ALC 27: Churchill of England

Hi, folks. In case you didn't know who I am, my username here is DMOC and I have been a member of CivFanatics for several years. When I first joined this fantastic website, I was a warlords-level player who couldn't launch a spaceship until 2100 AD. But after being here for some time and reading many strategy articles and write-ups, my skill level vastly improved, and as a result, when I started playing with the Beyond the Sword expansion pack, I found that I could start winning on immortal well, and soon I was playing on deity.

The ALC's were one of the first games that I read while I joined this site and I eventually managed to read them all, with the first "live" ALC being ALC 18, Isabella (the first edition). Now that Sisiutil discontinued them, I wanted to give something back to the community, so here's ALC 27, featuring Churchill of England.

Settings:

Round 0a: Starting Location (This Post)
Round 0b: Initial Warrior Move
Round 1: 4000 BC to 3000 BC [40 Turns] - Initial Exploration
Round 2: 3000 BC to 750 BC [90 Turns] - Exploration, Expansion, and a Laconic War
Round 3: 750 BC to 35 BC [42 Turns] - The Fall of America
Round 4: 35 BC to 610 AD [44 Turns] - The Expanding Society
Round 5: 610 AD to 1230 AD [55 Turns] - Redcoats in Action
Round 6: 1230 AD to End - Until Next Time



Starting Position:



Thoughts: I have never played as Churchill, so this will be a new experience to me. Thankfully, he starts with Fishing (as well as Mining) so I have the option of starting on a workboat instantly with the help of the forested plains hill that's right next to the settler. So I'm thinking that this should be one of those hybrid capitals that I cottage the floodplains when I need research and work the fish and hire scientists when I need Great People. I hope we're not isolated, although I've tested these same map settings and there tends to be one massive pangea with lots of little islands and strips of archipelago-like land where other civs might start, which makes the map much more interesting in my opinion. Also, one thing that I could try doing is building the Great Lighthouse this game, if there's plenty of coastal cities available. Finally, I could try a settler roam to settle inland and leave this for another site, although that's too much of a gamble for me.

Moves: Warrior NE on the hill, to reveal the maximum amount of tiles.

Settle: Settle either in place or one north, to replace the coastal clams with the superior coastal fish. Setting one north also means that the clam that's below the fish gets hooked up one turn sooner (workboats can only move 2 spaces at a time). The problem with 1N is that I might lose that flatland strategic resource.

Technology Path: Bronze Working (pray for bronze in that empty plainshill), and then after that, either Hunting - Archery (if the warrior reveals lots of empty land) or The Wheel (the second prerequisite for Pottery - I have the first, Fishing). I suppose I could research Animal Husbandry, but with the fish, I've already got food (and commerce). Furthermore, Animal Husbandry requires Agriculture and Hunting - neither of which I have at the start.

This map is fully random. It has not in any way been tested by anyone prior to me posting this save.

Save:

 

Definitely settle one north. Fish is way better than clam. Besides, the way it looks, I think it will be difficult to settle another city to work the fish, which might be possible with the clam.

This is going to be fun to watch. Hope the neighbors are nice... not!

 

Options IMO are 1S, 1N or 1E or the hilly bacon. IN appeals for the lack of wasted time.

Long term, I'd love to see a Redcoat war done properly alongside a wide ranging expansion to these islands. I'd also ;ike to see how you leverage CHM and PRO effectively.

 

I am not a diety player, but.....

Settle in place. Builds are workboat. Start by teching BW, then wheel. Pottery sooner unless you have no copper, then perhaps archery.

You gonna gives us a wekk to argue the merits of settling in place???

 

Wow, an ALC on deity. Definitely will be lurking.

 

That blue circle looks pretty reasonable to me, but what do I know? Do the health problems cancel out the free hammer?

 

{Delurking} Now's as good a time as any! Been reading and learning from the CivFanatics for nearly 2 years, so a big thanks to everybody. I've never won a game on deity myself (emperor about 50-50) but love reading online deity games so I'm looking forward to this!

Seems a great flexible capital - tons of food, good commerce and good production. Don't much like the fish position but at least it is usable - if a city goes on that hill up there it could keep the floodplain cottages warm when London isn't using them. Def vote for settle in place.

 

Gosh gee whizzpop! A Deity RPC!

What a great capital. Settle one north!

 

My initial thought was the same as VoU - the blue circle looks pretty good. Losing the the open plains hill could hurt pretty bad if there is a resource on it though. Assuming the warrior move doesn't find anything spectacular, there is little to choose between that and the two alternatives DMOC suggested.

 

Id settle on the blue circle, cottage up the 4 flood plains. Awesome capital. Might even have more resources right of the bfc.

 

toss Warrior NE and come back and we can talk again

in my opinion (fledgling Emperor) the two best places to settle would be either south or east of the Bacon ... maybe a small bonus with east of bacon since its then easier to build a usefull city taking the clam you misplace at first

 

Signed under ....

 

blue circle unless warrior move reveals something.

 

IMO settle in place. The non-forested plains tile 2E1S and the 1S plainshill look very very suspicious to me. NE of the bacon is a good later GP farm; can flip-flop the bacon/clam as needed.

Big chance of losing a stratreso by moving. 1N might be a possibility but that's far too much food for 1 city to own exclusively. You wouldn't be working those all before the Modern era

 

I agree with those that suggest settling the blue circle (but of course move the warrior first to get the lay of the land).

 

don't say that ... i'm in a game where i, in 900AD (while stalling Lib for better stuff to take with it) have a whooping 25 happy in capital ... and only 1 warrior as happy police (might help that i have several religions/temples and i spammed temples so i could shine the double holy city William was nice enough to make and both Gold and Silver popped quite early)

 

settle in place. like silu said, that's alot of food to have belonging soley to one city early on. in place has a good amount for your capital, and a fishing village later looks promising (draft, gp farm, maybe even use it to whip out lots of workers/settlers).

 

In place looks good, a city NE of the pigs to farm some early GPs and grow some cottages for your capital won't be bad even if it's only a filler.

 

Why not make the first city the GP-farm? All that food is great for cranking out settlers and workers in the beginning.

I'd settle 2N 1E on the AI recommended place.

 

This.

Blue circle costs one turn and the fresh water health bonus, but may well eliminate ocean squares from the capital's BFC. We need to see what is east of there to determine if the squares we would get instead are a good deal.