[SPOILERS] The Rise and Fall of Whositania (all glory to Whositania!)

[Whosit]

Looking more closely, also looks like I can see the end of that river, so that's a little sad. I don't think I can complain about the resource density here, but I admit I loves me some rivers.

[Whosit]

I played out to T70 in my Sandbox. Too far to really be useful, but for City 2, I think starting with Barracks, and then whipping into a Worker, the Worker will pop in time to chop a forest, then get onto that gem hill right before border pop. Warrior will have to escort, of course. I think the gems are worth hooking up early. As for other cities, I did a coastal city to grab both crabs, but the startup time was pretty terrible. I don't really want that spot to be my 3rd city if I can help it, but in any case, I wonder if it would be better to settle for crab in 1st ring even if that might hurt the long-term strength of the city.

I'll have to consider that more once I get further into the game. My gut is saying that if I'm forced to settle one of those coastal cities as my 3rd city, I'm better off making it strong in the short term. In fact, settling for the north crab in 1st ring leaves 4 grass hills in the city's radius (1 in 2nd ring). 1 Crab can feed that pre-lighthouse, and that would make a pretty decent production city for land [b]and[b/] sea, at least for ancient era stuff.

[Whosit]

Good news, everybody! Got some more nice scouting results, and perhaps a new candidate for city #3:

That is not a freshwater lake, so it's either a large lake or an outlet to the sea. It will be some time before I know for sure, but just look at that! I can get clams (something I was hoping for), (dry) corn, and plains hill Stone all in first ring! Anything in second ring would be a bonus, but I would not have to start with a Barracks. The main downside? It's far away. 4 tiles from where my second city is going to be, but great looking location. Production site for sure. When Civil Service comes, I can farm those grassland tiles, which will both irrigate the corn and let the town work a ton more production tiles. Ancient era tech should let me get to size 6 or so, maybe larger. I see another grass hill in the fog, and several plains tiles waiting to be workshopped.

Let's see... 2 plains hills (1 with stone), and I think I count 5 grass hills. That's... 24 hammers in those hills, plus 1 from city tile. That needs... size 9 at least, so 18 food. Can that config do that? 2 (city), 5 (corn), 5 (lighthouse clams), 5 (grass hills) = 17. Sooo, not quite. But! If I get 1 grass farm (3), that's 20. So... 3 citizens to work food tiles, and 7 to work production tiles... and that works out! I can get this sucked to size 10 in the ancient era (happiness withstanding). I'll be capped at 6 with gems and ivory. Calendar will bring in 2 more happy. I'm going to need to find some more luxuries. Oh, though if I end up in HR, I could put in some cheap MP to make up the difference. This place is definitely HE worthy, especially if it can make boats. Lesse. Civil Service will let me increase food by... net 2, so it could work a plains workshop or something. Yeah, definitely like this.

Also it would help me seal off my territory nicely in a big line from shore to shore. Then as I explore more, I can hopefully grab some more stuff at the edges and then fill in later. Hm... connecting to trade routes before it gets settled could be tricky.

Lurker question: If I connected this city to the river with 2 road tiles, would this connect it pre-sailing? The river connection would be outside of my territory. I'll check it out later, but I think the answer is "no" and that cities connect by river pre-sailing only if said rivers are inside borders.

Moving on to the last bit: What to do with the scout.

Question 2: When do barbarian animals start appearing? If I want to swing northeast right now, I either end up on flat ground, or I slow down my progress a lot by stopping in forests. I'm tempted to just move 1SE (3) next turn, and then move twice NE (9-9) to end up in that forest, at which point I'm hoping to find some other safer tiles to land in. My other option would be to move into that forest NE that's 2 tiles away, then move 1NE to another forest I can make out. It's faster, but I'll unfog fewer tiles, so I might take the longer route.

[Whosit]

Oh, one more question: Would settling on that stone hill produce a city center with 3 hammers? Not that I plan to settle there, but I'm curious.

[mackoti]

Oh, one more question: Would settling on that stone hill produce a city center with 3 hammers? Not that I plan to settle there, but I'm curious.

1.will not.
2. turn 5 .
from what i see is plain hill stone so yeah.

[Whosit]

Thanks. I think I'll be careful with my scout, then... I'm wondering if I should even bother scouting further northeast or just head south/southwest. I'm not sure that anything I find to the east will change my plans for city 2.

[Whosit]

Oh, by the way, the Stone would be used for Oxford (if I make it that far) and such things. I could see some appeal in the Great Wall if barbs are bad and it's still available later, but I need to keep reminding myself to steer away from Wonders. Hard not to wish, though.

I'll mess around with my sim a bit later. Gonna see what settling the south feels like. I think I will keep settling in that direction, though, because from the look of it I don't expect to find anything to the east to really make me change plans. Might try to check it out with my first Warrior, though. I need to remember that in Krillmod the chances of getting Warrior rushed is lower, although not absent. Anyway, thoughts here: I'm not going to settle to the north any time soon, so I don't need to scout there yet. The western coast will be settled, but it needs to be scouted out a bit more thoroughly, and I don't feel it's ideal for early settlement. East is admittedly pretty mysterious, but it looks dry so it wouldn't be a 2nd city spot, anyway. I'll just keep checking south.

But should I move the scout 1SE (3), or 1S-1SW (2-1)? I'll probably go 1SE just to defog those tiles, and then 1SW-? next turn, because I think I'll get good sight over the water, anyway.

Finally, when I last played in my sandbox, I started to get cottages in the early T50s. I feel that was too early, but I'm not sure. I think I'll go back and read the early turns of some of the people from PB13. Getting cottages started early is good, but since my early game goals is Worker - Settler - Warrior, production is what I want, and cottages don't contribute to that. What I want to improve are: Resource bonuses > Production tiles (mines) > Anything else. I'll try to work with that.

[Whosit]

I'm so bad at reading score, I'm not even sure why some people started with 35 points, and some have 29. I certainly didn't pop a tech or anything.

[Whosit]

Also, a brief reading of some of the top threads gives me this answer to the cottage question: It depends. I saw one player get their first cottage in the T40s, and a couple others in the T60s. I think it depends on what is most pressing for me. Also, those gems can shore me up in the short term, so I don't think I need to sacrifice any early expansion just to get a cottage down. Also, the first cottage will be one that can be shared between cap and second city, so there's that.

I just wish city spot 3 wasn't so far away.

[Whosit]

Oh, yeah, and I'm in the southern part of the map, because those trees to the south are frosted. Not sure if I should take much from that, yet. I can see the jungle band up north, too. This seems like a pretty narrow map considering the size.... I wonder if I'm just in a weird spot.

Edit: Checked out a regular huge map. I guess the bands are narrower than I'd think. Heading further south would probably introduce me to tundra, so maybe heading east would give me a better shot at meeting someone after all. I think I'd still like to poke south a bit more, anyway.