[SPOILER] The Steak, Beer, and Cigar Saloon

[Catwalk]

After much pondering, I've decided that I'm moving my scout S => SE before settling. There's a slight chance that I'll locate a better city spot down there if I'm willing to waste a turn. I don't expect that I will (and I'm quite happy with my opening micro), but I don't really lose anything by checking it out. However, after moving I need to be certain that I'll want to switch location in order to waste the settler turn.

[Catwalk]

Turn 1
Settling gives a bit more vision:

The silk is a small but useful boost, I might be able to work that one extra commerce into my opening micro for a 1t faster WB. I was planning on the orange expansion first, right now it looks like the dark red one instead. Being able to share two cottages should be sufficient, and I might luck into some seafood down there.

[Catwalk]

As any astute lurker will have noticed, I got myself a bit of a surprise when I saw that my work boats cost 30! I've always preferred Normal speed anyway, so this was a pleasant surprise. This should actually work in my favour, since I'm planning on getting Bronze Working right away and chopping costs 3 turns on both Normal and Quick. Time to redo my micro, probably won't change much.

[Catwalk]

The speed and the silk does change my micro options a tiny bit. To begin with, I'm pondering these two openings:
1) WB on t14, whipped worker on t21, Agriculture on t21 = 1 beaker + 9 hammers + 3 food
Plan: Build a farm right away, grow to size 2 on a warrior.

2) WB on t14, whipped on worker t20, Agriculture on t22 = 87/92 on Agriculture + 7 hammers + 8 food + 1t of chopping (worth 5 hammers if I ignore the cost of a forest)
Plan: Chop out another worker right away.

Whichever plan I go with, it looks like I will want a warrior before a settler as I won't be able to research both Hunting and Pottery in time for an early settler. I also don't want to be able to chase away an early scout, if it can waltze around for several turns that's begging to be invaded. I definitely stand to lose from an invasion (whether it's succesful or not), so I want to make sure not to encourage it in any way.

[Catwalk]

Turn 2
More scouting:

Wine and clams uncovered. I'm getting the feeling that easily accessible luxuries won't be abundant in my immediate vicinity, this could be a problem as the first luxury can really boost your growth rate. I've plotted in my scouting route, I'm curious to see if the ocean near my planned expansion holds seafood and if it's by a lake or the ocean. After that I'm going east, planning on letting warriors from my capital explore my western surroundings later.

[Catwalk]

Turn 3
Useful scout move:

But the results are disappointing. I still think the red dot is a good bet for my first expansion, but it's a crappy long-term city otherwise. I'm crossing my fingers that the last 3 black tiles hold a resource. They won't do me any good right away, though. The green dot will be able to make good use of otherwise disappointing land, could even be a good moai city if I'm willing to expend those 4 forests on that project. It will have a terrible start though, with nothing useful whatsoever in its 1st ring. I suppose I could chop out Moai right away and use that to pop borders, saves me the hassle of a monument. Then I'd get access to fish in 5t with a work boat ready from another city.

This is a rather disappointing dotmap so far, I'm really hoping for something good east of me. At least my capital seems to be well situated to secure a decent amount of land. With a 104x38 map, very crude guestimations suggest that I'll have a neighbouring capital within 10 tiles of my capital. Settling conservatively definitely seems prudent.

With how much water I'm seeing and the likelyhood that most of my cities will be coastal, I'm warming to the Colossus plan. I think I'd have to go for it right after finishing Pottery and Hunting. AH and Mysticism depend on how urgently I need them, I might consider delaying those as well. I should be able to manage without horses, provided that I hook up horses right away. Hunting early means I can get out a spear and an axe fast, reducing my vulnerabilities significantly. That also means delaying Writing, Mathematics and Currency. I think I can have Mathematics ready in time to chop the Colossus to completion. I'd only need 3 chops and a little bit of whip overflow from the forge to complete it in one turn. All of this assumes that I'll find copper in a hurry, of course. FIN should help me a lot here, as research will be the main bottleneck. I can spare 3 forests in my capital with my current micro plan (4 if I count the silk forest, which really doesn't need to be given special treatment), giving me an easy location to whip and chop it out.

[Ceiliazul]

The last naming scheme of yours I remember was "reasons she says 'no'", so this one must be "how to get her to say 'yes'!"

[Dhalphir]

I don't have time to lurk this entire game, so dedlurking you sounds like a perfect way to get a bit of extra Civ.

That land to the south is a bit horrid, I think you'd do better putting a second city to the east, if there's better land that way

[spacetyrantxenu]

The last naming scheme of yours I remember was "reasons she says 'no'", so this one must be "how to get her to say 'yes'!"

So does he get to reuse "Jaw Hurting"?

Edit: Reference

[haphazard1]

Reporting in for dedlurk duty!

I think the coastal site for the capital was the right choice, given your starting techs. The naval options may also prove to be useful later. The deer tile will make a strong start for a second city (although whether it should be second will depend on more scouting). Consider moving it further west if there is something useful in the fog -- the plains hill is nice but if there is a good resource in the fog it would almost certainly be worth moving the city 1N1W, or even 1N2W or 2N2W.

Your light green circle further south is not a high priority unless there is more in the fog, but as FIN you can get a lot of value from the fish tile and some coast, and that site has a lot of coast. If there is something else in the fig, it would be very nice indeed.

The crabs and wine will make for a decent city, although exactly where to put it is a good question. Maybe something more will be revealed to the east -- another resource could make for an awesome city. But even without anything more, using the food to work mines on those two river grass hills would be a useful city. You can farm the wines until Monarchy comes along to help the city grow.

Interesting that you ended up with a standard leader/civ combo in an unrestricted game. But Elizabeth is a solid choice. You do need to stay in the game long enough for your stock exchanges and red coats to appear and make a difference, but FIN/PHI is a pretty nice pairing.

Good luck!