OK, first off, I'm globally spoiled.
Regardless I'm going to give some general opinions more or less as if I was ded-lurking (trying to omit influence from anything I might've picked up in any other thread).
In my opinion I can't really tell you which city I think you should settle next, but I can sort of say which city sites I like more if this was a SP game where I was leading the inca
I'm not an expert at civ V (certainly better at civ IV), but I'm sort of at the level where I've got a decent shot at winning games at the immortal level in SP if I make an effort.
That's a decent spot in my mind. You want to settle spots that grabs you extra luxuries so you can keep on growing and that hill has pearls in second ring (sadly requiring a wb) and furs in third ring. If you run into happiness problems (quite likely) it's possible you'll need to buy a tile or two to get the furs in a decent time frame, but that might still be ok.
Generally, you don't need that many cities if you go for tradition (at least in SP). 3-4 cities might get you quite far. However, as you get free buildings for 4, that's probably the least number of cities I'd want to plan for...
As for other sites, well, seems like you've got some truffles just outside your capital that might do with a city, perhaps combined with the gold?
Other happiness seems fairly far away. Well, there's another gold...?
And then there's the island. You don't need an off shore city for trade routes the same way you do in civ IV, but it's an alternative. Need Optics (I believe) to be able to embark first though.
Another alternative could be something by the coast in the NE. It doesn't have any happiness which make me reluctant to go there early, but jungle gets quite nice once you have universities.
I think I said it already, but if you plant 1 city on coast I'd seriously consider planting another as well. Cargo ships are seriously nice at for instance being able to send twice as much food as a land caravan. You do need a granary in the starting city though (or a workshop for hammers) and early on they might not be worth it as the risk of barbarian pillaging is too large.
I don't know much about optimal city spacing either, but general rules are you can work anything within your third ring, but it might take a while to get culture there. Minimum (game enforced) spacing between cities is 4 tiles. Might be that the "optimal" city spacing for a tradition empire would be something like 5-6 tiles, but much more important is to plant the city so that it has decent tiles to work quickly and/or you can build certain buildings if you want them (observatory if city next to mountain, garden from rivers if going for GPs, lighthouses next to coast...)
Generally tile yields are very poor in civ V, often just giving one extra of something if improved. Riverside farms are probably the first ones to get an increase when they go from +1->+2 food at civil service(?). Before then though you still have the extra +1f that granaries provide on wheat, deer and bananas. This applies even if you haven't improved the resource and quite often I don't even improve bananas as I prefer the eventual +2 science from university jungle to +1 food.
Do you?
You don't really get better yields by pasturing that tile, you get different yields. You'll have +1 hammer instead of +1 food and perhaps on this fairly hammer starved map that's something you might want to get, but it's not that obvious.
Of course, you don't get to use the horse resource for a horse unit unless you pasture, but after the map mess up we're anyhow only talking about one unit.
That's another point btw. Unless there's lots of iron scattered about, you might want to consider the ranged line of units for (resourceless) defense.
Can't comment on wonder races, but if you're going to build the Great Library, then you shouldn't build a regular library first as you get one for free if you manage to land the wonder. (Same applies for several other wonders such as Great Lighthouse giving a lighthouse, Hanging Gardens a garden, Hagia Sofia a temple and so on).
I don't feel like commenting too much on tech path, but one tip I can give you is to time your completion of Philosophy to a period when you don't expect to expand for a while.
Why? Well, the main reason for Philo (apart from subsequent techs) in my mind is the national college. To build this (National wonder) you need to have built a library in all your cities. Therefore you want to finish philo just as you're done with the last library in your current cities and have time to build the wonder before it's time to expand anew. Some people like to do this at 1 city, some 2, some 4 and someone perhaps as many as 9 cities, it depends on the map, play focus and personal preferences, but the timing thing still applies.
Generally, once you've started one policy tree you don't want to switch out of it until it's finished.
This is especially true with Tradition, as the finisher (4 free aqueducts in your first cities) is just so strong.
Landed Elite is good, as is the one to the right which has happy and gold for every 2 citizens in the capital and if your going for tGL you could even consider the wonder bonus one.
There are exceptions to this first rule. For instance Rationalism is considered so strong that one should generally begin that tree the moment it becomes available (even though this often comes at a point where you're very likely to have finished one tree and picked up 1-3 policies from a second tree).
Once social policies come into play, those might also be stronger than what other things you have available.
To get a pantheon you need to build a shrine and wait for X turns , have one of the faith natural wonders in your border, build faith producing wonder(s), get lucky with popping huts or get lucky with being quick to meet religious city states (or befriend them).
To get a religion otoh you generally need a faith producing pantheon (desert folklore anyone?), have some faith (natural?) wonder or build the Hagia Sophia (receive 1 Great Prophet).
Regardless I'm going to give some general opinions more or less as if I was ded-lurking (trying to omit influence from anything I might've picked up in any other thread).
In my opinion I can't really tell you which city I think you should settle next, but I can sort of say which city sites I like more if this was a SP game where I was leading the inca
I'm not an expert at civ V (certainly better at civ IV), but I'm sort of at the level where I've got a decent shot at winning games at the immortal level in SP if I make an effort.
Quote:My next city will be going on that Forest/Tundra/Hill between the lake and ocean. It's the only spot I can really think of right now.
That's a decent spot in my mind. You want to settle spots that grabs you extra luxuries so you can keep on growing and that hill has pearls in second ring (sadly requiring a wb) and furs in third ring. If you run into happiness problems (quite likely) it's possible you'll need to buy a tile or two to get the furs in a decent time frame, but that might still be ok.
Generally, you don't need that many cities if you go for tradition (at least in SP). 3-4 cities might get you quite far. However, as you get free buildings for 4, that's probably the least number of cities I'd want to plan for...
As for other sites, well, seems like you've got some truffles just outside your capital that might do with a city, perhaps combined with the gold?
Other happiness seems fairly far away. Well, there's another gold...?
And then there's the island. You don't need an off shore city for trade routes the same way you do in civ IV, but it's an alternative. Need Optics (I believe) to be able to embark first though.
Another alternative could be something by the coast in the NE. It doesn't have any happiness which make me reluctant to go there early, but jungle gets quite nice once you have universities.
I think I said it already, but if you plant 1 city on coast I'd seriously consider planting another as well. Cargo ships are seriously nice at for instance being able to send twice as much food as a land caravan. You do need a granary in the starting city though (or a workshop for hammers) and early on they might not be worth it as the risk of barbarian pillaging is too large.
Quote:I don't have enough experience with this version of Civ to know optimal city spacing or even how the tile yields work with these cities. So....
I don't know much about optimal city spacing either, but general rules are you can work anything within your third ring, but it might take a while to get culture there. Minimum (game enforced) spacing between cities is 4 tiles. Might be that the "optimal" city spacing for a tradition empire would be something like 5-6 tiles, but much more important is to plant the city so that it has decent tiles to work quickly and/or you can build certain buildings if you want them (observatory if city next to mountain, garden from rivers if going for GPs, lighthouses next to coast...)
Generally tile yields are very poor in civ V, often just giving one extra of something if improved. Riverside farms are probably the first ones to get an increase when they go from +1->+2 food at civil service(?). Before then though you still have the extra +1f that granaries provide on wheat, deer and bananas. This applies even if you haven't improved the resource and quite often I don't even improve bananas as I prefer the eventual +2 science from university jungle to +1 food.
Quote:Then sadly, I need to go pasture those horses by destroying that first Farm I built, since my horses appeared on that tile.
Do you?
You don't really get better yields by pasturing that tile, you get different yields. You'll have +1 hammer instead of +1 food and perhaps on this fairly hammer starved map that's something you might want to get, but it's not that obvious.
Of course, you don't get to use the horse resource for a horse unit unless you pasture, but after the map mess up we're anyhow only talking about one unit.
That's another point btw. Unless there's lots of iron scattered about, you might want to consider the ranged line of units for (resourceless) defense.
Quote:Oh, I also don't know what research path to take.
...No real idea why, other than to be able to build a Library and/or Great Library to help with research.
Can't comment on wonder races, but if you're going to build the Great Library, then you shouldn't build a regular library first as you get one for free if you manage to land the wonder. (Same applies for several other wonders such as Great Lighthouse giving a lighthouse, Hanging Gardens a garden, Hagia Sofia a temple and so on).
I don't feel like commenting too much on tech path, but one tip I can give you is to time your completion of Philosophy to a period when you don't expect to expand for a while.
Why? Well, the main reason for Philo (apart from subsequent techs) in my mind is the national college. To build this (National wonder) you need to have built a library in all your cities. Therefore you want to finish philo just as you're done with the last library in your current cities and have time to build the wonder before it's time to expand anew. Some people like to do this at 1 city, some 2, some 4 and someone perhaps as many as 9 cities, it depends on the map, play focus and personal preferences, but the timing thing still applies.
Quote:Policies....well, same deal. I got Tradition, then Oligarchy, then Legalism. I get another policy in 10 turns and I have no idea what to do with it. Is it better to get more of Tradition (such as Landed Elite for faster growth) or should I add on one of the other policies?
Generally, once you've started one policy tree you don't want to switch out of it until it's finished.
This is especially true with Tradition, as the finisher (4 free aqueducts in your first cities) is just so strong.
Landed Elite is good, as is the one to the right which has happy and gold for every 2 citizens in the capital and if your going for tGL you could even consider the wonder bonus one.
There are exceptions to this first rule. For instance Rationalism is considered so strong that one should generally begin that tree the moment it becomes available (even though this often comes at a point where you're very likely to have finished one tree and picked up 1-3 policies from a second tree).
Once social policies come into play, those might also be stronger than what other things you have available.
Quote:I just saw the 3rd civ (at least) start worshiping something, which I can only guess means they have adopted Piety.Not necessarily true. A strong religious play often benefits from piety (shrines and temples half price to build, possible reformation beliefs etc), but you don't need Piety to found a pantheon or even necessarily to have a world dominating Religion.
To get a pantheon you need to build a shrine and wait for X turns , have one of the faith natural wonders in your border, build faith producing wonder(s), get lucky with popping huts or get lucky with being quick to meet religious city states (or befriend them).
To get a religion otoh you generally need a faith producing pantheon (desert folklore anyone?), have some faith (natural?) wonder or build the Hagia Sophia (receive 1 Great Prophet).
Played in PB27
), and I would assume he'd want to buy any Iron tiles as quickly as he can. So hopefully the tile is still available when the turn comes to me today, so I can buy it.