Advice on city location

[Liv10]

I'm always confused when it comes to choosing locations for my cities.
I find it difficult to balance the pro and cons of the different possible options.

In this game, I play Korea in Immortal, Pangea Standard Map.
I wouldn't mind a little advice.

Spoiler :

Location 1 seems to be a great spot: coastal so I can run cargo ship to/from my capital,
on a hill, copper beside, enough food and hammers but it's a bit close to my capital

Location 2 is on a hill, has copper and coton within 2 tiles, enough food and hammers, but not coastal

Location 3 is a bit weaker I think: coastal, on a hill, river and mountain but it lacks food except for the 3 fishes, but I don't really like spending time building work boat.

I would like to pick the best spots first because I'm sure Bismark will want to settle on these flood plain soon too.

What do you think? Do you have any other idea? I think there might be some good spots adjacent to location 2 and 3 too.

 

[eewallace]

How about 2 spaces west of 1? Hill on river, copper and cotton, lots of food (flood plains, oasis and 2 cows) plus plenty of production for when you fight Berlin.

 

[DudewiththeFood]

I'd build city 1 on the desert coast 2 tiles south. As long as you buy the stone quickly you'll still have enough production and it leaves spot 2 to be used.

 

[Tinker]

Aren't both of those suggestions too close to Kuala Lumpur and/or whatever the other city-state is?

 

[DudewiththeFood]

Sorry if they are. I can't remember if I use a mod that reduces city distance or not. There's a nice hill 2 west of the deerabove the copper but that cancels out space 3. It would probably be better overall but lacks coastal access, is more aggresive to Germany and also less defensible. Then again, Berlin isn't too well defended on the terrain side if you get my drift...

 

[FeiLing]

First: One tile left to your no.3 (below both fish, it's better there because of cows and a second copper in the 3rd ring) - buy a worker there and hook up that cooper immediately.

Second: On the coastal desert just south of your no.1. You'll also need those 2 coastal cities to send hammer caravans to Seoul later.
You can also make this one first, which allows you to buy the river flood plain tile that otherwise will be claimed by the CS. But you'd also have to buy the Copper tile then.

Third: One tile west of your no.2. Bismarck might settle there before you; might save you a settler.

Taking Berlin also wouldn't suck... hey maybe you'll be lucky and he gets Petra there

 

[justanotherturn]

as korea i settle on spot 3. food cargo ship to start, and then 3 fish + deer. moutain/hill/river. seams good enough spot for me. it can be an observatory city. i will maybe put a third city on the hill just above spot 2 but it will not please Berlin.
3 city trad to CB rush to take berlin (wich is not on a hill as i see it) as 4rth city seams good plan.

 

[Liv10]

Actualy I kept playing a bit, chose to settle on a floodplain and the situation is this 5 turns later.

Spoiler :

Bismark has settle such that I can't really consider location 3 anymore, and the CS has expanded into the stone tile.
That means that I'll have to go for a 2 city start, unless I settle a 3rd city far west, near the copper, wheat and cows.

I wasn't even considering attacking Berlin, but most of you advice me to do so.
It's my first game on immortal and usually I play peaceful games on emperor because I can't handle the warmonger penalty.

Isn't the CB rush going to cripple my science (I usualy rush education) and everybody is going to hate me if I take Berlin (even more if I wipe Bismarck)?

 

[DudewiththeFood]

Ther will be the penalty but now I'd take Berlin before settling a fourth city. Hamburg I think doesn't seem to be too much better and if you don't want to wipe Germany then taking Berlin also gives you easier access to the rest of the world. If you wanted a religion then take Dance of the Aurora and the last city can take the Truffles and Cerro de Potosi. Going up there might be bad too but if you do take Berlin then it closes the circle on Bismarck and keeps him in relative isolation.

 

[qutsemnie]

Aww my answer was to close to the city state. Sad face!

 

[joshua43214]

You should be able to grab construction after education and build 4 CB's + 2 pikes and take down Berlin. Berlin has 4 spots you can attack from.

I noticed in your last screen shot that Seoul has only 2 pop and is not growing at T29. Maybe the barb is standing on your food?

 

[Syntax Error]

Would have gone with the same city location as you. Would have been better if it were on the hill one tile SW but that's too close to the CS. If I can manage it, the second one will be one tile west of 3. It allow you to be coastal, but will give you both fishes from the get go while retaining the river and mountain for Observatories. You can also fatten in up with Sea trade routes.

As for the current state of the game, I won't be building settlers that early. It's just gonna seriously cripple your capital. Just build infrastructure, Get CB's ASAP, sack Berlin and settle your next city on the copper south of Monaco. It's a great spot with river, hill and mountain, decent amount of hills for production and quite a few grassland for food, not to mention floodplains if you ever manage to get Desert Folklore as a pantheon. It will make a great Observatory city.

 

[Liv10]

Ok thanks all for your replies.
I usualy don't build settlers that early but I wanted to give it a try at once. I didn't want the Germans to take the best spot, as our capitals are very close to each other, and I remember a post saying a good starting build order was scout-scout-settler-settler.

Actually, I'd need guidance on the start for immortal/deity: what is for you a good build order? I always go tradition, so I hardly ever build monument, am I doing wrong? What turn should you settle your 2nd city and what do you build first in it? I usually build a library so that I can build NC ASAP. What turn do you expect to build NC? Is it mandatory to steal workers from CS? (because i don't really like doing that).

Is there any post that summurize all that?

And by CB you mean composite bowmen, not crossbow right?

 

[civ54lyfe]

that Phalanx of yours should have gone on a German Worker stealing black ops mission back at the beginning of the game. he was perfectly positioned for it.

 

[Olodune]

First: One tile left to your no.3 (below both fish, it's better there because of cows and a second copper in the 3rd ring) - buy a worker there and hook up that cooper immediately.

Second: On the coastal desert just south of your no.1. You'll also need those 2 coastal cities to send hammer caravans to Seoul later.
You can also make this one first, which allows you to buy the river flood plain tile that otherwise will be claimed by the CS. But you'd also have to buy the Copper tile then.

Third: One tile west of your no.2. Bismarck might settle there before you; might save you a settler.

Taking Berlin also wouldn't suck... hey maybe you'll be lucky and he gets Petra there

Pretty much agree with this if going for a peaceful opening. The northern fish city is a bit of a stretch but likely worth the hassle. Getting all of those locations "peacefully" probably requires an early DoW against Bismarck to prevent city settling in your direction ... also don't forget to get a Trireme to protect your precious Cargo Ships

Alternatively, I would consider settling only one city initially (1 NW of your 2), declaring and trying to get Berlin early -- possible even with your Spear + Archers (4-5) + Scout. A city on a hill, behind a river, with open terrain in front is ideal to forward settle someone. Safer to wait 'til CBs and a Cat or two. Edit: Looking at the map I actually changed my mind. Your first city needs access to copper ASAP because of the lux situation in Seoul.

 

[Ribannah]

If you place a unit on Hambourg's spot, Germany can't settle there. The Settler will hang around waiting for you to move, at least for a while.