Analysis of 4 Capital types (City Specialization)

[futurehermit]

I don't have a screenshot but I recently had a city that started with all Calendar resources. I can't really remember what they were on but there were 4 resources that all required calendar and nothing else. Would this count as a seperate start? Would you bother playing it? Actually its possible it was 3 calendar and a wine.

Yes, I know the kind of capital you mention. Often, there is a lot of jungle nearby. So, you might start out with 3+ dyes or silks for example. I like to think of them as an "IW and Calendar" start, which are two techs I prefer to trade for, but in these instances they are too important to delay usually. I didn't generate one of these when I was generating dozens of starts for this thread, but I have definitely seen them before. They tend to be bureaucracy capitals generally, but require trading for or sidetracking for calendar. However, some players will simply put cottages on excess dyes since they don't really do anything for you other than give you something you can trade around. Thus, I'm not sure they require particular attention in this thread unless someone would really like to address it. Please don't feel that I have to monopolize this thread Feel free to post your own capital locations and discuss

 

[Hereditary Rule]

Very interesting read and I don't think it was redundant at all re: city specialization. ( although maybe that's because I'm not on CF as much as I'd like to be).

Anyway, I often have no problem deciding what I want future city sites to specialize in but sometimes struggle or regret the choices I've made with my capital re: tile improvements. Sometimes I'll start building cottages with bureaucracy in mind only to realize that my capital would have functioned much better as a production capital (then I'm in a situation where I have to decide whether or not to bulldoze those hamlets and villages for farms and watermills ).

This is a weak part of my game and you just happened to write a detailed article that addressed it. Take the tough criticism with a grain of salt. It may be redundant to some but I found it a great read especially with the sample screenshots. All in all, great writeup! Thank you.

 

[Daedal]

I like the writeup. Three of those starts are definitely distinct: the hammer capital, the cottage capital, and the capital with such obscene amounts of food that you can't work it all without running lots of specialists and whipping at every chance.

 

[futurehermit]

Thks folks. I agree that there are 3 main ones, but the 4th one imo is still distinct: coastal. I say this after struggling with coastal starts for a long time. GLH becomes a priority as does a different tech path. I never used to research sailing on my own, but now when I get a coastal start I will prioritize sailing. Same with compass. It becomes much more important than usual. Also, Moai statues becomes an option for certain coastal capitals. You also may have a coastal capital that doesn't have "obscene" amounts of food meaning you have a lost of water tiles, but it doesn't make a great gpfarm really. Knowing what to do (besides nothing) in those situations is helpful imo.

 

[Daedal]

Obscene amounts of food is an exaggeration, but the majority of coastal starts are food heavy. Even just 2 improved clams gives you a 4 food surplus. The only coastal start in your examples that wasn't food heavy was the second one under the GLH start section... which I think is a very sad capital, but could probably be a respectable hammer capital since one of those empty plains tiles will almost certainly hold a strategic resource. You could go for GLH on that start, but you could just as easily go for other wonders or a rush.

Making a beeline for GLH can be a perfectly valid strategy given a certain map/start/civ, but I'm still not convinced it calls for its own special capital type. If you must put the low food coastal start into its own category, I'd rather stick it into a miscellaneous category along with any other mediocre start that isn't quite a hammer, GP, or cottage capital.

 

[Artichoker]

Thks folks. I agree that there are 3 main ones, but the 4th one imo is still distinct: coastal. I say this after struggling with coastal starts for a long time. GLH becomes a priority as does a different tech path. I never used to research sailing on my own, but now when I get a coastal start I will prioritize sailing. Same with compass. It becomes much more important than usual. Also, Moai statues becomes an option for certain coastal capitals. You also may have a coastal capital that doesn't have "obscene" amounts of food meaning you have a lost of water tiles, but it doesn't make a great gpfarm really. Knowing what to do (besides nothing) in those situations is helpful imo.

Really? But you need Sailing as a prerequisite for Calendar, and you need Calendar to develop Calendar resources...extremely useful even on land maps, especially if warmongering.

 

[harusame]

Really? But you need Sailing as a prerequisite for Calendar, and you need Calendar to develop Calendar resources...extremely useful even on land maps, especially if warmongering.

AI always research sailing, and i mean really ALWAYS
sailing, mathematic, and calendar

AI always have them

 

[futurehermit]

Obscene amounts of food is an exaggeration, but the majority of coastal starts are food heavy. Even just 2 improved clams gives you a 4 food surplus. The only coastal start in your examples that wasn't food heavy was the second one under the GLH start section... which I think is a very sad capital, but could probably be a respectable hammer capital since one of those empty plains tiles will almost certainly hold a strategic resource. You could go for GLH on that start, but you could just as easily go for other wonders or a rush.

Making a beeline for GLH can be a perfectly valid strategy given a certain map/start/civ, but I'm still not convinced it calls for its own special capital type. If you must put the low food coastal start into its own category, I'd rather stick it into a miscellaneous category along with any other mediocre start that isn't quite a hammer, GP, or cottage capital.

I agree with you for the most part. It is probably my own experience that leads me toward including it as its own type. I have always had problems with coastal starts and think they need to be played different than inland starts. If others find this helpful, then that is good, but if not then it is no big deal. I agree that there are three primary capital types, but the fourth is distinct enough imo that it is worth thinking about, especially for archipelago-type maps.

 

[Bleys]

Making a beeline for GLH can be a perfectly valid strategy given a certain map/start/civ, but I'm still not convinced it calls for its own special capital type.

To some degree I agree with you, but personally, I put 90% of coastal starts and 50% of inland starts in the "GLH" category these days. If I start on the coast, or my first move shows me a decent coastal spot I can get my settler too, I am building the GLH almost every time. I think its that strong. I will give up every other pre-MoM wonder in exchange for 6 decent coastal cities and the GLH. Even on large landmasses, I can ring my first few cities around the coast, and settle the inland sites later when I have a strong economic base to support those cities (post CoL-Currency). Choke-points are made for the GLH, since they are often thin strips of land where 1 or 2 cities will cut the AI out of a large chunk.

So does the TRE deserve a "Capitol Category" all its own? Not really, since it doesnt matter if I have 3 seafood or only 1, if I have 5 hills or 1, if I have a river or island in sight or not, if its not Pangaea (and you can usually tell by the time a decision needs to be made) then I am likely to play for the GLH anyway. Non-GLH maps are those like the Pacal Immortal U, where you have a couple AIs right up your butt and if you dont settle aggressively inland, your going to be a sitting duck.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

I don't like coastal GP farms unless there is a rediculous amount of seafood or very little water in the city radius. Every saltwater tile has only 2 food. So unless most of the water has seafood bonus, I'll look for something better inland.