Newbie 4000BC

Journal Entry 1.

World Size - Small. Barbarians - Random.
Land Mass - Random. Climate/Temperature/Age - Random.
My Civ - America. Rivals - Random. Difficulty - Chieftain.
Beginning Units - Settler, Worker, Scout.

4000BC. My Settler seems to be in a respectable location for settlement of my first town, Washington.



A nice surprise! A village just to the South and game to the East. I've decided to produce a second Scout to assist in uncovering the secrets of this new world. As recommended, I will control the Workers myself. The immediate areas around Washington would suggest I irrigate the land and build roads.

My beaker setting is 80%, my first tech will be Ceremonial Burial since it is the quickest to complete in 14 turns.

What luck! My scout moves to the village and they teach us the Alphabet, and it's still 4000BC!



3850BC. My Scout travels in a Southernly direction and comes across another village. They kindly teach us Warrior Code!



3800BC. Washington produces a Scout. My advisor recommends starting production of a Warrior but I decide on a Settler. My new Scout begins his travels Eastward.

3700BC. My Scout makes first contact with the French. They're polite but I must decline their trade proposal.



And so the real adventure begins. Will I have the wisdom to make the best decisions or will I blunder and unwittingly make enemies of potential allies?

Editors note: Should I edit the existing file with new updates or create new files within this thread?

Wrap

Glad to see you off and running again, lgibsonjr. I look forward to seeing the screenshots when you get that sorted out.

Edit: Yes, you should be able to edit your first post to add the

Excellent! Glad to see that you got those pictures to show up. I'm not sure I understand your questions about "editing new files within this thread," though. If you're asking if you should just keep making the opening post longer and longer, I'd say no. There's a limit to post length, though I don't recall what it is. Besides, your thread doesn't show up in my CP when you edit a post, only when someone adds a new post. I just happened to check and see if you'd gotten the pics to show up.

Now, the game -- you've started a settler build. A settler takes 2 citizens out of your city. The build won't complete until you've got a pop of 3 (2 go into the settler and 1 stays behind). Will you have the pop to support that build?

In the picture in which the Chehalis tribe teaches your people The Alphabet, your worker is standing on a bonus grassland. Do you really intend to irrigate it?

Or would you rather go through this without strategy hints?

You're off to a good start. Looking forward to updates.

Some helpful hints would be appreciated. Should I not work on the bonus areas first? When would be the best time to begin production of Settlers?

Thanks much.

lgibsonjr said:

Should I not work on the bonus areas first?

Click to expand...

Oh, I'd say you definitely want to work that BG first. The question was whether or not you want to irrigate it. Mine & road it. Or road & mine it. The first will produce an extra shield faster, the latter an extra coin faster.

lgibsonjr said:

When would be the best time to begin production of Settlers?

Click to expand...

As soon as you can. Pumping out early settlers is a great idea. But you should be aware of some of the mechanics of settlers. What happened to me a couple of times when I first began playing was that I ordered a settler build and finished gathering the shields before I had the pop to support the build. When that happens, the build stays on settler, but nothing happens until your city hits pop 3 (unless, of course, you change the build). This is the expansion phase and you'll want to pop out lots of settlers, but size 1 cities don't produce a lot. If you'll hit size 3 before the settler is completed, go for it. If not, don't let your production stall; build something else.

this looks interesting...

lurker's comment: To clarify Aabraxan's comment about mining, here's a bit more about improving tiles while you're still in despotism. Despotism reduces your tiles' output of shields, food, and (I think) gold by 1, if that tile already has a bonus. For example, grasslands base food value is 2/turn with no food bonus in place, such as a cow or wheat. So you can irrigate but you'll still be left with 2 food/turn. The worker turns spent irrigating will be wasted. Thus, irrigating plain grasslands (the green stuff) produces no benefit. However, a bonus grassland (those with silver dots in the middle) put out 1 shield/turn without improvement, and 2/turn when you add a mine. A tile that will put out 2 shields/turn as well as 2 food/turn is desirable territory. Even better when you have a bonus grassland tile next to a river. Riverside territory produces 1 gold/turn unimproved, and 2 gold/turn after roading.

The sooner you improve your territory appropriately, the better off you'll be. Important to learn at the lower levels, vital beyond belief at the upper levels. (Many would say that improving your worker management skills is the single biggest factor in upping your play level.)

Other than that, good job and nabbing those early techs. I'm sure you'll be getting all kinds of solid advice here as you lead your American empire to glory.

Pretty nice start. BTW, how many rivals are there?

Looks good. Best of Luck.

***Lurker Decloaking, looking for update, None seen Lurker Recloaking***