It's Chevalier's Thread and He Can Do What He Wants To

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Hmm, peering at the map more closely, it looks like the bananas are coastal. SIP would preclude any cities along that coast, if so. But those are all terrible flatland tiles, so maybe we don't even want a city out there.

[Banzailizard]

Wait, shit, it needs a camp, not a pasture. No camp resources in sight. So scratch that for now, but it'd be wonderful to have. No river, so the Hanging Gardens are also out. Pyramids, Petra, and Stonehenge all still possibilities.

Timelines...ugh. We have so much to do! Priorities:

1)Get out at least one scouting unit
2)Get a second city out
3)Get a HS up and start gathering points.
4)Get a builder - probably 2 - and start improving these tiles. Think about what we want to spend our 5 chops on.
5)Get the Plaza ->Ancestral Hall up preferably before settler #2. Chop both?

I think those are the 5 most urgent start-of-game things. With so little chopping resources and no real pressure to grab first religion, we might skip Stonehenge and do things the right way - we need a HS anyway for faith accumulation.

Using your post above as reference, it says "each camp, pasture and plantation within 4 tiles provides one amenity" so the temple should still work.  Granted there might be more ideal locations, scotting will be important, but keep that in mind.  The real prize is the housing anyways.   Otherwise I agree with your priorities list.  Do not delay the second settler though for the ancestral hall if there is a good location.  The compunding returns from the city will more than offset the opportunity for a free builder.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

It has to be placed next to a camp, though, and we don't have any deer or truffles in sight.

[Ichabod]

To be fair, I don't see how this Capital will have housing problems. The city simply does not have food to grow (my Capital in PBEM 3 had the same problem, but at least I had good 3rd ring tiles and possibility of farming triangles, which you don't have here). There are no food-harvest option and the best food tile is a 3-yield bananas on third ring (so, almost too late to matter). I think moving to the coast gets a sizeable benefit in the form of 100% chopping boats and it feels this is way better than a bit more housing and some third ring resources. All resources end up second ring, but you have 2/2 tiles to work just the same.

Another problem is the craftsmanship inspiration, since I can see only 2 improvements that are worth the hassle (well, if you go for the coastal settle, you have the crabs, though it's not a good improvement as well). Crabs are bonus recources, by the way, not luxuries.

Magnus promotion that settlers don't cost a pop-point is an absolute must here. Is it possible to get it before your first settler?

I'd move the warrior 1W and think a bit more. This is a very rough start.

[Banzailizard]

It has to be placed next to a camp, though, and we don't have any deer or truffles in sight.

Ah I missed that which is a shame could have been a great wonder.  I might be in agreement with Ichabod here then.  With the Temple you might have grown enough, without it, there is little chance.  Better to focus on using the high production chops.  Chop out the government plaza in city #2 maybe. Hopefully the rest of the island looks good.

[aetryn]

Hmm, peering at the map more closely, it looks like the bananas are coastal. SIP would preclude any cities along that coast, if so. But those are all terrible flatland tiles, so maybe we don't even want a city out there.

It also appears the northern mountain and the hill east of it are also coastal. That suggests there's not much land to the west, but it could just be two long inlets.

[aetryn]

To be fair, I don't see how this Capital will have housing problems. The city simply does not have food to grow (my Capital in PBEM 3 had the same problem, but at least I had good 3rd ring tiles and possibility of farming triangles, which you don't have here). There are no food-harvest option and the best food tile is a 3-yield bananas on third ring (so, almost too late to matter). I think moving to the coast gets a sizeable benefit in the form of 100% chopping boats and it feels this is way better than a bit more housing and some third ring resources. All resources end up second ring, but you have 2/2 tiles to work just the same.

Another problem is the craftsmanship inspiration, since I can see only 2 improvements that are worth the hassle (well, if you go for the coastal settle, you have the crabs, though it's not a good improvement as well). Crabs are bonus recources, by the way, not luxuries.

Magnus promotion that settlers don't cost a pop-point is an absolute must here. Is it possible to get it before your first settler?

I'd move the warrior 1W and think a bit more. This is a very rough start.

Getting 2 governor promotions requires 2 of the following: State Workforce, Government Plaza (unlocked by State Workforce), Early Empire. So it's possible if you duck Early Empire for a while, but it's going to be a bit slow. We might run out of culture options if we also try to get the State Workforce boost by building a normal district. It would probably be a really late second city. But the food situation might be dire enough here to warrant it.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Crabs at least gets us halfway to the Celestial Navigation eureka, so there's that. I don't think it'll be possible to get Magnus to level 2 before our first settler, though - we won't be able to get the culture for it, I think, without delaying city #2 an unacceptably long time.

So, we can move to the coast, and maybe push the plaza back to city #2 - it's a cheap district, so #2 can get it up quickly no matter where we plant it. Capital will never get above size 7, really, so we take a HS, then Harbor/Campus or Campus/Harbor. Still the problem of only 5 chops to spend - I blew through those just building the VA in PBEM7. Maybe get Magnus level 2 and blow all 5 on +100% settlers? Only wonder I could conceivably want at this location is the Great Lighthouse, so that's another possibility. Final option is to spend the chops on early districts.

Also thinking pantheon. Goddess of the Harvest remains one of my favorites, it scales really well, but I'm not sure how great it'd be if the rest of the island is as sparse as our start. Earth Goddess might give more steady, sustained faith in the long-term. God of the Open Sky will help with culture a bit, and otherwise nothing seems worthwhile. Means I want an early pantheon, so an early HS.

So, maybe move - > Turn 2 settle - > Slinger (don't like a scout on an island map) -> Settler (not a lot of builder improvements to be made at first) -> Holy site [Builder -> Galley ->Chop Holy site? With no Magnus?], while city #2 gets up a Plaza and Hall then settler chops? As a tentative plan. Yeah, it's a tough start, for sure. Rome would have things WAY easier with the free culture and no need for Holy Sites - but Rome being easy is why we see 'em every game and I'm sick of that. We gave ourselves Challenge Mode for sure with Arabia.

[Banzailizard]

If Brazil is in the game divine spark might not be bad if only for denial purposes. Explore the rest of the island though, not much else to do.

Let's look on the bright side for this start too. 1. You have a lot of production especially for a water based map this will extend to the second and third cities you found since the hills cover such a large area 2.  With all those cliffs and that long inlet your capital will be noticably hard to take. That's about it but it is something.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Yeah, at least with Press Gangs our capital should be able to crank out ships.

So, turn one we'll move the warrior to the west and see what we can see, but in all likelihood I will move the settler to the cove and found my capital (to be named Escobar ar Rahman) on turn 2.