Be warned I write a lot...

I've gotten kind of bored recently with the game and have had trouble completing games so I decided to liven it up a bit. I'm a builder by nature (although I'm not hesitant to war... it's just I have to change everything when I feel the need to do so) so this should be pretty different for me. I'm pretty noob still at this. :smoke:

Noble difficulty.
Balanced (Pangaea with a lot of resources)
Standard size
Always War.
No Trading (I didn't want to AI to take advantage of this...)
Brennus SPR/CHM
6 Opponents

It's been a bit slow so far, mostly because I had to build a warrior ASAP... That starting scout wasn't going to hold down Bibracte. Terrain is pretty flat, except to the Northeast where there's a peninsula that is almost entirely desolate.

Ragnar sits at the top of it. He's been basically nerfed by my second warrior who camped out right next to Nidaros on a forested hill. That warrior managed to successfully defend against two Archers before I withdrew him to heal. Ragnar doesn't have a single terrain improvement because of him and is last on the score by far. :goodjob:

Rest of the civs I haven't done much too, mostly because all I have on the map otherwise is a scout (the original died). I guess Zulu would've been really useful here for Impi pillaging :(. Just for reference, the other civs are:
Elizabeth, Hannibal, Wang Kon, Gandhi, and Washington.

Gandhi founded Buddhism, Washington Hinduism. Don't know if Judaism is on the board. Didn't make it a priority.

I still don't have Iron Working. It's coming in five turns.

My first settler popped, and that's actually the purpose of this thread, aside from general AW tips.

Here's what the map looks like right now:
http://home.comcast.net/~ac196nataku/bare_north.jpg
There is a wine just outside the reach of my culture. The tiny fertile area on the bottom is useless. There is one tile down there that is currently cropped out of the photo and that's it. The rest is coast. No thanks. :p

http://home.comcast.net/~ac196nataku/bare_south.jpg
There is gold and corn in the bottom region. Where iron shows up could largely determine my settling. And of course, where Hannibal puts his towns will be important too. :crazyeye:

The north is obvious to me.
http://home.comcast.net/~ac196nataku/dot_north.jpg
Yes, I'm planning on ignoring those 5! plain/hills and the grass/hills. It just isn't going to support life until windmills and not more than three citizens until State Property. :cry: New Nidaros could come down one tile... but then I miss the copper. :cry: So hard...

The south I'm not so sure about...
http://home.comcast.net/~ac196nataku/dot_south.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~ac196nataku/dot_south2.jpg

Notice the lack of coastal cities. After lurking LK129, I've decided that they are out. The AI will only send pillaging fleets of doom and it just isn't worth the investment. That makes me a little sad because Nidaros has a fish, crab, and a whale. :eek:

My initial thoughts are to go after the horse town to pretty much seal the deal on the Vikes. Plus, I'm not sure where Iron will show up and that could be important.

Discuss?

EDIT- For those that are curious, here's the globe:

http://home.comcast.net/~ac196nataku/globe.jpg
That's Carthage closest to me, south of me. England is to the east of Cathage. Going clockwise from there, it's America, Korea, and India. From what I've seen there isn't much copper... Odd. It must just be out of my sight.

sounds interseting. i also agree to go for the horses.

What I notice first is the utter lack of hammers in your capital. That looks like a challenge.