First Worked Tile

[comatosedragon]

Lets say you have a [Cow/Banana/Oasis] tile and a [Stone/Deer/Salt] tile in your first ring, right after founding your city. Which do you normally work first? The 3 Food tile, or the 2 Food /1 Hammer tile? Is growth at 5 turns (as opposed to 8) a better trade than getting the scout/monument/worker out the door two turns earlier? Lets assume you are playing a CIV without a monument or scout replacement, and let us also ignore the possible 1 gold yield from the first worked tile. Personally, I always work the 2 food 1 Hammer tile, but I'm starting to wonder if I might be shooting myself in the foot right out of the gate. What are your thoughts?

[Please vote for one each of settled on hill / settled flat or the 5th option]

 

[FeiLing]

With the pop-1 capital I usually work a 2f 1h tile for 1-2 turn only, so that my scout will be out 1 turn earlier than if I worked the 3 food tile permanently. That of course depends on hill/flat settle spot too.

 

[comatosedragon]

With the pop-1 capital I usually work a 2f 1h tile for 1-2 turn only, so that my scout will be out 1 turn earlier than if I worked the 3 food tile permanently. That of course depends on hill/flat settle spot too.

This is the way I have started my most recent game as well. The best of both worlds -- maybe this is the best option (for those of us who don't mind to MM).

 

[FeiLing]

I do however think that permanently working the 3f tile is not a mistake. A scout might always turn useless by walking into a dead end or getting caught off guard by barbs, only getting maps and barb reveals or no ruins at all, so that is a slightly more risky option.

 

[ense7en]

Settled on a hill?
3f tile for sure.

Settled on non-hill or lux giving only one hammer?
Probably still the 3f, but depending on how fast i want the scout/monument out i may also do 2f1p.

With the pop-1 capital I usually work a 2f 1h tile for 1-2 turn only, so that my scout will be out 1 turn earlier than if I worked the 3 food tile permanently. That of course depends on hill/flat settle spot too.

Yup, that too.

 

[cpm4001]

Like a lot of other posters have said, if I settled on a hill, I'll go for the three-food tile for sure. I'll do 2 food 1 hammer if I'm on flatland, though.

 

[pirsq]

Settling on a hill:
Your first scout will take 5 turns either way, while your second scout will pop out in 9 turns instead of 8 (using the set production focus trick, assuming you have a 2 hammer tile). By turn 10, you'll be 10 food up and 5 hammers down; by turn 25, you'll still be 10 food up but will have caught up in hammers due to second, third, and fourth citizens coming earlier. The 3 food tile wins easily.

Settling on flat land:
Your first scout comes in 6 turns instead of 5, and your second scout comes in 11 turns instead of 9. You still catch up in hammers by turn 25, but the early timing disadvantage is more prominent. I'd still pick the 3 food most of the time, but there are cases where you might want the quicker scouts (eg. if you're playing as Spain, if you're relying on ruin and city state gold to buy a worker, etc).

With the pop-1 capital I usually work a 2f 1h tile for 1-2 turn only, so that my scout will be out 1 turn earlier than if I worked the 3 food tile permanently. That of course depends on hill/flat settle spot too.

Note that if you have a 3 food tile, you get a 6 turn scout purely working the 3 food tile. After turn 5, you've made 20 hammers, but the extra citizen still contributes hammers the turn he's born, so you get a bonus hammer or two. Thus, you can even set your second citizen to work a pure food tile and still get the scout out in 6 turns.

If you don't have a 3 food tile, and have a choice between 2 food and something with at least 1hammer, then you only need 1 turn of the hammer to get a 6 turn scout.