[spoiler] yuris125 goes back to Russia

[yuris125]

I will try to report this game better than the last few. Promise

[yuris125]

So, after using both rerolls, I ended up playing Russia. While I'm not a big fan of this civ, it's certainly better than the first 2 options

* Indonesia was an easy reroll. Their main strength is in getting free luxuries in cities founded on landmasses other than the starting one. This is not going to happen on a pangaea. The UU is underwhelming and comes at a time when a major military action is unlikely. The UB is decent if you're ready to jump through hoops of getting multiple religions in every city. All in all, a below average civ

* Brazil was an even easier reroll. Their unique features basically require you to play for a culture victory. Which is not particularly easy in multiplayer. Add the jungle start bias, which means a lot of worker turns and low production, and you get a very weak civ

So, Russia it is. The features of the civ:
* Unique ability: Siberian Riches. Strategic Resources give +1 Production when worked by a City. Horse, Iron and Uranium are provided in double quantity
* Unique unit: Cossack. Replaces Cavalry, gets +33% when fighting wounded units
* Unique building: Krepost. Replaces Barracks, reduces the cost of acquiring new tiles (both culture and gold) by 25%

A good solid civ which has potential to exceed production of other civs early thanks to the production both from strategic resources, can expand borders faster, and has a UU which comes at a time favourable for aggression. +33% against wounded is relatively easy to activate with ranged units. The main problem of Russia is their tundra start bias. Hopefully Meiz balanced the map a little bit, so that it won't hinder me too much

[yuris125]

This is my start




This start is bad. Maybe even BAAAAD. It does have 3 luxuries. That's about the onyl good thing I can say about it. There's no 3-food tile, and all 2-food tiles have no production. Riverside plains farms are good 3/1 tiles post-Civil Serivce, that could be better than 4/0 grassland riverside farms, as production generally is at a premium. But we need to get to Civil Service first

So, I decided to move the Warrior 3-3, to the east of the bottom truffles. If he wouldn't find anything, I would settle on the silver - even if there's no food resource, at least it would give me early production and gold

I did not save the mid-turn screenshot, but here's one at the end of the turn




As you can see, I found a cow tile in the east. However, the only way of settling on T1 was to move 6-6 from the start, and settle on the plains. And if I'm going there anyway, settling on the hill for an extra hammer is better. So the current plan is that I will settle on the marked spot on T2

I moved the Settler a little to the north to reveal an extra tile on the way to that spot

[Ichabod]

At least you got a 3 food tile. I get very confused when my start has just bland 2f tiles and hills. I din't know if I try to grow the city or just stagnate it when it grows.

[Ichabod]

By the way, I'd even lose time improving those cows for now. Better to get some farms going, I think.

[yuris125]

Well, I don't think I will get a Worker in the first 20ish turns. My typical build order is Scout - Scout - Monument if Liberty - Shrine - Worker. I may build the Worker before Shrine in MP, but still, 2 Scouts is about 8 turns on quick, Worker is 10 or so, and I don't think city state Workers start appearing before T20 as well. Also, depends if I have any riverside grassland for farms. Plains farms are 2/1 before Civil Service, improved cow is strictly better at 3/1

[Ichabod]

Well, I don't think I will get a Worker in the first 20ish turns. My typical build order is Scout - Scout - Monument if Liberty - Shrine - Worker. I may build the Worker before Shrine in MP, but still, 2 Scouts is about 8 turns on quick, Worker is 10 or so, and I don't think city state Workers start appearing before T20 as well. Also, depends if I have any riverside grassland for farms. Plains farms are 2/1 before Civil Service, improved cow is strictly better at 3/1

Yeah, improved cows is better than a farm. But unimproved cow + a farm is 5 food, 1 prod, while improved cow and a plains is 4 food, 2 prod. Of course, it's certainly debatable which is better and I'm nowhere near an experienced Civ 5 player.

[yuris125]

I'm not that experienced myself. It all depends on what's around the spot I chose for Moscow - I'll move the Warrior there next turn. Also, I think food is not as important in Civ5 as in Civ4, as there's no way to convert food to hammers (Slavery). It's still important of course - but production is very comparable, and 4f/2h can easily be better than 5f/1h. Although I really hope I won't have to work a bare plains tile ever, which means that my output should be better than 4/2

[yuris125]

So we restarted the game due to Rowain missing some DLCs. This game required a lot of effort to get off the ground, but I think we're now firmly under way

Here's my new start




This one is much better than the previous one. It's riverside, there're some farmable tiles around, and copper is one of the better luxuries (mining luxuries are generally superior to calendar ones, as they help with production). Sugar being in the marsh is annoying - but that's the most common terrain for sugar, it can appear in grassland, but I see it in marshes way more often

All in all, a perfectly reasonable start, and settling in place is very much an option. However, my eyes kept coming back to the copper hill 2W of the Settler's tile

Here's the thing. In Civ4, settling on a gold is almost unthinkable. You would lose all benefits of the gold tile for no gain at all. In Civ5 this is much less of a problem. As you an see from the screenshot, the copper hill tile yield is 0/2/2. Improved, it will be 0/3/3. A city tile yield is 2/1, with an extra hammer for settling on a hill, and 2 gold for settling on a luxury. So, founding on the coppered hill makes the city tile yield 2/2/2. You still lose a hammer and a gold, but gain 2 food, and will work this gold all the time. You wouldn't be able to work a 0/2/2, or even 0/3/3 tile for a while, you would need food. But by settling on the gold, you start benefiting from that tile yield from the start

I thought about it for a while, but eventually decided to move. And was very happy to see the hill's surroundings




Double cow in the second ring! A lot of riverside tiles! The city itself is no longer riverside, which means it won't be able to build a Watermill or a Garden. But the improved tile yield will easily outweigh that

So I settled there on T1, and set research to Pottery. Both AH and Mining are techs I need more than Pottery, but in a little more distant future. Pottery enables the buildings I may need early on, Granary and Shrine, and is almost always the right choice for the first research

[Meiz]

Pretty solid looking capital I must say . What's your first build?