Archipelago Early exploration, expansion, and city placement

[civaddict098]

I've been playing Civ 5 on and off since release but I have almost always played on continents or pangaea maps. I just purchased G&K so I thought I would pay on an archipelago to try out the improved naval mechanics. I quickly realized that I am going to need to change my early build order and teching to account for all the water

So, I have a few questions:
How quickly do you go for optics? I made a bee line for it in my latest game so that I could get some units off of my island to pop goody huts, kill barbs for city states, and found a new city. But, I of course did this at the expense of getting other early techs.

Second, how many triremes do you build? I built two. They are useful for finding city states and new islands to settle, but can't pop goody huts or kill barbs. Should I instead be doing more exploring with embarked units?

My third question concerns city placement. I found my self more tempted to place cities further from my capital than I normally would on a continents map. Since you don't need roads to connect your cities this seemed like not such a bad idea. But, it still takes a while to get units between your cities if they are too far flung. What are your thoughts on this?

Anyone have any good archipelago tips?

 

[joncnunn]

Tall vs Wide is highly map specific (what is the resource layout for that particular map?)

But normally you want to build the National College before founding cities on other landmasses.

AI isn't that good attacking over water; but you'll still want a ranged defense unit in your cities.

You can generally "borrow" a unit intended to garrison a city to go pop a goody hut in a near by island.

Big ones are mid game:
Pre-build Frigates as the first naval bombard unit and upgrade
While barracks are low priority, when your getting fairly close to that tech, build a Barracks & Armory in a designated city so you can build a few Privateers that start with Coastal Raider III.

 

[HarvesterofSorr]

I beeline for Writing followed by researching the techs necessary for improving my city. Then go straight for Optics.
IMO your build of 2 triremes for exploration is about right. The land units are best at attacking barbs, picking up goody huts and exploring any landmasses that are fairly good sized. Land units can't see far enough in the water to do much good exploring. I use the 2 triremes and then 1-2 scouts for goody hut/explore and 1-2 good attacker for barbs.
On city placement I have to agree with joncnunn that you should wait until building NC for extra cities. I'd say unless you have the cash to buy some units if outlier attacked you should send 1-2 units to defend (preferrably ranged).

 

[civaddict098]

Thanks for the tips. The resources are the standard ones from selecting archipelago in the "setup game" menu. Also I was playing on a standard sized map. Is the idea behind waiting to settle other land masses until after national college that I want to get the NC as soon as possible and founding new cities will slow me down? or did you guys have another reason in mind?

 

[joncnunn]

Thanks for the tips. The resources are the standard ones from selecting archipelago in the "setup game" menu. Also I was playing on a standard sized map. Is the idea behind waiting to settle other land masses until after national college that I want to get the NC as soon as possible and founding new cities will slow me down? or did you guys have another reason in mind?

I meant that it specific to the layout of the specific resources near your start; and not advanced options.
In this case tile location specific.
Are the resources clumped? Are they instead loose?
Are the luxury resources predominately one type? Or are they instead unique?

NC: Yup; NC is best built as soon as possible. I shoot for turn 70 (standard speed). This tends to mean if going Tradition 2 city (cash rush library in second city) or if going Liberty 3 city (cash rush library in last city).
The Tradition approach cash rushes a settler when almost complete and starts moving it to the new site founding the 3rd city shortly after NC. (The liberty approach usually builds their 4th settler right after NC as well)

Bascially, Liberty gets the cities built faster (and later will build more cities) while Tradition focuses more on growing the cities.

I should also mention that I've played several water maps that called for 5 cities. (3 on starting landmass, 2 more on neighboring landmass) I find 5 cities best played Semi-Tall. (Tradition 2 city NC; 3 city circus maximus; 4th & 5th cities right after that; intend all cities to grow; this also means cash buying an aqueduct for that 5th city.)

It looks to me that if your intending on founding 6+ cities, you're better off with Liberty start.

 

[Tabs]

What difficulty are you playing on? The AI are seriously bad at naval warfare and so for anything less than Immortal difficulty you can steamroll them very easily into a domination victory. A couple of privateers and a handful of frigates with the double-attack promotion (blitz?) and most any enemy city will fall in a single turn.

Placing cities far away is just fine as long as you can defend them. Decent locations can be rare on an Archipelago maps, so snap them up before the AI does.

 

[joncnunn]

What difficulty are you playing on? The AI are seriously bad at naval warfare and so for anything less than Immortal difficulty you can steamroll them very easily into a domination victory. A couple of privateers and a handful of frigates with the double-attack promotion (blitz?) and most any enemy city will fall in a single turn.

Placing cities far away is just fine as long as you can defend them. Decent locations can be rare on an Archipelago maps, so snap them up before the AI does.

You can also steam roll them in naval attacks on Immortal as well. But one thing to watch out for here is a possible AI counter-invasion; (AI waits for you to take the city with their units out of sight and then comes after you with them.) I was impressed when I first saw that. (The AIs tactic would have worked if I didn't respond by selling that city to a different AI it was at peace with as it would have taken the city before I finished razing it.)

 

[Unresolved]

And if that Deity Challenge with Polynesia was any indication, you can also steam roll the AI in Deity as well.

 

[The Pilgrim]

And if that Deity Challenge with Polynesia was any indication, you can also steam roll the AI in Deity as well.

Which is totally true in the context of water maps.