Early game beaker gain

I'm playing as Poland in my first emperor game right now, and i have +22 beakers in T80 (haven't built NC yet, my 2nd city hasn't finished it's library). Is this level of beaker gain normal/bigger than usual/lower than usual ?

It's lower than you would want. By turn 80 you should have had 3-4 cities out and be in the process of building the NC(or have had it completed). When selecting locations for satellite cities have at least 1 hill tile that can be worked right off the bat(whether bought or not), although those cities will stagnate they should have libraries up a lot quicker.
The goal is to have at least 400 gold so in the last city you found the library can be rush bought. Some workers must be stolen, preferably from other AI civs as you will need them to chop forest and improve luxuries.
Also you don't need to build the NC in your capital, if a satellite city is producing more hammers stick it in there, although in most cases it goes in your capital.

phillipwyllie said:

It's lower than you would want. By turn 80 you should have had 3-4 cities out and be in the process of building the NC(or have had it completed). When selecting locations for satellite cities have at least 1 hill tile that can be worked right off the bat(whether bought or not), although those cities will stagnate they should have libraries up a lot quicker.
The goal is to have at least 400 gold so in the last city you found the library can be rush bought. Some workers must be stolen, preferably from other AI civs as you will need them to chop forest and improve luxuries.
Also you don't need to build the NC in your capital, if a satellite city is producing more hammers stick it in there, although in most cases it goes in your capital.

Click to expand...

A good option is often to build it in a city that will have an observatory.

phillipwyllie said:

It's lower than you would want. By turn 80 you should have had 3-4 cities out and be in the process of building the NC(or have had it completed). When selecting locations for satellite cities have at least 1 hill tile that can be worked right off the bat(whether bought or not), although those cities will stagnate they should have libraries up a lot quicker.
The goal is to have at least 400 gold so in the last city you found the library can be rush bought. Some workers must be stolen, preferably from other AI civs as you will need them to chop forest and improve luxuries.
Also you don't need to build the NC in your capital, if a satellite city is producing more hammers stick it in there, although in most cases it goes in your capital.

Click to expand...

Right now i'm planning to make a settler after Lodz finishes it's library, and i'm confused where to put my third city :




I wanted to have a mountain city, but those mountain spots look sub-par. Can you tell me where's the best spot ?

phillipwyllie said:

It's lower than you would want. By turn 80 you should have had 3-4 cities out and be in the process of building the NC(or have had it completed). When selecting locations for satellite cities have at least 1 hill tile that can be worked right off the bat(whether bought or not), although those cities will stagnate they should have libraries up a lot quicker.
The goal is to have at least 400 gold so in the last city you found the library can be rush bought. Some workers must be stolen, preferably from other AI civs as you will need them to chop forest and improve luxuries.
Also you don't need to build the NC in your capital, if a satellite city is producing more hammers stick it in there, although in most cases it goes in your capital.

Click to expand...

Right now i'm planning to make a settler after Lodz finishes it's library, and i'm confused where to put my third city :





I wanted to have a mountain city, but those mountain spots look sub-par. Can you tell me where's the best spot ?

I found an oldish save (BNW, China, King difficulty) and i had 25 beakers at turn 81. I had just founded second city after finishing NC and GL. I'm going honour and getting ready to defend, because i have a tundra river start and Atilla as a neighbour. In fact I can see the reason for my savegame - there's a load of battering rams parked just outside my borders...

I'll fire up a quick poland game and see what i can hit by 80 going liberty...

Edit, this is a fun challenge. Managed 50 beakers, 3 cities, GL + NC, Medieval Era. Made a few howlers, forgot to improve the marble duh!

I can also sense the drums of war, apparently i forward settled Napoleon by mistake!

The spot with two sheep on either side of the mountain below Krakow is pretty good. Pop a settler there and buy your way to the marble, will make for an above average spot.

Alternatively, slightly up and to the left of that there is a spot that would give you access to pearls, truffles, the two sheep, and it would be coastal. Doing this would sacrifice the marble and your observatory though.

An Alternative would be to settle right into Lizzys face, north of the mountain, west of the bananas. She'd be pissed, but the spot is easy to defend, doesn't give any LoS for Longbowman and you could use a great general to assimilate those bananas in the west into your territory.

You could then plant a fourth city on the sheep next to the ocean. Sacing a sheep is somewhat suboptimal and your fourth city would definitely need some food-infusions, but you'd get all the resources, 2 cities with observatories, 1 of them with a few (4) jungle tiles and the other one costal.

/edit: And there's an okayish spot north-east of Warsaw. Probably not good enough to settle with Tradition, but that's such a good area for a liberty-opening. :/ But you never know that before you invested 2-3 policies into Tradition. *sigh*

2 cities T80 in weak. I use to have 4 cities up T60. It's emperor, so you have more time to seetle. But as fast you plant your cities, as fast you can grow your empire.

I'd settle like Ryika, on hill north mountain near Austria. You'll have food (bananas and grassland) and a lux (marble). For 4th, I'd look east, there's a fur and a dyes. Find a spot with decent food (there's two dears near dyes).
Sheep/coastal with pearl have only one fish, so less food.

Reach sailing and build 2 caravans to feed your 3th and 4th cities. After 30 turns reverse them and feed Warsaw.
Send your archers to this barb camp for Panama citiy. You'll gain food for your empire. 22bpt T80 is low even without NC.

I'd settle where JimBobV has suggested.
I suspect you will be building Petra in Krakow, but you haven't sent a food caravan to Krakow. Although you'll be building it fairly early and have a good chance, its always a good idea to have maximum production whilst still growing.
You're building Oracle which as Poland is probably a waste as you get 7 free policies, it was probably better to be building the Temple Of Artemis.

After currency beeline Education and then Acoustics where you will be able to open Rationalism. By then you should be generating 150 beakers or so which will put you in a good position to research Scientific Theory in a reasonable time.