Dot mapping

[Qgqqqqq]

I like SE if the border situation deterioates.

[Sullla]

OK, let's figure out where the next city (or cities) are going.



Here is the northwest. There are no food resources anywhere close to the ivory tile. If we want that resource, we're going to have to plant a useless jungle spot purely for the resource itself. Directly on the ivory is probably the best location for a city here; if not, the tile northeast of the ivory is also extremely defensible. It's all basically an endless jungle everywhere.

The white dot is a spot that we've previously planned for a city, two tiles west of the rice. When to found this is still an open question.



This is the northeast. There's probably room for one more city here, and I suggest the location where I put the blue dot above. This is a defensive location (on a hill) that claims the rice and ensures that we minimize waste and border overlap. Another good spot would be northeast of this location, where the cows could be shared, but that is less secure and does add a fair amount of overlap. I don't think the land is strong enough to justify cramming in another city north of Tree Huggers along the German border.



And here's the south. I don't have a firm opinion of where to go here, so I'll just post the map and let all of you throw out your thoughts.

Where are we settling next? In what order? What cities do we plan to get the settler(s) from? These are all excellent questions for us to discuss right now, as it will influence what we do with the upcoming micro planning. Have fun.

[NobleHelium]

Well, there's still a chance we'll pick up food by planting northwest of the ivory at second ring. Not sure if we want to do that, but there's still hope there. I'm definitely in agreement with planting on the ivory if there's no food to be found.

I wish our war chariot hadn't died, because we need to finish scouting the coast south of SF to see if any seafood affects the dotmap there. (And maybe there's marble or silver? We can dream.) Will the TH missionary get to SF in time to speed up the border pop meaningfully (getting us a faster granary productively)? If so, I say we keep building it. If not we can build a war chariot instead.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I think 1S of wheat is a perfectly fine location, because it can't orphan any hypothetical seafood.

As for Ivory? It depends. If CPers settle for Ivory as 2nd ring (which is likely if they want the cows in its radius), then we can't settle on top, and will have to settle 1E or 1NE of Ivory. It they don't settle there next, we plant on top of Ivory.

I think it will be important for us to push our claims as far west as possible, as that gives us the easiest way to absorb the Germans. We want a broad border with them, with lots of places to attack the Germans and reinforce our captured holdings.

[fluffyflyingpig]

Favor:
Settle on ivory
2n of horse
2s of wheat

In roughly that order.
Really want to see where the next civ players settler goes.

[Ceiliazul]

I think 1S of wheat is a perfectly fine location, because it can't orphan any hypothetical seafood.

In the south: I think any dots here must wait for exploration. The southern coast is uncontested and we're not in a hurry. The spot 2N of horse looks like a great mesh with our current dots to speed development in that area without wrecking future dots. I think this would be strongest for economy and organic growth... IF CivPlayers turns nice.

If CivPlayers doesn't change their tune, we must sacrifice economy for a solid border there

White dot: Maybe move 1N to pick up a 2nd rice. That rice is currently under German control, but it's 3rd ring to their only nearby city, so it's winnable in the long term and not likely to cause outrage. This city is compatible with a city on ivory if needed. I like white dot next, or the spot 1N.

Blue dot can wait. It's a good spot, but less urgent than White, and offers less snowball than development in the South. Also, there's always a chance that Germany settles the area and chops all that jungle for us, which would be nice if we're planning a Bavarian annex.

Edit: Reply to FluffyPig,
Settling on the Ivory makes defense even harder on the civPlayers border. Instead of one isolated city we have two, and a huge drain on our economy to boot. White Dot (or similar) must come before the Ivory city.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

White dot is still junk until the jungle is chopped, and we're going to need to build a road through the jungle to reach the ivory. Hence, road up to the ivory, get some culture there, and some military to hold onto it. Otherwise CPers will gain 3rd ring borders over the ivory.

The tricky thing is that the map is laid out that the ivory is in CPer's natural expansion, so we're going to have to expend a disproportionate amount of effort to secure the ivory.

[fluffyflyingpig]

White dot and blue dot are jungle hellhole worker sinks in the short term. We need to prioritize worker labor as well as settlers. Would rather claim the ivory first.

[Ceiliazul]

How much commerce would a city on ivory cost really? maintenance/upkeep empire wide?

[NobleHelium]

About 11 gold if we planted it now, and worked a priest at size 1. 10 gold if we get an international trade route with it. It's generally never about the cost of the city itself. It's the opportunity cost that matters.