Ok cool so growth is of paramount importance. BTW getting a NW roll with Spain on this map setting (I have 3 billion years, lakes, temperate) took me like an hour of rerolling to find one on my first turn that I could play (I found Fiji but my capitol is not next to it like I would have hoped). I did find the Barrenger Crater once but I started in Tundra so I said no to that start. I only played a few turns but I'm taking much more extensive notes on this one than on my first one so that I will have a big spoiler tag when I reach t100. Also have raging barbs turned on + ai civs are vienna, austria, huns, mongolia, and gandhi with the hope that gandhi will be over-run and allow me to liberate him for votes. I posted my start for pointers. More of a learning experience for me personally.
So I rerolled for a long time until I got this start....
Solid Start!
Salt = good; upgrades to the best luxury tile in the game!
Wonder found immediately as Spain = good
getting scouts out there asap to find other wonders/civs etc = good
Only 2 suggestions, 1 with an eye toward future games, and 1 for the coming turns of this game.
-- I would have spent my turn 0 moving my settler to the forested hill to the northeast next to the lake. Then I would have founded my cap there. Why? Founding on plains cost you a hammer/turn in your capital and some food up front at least--> Founding on hills get you 1 more hammer in your capital, and your cap gets an automatic 2 food there. Hills as tiles only irrigate to 1 food, and then 2 food after civil service, while plains irrigate to 2 food and then 3 after Civil Service. Also, it puts you ADJACENT to the salt at the start of the game, so the first tiles you work are 2 food, 1 hammer, 1 gold, as opposed to whatever you are working now. No waiting for your borders to grow.
Yes, it costs you 1 game turn to make that initial move, but I think the better placement is well worth it.
-- Have a plan now for the 348 gold left in your bank. Getting that money as Spain so early in the game is definitely great; it is REALLY great only if you leverage it as early as possible to get a snowball effect of growth etc. Are you saving it for a Settler, after you get to 500 gold again through meeting CSes or finding another wonder? Solid. Are you going to buy a worker to get the salt mined and land improved asap? Also solid. Think about researching mining soon with that salt in mind. Are you waiting to see if an AI civ is nearby so you can conquer its cap asap to join your empire? Then buying an archer if so, to speed the conquest and get that second city via conquest? OK. Simply saving it up for buying universities when you hit Education? OK. Whatever your plan is, make your choices with that plan in mind.
-- A 3rd point: If you are taking notes, you really should track how many barbarians you kill throughout the game (and for about how much culture if you do open Honor) I know you have raging barbarians on, but even with that I do not think you will kill enough barbarians to make up for the last Rationalism policy you need. Yes, you will get a couple early policies a bitt earlier, but not enough to make a difference I think. The cost of the Honor Opener balloons the costs of all future policies. The later ones will come later for sure. It is good to see the barb camps early to get troops there, and then kill them quickly once they become CS quests, but I think that is overkill on this small map and at Warlord. I did a really random runthrough as Babylon up until Printing Press just to get a feel for the settings, and I had half or more of the CSes allied without really trying hard. "Want a trade route? Ok. Want a luxury I am about to improve with my worker in a few turns? Sure. Gee, I won every quest for culture/tech/faith too." Also, the AIs place very low priority on killing barbarian camps at this level, so there is little danger of you missing out on a barb camp CS quest if you pay attention.... I am actually a pretty big fan of opening Honor in the right circumstances, but I don't think this gauntlet has those. I think it will only serve to delay the later policies you need. But if you feel good about opening Honor, go for it. It would be good to track your number of barbarian kills and then the culture you need for your last Rationalism policy paid for to see if you come close, for future reference.
Good luck! It is not a bad start at all. Salt is the bomb, and an early wonder like that as Spain is nice. Look forward to seeing how your game progresses. Some of us, like Bleidraner in particular, have noted how a lot of our enjoyment of the game comes from constantly learning new things and approaches, even after many hours of play. I feel I am always learning and adjusting my approach. For one, I am curious to see if your plan of India getting overrun can work. I'm not sure if the Huns are aggressive enough on Warlord level to take capitals well, but it is worth a shot, and I did not think of trying that.
