[PB25-SPOILERS] The Lunacy of the Reign of HAK Continues

[HitAnyKey]

Wait, is Sulai PHI?

Yep, Sulei is IMP/PHI. Hence why I was considering him, just for getting the faster GPPs as a different thing I haven't done much in the past.

[Krill]

Shit, I was mixing him up with Julius. Ignore me.

[Fenn]

I'd go with Mehmed over Suleiman, though since the first worker comes out quicker I'd recommend you start off with worker techs so he has stuff to do. The first city needs a good amount of worker/work boat labour to hook up the resources and cottage the river tiles so being able to pump out workers quickly is valuable IMO. The thing to keep in mind is if your tech can keep up with your workers; cheaper workers aren't as useful if they spend more turns sitting around then the production bonus saves. That said EXP/ORG is still a good combo for early/mid/late game bonuses, it'd be a good choice.

[HitAnyKey]

Ok, guess I'll just go with Mehmed. You guys both kinda convinced me to try it. ORG is probably the better trait to play with than PHI anyway. And for this start, EXP is better than IMP. And Mehmed does have a nice large amount of building bonuses, having the most of any Leader in the game at 7 (tied with only Shaka & Suryavarman).
Hopefully Mehmed of the HRE has decent enough synergy, or whatever.

[Krill]

Mehmed of HRE is like ultimate level Synergy.

[MindyMcCready]

Wow great pick!
Hunting first - CHECK!
HRE for economics - CHECK!
Organized for cheap super courthouses - CHECK!
Expansive for Workers + WB + health + cheap econ buildings - CHECK!

For the religion,...throwing in my $0.02. Fishing and Agriculture are high priority or else you may idle the worker. You won't have BW for awhile so may need to tech Archery. If you go religion first, you may be playing catch-up for the rest of the game. If you can get a religion great, but it shouldn't cost you too much economically since COL will be a very high priority anyway. With 50% off the 75% courthouses + cheap markets a shrine could be considered optional and with only 8 other players religion will spread anyway and it wouldn't be a catastrophe to give away 1gpt to another civ.

[HitAnyKey]

So I'm trying to make a sandbox for this...and think I may have succeeded. At least to the immediate need.
If I'm correct, the worker will get completed T10 and the pasture made T13. If I got Wheel first before Agriculture, I can start roading towards the Rice while building the Settler.
The road on the Forest 1E of capital would be finished T16. Then road on Rice finished T19.
Farm is finished T23, and Settler comes out T24. Worker can then either do more road if need be, or Farm a grassland next to the lake or something while waiting for the next worker tech. Options are Fishing, Pottery or Mining.
This will all depend on what the Scout finds around the Rice, to hopefully make it worthwhile to have the second city to that NE/East area.

If one (or both) of the early religions are taken by then, so be it. Just means I took a Mysticism civ for no big gain. But if one of them is not taken by the time I finish Agri, then maybe I can try to get one of them before going for the next worker tech.

[MindyMcCready]

I certainly haven't simmed this but wheel first sounds suboptimal. In fact, I haven't played CIV for a while so I might be forgetting some basics. LOL.

Once the pigs are online will you be building a warrior? If so, and I think it's a good idea, you can grow the city up to work both the pigs and rice. It may hold back your 2nd city a turn or two but it'll likely speed up your 3rd city.

The worker can pasture, then farm 2N or move directly to farm rice depending on tech times. I'd say a 90% chance that your 2nd city should be 2N1E of your capital for the shared food so the farm should be useful.

2nd tech should be Fishing. Once the 2nd city is online switch city 2 to the 2 food resources and have the capital work the crabs and lake. That bit of commerce will give you a boost to make a play at that early religion that you want.

Does everybody start with a scout now?

It's easy to forget, but for Expansive, those grass hill mines are the equal of wet rice while making workers. LOL,...I think that you want mining first.

[HitAnyKey]

To answer your question about the Scout, yes the map maker (at least I believe this is the case) made it so everyone starts with a Settler & Scout.

I was originally planning on taking the risk and going straight for the Settler before building my first warrior. For some reason I thought Barbs were going off, but I just doublechecked and they are indeed on. So it's probably not a good idea to wait until T29 to get out my first warrior. Especially since I'd have 2 cities with no protection until that time.

For now I'll wait to do any more sims until the game starts and I can see a bit more of the land with the scout. Still need to decide between Wheel & Agriculture for the starting tech....but I can wait until the second turn before choosing my tech. That'll give a couple days to think and two turns worth of scout movements.

[HitAnyKey]

I'd say a 90% chance that your 2nd city should be 2N1E of your capital for the shared food so the farm should be useful.

I'm almost definitely not going to settle the city 2N1E of the capital. I don't like the 2nd city being that close (close, but not that close) and I also don't want to settle it on a forest that would be better off being chopped at some point. Maybe 2N2E (ie. diagonally across the lake) would be a good spot. That would still share both food resources.
But again, it's all going to depend on what the scout sees over there.