Where to settle upcoming cities?

Hi!

I'm playing an Emperor game with Arabia and I'm having trouble choosing where to settle my upcoming cities. I'm thinking about settling 3 maybe 4 cities? I got desert folklore thanks to the 2 city-states. Going for diplo, and I want a religious game.

Thinking about trying to forward settle on Korea at the grassland/rive tile near the spices, I will probably go to war with them later on anyway.

Maybe a petra-city (could at least try) couple of tiles west of Mecca for even more copper. (or in Mecca, but it probably lacks sufficient production.)

Even more copper is available at the river/hill at the north-west barb camp, and the lone crab to the north could be mine if I settle next to the mountain within 3 tiles of the crab. Will my happiness be able to support at least 2 extra copper-based cities? Should I get 3/4 new cities?

TL;DR: as topic says..

For religious play more cities are better (more locations for faith generation, religion has many per/city effects). For diplomatic you want at least one strong coastal city for mid/late game cargo ships, though I guess that is less important as the Arabs.

If I was playing my first 3 setters would go:

1) One top of your warrior on the spices. This is a low production high food location. You'll need to buy the hills in the 3rd ring at some point. Possibly a guilds city.

2) On the barb camp on the western coast. Very nice coastal city.

3) On the desert copper 1-SW of your archer. This is a low food city but has a few growth tiles. It will add some desert faith early but won't grow much pre-Fertilizer. If you are fast you might be able to grab Jerusalem's Gold.

Edit: If you want to try for Petra I would settle city 3) first. The payoff of a successful Petra gamble in that city is huge. Probably worth the risk. Send it your first food caravan from Mecca.

For more cities you can either go after the Koreans, look at the western coast for a second city, or settle a sad northern city to get crabs.

Olodune said:

1) One top of your warrior on the spices. This is a low production high food location. You'll need to buy the hills in the 3rd ring at some point. Possibly a guilds city.

2) On the barb camp on the western coast. Very nice coastal city.

3) On the desert copper 1-SW of your archer. This is a low food city but has a few growth tiles. It will add some desert faith early but won't grow much pre-Fertilizer. If you are fast you might be able to grab Jerusalem's Gold.

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Thank you very much!

I pretty much settled where you suggested, altough I did not go for the coastal one. I later noticed that the Huns where close neighbours to the west, Greece and Japan also to the west... (Pangea) But so far it's going well!

For me, this map sucks A LOT. I'd go OCC, spam CB and take Seoul, then maybe later (T80-90) backfill on the jungle/spices.

consentient said:

For me, this map sucks A LOT. I'd go OCC, spam CB and take Seoul, then maybe later (T80-90) backfill on the jungle/spices.

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Yeah i have to agree with you there consentient (if I insusted on playing the Map to completion). However, I might instead just re-roll this Start after Scouting as far as the OP has. I need to see a lot of potential in a Map to really enjoy the game ahead.