I am really angry at team ignoring cities overlap especially when it's needed and functional.
We have no happy resources and no monarchy. We will be stuck at size 5 and 4 with cities very long and yet we have around capital 12 good tiles and someone still wants totally ignore 1/3 of them just for the sake of some absurd cities somewhere where we will pay 3x the maintenance?
I don't grasp it.
OK, let me explain: with settling 1S of the lake to our SW we get, admittedly, after some tile-working and a monument there, 1 Gold mine that provides us woith 1Hap and 7 gold. Even this only more than compensates for the $3 maintenance (it might be $2, but could be 3, also. The seafood and the pigs alliviate our Health problem, the seafood also adds $3 to our income. The lake to 1N adds $3 to our income, as do almost all, if nor all the coastal tiles. Besides, we cover our SW flank. The city 1NW of the horses provides us with early two cottages, which , in the short term will be less than the gold from the SW city. In the medium term it provides a boost of some $2 as compared to the SW city. In the long-term the city 1NW of the horses is a big liability. I would have been more cautious on this if we didn't have horses already, but we do.
For me, the overall balance is heavily in favor of the SW city.
I don't like the alternative SW dot of Cam.
So, let's hear also W and L.
For the time being, we are split: 2 in favor of the Horse city, 1 in favor of the Gold city, 1 in favor of a possible alternative pig city.
4 cities breakouts are fine. We don't need to pay extended maintenance for nonproductive cities esp. when we need HBR, hunting, archery, math and currency (currency could come from deficit research once we start to capture some neighbor).
Btw we should avoid chopping until we get Math from now on.
I don't see the Alphabet in your tech line. I assume you expect to get it from Oracle. Yet, you also push NOT to chop till math. Are you willing to bet your money on getting the Oracle w/o marble and w/o chopping, knowing also that WK has marble already mined some time ago and has Poly for quite some time already?
I will have to check the save yet, but I think it's clear what I want to see in the rest of FR's turnset.
With some minor exceptions, it seems pretty clear: a miracle.
I know that you had an excellent plan - including the Horse city which is arguable, but definitely has its merits and MIGHT turn the best 2d or 3rd settlement, depending on how the game turns - but we, as a team, went quite astray from your initial plan, and didn't quite to the point follow your modified plan (meaning the settlement of the 3rd city).
You might be disappointed, but that's how teams work. Some of us, the rest of the team, have an inferior understanding of the game, but your reasoning has to be much more persuasive and promise much better outcomes - in comparison to what we might be contemplating as a course of action - if you want to move the team into your direction.
As a matter of fact, Cam and I have agreed on the Horse city exactly because we weren't ABSOLUTELY sure that the other alternatives were better - I should speak on my own behalf only, but Cam will intervene, if I have misinterpreted his posting.
With all due appreciation of your team-considerate style, you HAD a carte blanche, but didn't use it. So, please, stop acting as a teenager - not to use Cam's better word for it - and get our team going with whatever you might offer with advise, superb play, and understanding - of others' shortcomings included!