridge to the north. He'll double back next turn to ensure my settler doesn't get munched.



Finally, the southern warrior has found a nice city spot to seal of the South-eastern bridge (assuming that's what it is).



Between the gold, ivory, sugar, and silks I think we'll do okay for early happy.

[Ceiliazul]

You're right, many good city sites. With these great chokes, a bit of setter spam seems like the way to go.

Can you post a victory conditions screen?