Let me sum up this post: I'm bad at dotmaps (but I'm positive that I'll eventually get better at this with help).

The game is Augustus Caesar of the Romans, Hemispheres map type, monarch level. Going for that loved early Roman domination with the help of those Praetorian brutes. My original plan was to run a watered-down cottage economy (when I say watered-down, I mean that I am focusing more than usual on food, mainly for whipping). This plan was quickly thrown at the door when I found stone right outside Rome. I used it for the pyramids which led me to police state and a hammer-focus in my cities. For this reason, my dotmap was really thought out with the idea of each city being virtually hybrid.

I had almost no idea what to do with the terrain. I've provided my dotmap and a blank one as well-- I'll some help as to what I was thinking:


Red: Primary functions: production center (atleast temporarily for my military) and to hook up stone. I was really not sure whether it would be better as a commerce city or a production city (some advice on that would be appreciated). At the moment, it runs cottages and hammers, although my original intention was all-out production.
Orange: Another hyrbid. Cottages on the floodplains and plenty of hills for military production.
Yellow: Originally meant for a large food surplus so I could whip in times of war and work cottages in times of peace. Now I'm not so sure. (I'm aware that much of that area remains unexplored, but it's in jungle territory, so it can't vary much... or can it?)
Green: Same idea as yellow.
Blue: Again split between commerce and production. My guess is commerce since it lacks freshwater.
Light Blue: Will never amount to anything. I placed it to hook up ivory for war elephants. If anything, it will be a poor production city?
Purple:Also never amounts to much. Primarily to block off Charlemagne, also to make sure I keep that iron from him. Poor production city with a lighthouse to work 3F lake tiles for food.


I know it's much better to further specialize the cities, but in this situation I couldn't determine how to specialize each one. In a sense, I wanted each city to be hammer-heavy (either through food or production) while also being able to work 5-10 cottages. Any advice on city placement or my game in general is needed! Thanks!

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a397/Trv016/Dotmap1.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a397/Trv016/CopyofDotmap1.jpg

Assuming "Going for that loved early Roman domination" means you want an early Domination victory, let me suggest a different approach from what you seem to have in mind.

A much faster Praetorian rush. The faster you are, the fewer Praetorians you'll lose to Walls and Longbows. Furthermore, being in Police State positions you well to spam Praetorians but badly to research to Catapults. So rather than settling a nice six-city dotmap and "blocking" Charlemagne, click Alt-Praetorian in both cities and eliminate him right now. Meanwhile, explore and figure out how to get just enough cities to eliminate the other local civs as soon as possible.

A full specialist economy. You have the Pyramids and the Forum and the ability to clear out your continent, and you want early Domination. Specialists give great short-term benefit compared to cottages. Farms also position you for drafting.

For city settlement, while Praetorian rushing you want enough production to finish the continent and that's it. Your Pigs city would be OK for short-term production, but for the exercise I encourage you to not settle it now. After Praetorian rushing, settle the best food sites and skip the marginal ones. I see two good food sites on the river: 3S of the mountain, and on the hill between the Bananas (if cottaging, I'd also recommend those spots for maximum cottages.)