[SPOILERS] - TT really should be better than this after all these games...

[Twinkletoes89]

Right well the start has changed a little:

Start



Settings

[Catwalk]

SIP still looks good. Which way are you going with your warrior?

EDIT: Actually, the SE hill just might reveal a better capital location, lots of rivers down there.

[Twinkletoes89]

I moved onto the hill SE.

Here is what it found:



I'm really thinking that settling SW would be best - SIP seems to food poor for my liking.

[Catwalk]

You'll probably need a more qualified opinion than mine, I love PH starts too much Both SIP and SW will be without fresh water and river connection, right? Both sites have 5 forests. Your first worker will come two turns sooner with the PH start, and will also be able to start building the farm one turn sooner due to distance. I don't think picking up sheep is worth the 3t setback on the first farm and a permanent -1 hammers. As well as missing the 25% defense bonus.

[Twinkletoes89]

You've sold me on it with the quicker worker and faster farm building.

Here's the situation before end of turn.



I'm still not massively happy with the lack of food, but will have to get farming some grasslands to keep the growing speed up.

[Catwalk]

Are you going to create a sandbox to plan out your start? :P
I made one for my last game, went to great pains to make it all accurate and then was too far underway with the game to really use it.

Worker: Farm first then mine a river hill? BW probably won't arrive in time for when your worker has finished the farm.

City: Double worker start?

Research: Agriculture => Bronze Working => ?

Exploration: Deep in one direction or circle capital? It looks like there's a coast at the south.

[Twinkletoes89]

I'm not sure - I am pretty busy for next week and a bit so don't really have the time to sandbox yet. Plus I normally build it, use it for a couple of turns then just forget about it!

In terms of start, here's my first idea of a plan:

Tech : Agri -> BW -> Wheel -> Pottery

Build : Worker -> Warrior(for growth) -> Worker (chopped) -> Settler

Worker : Farm Wheat -> Farm Grassland (1W of Wheat) until BW comes in -> Chop forest (1E of wheat) for worker

Sound good?

[Catwalk]

I hear you about sandboxing. It takes plenty time both to set up and to use it in a meaningful way.

If you're going to farm a grassland tile, why not a river tile instead? Can move 1S of the wheat and farm for a turn (just to avoid wasting the turn), then move on to the tile below it. I'd still rather have the hill river, though. It gives you 2 more production for the second worker than a grassland farm, and you will have time to finish a farm when you need to grow past size 2. Which won't be for a while anyway, given that you'll be producing a settler after the second worker.

I like your production queue, gives you a lot more exploration at hardly any cost. Allows you to let one warrior keep exploring and have the other one stay close to home. The two workers will chop out the settler in a hurry, and you should have enough information to pick a suitable site for the expansion.

Tech sounds good too, Pottery is obviously important. It's tempting to grab a religion, but it would set you behind a lot. Maybe try for one of them after Pottery? How many Mysticism players are we up against?

[Twinkletoes89]

I can't farm the grassland 1S of the Wheat pre-Civil Service.

The reason I want to farm before mine is that I farm that grassland 1W of the Wheat as soon as I can so a greater tile yield for growth/worker at size 2 and then can swap onto a mine afterwards. After finishing the wheat, I'd have at least 2 worker turns wasted before I could start mining a grass hill.

[Catwalk]

I can't farm the grassland 1S of the Wheat pre-Civil Service.

True, that turn will be wasted. It would be mostly wasted anyway, a 3/0/0 is not very good.

The reason I want to farm before mine is that I farm that grassland 1W of the Wheat as soon as I can so a greater tile yield for growth/worker at size 2 and then can swap onto a mine afterwards. After finishing the wheat, I'd have at least 2 worker turns wasted before I could start mining a grass hill.

Wouldn't you rather work the mine at size 2 while producing the second worker and then the settler? You can then chop the forest E of your capital and farm the river grassland S of your capital right afterwards. Don't know exactly how the timing would work out, but you benefit significantly from working the mine over grassland. Do you know when BW will be completed?