Trade Routes Rock!

I am saying this now....Trade Routes are better then what we had before...
Ok you can throw your rocks and boulders....

I started a Shoshone game last night, got a decent start, but it was either an inland river start, or a coastal non river start. Usually at this point I might re roll, but with the new game mechanic, I went for the coastal non river start, and once I had caravans (and then cargo ships) I never looked backed. I went tall and built just about every building I can build, with a modest Tithe based religion (earning about 30gpt) but the amount of gold earned from trade routes dwarfed what would of been possible previously. I had one sea route giving me 30GPT, and with only 36 hexes in a maximum sized city, well you can extrapolate the rest.
I went 3 city tradition, with no puppets, and I had about 8K in the bank going into the industrial age with about 100gpt on 4-5 Routes.

I would normally never build a capital in a non river basin area, but thanks to the new mechanics I can build my city in new areas and not get penalized.

What game level were you playing on?

King, nothing too fancy

.. Why did you go for three city tradition on Shoshone?

The lay of the land. I was on a coast with Mongols across the river and surrounded by City States. It was a lot better then it sounds (going tradition) because you start off with those extra couple tiles, you can get the 3rd ring quickly filled out and go taller faster. I got to the Fifth ring by about turn 150 in capital, and 200 in the other two. And Khan has yet to declare war on me, mind you he is so close to me that my fifth ring on my second city was well inside the second ring of his Capital. I ended up stealing 2 resources (Aluminum and Coal that I didnt have) by placing a GG on that 5th ring that was right on his Capital.

Trade routes are great, but once war breaks out....better have them protected. I'm learning the hard way on this one. Had one two of my routes pillaged by a backstabbing Germany. An AI trade route to my city was pillaged by the AI they were at war with.


I'm in economic freefall...and loving every turn of it.

What I'm finding is that not only is the gold good, but how about feeding that all hill city 10 food per turn to get it growing like mad??? Or, conversely, that all grassland city that takes 20 turns to build a shrine, pumping it with six hammers per turn? trade routes totally rock, and I love how you can export your tourism to other civs that way too.