An Actual Update
We are certainly benefiting from not having to build any sort of a military. The demos bear this out:
We've been able to run this farmer's/fisher's paradise and use FWs to speed the growth of otherwise slow developing cities. First, some overview shots:
Contrary to my statement about the military earlier, the first human barb appeared this turn. The warrior is in a very defensible position, what with a river crossing and a forest bonus. I also buried the lede: there's the 4th city. Two FWs are double-teaming the sheep and it will be done next turn.
The scouting WB has uncovered the smaller islands of our apparent archipelago. We are abound in calendar resources. There is a seafood resource that the sheep can share, but it doesn't appear to be a strong long-term city.
The previously mentioned, but under-reported, eastern gold. The flood plains to the east are promising, as is the fish that could feed that gold, however, it would need a border pop. It's not shown well in the picture, but the fish is 2N1W of the warrior. Another slow developing city, but hopefully there's an inland food resource.
Now a city run down:
This is our quickest settler build, so I set it as such. The cottage does not decrease the time to build the settler. I am thinking of using this settler to settle the northern fish city. This will allow the capital to start working cottages and the new city to borrow the rice during that time.
The Hindy Holy City. Growing back to 4, will get MP on the turn it becomes unhappy, onto a FW or another Settler. I would prefer a settler as we don't have any hammer bonuses here for FW. Eventually, we'll have to figure out how and when to get a GP for this shrine.
The WB will finish the turn before borders pop, allowing the 2nd ring crab to be netted the first eligible turn, provided that Hindu doesn't spread here. This city will have some early production potential with 4 hills. A scouting WB from here will also be nice since we don't have any other north coast cities.
City TBD (Attention Naming Department
). The sheep will be pastured next turn for a 6/0/2 tile. Started the monument because it will need a border pop for horse and the clam.
I'm saving gold on sailing. With the overseas islands, I think a Galley would be useful sooner rather than later to build an overseas city for +2 TR. That eastern gold should probably be the focus of our expansion though, since we are food rich and happy limited.
Since this is a test game, I'll expound a bit on our position. I don't think we could have done anywhere close to what we're doing without our combination of traits. Our water start with plenty of seafood enabled some high yield tiles very early. These seafood tiles are of particular importance to us because we can build WBs faster and that all these tiles are worth +1 food. We've had an enormous crop yield lead, but we've also had to pour hammers into WBs and the "extra" cost into FWs. Certainly, no close proximity to another player or real barb trouble has been a boon. In summation, I feel our plan could have been more optimized. Perhaps one of the uber players on the site could be in a tremendous position by now.
Commenting further on the demos, someone has been at 16 CY for what seems like awhile. It seems that someone is either being choked or has had some bad barb luck.
What do you think, Kuro?