[SPOILER] The Steak, Beer, and Cigar Saloon

[Catwalk]

Turn 19
Remembered to whip the worker, it was at 30/60 as planned. Scout found pigs on a hill:

This suggests that W or NW of the copper is the best location for that expansion. Moving NW with the scout next turn, then deciding whether I need to go poke around up there anymore for now or I can go back to the capital and explore west. I'll leave those two fog jungle tiles for later.

[haphazard1]

More food for the copper city -- excellent! It can use the fish to grow early, but will not need to steal the fish tile from the capital all the time once it gets going. Very helpful.

Interesting to see marble across the water. I wonder if that is an island? It would make competition for the marble especially tough. You could plant a pigs/gems/marble city on the tile NE of the scout's current location, but it would not be very good without a border pop (and plenty of protection).

It is nice that the territory on your side of the "equidistant" line with Jowy is forest, while his half is jungle.

[Catwalk]

Yep, makes the copper city a decent expansion. Do you think the deer site or the copper site is best for early economic growth? I was thinking deer, but the copper site has a lot going for it. It can borrow fish immediately to get it going, it grabs 3 resources instead of 1 (even if 1 is crappy dry rice) and it gets us copper immediately. It also doesn't require any roads, although the deer site only requires a single one. Also has a lot more forests, at least 6 that we can see.

I didn't consider the pig/marble site, I think that's actually a pretty good idea. We wouldn't need to protect the marble all the time, as we'd only be using it in brief spurts. Whereas if we place a city there, we'd have to keep the entire city well protected at all times. On the mainland it'd be much easier to protect. An island city might be nice for trade routes, and there might be more resources up there.

Yeah, I like seeing Jowy's jungle Other than making it difficult to settle in our direction, it also might help divert his mind to other priorities. I still think that him planting a semi-early city on the eastern bananas is a good move, he gets +1 food and grass pigs right away as well as control over more bananas and gems. With a little luck he won't consider that just because there's so much jungle.

[Catwalk]

Turn 20

Oasis found, I'd say it's worth grabbing and planting on the N spot between rice and copper. It seems very likely that there's only one more land tile up here, so we're grabbing 7 grass forests along with the 4 good tiles. How should we pop borders? It's not needed right away as we have fish, copper and dry rice (ew) to work. But getting quick access to pigs and the oasis would be nice. Which brings me back to my favourite topic: Merchant city

It would do a much better job of it than the deer site, and it has plenty forests for chopping out Colossus. It gets +6 food from own sources, +10 with the fish. That's plenty for working 2 merchants for a long time. It may not be awesome, but it's fairly realistic to do. Am I a nutter for pursuing this, or is it a viable plan?

[haphazard1]

Where is the oasis? Is it in range for the copper city?

I think the additional food for the copper city makes it a very good choice for the first settler. The forests are also a plus. Dry rice is kind of blah (is the oasis in a position where you could chain irrigate the rice later?) but is still some additional food and health. And of course settling it first means metal earlier, greatly reducing defense worries.

I am still hoping for additional resource(s) to the west of the deer site. So maybe the choice will become even more difficult.

[Catwalk]

Forgot the picture We're set on one or the other, so all that's left to do now is more scouting. I can finish exploring this peninsula and get back to the deer in time for final worker micro in connection with settling. I moved my first worker to the forest E of the capital, in order to make sure that a settler going there spends one turn less. I may be able to work it out so I chop the first 3 forests leading there, saving two turns.

[Catwalk]

Micro for getting a religion in the copper city is working out well. Grabbing the oasis almost right away is nice, as I can't easily spare the fish so soon if I try to settle fast. The extra commerce also helps greatly in catching up from the religion detour. Chopping 3 forests en route to the copper is also easy, and gets one worker up there to start improving the resources right away. I'm pondering chopping the city tile forest for 8 hammers in London, lets me make use of 3 otherwise idle worker turns.

[Dhalphir]

Okay! As per agreement, BaII is back and I am now back with you for good.

Regarding the dry rice/copper/pigs city, I think it would be better to split that into two cities - one city goes 1S of the pigs, and the other one goes 1W of the rice to share the fish and pick up whatever tiles are in the fog NE of the rice.

[Catwalk]

Turn 21
Nothing much to report. Decided to promote the scout to Woodsman I for healing and defense, in case a forest walking animal sneaks up on me. With how many forests I'm seeing, Woodsman I is almost certainly the right choice. Started chopping the first forest as planned, next worker is being produced. Getting a warrior afterwards while farming the wheat.

Dhalphir, I agree that it's necessary to see if more seafood is waiting in the fog. Barring any extra seafood, your locations will orphan the oasis and neither one will be great early on. With a religion, the oasis/rice/copper/pig spot is the closest we can get to a great early site and I think we'll need every production advantage we can get.

[Catwalk]

If there is seafood up by the rice, settling on the rice could be a very good option. I can't get AH very fast anyway, and if early religion is still on the table then we'd get copper soon enough. Without pursuing early religion, I'll likely want to plant next to the copper. Or put another way: If the rice spot is good, I want to grab an early religion. If the rice spot has no extra resources, I'll likely pass on an early religion. 2 more turns until I find out...