Some of this might be blatantly obvious to more experienced players but bear with me, I'm learning. To illustrate my questions, I'm posting a screenshot. Obviously, I'm playing as Carthage, this is King difficulty on a Huge Small Continents map and Marathon pacing.
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Original Size map.
As you can see, I have a really nice starting position with two patches of salt, an oasis. wheat, pearls and deer in easy reach. Also very defensible behind those mountains I'll eventually be able to cross, with space for two more cities along the coast. The white border down south is America's border, and there's France on the same landmass as well which I know because I met the blue warrior you can see west of Carthage. The purple border down south is another city state.
The pink dot is where I plan to place my second city. The mountain two tiles to the east of it is Cerro de Potosi (natural wonder, 10 gold per turn if worked), and I have food sources and another patch of salt nearby. In ancient ruins I found 60 Culture, 1 population, a weapons upgrade for my scout who is now an archer, 50 faith (got the God-King pantheon), a map and gold.
Now the questions:
(1) The eternal question of "build order". This is turn 43, I built a Scout and a Worker and got a free Monument from Legalism. I can't build any building yet since I started tech with Mining and still need four turns to get Pottery, so the question is basically: a settler, another scout or another warrior? Intuitively I'd be going for the settler, since enemies are far away, and start my second city early. Since I got my scout upgraded, that also means it can take out barbarian camps on his own, as long as there is only the one defending unit around.
(1a) Tied closely into that is the question: when do I need more military than what's needed for exploration and perhaps a one-unit garrison per city? I'm always tempted to err on the side of risk and build less of a standing army because it costs time and maintenance, but in one game I got overrun by a Mongol horde because of that. I guess Washington and Napoleon aren't quite as aggressive, but how much of an army is enough as a deterrent as a rule?
(1b) While I'm at it: How is unit maintenance calculated? I thought every unit cost a fixed amount of gold per turn, but that doesn't appear to work.
(2) Expansion:
This is supposing there won't be any land or shallow water bridge beyond the desert in the screenshot, so I won't be able to expand across the water until the Renaissance - which is likely for this sort of map.
(2a) Should I settle the desert to the west? There is this patch of incense, and two fish and some sheep for food and that stone patch for added production. I am loathe to settle in the desert as a rule, but is it worth it? Also, if I settle there, should I settle in an empty desert tile, in order to be able to improve the hills, or should I settle the hills for better starting production?
(2b) An alternative position for my second city is two tiles NE of the pink dot. I lose the wheat, but the natural wonder is just as close, the patch of salt is still in reach, I'll eventually get the other patch of salt one tile too far away from my capital, and it makes it possible to place a third city down the coast two tiles from that patch of dye without too much overlap, supposing an AI doesn't beat me there. Should I use the pink dot or the place two hexes closer?
(2c) I suppose cities on lakes don't count as coastal for Carthage's UA?
(2d) So far I've avoided settling on resource tiles since I can't improve them and I thought I will not get the resource if I can't improve the tile? Is this correct? If I place a city on a luxury resource will I get that resource?
(3) Early land war or not?
(3a) As a general strategy, if I settle the desert and two cities down the coast as mentioned in (2b) I'll have a very defensible four-city "heartland", and I'll be able to use my superior early-game navy, financed by the gold from Cerro de Potosi, to defend myself and maybe harass my..er...competitors a bit. However, that will leave my classical era special land units mostly unused, and there won't be a lot of land battles, which in turn means I won't have a chance at a great general to trigger my mountain-crossing ability.
Now the terrain doesn't give itself to cavalry warfare, so if I want a Classical Era war I may have to expand differently. Supposing there isn't any land not claimed by an AI when I get there beyond the visible area to the SW, this means going E and W between the CS and America. Is that a feasible way to expand? Seems like overstretching things a bit...
(3b) I suppose fighting Barbarians doesn't give you a chance at a Great General? Never happened to me in four games anyway. Or will the Forest Elephants' special ability give me a chance I wouldn't otherwise have? How does that ability work?
(4) Technology
As a rule, I'm hesitant to go too far forward on the tech tree in one area and ignore the rest, but I *really* want the Great Lighthouse. Is it feasible to ignore the rest of the early tree and go directly from Sailing to Optics? How likely is it I'll be able to get the Great Lighthouse? Other than mining, which I got first, I don't really need the other stuff that badly.
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All right, so far the questions. I guess apart from those related to game mechanics, mostly I don't need "canonical" answers rather than hints about where I might be thinking wrongly or are making wrong assumptions. Also, I guess with this kind of starting position small details won't matter a great deal on King difficulty, but I'd rather play a game a tad too easy because of a good start, than one that's frustratingly hard because of a bad start. Time to up the difficulty later.
.
Original Size map.
As you can see, I have a really nice starting position with two patches of salt, an oasis. wheat, pearls and deer in easy reach. Also very defensible behind those mountains I'll eventually be able to cross, with space for two more cities along the coast. The white border down south is America's border, and there's France on the same landmass as well which I know because I met the blue warrior you can see west of Carthage. The purple border down south is another city state.
The pink dot is where I plan to place my second city. The mountain two tiles to the east of it is Cerro de Potosi (natural wonder, 10 gold per turn if worked), and I have food sources and another patch of salt nearby. In ancient ruins I found 60 Culture, 1 population, a weapons upgrade for my scout who is now an archer, 50 faith (got the God-King pantheon), a map and gold.
Now the questions:
(1) The eternal question of "build order". This is turn 43, I built a Scout and a Worker and got a free Monument from Legalism. I can't build any building yet since I started tech with Mining and still need four turns to get Pottery, so the question is basically: a settler, another scout or another warrior? Intuitively I'd be going for the settler, since enemies are far away, and start my second city early. Since I got my scout upgraded, that also means it can take out barbarian camps on his own, as long as there is only the one defending unit around.
(1a) Tied closely into that is the question: when do I need more military than what's needed for exploration and perhaps a one-unit garrison per city? I'm always tempted to err on the side of risk and build less of a standing army because it costs time and maintenance, but in one game I got overrun by a Mongol horde because of that. I guess Washington and Napoleon aren't quite as aggressive, but how much of an army is enough as a deterrent as a rule?
(1b) While I'm at it: How is unit maintenance calculated? I thought every unit cost a fixed amount of gold per turn, but that doesn't appear to work.
(2) Expansion:
This is supposing there won't be any land or shallow water bridge beyond the desert in the screenshot, so I won't be able to expand across the water until the Renaissance - which is likely for this sort of map.
(2a) Should I settle the desert to the west? There is this patch of incense, and two fish and some sheep for food and that stone patch for added production. I am loathe to settle in the desert as a rule, but is it worth it? Also, if I settle there, should I settle in an empty desert tile, in order to be able to improve the hills, or should I settle the hills for better starting production?
(2b) An alternative position for my second city is two tiles NE of the pink dot. I lose the wheat, but the natural wonder is just as close, the patch of salt is still in reach, I'll eventually get the other patch of salt one tile too far away from my capital, and it makes it possible to place a third city down the coast two tiles from that patch of dye without too much overlap, supposing an AI doesn't beat me there. Should I use the pink dot or the place two hexes closer?
(2c) I suppose cities on lakes don't count as coastal for Carthage's UA?
(2d) So far I've avoided settling on resource tiles since I can't improve them and I thought I will not get the resource if I can't improve the tile? Is this correct? If I place a city on a luxury resource will I get that resource?
(3) Early land war or not?
(3a) As a general strategy, if I settle the desert and two cities down the coast as mentioned in (2b) I'll have a very defensible four-city "heartland", and I'll be able to use my superior early-game navy, financed by the gold from Cerro de Potosi, to defend myself and maybe harass my..er...competitors a bit. However, that will leave my classical era special land units mostly unused, and there won't be a lot of land battles, which in turn means I won't have a chance at a great general to trigger my mountain-crossing ability.
Now the terrain doesn't give itself to cavalry warfare, so if I want a Classical Era war I may have to expand differently. Supposing there isn't any land not claimed by an AI when I get there beyond the visible area to the SW, this means going E and W between the CS and America. Is that a feasible way to expand? Seems like overstretching things a bit...
(3b) I suppose fighting Barbarians doesn't give you a chance at a Great General? Never happened to me in four games anyway. Or will the Forest Elephants' special ability give me a chance I wouldn't otherwise have? How does that ability work?
(4) Technology
As a rule, I'm hesitant to go too far forward on the tech tree in one area and ignore the rest, but I *really* want the Great Lighthouse. Is it feasible to ignore the rest of the early tree and go directly from Sailing to Optics? How likely is it I'll be able to get the Great Lighthouse? Other than mining, which I got first, I don't really need the other stuff that badly.
-----
All right, so far the questions. I guess apart from those related to game mechanics, mostly I don't need "canonical" answers rather than hints about where I might be thinking wrongly or are making wrong assumptions. Also, I guess with this kind of starting position small details won't matter a great deal on King difficulty, but I'd rather play a game a tad too easy because of a good start, than one that's frustratingly hard because of a bad start. Time to up the difficulty later.