January 25th, 2013, 15:12
Posts: 240
Threads: 5
Joined: Jan 2013
The land is mediocre. I have a lot of resources, but they are all next to water and require different techs. There also aren't many grassland river tiles. However, if I find a lot of grassland river, especially unforested grassland river, to the side, then I will be really happy with this start.
Right now I'm looking at 2S1E for my first city. This gives me four resources, all of which are food or commerce, and two grassland river riles. That makes my city strong for quite a while. I can probably get close to size 14 (by using specialists) without having to work a crappy tile, which is pretty great.
The problem is beyond that. I want to see more grassland river tiles or more flood plain tiles to the side, but I can't really tell. I'm hoping to not see so much water. I already dislike settling so close to water, but unless I see something amazing to the side I can't afford to leave. This makes me vulnerable to OO later in the game.
I also don't want to see forests. I already have to research Agriculture, Calender, Hunting, and Animal Husbrandry to unlock resources. I really don't want to have to also research Crafting and Mining, but I might have to. It's a shame because I also want to research mysticism to grab a quick god king and start running some sages with and elder council.
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As for my starting plan, I definitely want to go worker first, with agriculture->calender being my techs. Depending on the land, I think I'll either go mysticism or more worker techs. I would like to go mysticism so I can revolt into god king/agrarianism and actually use my food surplus to run a specialist, but if I have a great second city spot covered in forests I might have to delay my mysticism, which really sucks.
I will be safe enough to go for a second worker, so I'll have to figure out whether that's worth it or not. It might be better to just build a warrior and grow. I definitely want an early settler though. The ideal timing would be right as I research mysticism so I can revolt before I place my second city, but I won't stick to that if it doesn't work out. With the map being a builder map and having a hero unit though, I really should get another city quickly. This one will max out fairly soon.