I'm Hatty, I'm on what I presume to be a continent with Sitting Bull to my east and Saladin to my west. I can access horses, but even with war chariots I hate going against protective civs. Plus I think there is some good land to be claimed peacefully first! So it brought me to this question: Who do I block?

They both don't declare at please iirc, which will make diplo less of a headache. Looks like blocking Sal will be easier, but it's mostly jungle. Sitting Bull has more land to claim I believe.

And oh yeah, I realize that there could be more neighbors on this map, but pretend we know that there aren't-I kinda wanna see what the forum thinks about whom to block:

Eastern part of the continent, with Sitting Bull
http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0004-1.jpg

Western part, with Sal
http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0003-3.jpg

Jumbos/sugar, the northern corn, and as much of sitting bull's land as possible. As long as you're reasonably quick you can get enough land no matter what though...so I probably wouldn't block but rather ASAP the best sites, and betray one of them later.

TMITs advice is sound, but if you want more specifics consider these locations (if you can track them down from my directions)

Settler 1 goes to SB and settles on the plains hill on the corner of the river (NNW of the cow). You're creative so the second border pop won't take long and blocks him off from sneaking around the coast below you. SB will then probably try and settle the Horse+Crab to the SE of that, which is fine.

Settler 2 goes towards Saladin and settles N of the NW elephant, claiming two eles, rice and two sugar. This blocks him from coming south, the city will be a dead weight early on but will be one of your best cities once IW is in and you can start cottaging it.

Settler 3 heads back across to SB. If you look for the mountain between the spices/rice then you'll see a row of 3 settleable tiles to the east of it (grass->grass->grass/hill), settling on any one of those will complete the block with the city you settled first.

Depending on the difficulty (looks like Emp+ based on Saladins borders?) your economy will likely be shattered. Fortunately the city you settled first will have 5 floodplains/river grass cottages to work while it slow builds workers/settlers to prevent growth while still working all of the cottages.
I would chop all of the forests in your capital into settlers right from the start.
2 more cities to the north of your capital will complete the block and leave room for at least 3 more to backfill. 8 cities secured, decent/good land and saladin to cozy up to with his religious fanaticism.
Crush SB will elephants and catas and decide where to go to from there.

This is what happens in Pauliskhan fantasy land, What will actually happen is that SB will settle the first city site 2 turns before your settler arrives and Saladin will claim all of the jungle to your NW in the time it takes you to reroute your settler.
Even if everything goes to plan, Saladin is going to culture fight you for the rice/sugar and he has a religion, getting that second border pop in the elephant city asap is going to be crucial. If you don't want to deal with the culture battle then settle 1NW of where I suggested. You lose an ele and a sugar but maintain the block and have a better shot at keeping the rice.

I don't think you should attempt blocking SB with these huge expanses, just make sure you get the best spots. Saladin is a bit more urgent since he's closer.
You want as much resources as you can get but specifically all the special resources of course, ivory, horses and marble, stone is too risky, get the ivory first. Settle by the river so that you can hook it up with Sailing instantly. If you get the ivory you can then attempt to take the stone but if that fails fall back to the corn.

I don't think you should attempt blocking SB with these huge expanses, just make sure you get the best spots. Saladin is a bit more urgent since he's closer.
You want as much resources as you can get but specifically all the special resources of course, ivory, horses and marble, stone is too risky, get the ivory first. Settle by the river so that you can hook it up with Sailing instantly. If you get the ivory you can then attempt to take the stone but if that fails fall back to the corn.+1

With so much tasty land blocking seems to be not needed. If you settle towards either one they will just get another themselves another spot. Claiming good spots is a must now. Saladin is the closest, settle towards him first. Grabbing good land should not be a problem based on the screenies.

You can always go after Saladin later - SB tends to turtle anyway. He also tends to go heavy on spies and be rather backwards. Saladin is a more solid trading partner and a civ more likely to win if you do not grab the victory.

I see room for 6 very nice cities. Counting in your capital as well, that makes a total of.. 7, which is a great number for starting cities!
4 Would be towards Sal, 2 towards SB. Both are Philo & Protective but SB can create a better defensive buffer and also be used as a lapdog to annoy your enemies. So give him more room than Sal.
First, I would settle the GP/Production city, 1NW of the marble and use it to spam War Chariots. Grow your capital to max size, farm and mine everything you can and then spam settlers.
Then, I would settle the rice/Sugar city at your NE. you might want to settle that one first actually, since it is very close to sal..
Then I would go for the Stone/banana city on a plains hill, Sugar/Corn/Dye and last the two phants city to use as a secondary port.
I would move the Capital before CivServ to the RIce/Sugar place to have a strong bureocracy cap+ use the Palace culture to push borders more.
Other than that, I'd play it peacefully 'till drafting Rifles and be-friend both Sal and SB to use as defensive buffer zones. Both are easy to get to friendly and are good allies. You will also be able to get some nice trades with the extra sugar, spice and phants.
Use Thebes as your HE city and the marble as your GPfarm.
Nice map btw :-D

PS: form an early force of Chariots for both defense and offense and go for a very quick war with a distant civ to pillage, worker-steal and GET A UNIT TO LVL 3 TO UNLOCK HE :-D Go Literature as well, then Calendar.

I see room for 6 very nice cities. Counting in your capital as well, that makes a total of.. 7, which is a great number for starting cities!
4 Would be towards Sal, 2 towards SB. Both are Philo & Protective but SB can create a better defensive buffer and also be used as a lapdog to annoy your enemies. So give him more room than Sal.
First, I would settle the GP/Production city, 1NW of the marble and use it to spam War Chariots. Grow your capital to max size, farm and mine everything you can and then spam settlers.
Then, I would settle the rice/Sugar city at your NE. you might want to settle that one first actually, since it is very close to sal..
Then I would go for the Stone/banana city on a plains hill, Sugar/Corn/Dye and last the two phants city to use as a secondary port.
I would move the Capital before CivServ to the RIce/Sugar place to have a strong bureocracy cap+ use the Palace culture to push borders more.
Other than that, I'd play it peacefully 'till drafting Rifles and be-friend both Sal and SB to use as defensive buffer zones. Both are easy to get to friendly and are good allies. You will also be able to get some nice trades with the extra sugar, spice and phants.
Use Thebes as your HE city and the marble as your GPfarm.
Nice map btw :-D

PS: form an early force of Chariots for both defense and offense and go for a very quick war with a distant civ to pillage, worker-steal and GET A UNIT TO LVL 3 TO UNLOCK HE :-D Go Literature as well, then Calendar.Moving the capital to an outlying city? Ehm... :rolleyes:

HE is unlocked with a level 4 unit...

Moving the capital to an outlying city? Ehm... :rolleyes:

HE is unlocked with a level 4 unit...


If he eventually goes for Sal, then the cap will be closer to new cities to balance things out. Either way, Thebes seems to be the only city arround that area with some decent production and having that a bureaucracy capital is a waste.

*meant 3 promotions :-P

3 promotions is not that accurate either since some promotions can come for free. :D 10xp would be most accurate I think. I will stop nitpicking now. ;)

I think having the capital as a unit pump is not that much of a waste. Moving the capital is something I would not readily do, but I see why you would consider it.

It's 7xp for 3rd promotion if you are Charismatic :-P
It seems I am not the only one who has an easy day at the office today...

The other responses have it correct. Its to open to block as such. Lots of land however so settle in the best sites.

What difficulty is this?

Ivory city is priority #1. Then settle the best sites available while gearing up for an elepult war against Saladin. Hit Sitting Bull later once he inevitably falls behind in tech.

First city 1 NE of the warrior, second city between the Banana and the Stone. Beyond that, you can block SB pretty well with just 2 cities, first one on the plainshill 1N 1NW from the plainscow, on the plainshill just below the 2 floodplains - with a border pop it'll block off the coast and border the mountain to the north. With your second SB blocker 1NW of the rice between the mountains you'll block him off and have the land south from your capital all to yourself. Creative borderpops will seal it nice and tight.

It's 7xp for 3rd promotion if you are Charismatic :-P
It seems I am not the only one who has an easy day at the office today...no indeed. :D

I agree with what everyone here is saying. Settle the best sites. I don't think that there's really a need to block either one of them. I would settle the jumbo city first as that spot is probably going to be grabbed quickly (probably on the grasshill), you've got more time for the other site. There are a lot of nice sites on this map to build cities. The nice bonus of Hatty is that she's creative, which means quick border pop. REX seems like the best opening strategy.