This is Monarch, Standard size 7AI,Terra map on Marathon.

Having failed at dealing with 12 and 18 AIs on Monarch on huge maps, I'm scaling things back a bit to see if I can manage 7.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/4162/btscelt1gm5.th.jpg (http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=btscelt1gm5.jpg)

I can settle

1. in place and get sugar, bananas, corn and clams in the BFC
2. on the bananas, but gaining cows and rice but losing the sugar BFC
3. on the hill where the scout is, get cows, bananas, corn, clams but not rice or sugar in the BFC
4. Regenerate map :D

They all seem to be a bit of a compramise :/

I reckon this would also be a perfect GP farm (SE economy?), so I would have to find somewhere else to crank out units.

I do apologise for the double thread, if a mod can delete this one please.

Thanks

I would settle in place. The bananas can be farmed making it like a floodplain until calendar comes online and will limit the amount of water in your BFC. Four hills are good for productions. The rice to the south looks like can be grabbed by another city later as well as the cows.

I would settle on the bananas. You can build moai statues to increase production which will be huge with all that water. Plus if you manage to snag colossus it will be a good science/commerce center while still allowing you to run some GPs.

Settle on bananas.

You lose +1 food between Calendar and Biology, but you gain +1 food before Calendar and don't have to waste time improving the tile.

Personally, I would settle on the bananas, because cows very early is powerful imo. Production, to me, is the most important thing early in the game. Grassland cow is 4F/2H (i think) and it is really good. You lose the food from plantation bananas and the sugar, but gain rice and cow like you describe. To me the cow alone is worth it and getting access to the coast is a bonus.

Personally, I would settle on the bananas, because cows very early is powerful imo. Production, to me, is the most important thing early in the game. Grassland cow is 4F/2H (i think) and it is really good. You lose the food from plantation bananas and the sugar, but gain rice and cow like you describe. To me the cow alone is worth it and getting access to the coast is a bonus.

He has access to coast if he settles in place also. You are right about cows being very powerful in the early game, grassland cow is my second favourite resource after riverside corn... Production is important, but imo food is the most important thing in the early game. With high food surplus you grow fast to happy cap, produce settlers and workers in no-time and can whip all important buildings.

I just don't like the idea of settling on the bananas.. Yes, it makes a better city in short-term, but weaker city in long-term with more water tiles, plus it wastes a 5F tile.. Settling in place makes good capital with high surplus food and 4 hills. This can work as a production city in the early game, and possibly as a GP farm later.

I agree food is really important. But with rice/corn/seafood/cow. He has a enough food to reach happy cap early if he settles on bananas. Sacrificing a few food to gain the early hammer to me was a good sacrifice, but you also gain some coast tiles too. It's all about comprimise. You could settle in place and with the extra food just whip a little more to compensate for the slight loss of hammers..

I gotta be honest, i rarely have a start with that many resources.

I agree food is really important. But with rice/corn/seafood/cow. He has a enough food to reach happy cap early if he settles on bananas. Sacrificing a few food to gain the early hammer to me was a good sacrifice, but you also gain some coast tiles too. It's all about comprimise. You could settle in place and with the extra food just whip a little more to compensate for the slight loss of hammers..

I gotta be honest, i rarely have a start with that many resources.

Yeah, the difference isn't big whether he settle's in place or on the bananas.. It isn't that there wouldn't be enough food, there's loads of it in any case. It's just the thing that if you settle on the 'nanas, you can never work that tile. If you settle in place, you can work the cows and the rice with other cities.

OK, I settled on the bananas, and it turns out there is sugar 1S of the corn, so I still get sugar.

Great! I would have suggested banana if I replied earlier, for one more reason: You can navigate into the next bay THROUGH your city, making the distance shorter and easier. I don't know the geography of the rest of the area but.. it could be a plus. Anyway it takes quite a while to get to Calendar, and I wouldn't feel it was too bad to settle on the banana because you earn a lot of resources around there. Tell us what else you find! :)

Well, things didn't go so well after that :(

Here's my 'Civ' now. you'll see we were not blessed with any metals, and either one would do for Gallic Warriors - but we did get Horsies and Jumbos (eventually) and way to late to do an early rush with. Horses were miles away and Jumbos require Construction and of course all the other Civs were fed Techs by Mansa Musa.

http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/2959/btscelt2bw7.th.jpg (http://img369.imageshack.us/my.php?image=btscelt2bw7.jpg)

However, here is the depressing tech situation - everyone has feudalism and Saladin has macemen. Sitting Bull my other neighbour has already (!) vassalized Cyrus and Saladin, and I'm landlocked in by SB and Sal.

http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/1561/btscelt3jq7.th.jpg (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=btscelt3jq7.jpg)

And lastly here is my rather puny Stack of Doom, hardly going to worry Sitting Bull with his well promoted LBs.

I'm already down to 40% tech, I'm guessing my only real option is to get to either just keep building troops until I have a 3 humongous stacks but by then there will probably be pikemen to kill all my mounted troops.

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/20/btscelt4nh7.th.jpg (http://img166.imageshack.us/my.php?image=btscelt4nh7.jpg)

Gah, I'm gonna call it a day - no way I can win this on Monarch. Shame - promising start. A one less food for one metal would have made quite a difference.

Can you post the save ? I'm a struggling Monarch player too and like looking at other peoples games :)

I would settle in place, you will have more grassland
grassland hills are good enough for hammers, as well you have corn and clams = whip
later you can grab rice and cow with other cities

What happens to settled bananas vs. plantationed (farmed??) bananas after Biology?

plantation = biology farm

This is an insane start!! Settle on banana for sure.

Agree, settle on the banana...SO MUCH FOOD. You can actually go a lot of ways with that capitol but it will probably wind up a GP farm (may want to move the capitol later). Early on you'll be making workers/settlers extra quick.

I suggest you to read the replies before posting.

I do apologise for the double thread, if a mod can delete this one please.

Thanks

This is the one that should be deleted, the other one had the discussion. He/she settled on the bananas btw.

plantation = biology farm

But these are settled bananas, not farmed or plantationed bananas. Seems to me you'd still lose 1 food even after Biology.

(That said, I too would still settle early bananas.)

Bostock

Yes, the save would be much appreciated. And I would most likely settle in place, but first move the scout 2 steps SW to see more of the surrounding terrain.

I merged the two duplicate threads.

In the future, you can report the post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/images/buttons/report.gif) to get our attention. I happened to simply be browsing this forum and saw it.

But these are settled bananas, not farmed or plantationed bananas. Seems to me you'd still lose 1 food even after Biology.

You lose 1 food after Biology for settling on grassland too.