Where would you settle ?

Hi everyone,

First post here

I have just started playing Civ 5 (with very few previous Civ experience, barely touched Civ 4 and, err, a bit of Call to Power, and that's it), so I'm pretty much green and in search for general advice & tips on a variety of subjects.

As an example, the initial settling problem. I am trying to learn what would be the optimum strategy, at least with perfect information.

Here is an overview of the beginning area of my game (this is my 3rd Civ 5 game ever, King difficulty) (you can click the image for a full-size view) :



My starting point was actually the tile just southwest of my current capital. Notice the 2nd City State border north of the map (barely visible on the screen due to color choices, but it's there)

(I can provide classical view screenshots as well, but it would be harder to have all the relevant zone in the same screen while keeping information readable)

I have circled in red where, in retrospect (and with now ~perfect information), I would probably choose to create my 1st and 2nd cities.

Capital would be able to access sugar (+Whales), river and sea + some production (3x hills, 2x stones).

The 2nd spot especially seems dreamy to me : lots of food, production, sea access, and Incense (+ Whales), cattle, sheep, fish...

I also realize it might be better to put my second city west of my capital, to try to occupy territory quickly, knowing no civ is going to settle east of me for at least a very long time (so I can wait a bit before creating a city east and focus on expanding west instead).

What do you guys think ? Is any of this a mistake / am I missing things ? What would you do ?

Thanks for your tips

I think one further SW to the sheep would have been better

Settling 1 tile off the coast is just bad,now you will have to wait till one of your coastal expos can build fishing boats to connect the whales in the cap.also no lighthouse/harbour or seaports.

The flat desert tiles on the coast would have been much better.

and yes settling to the west first is a very good idea.you should always try to get to the more contested expo sites first even if that means having your 1st expo 10+ tiles from your cap.

Hi, and thanks for the help

Regarding the capital :

Care to elaborate about the desert tile ? How would that be better than the one I circled in red (adjacent to the desert tile) ?

That would make me settling on a desert (duh), plus I'd lose the river, and I feel the benefits would be quite limited :
- access to yet another Whale far west, but that seems inconsequential given I'll already be able to easily access 3 or 4
- achieve the 7 tile space with the potential future city on the east, which I'm not sure is that important (before I even risk running out of workable tiles, I'd need to reach 20+ Population in each of these two cities city)

Regarding the East city :

OK, the east city is only going to be my 3rd or 4th city, prioritizing expansion West instead. Still, while I'm at it :
- Do you agree the general area seems quite worthy of a city there ?
- Where would you suggest would be a good spot for that one ? Is my choice good ? If that is only to be the 3rd or 4th city, I would probably lose the mountain tile that is adjacent to current Panama City due to its expansion before I do get there, but I guess the red circled spot is still great ?

Thanks for your help

Settling at the desert will net you an extra whale, and it actually doesn't matter where you settle, the city tile will always get the same base yield (unless you settle on a resource). But indeed I also would just get the original red circle and if I really want to get that whale I'll open another city in the west because it seems there're more rivers there.

ParkerLewis said:

Hi, and thanks for the help

Regarding the capital :

Care to elaborate about the desert tile ? How would that be better than the one I circled in red (adjacent to the desert tile) ?

That would make me settling on a desert (duh), plus I'd lose the river, and I feel the benefits would be quite limited :
- access to yet another Whale far west, but that seems inconsequential given I'll already be able to easily access 3 or 4
- achieve the 7 tile space with the potential future city on the east, which I'm not sure is that important (before I even risk running out of workable tiles, I'd need to reach 20+ Population in each of these two cities city)

Regarding the East city :

OK, the east city is only going to be my 3rd or 4th city, prioritizing expansion West instead. Still, while I'm at it :
- Do you agree the general area seems quite worthy of a city there ?
- Where would you suggest would be a good spot for that one ? Is my choice good ? If that is only to be the 3rd or 4th city, I would probably lose the mountain tile that is adjacent to current Panama City due to its expansion before I do get there, but I guess the red circled spot is still great ?

Thanks for your help

Click to expand...

I mistook the highlights on the hexes for river my bad,so in this case i would settle in place.

if the desert tile did have river though i would settle there instead...why? because otherwise that tile will be unworkable,by settling on it you turn it into a 2f 1 h tile and connect the 3rd whale.

dont worry about always getting 7 hexes between cities...5-6 is just fine...you need at least 32 pop to work every available tile in the radius anyways.

eastern expo is just fine,decent growth and production especially once you get your work boats out and harbors/seaport online

try to get most of the tiles you are going to work in the 1st and 2nd rings,losing one hill in the 3rd ring is not a big deal.

Im also looking to settle one tile east of the barb warrior to the north,not a ton of production but coastal,tons of growth,pearls,(cant quite make out the icon under the barb).would be a nice science city with those bananas and jungle tiles once unis and TPs are up.

Cap - where your red circle is.
2nd city - on sea, under sheap.
3rd city - left-top of mountain, close to pearls.
4th city is unclear for now.

Thanks everyone for the help

Now, what would you do about those two city states ? Can it be a good idea to declare war on at least one of them early, to try to capture workers ?

ParkerLewis said:

Thanks everyone for the help

Now, what would you do about those two city states ? Can it be a good idea to declare war on at least one of them early, to try to capture workers ?

Click to expand...

worker stealing and xp farming CS are very viable strategies that can pay big dividends.

But dont DoW more than 1 cs or its a huge penalty.Conquering CS is also rarely a good idea.

Ok. So which one would you DoW and why ?

And you just maintain war indefinitely ?

Panama City if you can since its closer and there is a barb camp up by the other one already. But really want to attack whichever has a free worker to take first.