<mind spew>
Interesting situation. I expect we’re on the southwestern portion of our landmass. The near-equitorial start implies that if we have one opponent they’ll be just north of the equator and east and if we have two opponents they’ll be SE and NE of our initial position.
The natural wonder is going to be Yosemite, with the wonder being located in the tiles SE and SW of the cows. There will be no mountains in the surrounding tiles and at least one of the wonder-adjacent tiles will (should) be forest. The tile SW-W of the cows will be land as Yosemite is not supposed to be placed on the coast. (Hmmm..been deep diving the map scripts, have we?
)
The lake does give the +2
bonus. Hopefully it's a 2-tile lake (or a bit larger) with a resource so we can eventually get a Kampung in the lake.
The settle on Turn 3 is a bit….puckering...but I think that the delay is more than made up for by getting 1
every turn for the rest of the game and having a 7-yield city center (
) and getting 14 yield upon founding (
). I also like the fact that the capital cannot be attacked from the SW (and thus not put under siege), and is vulnerable to naval bombardment only from the one coast tile to the W-NW until battleships. Its long term production yields will be low but you can’t sneeze at having 3
3
2
over everyone else as soon as the capital is founded even after a 2 turn delay in settling. Getting a finder’s bonus for a scientific city-state would be over the top, though I think I’d prefer a cultural one if only to have some better culture early.
I’m thinking that with the
yields on those tiles (including the probable 1
1
1
in the lake) we can dispense with needing to build a Campus early and perhaps put down a Holy Site next to Yosemite on a second ring tile that’s coastal (1W of genius cows). The capital could go Holy Site → Harbor for district builds though the adjacency on the Harbor would be low to none. Gold will be plentiful early so we can afford to buy a couple of tiles around the capital and City #2.
One other possibility – need to check the Appeal lens as this might make a viable situation for Earth Goddess (+1
on tiles with Charming appeal or better) over Goddess of the Harvest. That genius cattle tile is going to have Breathtaking appeal, the city center would be Charming (+2 for the NW, +1 for the lake, +1 for the forest) so that’s another +2
from about Turn 16 on.
That makes the capital our faith/science/gold powerhouse and we work on getting City #2 either in the jungle or over by the mountains to the east (settle SE-E of the copper) as a production center. For City #3 we’d then look for a coastal location, either in the jungle at the warrior’s current location or to the SW of the capital to capture more science out of Yosemite. I also think that we’re not going to easily get to a city-state to capture due to terrain so I expect that one of the cities (probably City #2) will be building the settler for City #3. I don’t know that I’d object to putting City #3 coastal but not fresh water if there’s an aqueduct site or we make an early run at Shipbuiding for Kampungs and their housing.
I know it’s against “conventional wisdom” but what are your thoughts about buying settler #2 for 440
rather than building it, given our gold generation capability? An alternative would be to build the settler at City #2 as soon as possible and buy two builders, one at each city, to get some chops going. Likewise I think getting Liang first might be the better option as the intended capital and City #2 do not have significant chops available and the builder charges are worth more. Magnus would be the second governor when we’re ready to chainsaw that forest & jungle to the north. Since you’ve got game access can you remind me when the first three civics-based governor titles are awarded (I know the first one is at Early Empire)?
So, proposed opening sequence:
Turn 1
- Settler SE to hill tile as the 3-tile vision will reveal that much more
- Warrior NE along river to start city-state hunting or E to check out that fresh water, depending on what the settler reveals.
Turn 2
- Settler 2 SW to location between cattle
- Warrior NE or E
Turn 3
- Found capital, start warrior build
- Warrior NE or E
Initial Capital Micro
Work genius cows. Grow to Pop 2 on Turn 8, add plains hill tile. Warrior out on Turn 13. Pop 3 on Turn 20, buy 2
2
forest and work that. Settler is out on Turn 26, city #2 founded on Turn 32 if going to the copper/dyes location to the east. Builder is out on Turn 33 if my back of the envelope math is correct.
I’ll double check that when I get home. We’ve got two turns to do so and I don’t have a copy of my city micro spreadsheet with me.
Techs
Animal Husbrandry → Mining → Astrology → Bronze Working → Sailing
Builds at Capital
Warrior → Settler → Builder → Slingers, maybe a scout → Holy Site
Settler before builder is dictated by the delay in getting the capital founded, I think. Builder will improve both cows and mine the plains hill. The built warrior will go around Yosemite along the coast to see if there’s a coastal spot for City #2 that beats out the spot to the E of the start location.
</mind spew>