[SPOILER] - Suboptimal finds trees, still seeks forest

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Wowsers! I think the spot between bananas and silk is definitely the best choice - fully 3 5-yield tiles in the 1st ring alone, with 2x diamonds and bananas in the second ring. That city will generate an insane amount of gold (18 if you can get it up to 6 pop and work all the plantations and mines), plus 4 culture from the plantation pantheon, which I think just shot up to one of the strongest picks.

[suboptimal]

Yeah, unless there's something ridiculous SE of the bananas or due E of Mashed that's going to be City #2's home. And now we're hoping to first-meet a religious city-state to get a pantheon a little early.

The city could be founded on T21 (not T22 like I thought before) and with only one slinger upgrade to worry about we'd have the gold to buy the 2nd ring bananas upon settling. The city would be able to build three archers by EoT39 and hit 4 pop EoT40 with no improvements. Looking out further I'd put a nubian pyramid on the floodplain next to the city center once Masonry is in and work that with the 5th population (31 + 20% district discount rather than a farm for just +1) then switch to diamond mines at 6 population (around T63). It slows city growth a little at that point but as you said it could be generating 18. The pyramid could be removed and farmed once Feudalism is in if we need/want a farm triangle to the north.

If the capital goes warrior -> archer -> archer -> warrior after the builder and this city does build three archers we'd have three warriors and six archers as of EoT39 that could go for a romp or two while the capital got out a settler in the 40's and this location worked on something (likely an Encampment by that point for State Workforce).

[suboptimal]

Turn 5

Mashed is pop 2 and working the deer, slinger is done in two turns. Based upon the scores it appears that everyone else may have a 4 tile near their start (makes sense). Everyone before me in the turn order that settled on Turn 1 has gained an empire point.

Our intrepid warrior, tired of the dry heat and sandy winds of the desert, opts for the wet heat of the jungle.




That jungle tile has -2 appeal and there’s -1 visible. Based on the appeal of the southern bananas and the presence of water to its SW I’m guessing there’s jungle 2 hexes directly south of the warrior and open land 2SE of the warrior. The question now is whether to move southeast, cross the river to the east to start sweeping that area or head west. I’m leaning towards moving SE – city-states are not going to be along rivers because this is an edited map. The slinger can check out the area NE of the river and capital and the capital’s next military unit (warrior) can check out the desert.

There’s a possibility to get the settler out two turns earlier by stunting the capital’s growth (work the PFH instead of the marsh rice for 6 turns). The yield/opportunity cost is about 5 and half a point due to lower population at the capital.

The loss of bonus overflow due to the new mechanics is also going to require some serious management as the Nubian bonus plus Agoge can result in some pretty huge losses. The good news is that we’ll be able to spend some time working the turtles or the grassland farm we put down in order to boost city growth and output a bit while the military builds out.

[Banzailizard]

Very nice spot there, this is a promising start. Though if the others have starts like this, it will be a production rich game. Out of curiosity, anything showing up on settler vision?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I agree with sending the warrior more southerly. I think pushing our scouting out as far as possible before circling back closer is better - let new units escort our civilians. I've seen a few instances where players turned back just a few turns short of meeting a city-state. Send the warrior out into the unknown, the slinger can head east and the new warrior can finish the desert. It's unlikely we have a neighbor back there (-knocks on wood- I sure hope I don't have to eat those words).

[suboptimal]

Nothing on settlervision yet. We should get a little wider view to the south/southeast next turn. This start is a bit different from my PBEM 15 start, for sure. I sense having to manage lots of archers. As for the warrior I think it heads south/southeast until it finds something interesting to scout out.

[suboptimal]

Turn 6

No changes in score. No sign of the barbarian scout. Warrior moves to the jungle hill SE of the bananas. Finds…




The jungle SW and W of the warrior are all adjacent to a lake, based on the cliffs previously seen and the fact that the only non-freshwater tile adjacent to the warrior is the jungle hill to the SE. I see nothing here that changes things from last turn in terms of settlment location.

Next turn I’ll head SW and we’ll get a view of the lake. The slinger will also be out so that’ll be something else to do.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Bummer that the river isn't a couple tiles longer so we could squeeze in another city.

But we might be able to settle around the lake, the multiple 2/2 tiles are promising.

[suboptimal]

CMF, yeah, that would have been nice. The tile to the SW of the warrior in the T6 screenshot is another hill bananas. It's also the closest to the floodplain location that we could settle and be on the lake. Speaking of which...

Turn 7

The warrior, preferring the steamy jungles to the gentle coastal breezes, turns southwest to see what lurks in that direction:




The shores of the West Nubian Lake are fertile. Nothing on settlervision stands out. The scouting debate for next turn is whether to move to the bananas or head down the plains along the coast. I think either option gets us the same visibility. Ultimately I think the warrior should circle the lake and return for settler escort duty unless it finds a city-state off to the west. That may change if we have a dead end to the northeast of Mashed.

Back up at Mashed the barbarian scout has reappeared and our slinger is also done. I start a settler, that will complete in 13 turns (EoT19). The slinger moves to the hill to the east, revealing a bunch of forested hills along with some more flatland stone:




Since everything visible up here is within the capital’s influence I don’t check settlervision. The slinger’s next move will be to the hill to the east, though that will only reveal flat land to the SE past the stone. The capital will also grab the turtles next turn so I make sure the citizens are locked onto their current tiles.

In strange lands far away Archduke has gained a population.

Hit end turn and hear the barbarian camp sounder before the window for Pindicator shows up. Interesting.

I'll be curious to see where horses appear. So far the only eligible tiles that we can see are the grassland to the W of Mashed and the two flat plains tiles just revealed this turn.

[CFCJesterFool]

Mashed grows to size three then works max cogs to get the settler out quicker?