Asking for your advice – Shadow game on Emperor

[NightOnEarth]

Hello fellow civfanatics!

I think it is time to end my lurker days. Recently I learned about this great opportunity to improve game playing by means of shadow games. I eagerly followed these threads and tried to learn, but when it comes to play CIV IV myself, I fall back to old habits. Therefore I want to try a shadow game and I am looking forward to getting your advice.

I was a CIV I addict back in the 1990s. Some years ago my son gave me a set of CIV IV disks, and I am playing BTS now and then. Nowadays I am winnig constantly on Monarch, but all my games are running similar. I have a preference for the oracle wonder and for Magellan.I am always leading in production and trailing in military. In some recent games I succeeded in crushing my nearest opponent in the early stage of the game, but otherwise I often shy away from war. Nearly all of my wins are space races.

As you can see, some old habits have to be overcome and there is a need for flexibility and adaptation to the actual situation. Therefore I started a new game on Emperor with some settings on random:

Saladin (spiritual, protective) (random), 8 AI opponents, game speed normal, map size big, map shuffle (random involved), climate cold (random), sea level high (random), no huts, no events

Spoiler Here we go! :

This looks like a decent start, but not more, I think. Seafood, lots of forests to chop, two silk tiles, access to fresh water. OTOH coastal with ten water tiles if I SIP. To the east there seems to be plains/desert and only two hills for production. In the far SE I seem to spot land.

I was shafted regarding the placement of my warrior. Not much useful I can do. I think I will move him counterclockwise to reveal the vicinity of my current position.

SIP or not is giving me a headache. I'm inclined to move 1E to a) getting more land tiles when settling b) reveal more tiles and maybe another ressource. In this case I'm still coastal with access to the clams, but I'm giving away the three hammer PH in the NW.

Technology! Mysticism and the wheel wouldn't be my premium choice, but let's see how I can make use of them. At least I can switch civics without anarchy and build a monument in my second city right away, if necessary. Looking far ahead, mysticism brings me one step closer to the Oracle wonder. The wheel could keep my first worker busy if the right technology isn't yet available. It's also a requirement for pottery.

Which technology to choose depends on my settler, I think. In former days I had aimed for Hinduism right away, but I learnt my lesson when browsing your comments in other shadow games. At the moment I would go for fishing (and a work boat to build) to boost the growth rate of my first city. Mining doesn't appear useful itself to me (nothing to mine at the moment), but as a bridge to bronze working, once more a key technology (chopping, slavery).

The build order would be warrior, finished, when fishing is available, then work boat. In the meanwhile the first city can hopefully grow to size three. In this case I'd have a 4 food/hammer and two 3 food/Hammer tiles available to build my first worker.

I hope my considerations make sense. Please feel free to question or to correct them.

 

[lymond]

I'm curious what you mean by "map size = big", and why you chose a larger map. It's really recommended to play normal settings while learning. I recommend rolling a new map with standard settings/no huts/events. It's a absolute horrible start for a horrible leader anyway.

And welcome to unlurkerhood!

 

[coanda]

I wouldn't call Saladin a horrible leader. PRO is nearly useless, starting techs are awful, but SPI is really, really strong. And the Madrassa is one of the better UBs in the game.

With that said... yeah, that's an ugly start. Only food is clam (without even Fishing start), only land resource is Calendar and a suspiciously unforested tile 1NW that might well have horses, copper, or iron. It's going to be slow going. Plus despite being strong, SPI is also probably the most complicated trait to get full value from; it's a confounding factor that maybe isn't needed the first time he's trying Emperor.

 

[Wrathful]

That looks to be a tough start indeed. I also agree that it's best to stick with standard map size for now. However, in this case high sea level balances that out to some extent.

Regarding the start, I suppose you can tech Fishing while building a worker. When Fishing is finished switch to a work boat then work the plains hill forest until the boat is done. Go for BW and try to chop out some settlers for better land. As coanda mentioned there is a tile nearby that might have copper.

 

[lymond]

I wouldn't call Saladin a horrible leader. PRO is nearly useless, starting techs are awfu.

Sal's okay, but my comment was relative to the start.

 

[Gumbolt]

Tough start tech wise.

So 8 turn wait for fishing then 8 turns for a workboat. So 4f resource at end of it. Which gives 10 turn worker. 26 turns.Then chance to chop with commerce from clams.
Alternative is 15 turn worker. Then wait for BW and fishing. You could road forest whilst waiting then chop for hammers to 2nd worker.Then chop for workboat. Pending when tech arrives. You can chop both workboats.

Option 2 could be quicker? Longer worker time offset by roads/2nd worker and or 1-2 workboats. 8 turns for warrior at start is not great.

I think large map size is offset by high sea level. So land could be limited here. Only 974 land with all those extra AI too.

 

[NightOnEarth]

Thank you all for your advices/comments and for your time. It escaped me, but all of you agree that it is a tough start, most probably inappropriate for a shadow game and for learning purpose. Thus I rerolled a new map.
OTOH especially Wrathful and Gumbolt gave me feedback how to start my first map, and it would be a pity to neglect the comments. Therefore my second map will be my shadow game, and my first map should serve as a lab to try out and to repeat, what I have learned so far. I am not shy of a challange, and a tough start doesn't discourage me, although it's unlikely that I will ever finish that game.

I'm curious what you mean by "map size = big", and why you chose a larger map

(How can I indicate whom I am quoting?)
Sorry, I'm not playing the english version of the game. Therefore I have to translate some of the terms. Maybe "map size = large" would be the proper term. It's the next category upward from "standard", an old habit of me to add more diversity to the game.

Okay, here are the settings of my second game:
6 AI opponents, game speed normal, map size standard, map shuffle (random involved), climate arid (random), sea level low (random), no huts, no events
Leader: Zara Yakob (Ethiopia), creative/organised, starting techs hunting/mining, UU Oromo warrior (musketman), UM Stele (monument)

Spoiler My new starting map :

My thoughts and ideas are:

map pro:
nine(!) floodplains at least (climate dry), a river, corn, a 3H tile, hills to mine, access to fresh water.
map con:
probably health issues due to floodplains, few forests to chop.

genaral considerations:
I'm way north of the equator. Tundra to the north, so I'm relatively save from there (except barbarians). Arid climate could mean separation from my neighbors by deserts, enhanced by low sea level.
Traits: Creative fits to my current playing style. I like border expansion five turns after I've settled and I like cheap libraries. I don't have much experience with ORG. Currently I often experience problems during early expansion and I tend to build courthouses (cheap), which help me to spy opponents.
UB: wasted when creative IMHO. UU: I don't know. I usually don't go for musketmen.

Scout:
I'm tempted circling clockwise or counter-clockwise around the current position of my settler. Maybe NE-E to uncover more tiles in the vicinity of the settler's current position. Tundra shouldn't be neglected to perhaps reveal iron/copper/horses.

Settler:
I would SIP. I hope you agree, that both PH aren't an a serious option to settle on. Moving away from corn rsp. moving away from river/floodplains.

Starting Techs:
Hunting seems not overly useful. One step closer to Archery to defend my cities against barbs, but maybe I'll already have axemen. Due to the corn I will tech agriculture early. At least hunting will then make animal husbandery cheaper to tech.
Mining: Great! Unforested hills to mine and bronze working is one step closer.

Tech tree:
I'm lost to decide whether to farm or to cottage my floodplains. Anyhow I'll need agriculture (corn, farms), pottery (granary - +1 health with corn and makes slavery more effective; cottages), the wheel (as requirement for pottery) and of course bronze working. Does agriculture (8t) - bronze working (<= 14t) - the wheel (<= 8t) - pottery sound reasonable?
As libraries are cheap, writing could be next, but this is far ahead.

Build order:
One of my weak spots. 8 turns to grow to size 2 and to gain +1 F/H for a worker seems a waste for me, and a warrior wouldn't be finished by then. I could imagine to go for a worker straight away (15t). He could farm the corn (+5t), then mine the grass hill 1NW of the corn to enhance production. 2nd build could be a settler with the help of two chops from the worker. What worries me, is the possible appearance of barbs from turn 20 on. I'll have no defense.

As in my previous message I hope my considerations make sense. Please feel free to question or to correct them.

 

[Wrathful]

Much better start this time! And a strong leader too.

With the information you currently have there's no reason to move the settler anywhere. Keeping fresh water is important with all these floodplains and low forests. You might move the scout NE-E to check if there's anything up there worth grabbing.

Early research and builds are pretty standard here. Go Agri for the corn and then BW for chops and slavery. You have good food and can whip settlers and workers. Don't chop too much though; health's an issue. I like the tech order you mentioned, although you might need to insert AH if there's livestock resources. Archery might also be required to deal with barbs, although they aren't very dangerous on Emperor.

Start with a worker in the capital, then build warriors until size 3 and start on a settler then.

Scouting: Generally you want to avoid scouting out the tundra early on. However, the river seems to continue up north so it might be worth checking out the tundra hill you mentioned. With this land you should definitely aim for Civil Service early on for the Bureaucracy civic and settle one or two "helper cities" to aid in developing the cottages.

 

[lymond]

If you use the quote button it will tag the user to the quote. Just delete text you don't want to keep. I think there is a way to adjust the tag manually to add the user, but I forget how at the moment. (edit: to do it manually, in the first brackets add "=username" after "Quote"...disregard quotes)

Pretty good view of land from the start, so it makes the decision pretty clear to me regardless of scout move. I'd settle 1N to pick up a couple more flood plains for a really nice bureau cap. 8 FPs is tremendous. Also, looks like maybe coast to the S, so moving 1N may open up a nice coastal helper city if seafood is right there. Ideally you will have at least a couple of overlapping cottage helper cities - maybe more depending on potential.

AG>BW>POT seems good here. POT may depend on what resources you see elsewhere but seems logical otherwise to get some fp cottages going and get to Writing asap.

Honestly, I have no suggestion on initial scout move. To me it has no bearing on the settling decision in this particular case with so much visible. Maybe up on the hill 2E and then continue scouting E and S in a circle around cap.

 

[ArchGhost]

Honestly, I have no suggestion on initial scout move. To me it has no bearing on the settling decision in this particular case with so much visible. Maybe up on the hill 2E and then continue scouting E and S in a circle around cap.

To my eyes the only scout move that could possibly give any relevant info on turn1 is onto the hill 1NW of corn, just to peek the tiles to the S and W.

You're right it doesn't matter much since there's no reason not to SIP with what is known already. Might be the best 1st move for future decisions though, and can go onto the pHill 2NW of corn next turn to survey NW (coast or river?) quickly before checking East.

 

[coanda]

Your general points on the pros and cons of your start are correct.

You can get some info on surrounding tiles by just squinting into the fogged border, which can help inform initial settling/scouting decisions.

The most interesting tiles for doing this are ones you might catch in your city's big fat cross (BFC), either by settling in place or with a move of the settler you are considering. South of the settler you can see a pair of grass forests and what looks like an inland lake tile. 2S2E is a flat grass tile. On the east side of your settler you've got a plains-forest 1S3E and three flat, unforested plains tiles north of it. Plains-hill 2N2E, riverside desert (= floodplains, the 10th floodplains you know must be there) 2N 1E, flat plains 3N 1E. Tundra and ocean further north, flat riverside grass tile 4N 1W, a coastline to the NW with a single coastal plains tile, and some flat grasslands to the west. The unforested, non-floodplains tiles could all potentially have hidden resources, although none of them look particularly suspicious to me.

In immediate scouting, tundra is low priority. Tundra tiles without resources are basically useless. And the tiles with resources are generally weaker than you might find with resources on non-tundra tiles. Deer gives +3F with a camp, making a 4-food tile; you can get 6-food tiles on things like a wet corn. Fur is rarely worth working early-game. Silver is weaker than gold or gems. Strategic resources won't matter until you've discovered the relevant techs, and especially if in an otherwise marginal city (like you tend to find bordering tundra) will often want to wait for your third or fourth city anyways - you want your second city to become a fast powerhouse if at all possible.

You have a good enough start that I wouldn't not even consider burning a full turn just scouting before you even think about where to settle. I also wouldn't consider any settling location that couldn't work the corn, or any location that wasn't fresh water.

2S of the settler should be fresh water (if I'm right that is an inland lake down there 2S 1E; I'm about 95% sure). But you get only 4 floodplains, which is not enough, plus you won't settle your city until the next turn. 1S1E also has just 4 FPs, also not worth it. 1S is up to 5 FPs; a bit better, but still too low.

1E of your current location is 6 FPs. If one of those 2 plains tiles east of your settler in the fog has a nice resource on it, giving up the one floodplain would be worth it (especially since it would move the settler 1 space further from the corn, meaning you could more easily share it with another city in the future). But you've got no vision of those two tiles and no way to get vision in a turn, so forget about it.

That leaves us with 3 places to seriously consider settling. Settle in place, 1N, or 1N1W.

You're right that health will be a concern on this start. So let's look at health in more detail. You get 2 health from difficulty level on Emperor. Add another 2 health from fresh water. So 4 baseline. You lose 0.4 health per floodplains in the BFC; you gain 0.5 health per forest. Each of those are rounded down independently. So going from 5 to 6 floodplains makes no difference in health. Neither does going from 6 to 7. But going from 7 to 8 costs a whole point of health. Similarly, having 4 or 5 forests makes no difference, but having 3 instead of 4 would cost a point of health.

SIP: 5 forests, 7 floodplains (2N1E one is in fog of war right now, but it's a riverside desert tile). Initially, +0 health at size-4. (2 difficulty + 2 fresh water + 2 forest - 2 floodplains = 4). You'll chop some forests making that drop, but also hook up that corn for +1 and another +1 when your granary comes online. Not a ton of health, but your city likely won't be growing beyond size-5 for a while anyways.

1N: 2 forests, 9 floodplains. Initially, +0 health at size-2. Sickness will be a real issue here, although slightly better long-term bureaucracy commerce potential.

1N1W: 2 forests, 8 floodplains. Initially, +0 health at size-2. Sickness is a real issue here as well. One fewer FP than 1N, so the only reason to consider this is if you thought one of the tiles 1S2W, 3W, 1N3W, or 2N3W had a resource worth working. You can potentially check that with your scout by moving 1W -> 1SW.

My personal inclination would be to settle in place. I would trade +2 initial health and 3 more choppable forests, a much better early-game, in exchange for having 2 fewer floodplains in the mid/late-game. Move the scout 1W then 1SW just to make sure nothing crazy shows up to change the thinking and push in favor of settling 1N1W (but it would have to be really good).

It'd be a bonus if your second city shared some floodplains and maybe the corn with the capital (so it can grow faster, and help develop some cottages), so just keep moving counter-clockwise about the capital with that scout checking out the terrain.

Agriculture is the obvious, no-question first tech here. While it's normal to "delay" locking in your first tech for the first 5 turns in case your scouting finds something to change your thinking, I can't conceive of what could you could possibly find to make AGR not the best first tech if you settle in place so you could skip that if you wanted. Agreed with your overall tech plan; natural follow-up is BW so you can chop three forests, then Wheel -> Pottery.

In terms of worker micro, first priority is obviously improving that corn. You'll have a few turns to kill after that before Bronze Working finishes; you could get a mine, then chop forests.

Don't worry about turn-20 barbs. Animals won't go in your borders, and on Emperor you shouldn't be seeing non-animal barbarians for quite a while longer. Also, you very, very rarely want to rely on archery and archers for barb defense. Fog-busting with warriors and defending with chariots or axemen is much preferable.

 

[NightOnEarth]

Dear all,

I appreciate your comments and suggestions. It's real fun to play a shadow game this way.
I especially want to thank coanda for the thorough analysis and explanations. I am really, really impressed what is possible to achieve at the start of the game. Your fogged border analysis certainly relies on much experience. I wasn't able to spot the inland lake even after you pointed it out, and my son wasn't, too.

After reading and reflecting your various suggestions I moved my scout 1W-1SW to reveal possible ressources and to aid the decision of settling.

Spoiler Turn 0 - what my scout revealed :

Please load attachment at the end of the message. I'm not able to insert the JPG properly in this quote.

Fish and (dry) wheat, and an area for a helper city. I'm inclined to settle the helper city where my scout is (on the PH) to get the fish and the wheat (+2 health).
But why for God's sake is the program suggesting to settle where the circle is? This absolutely doesn't make sense to me.
So, there is really a coast to the west. No other AI, no barbs, no fogbusting required.

After that I SIP. The health analysis of coanda convinced me to do so. Build a worker (15 turns), tech agriculture (8 turns). My scout is circling counter-clockwise as suggested. Oh my, is this guy fast.
Turn 3: Aksum expanded and revealed wheat to the east, a pig, a coastline and a spot for another helper city to the south. What troubles me (a bit) concerning learning is the lack of competition for good settling spots with other civs.
Turn 6: My scout meets a scout of the Khmer east of my city. In all my games this guy (Suryavarman II) annoyed me with his requests. In my last game I had a really funny encounter with him. We were semi-isolated on an island, and I was halfheartedly preparing an attack, when out of the sudden he declared war to me. Warfare is my weakest spot, but I managed to kill him in two waves.
Turn 8: A lion appears just SW of my cultural borders.
Turn 9: Agricalture is explored. Next tech is BW (turn 23).
Turn 10: Hinduism is founded. At least one rival started with mysticism.
Turn 12: My scout circled around Aksum Unsure, where to send him now. Unsure, what to build when the worker has finished (t15). I decided to stop here to present my assessment and to look forward to getting your suggestions and comments.

Spoiler Turn 12 - what's next? :

General strategy:
Semi-isolated by coastline, tundra (N) and desert (E). I seem to have time to pick the best places for settlement. Fog busting is a non-issue to the west and to the near south. Tech-wise I'd go the wheel - pottery and then animal husbandery (pigs) or writing (cheap libraries).
I have marked three spots where IMHO helper cities could be placed. Two of them could work two floodplains, the third one of them. 13 turns ahead the borders of Aksum will expand again and will reveal the southern coastline and possible fish/clam/crab. Anyhow I would slightly prefer to settle the yellow spot first because of the pig and because of the possibility of sharing the corn. Do you agree?
The second pic depicts where I met the Khmer scout (east of the gold). Aksum is to the NW. Is it worthwile to compete for this spot with river, three floodplains and three gold?

Scouting:
My main reason to stop at turn 12. You can spot my guy 2SE of the yellow spot. What to do next? Explore the southern coastline, explore the north, explore the east, explore the southeast, prepare fogbusting? The first is probably a non-issue because of border expansion in 13 turns. I'm tempted to go southeast.

Working:
My worker will be ready in three turns, will farm the corn, will then mine the hill NW of it and then either mine the hill N or (temporarly) farm the floodplain NW until pottery is available. An alternative is to connect the corn for health issues as soon as he can build roads.
Main question: with cheap libraries, should I farm (GP) or cottage my floodplains?

Build:
This is giving me a headache. As Wrathful suggested I'd build one or two warriors to expand the population. In the meanwhile bronze working/slavery is available and I could whip/chop a settler and then another worker.

Ressources:
Will copper pop up at turn 23? Where? A switch point for my further decissions. With pigs, is it worth to tech animal husbandery earlier than intended? Horses (chariots)?

Military/Fog busting:
Heavily dependant on copper available or not. Chariots with 2 movement points would be nice.

I hope that I don't miss something obvious and that my reasoning is ok. Again I'd like to encourage you to write your corrections/suggestions/comments.

 

[lymond]

Health Smealth...1N was better ...seriously though, I would not sacrifice a primo bureau cap - (and it is not just slightly better), for a little early health problem. Health is something that is manageable. (you are also creative, so those forest on the exterior would be in borders soon enough..slightly less hammers at 3 tile distance but still good) Good analysis by coanda nonetheless.

I very much like all the cities you have marked on the map currently (good thinking here on those 3). All 3 can help work FP cottages for Aksum, so they all are helper cities but very strong in their own right with good food. Location of copper may alter things a bit, but we'll see.
(Preference on those cities is debatable at the moment...again copper may factor on what to settler first, but the one thing that stands out about the city due E is that is has several forests for more choppage) Right now that city and fish/wheat stand out at 1 and 2, with blind pigs #3

2 grass pigs makes one consider AH soon. I'm probably more inclined to go to POT first (via fish and tw), unless no copper makes horses an early necessity. Only pigs city due south has no other food visible (really need to scout that coast south of Aksum - don't ignore coast), but it can use use FPs for now.

Yeah, finish at least one warrior before starting 1st settler at size 3 (or 4 if whipping). Two if you can, but doubtful. With corn improvement, at size two you will grow on a FP. Check each turn if working a 2F1H forest tile will keep growth the same. If not continue working FP..do not stunt growth, but if it works that you can work that 2F1H for a turn or two, it will speed up the warrior significantly.

...you want that warrior to probably head east to spawn the area...scout can come back an bust another area, probably to the S-SE.

Worker should chop forests as soon as BW is in - not sure how that times with finishing the corn. The mines are irrelevant at this point, but if worker can't chop then one grasshill mine can't hurt I guess, but certainly not two.

Remember most of your early production is going to come from whipping and chopping. One of those grasshill mines near future fish city may not be bad for that city later since it will have no forests. But get to chopping as soon as you can.

 

[coanda]

The blue circles are generally horrible advice for settling cities. With that said, I've heard that they consider tiles and resources currently hidden by fog of war so sometimes they know something you don't. I'm not totally certain about that, might just be an urban legend.

Good planned city locations. I'd lean towards East, South, West settling order of the three, but it could be mixed up quite a bit if you find strategic resources. Added forests to the east will help that city pay itself off a bit faster. Also, there's the possibility that there might be more seafood around the western or southern cities. Before settling the W city I'd try to move a unit onto the plains peninsula to check the deep water on the off chance you see more seafood out there and decide to settle on the peninsula instead of plains-hill, and if your border pop reveals anything interesting to the south that might push to settle there first.

The gold region is river, at least six floodplains, and three gold (there's at least three more riverside desert tiles just west in the fog). It would absolutely pay for itself financially, but would not be a huge production powerhouse early. Depending on how strategic resources fall and how distant the AIs are, might be the sort of city you let them settle then conquer away from them.

Scout might want to risk popping out to glance at the gold region, but you want him zoning out barb spawns pretty soon.

Worker definitely wants to be chopping forests once you have bronze working. Farm should be finished a little before BW, so there's a few spare worker turns in there in which you could stay productive making a mine. I'd aim to juggle tiles to hit size-4 the same time I finished the warrior; then it's a chop, a 2-pop whip, and a couple turns of city production to get the settler out.

With your second city probably working a pigs resource by size 2, I think you're going to want Animal Husbandry before Pottery. This would become 100% absolutely true if you don't find copper, but I think its probably the case anyways.

 

[NightOnEarth]

Thank you again for your valuable comments and suggestions. Both of you, lymond and coanda, agreed that the further strategy depends on copper being revealed or not. Here is the short storyline:

t13: Scout has some time left. So I decided to scout the southern coastline as proposed by lymond, to pass the lion at the SW and to peek seaward on the western peninsula as suggested by coanda before arriving just in time (t20) on a hill east of Aksum. Unfortunately, no further seafood was revealed.
t14: Buddhism is founded.
t15: worker is built and farms the corn. Warrior is next.
t20: Scout arrived at fogbusting spot, revealed interesting area to the east with river, deer and FPs.
t21: Aksum grows to size 2. 4t to size 3 if working corn and FP. No chance to throw in a 2F1H tile.
t23: BW finished. (As expected by me) no copper uncovered. Hard decision what to tech next. I had a plan for my worker to chop two times and then to connect the corn to my city, therefore I went for TW.
t24/25 Khmer revolted to slavery and founded 2nd city.
t24/25 Mine completed, Aksum pop 3, border pop-up
t29: Warrior completed, settler next, Aksum pop 4 with working the mine last turn, forest chopped, revolted to slavery (maybe a bit premature)
t32: TW finished, 2nd forest chopped -> Aksum sick (-1 health), worker will head to corn to connect it to Aksum by a road, settler can be 2pop-whipped in two turns.

I stopped here because decisions have to be made about next tech, next build, place to found the 2nd city, fogbusting.

Spoiler turn 32 :

Technology:
Pottery was my original intention (granary for whipping, cottages for commerce). But with the settler coming, pigs around and no copper for axemen, I'm inclined to swith to animal husbandery, then pottery. Horses would allow chariots.
With just one fish, fishing seems not a premium choice. After that either iron working (military) or writing (cheap libraries), maybe dependant if horses show up.

Place for 2nd city:
I think I should expand to the east and settle next to the wheat for my helper city. This would get me nearer to the tempting location NE of my scout, too.

Build:
Here I'm kind of lost. Maybe a warrior next to help fogbusting and to grow again, then another worker.

Aksum:
No idea! Is this a GP farm or a place for cottage spam? In other words, should I farm or cottage the FP? I suppose, the latter, because the helper cities could work the cottaged FP, too. A granary would work wonders, I think.

Worker:
After connecting the corn, I could pave a road to the wheat/2nd city for health. Another chop is possible without loosing further health. In between/afterwards I could (temporarily) farm a FP).

Fogbusting:
I have little experience with methodic fogbusting. If I'm correct, a fogbuster prevents spawning in a 2-tile radius around him, even when the tiles are still in the fog. In my screenshot I have marked four possible places for fogbusting. They are all on a hill to enhance the view and to get a bonus when defending. The fogbusted areas should border on each other, if I'm correct. My scout is already on the yellow circled hill south of the deer, and my warrior is heading to the yellow circle south of that place.
What do you think?



I don't fully understand the mechanics of fogbusting. The screenshot above depicts my problem. Tiles are fogbusted either one tile away from my borders or two tiles away. I have the idea that hills are significant. Hills at my border give me a two-tiles sight, if there are no hills at my border, I can spot hills two tiles away. Does this make sense to you?

 

[AcaMetis]

The blue circles are generally horrible advice for settling cities. With that said, I've heard that they consider tiles and resources currently hidden by fog of war so sometimes they know something you don't. I'm not totally certain about that, might just be an urban legend.

What you've heard is correct. They even see resources you can't see because you don't have the required tech yet, though trying to secure stuff like uranium or oil in the BCs by trying to read the circles is a luck based mission at best. Unless you happen to come across a terrible coastal city that the game recommends you settle, decent chance of ocean Oil in that case.

 

[lymond]

I can't tell from the screenshot what size Aksum is. Did you plan a 4>2 whip of the setter? If so, I use put the OF hammers from that whip into a new worker timed with a chop. I'm not sure your experience in this regard, but it is important to time those chops with the production needed to 2pop whip the settler. Settler is 100H. A whip citizen is 30 hammers. For a 3pop whip you can equal or exceed 40H of production into settler. For 2pop whip you can't equal or exceed 70H of production into the hammer. (obviously notice the 30h increments which ties to the 30h from a whipped citizen). Depending of the overall speed of production, the first chop usually will put you within that 40-70H range for 2pop whip. Closer to 70H the more overflow, but generally I will whip as soon as the option is available - you will get at least some OF. 2nd chop - whether started/near finished/or pre-chopped can be completed after the whip. Again, I usually put it into that valuable next worker.

TW is fine. I'd probably go AH next since no copper. Too strong pig resources to settle next so it is worth it. Yes, I'd settle just due east (3 tiles) from wheat/pigs. (Pottery..ha..keramik..ok first as well...doesn't hurt to get at least one cottage going as soon as you can, but Aksum will like be whipped at least 2 or 3 more times for settlers...helper cities can work some as well)

Absolutely cottage the heck outta Aksum. (edit: just to be clear though, cottages will be built over time as they can be worked, worker priority early is still improving food specials and chopping) The 3 cities you settle next to Aksum can help grow those cottages. In most games, having a strong Bureau cap is extremely vital. Interestingly, all three helper cities have GP farm potential.

Spawnbust spots look fine. Yep, 2 tiles are busted or 5X5 from unit. N spot a little questionable, but peaks make it odd. Probably best, but I'd place a warrior up there. Bust positions can be adjusted later as you settle cities and expand borders.

Just note on the teching on even higher difficulties, that things like AH vs. Pot would probably come down to one or the other. You obviously need one to get to Writing, but AH is very expensive. However, ofc, barb defense is also important if no copper. On Deity, I'd probably just actually tech Archery, which I usually avoid if no copper. Here on Emperor though, it is ok to tech both of them if AH is important, and here it obviously is and in addition you don't want to delay too long getting some sweet fp cottages working.

 

[coanda]

Your thinking is good. Lymond's advice covers most of it, so I'll just touch on a couple other points.

A note about Iron Working: I'm not sure there's any other tech the AIs are more aggressive about researching. It gets teched fast by bots, every game. Researching it yourself is a decent chunk of beakers for something that you will probably not be able to trade. Plus Compass, the tech it leads to, is pretty weak and you generally put off getting it until after you're wanting to get Optics as well. All told, Iron Working is basically a dead-end tech in the early-game. Try very hard to avoid researching it yourself, because it will put you significantly behind in other tech. AH -> Pottery -> Writing looks like a reasonable plan to me. Animal Husbandry first both because you want to pasture that pig, and because your third city is probably dropping in ~15 turns. It'd be nice to know if there are horses somewhere important before that.

You should be okay on health for now; hooking up the wheat is not urgent. Your capital isn't going to spend much time above size-3 for a while anyways. An extra point of health won't help you much until you've finished your initial burst of expansion. Maybe one more chop to the capital, then farm that eastern wheat and start chopping around it. Or you could just go straight east and start farming the wheat now; you're about to have a city for it.

Barbarians cannot spawn anywhere you have vision, nor can they spawn within a 5x5 square centered around a unit. Your locations look fine.

 

[NightOnEarth]

In my recent session I learnt that to understand a concept does not automatically mean that I'm able to implement it (whipping-chopping-building). We paused when I was ready to 4>2 whip my first settler, my worker was trying to do soemthing useful and my warrior was moving to aid my scout to fogbust the eastern neighborhood. During the next turns I felt lost sometimes concerning decissions about what to build next, what tiles to work and when. At the moment I'm not able to create a strategy for this, maybe due to lack of experience. I hope that I haven't botched it up too much and I'm looking forward to your corrections/suggestions/comments.

As both of you, lymond and coanda, suggested, I started teching AH (2 pigs, looking for horses). Next turn I whipped my settler and realised that Aksum had a 24H overflow. This tempted me to whip a worker next turn, which I now feel was a mistake. Aksum was set back to pop 1, which hampered my further progress. Especially, it was a challange to grow on something (warrior).

t35: Gondar founded 3E of Aksum. Started to build another worker. From now on I have to remember to run deficit research if necessary.
t36: met Süleyman (Ottomans, PHIL, IMP) at my eastern fogbusting outpost. His scout was coming from the east. All spy points directed to the Khmer, because he is most probably my closest rival.
t36: I must have been crazy to stay with my fortified scout on a hill, when a bear was next, but I won! Picked Guerilla I for further fogbusting.
t42: AH researched. One horse 5N of Aksum. Chopped worker in Gondar. Next tech Pottery.
t45: Ottomanes revolt to slavery
t48: Khmer research is now visible: Suryavarman II is researching sailing.
t51: Judaism founded elsewhere. Pottery researched. Next tech writing

Spoiler t51 :

Here I am with 4 warriors fogbusting, 3 workers chopping and cottaging, a scout trying to lure a barb archer (1E of the horse) towards my warrior, who is heading to the forest tile for defense, and a road between my two cities to get +2C from trade routes. Gondar shall grow to size 4, then I'll switch to settler to 4>2 whip him, maybe supported by a chop. The settler in Aksum can be whipped/chopped in two turns, I think.
Pottery is a relief. Now I can cottage my FPs (commerce) and co-work two tiles by both cities. Furthermore, my cities can grow on granaries.

Next city spots:
The lonely barb archer shows me my current vulnerability quite plainly. And now, barbs are coming from the east (one is visible, another just disappeared). Therefore I'm tempted to connect the horses first. Where should I settle? 3N1W of Aksum would get the wheat in the fat cross, but I would forego my PH 1S of the wheat as city spot. At the moment I would go for the tundra hill 1S of the horse. That city would be able to work 2 FP on its own and two FP of Aksum. But how do I connect my horse city to the others? I don't have fishing (river). A road takes way too much valuable worker turns. Rubbish! The river itself connects tiles, fishing ins't necessary.
As soon as I have the horse I could build chariots (two or three?)
At the moment, further expansion is out of the question; I believe. Should my other settler found the southern helper city next to the pig?

How important are granaries at the moment?
I know that granaries nearly double the effectiveness of whipping, but how important is it to build them now? Maybe horses/chariots are more important now.

Plans:
To build a commercial powerhouse in Aksum with cottages/helper cities/cheap library/Great Scientist(?). Later Civil Service.
To improve my military beyond warriors. Chariots could ward off the barbs and simultaniously pick up XP.
Alphabet for the art of tech trading. (I'm quite curious what I can learn about diplo)
Later expansion to the east/southeast, if still possible.
Scouting: sending my scout N, E, SE.

By the way:
A lot of health ressources are available, but no happiness ressources beside maybe gold, when I'm fast enough. Also, stone, marble and calendar ressources are completely missing.

1960 BC and only two cities. I hope that my civ is still a contender. OTOH I'm here to learn, and if necessary, I will replay my last session trying to improve.

 

[coanda]

Your situation is still definitely fine. Bit of whip mis-micro, a little slow in a few areas, but nothing to stress over. You do definitely want to be looking towards getting your next pair of cities out promptly; 2 cities is not enough.

City sites... anywhere there's surplus food, there's probably a city spot. Little or no surplus food? Probably no city site (at least, not until mid-game).

I like your thinking on the site 3N1W of your capital. If you weren't creative I'd be skeptical about it because it has no forests to chop, no good production tiles, and it doesn't have that much going for it until the border pops. But it's got some floodplains, so it's not awful before the border expands... and more importantly, you are Creative, so you'll get that border in 5 turns. And after the border pops it's a strong early city location, plus it would be nice to have horses.

There's still the spot 3S of Aksum. Get that soon too.

If you settle 3N1W, you'll eventually drop a backfill city 3W just to get the fish... but that's a pretty weak city, nothing to hurry on. Simply a place to grab after you have Currency (for +1 trade routes) and when 100 spare hammers for the settler isn't a big deal.

There's a marginal city site 1W of that oasis SE of you. It's not a huge positive contributor, so not something to rush, but it would eventually be able to work 2 gold, 2 wine, the oasis, and a grass farm at size 6, plus it'd fill in an area where there's not a lot of good options. No rush, just keep it in mind.

There's certainly a city site somewhere east around that deer and floodplains. Where, exactly, would need more scouting. Depending on what else is up there, it could be a good city or an amazing city.

There's certainly a city site far southeast around the floodplains and gold. Unless there's something good hidden nearby in the fog it would be mostly commerce, limited production power. The nice thing about a gold resource is that you can drop a city at size-1, start working the gold, and your research rate goes up the instant the mine is finished. It's really not possible to slow yourself down with over-expansion on gold resources. I kind of thought an AI would likely have grabbed that area away from you before now, but it looks like Suryav is probably further north or simply very distant and you didn't meet anyone else for 35 turns.

There's no nearby AIs and you only met the second AI on turn 35, so it sounds like you've probably got a lot of empty space around you. You're also about to start getting some floodplains cottages, so your commerce will rise. Expand!

Your scout location leaves a hole for barbarians to spawn in the north, which would be very inconvenient. Was there a reason you moved him off the hill?

Cottages around Aksum are definitely important; want to get those growing soon. You don't need a lot of chariots; your civilization is pretty compact and you aren't about to be chariot rushing a neighbor. Two chariots would probably be fine - one to defend, one to go out scouting and start revealing more of the map. Alphabet is definitely the target tech, and after that probably Currency. Before Currency, being too reckless about fast expansion can potentially slow down your research and hurt your game. After Currency, 2 trade routes per city and the ability to build wealth means every city is at least break-even from the moment you settle it. It might not help you grow very fast if it's in a weak spot, but at least it won't slow you down and it secures you the land for later.

Your start this game does not pose major military threats, nor are you isolated (where you'd need to get Optics earlier than normal for tech trades); you can really devote most of your focus to just grabbing land.

Granaries... I think I'd chop a granary at Gondar while growing to size 4, then 2-pop whip a settler there. Aksum needs to finish its current settler build first, and I might postpone the granary for a bit there; get a chariot or two first.

The road to the pig was premature. That's a handful of worker turns wasted that could have chopped an extra forest, which would have done more to help in the short term. Always look for opportunities to save worker turns, think if there's something a worker is doing that could be postponed for later without hurting you.

Big priorities I see for your next set of turns? Work towards Currency. Fill out to 4 cities quickly. Scout the surrounding terrain a bit more. And get at least a couple cottages growing.