Critique my DotMap please

[AmazonQueen]

I'm playing the khmers at Noble on an island map. I don't seem to have any immediate neighbours so it looks like a good opportunity to plan ahead more than I usually do.

A crude dotmap: http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/131891/Civ4ScreenShot0000.JPG

Please comment on the suggested city placement, which cities should specialise in what etc. It looks like there may be land/islands to the SW so I shall send a galley down there ASAP but in the meantime I'm building my first settler.

 

[AmazonQueen]

No takers
I assume that means my DotMapping was perfect

Maybe I can tempt somebody to comment on the current state of affairs and my plans for the cities I've built.

Screenshot of Current Situ: http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/131891/Civ4ScreenShot0003.JPG

Since capital turned out to have iron in the BFC and I'm playing Balanced Resources I'm looking at building the Ironworks there and making it a major production centre. I chopped some riverside trees and built cottages whilst building the Pyramids here but I'll replace them with watermills later.

City to the South with Long Name: Confucian Holy City so I'm looking at making this my Wall Street city eventually. Building a settler here was a mistake. Its taking forever and I need this city to grow and work cottages steadily plus it doesn't have a massive amount of hammers (at least it won't when all the forests are chopped).

Angkor Thorn: 2 deserts and a mountain in the BFC
Also a few hills and those horsies and heffalumps. With the bananas and a few grassland farms built I think this will be a good production city.

Angkor Wat: 2 wine, 1 copper, 1 hill, lots of grasslands and plains. Eventually I think this will be my OU site and heavily cottaged. For the moment I'm having to build grassland farms to spread the irrigation around and grow the city.

The land to the south turned out to be 2 islands with seafood resources and enough space for 2 cities. More sushi

What I seem to lack is a decent locale for a GP farm. Any suggestions?

 

[TRJS]

One critique would be of Thom. It could have been positioned to capture the rice corn horse on the sea whilst another city captured the elephants copper moving Wat to capture the wine and cows.

Can't see an immediate GP farm out of your current cities so would just play on and make one out of a conquest.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Good points
Altenate dotmap: http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/131891/Civ4ScreenShot0004.JPG

I've moved 1 city to the coast, given up on working a clams and an elephant but gained a cow and a river (and working a river is always good). Some slight overlap but 3 tiles in a dozen cities isn't too serious is it? Some of the western cities have more desert than I'd like and the southern cities are mostly sushi but on an island map with the penalties BtS gives to overseas expansion I think any semi-viable site on your homeland has to be used.

I think TRJS is right, no good GP farm, so if I was starting from my 1st settler about to start out again I'd use my capital as my GP Farm until I got somewhere better (at least when I'd got my initial NE cities built).

If anyone is interested the isles to the SW: http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/131891/Civ4ScreenShot0005.JPG

More sushi cities.

 

[CivCorpse]

The city due south of the capitl (hariharhaya or whatever) is a good GP location. Farm the grasslands and those floodplains. You can run 4-5 specialists. Dues south of there you have 2 cities planned where one will work more land tiles and cost much less in City maint. Settle it two tiles west of the eastern most x. You get both crabs and can cottage 9 grassland tiles.

 

[CivCorpse]

Just checked the islands...the triple seafood island would make a nice GP farm early game. With a light house you can run 5 specialists. I would not build the NE there as it is hard to reinforce with troops and lacks production. The Moomoo statues will pollute the GP pool and I would put them in the peninsula on the northwest part of your continent. The penninsula has 17 watertiles and the fish can support the three workshops on the remaining land tiles. Nice boatyard city. I would lay down workshops on the island as well. You can switch to working them to build library/university/observitory.

 

[MyOtherName]

Angkor Wat can't be heavily cottaged until you get biology; it's too food-poor. Until then, at best it can only support 9 cottages. I think the only reasonable choices for that city are to make it a hybrid or a pure production city.

For comparison, the city site southwest of it with the fish... that will grow quickly, and it can gather commerce from 10 cottages and 9 water tiles. Or the city to its west with the sheep and bananas will grow ever faster (post calendar) and can support even more cottages.

 

[MyOtherName]

The city due south of the capitl (hariharhaya or whatever) is a good GP location. Farm the grasslands and those floodplains. You can run 4-5 specialists. Dues south of there you have 2 cities planned where one will work more land tiles and cost much less in City maint. Settle it two tiles west of the eastern most x. You get both crabs and can cottage 9 grassland tiles.

If I may offer counterpoint -- two cities will have a greater base commerce throughout the game, from the extra sea tiles, extra trade routes, and extra population. He's not planning to put Oxford there, and he might not be planning on trying to put an academy in all of his commerce cities. If he decides to go for the great lighthouse & colossus (quite reasonable ideas given his terrain), then that favors the two city approach even more. (And if I were going to get those wonders, I would probably squeeze in 4 more coastal cities in other places too... at least I would if I had a foreign trading partner; I'm not sure how effective that is when isolated)

 

[DaveMcW]

You seem to be allergic to border overlap. Some overlap is ok, especially if it means getting resources earlier.

I would have built the second city on top of the ivory, claiming a happiness resource as well as copper and horses.

 

[futurehermit]

It's true that border overlap is ok.

However, I think most of your cities are in good spots. If you went with your first dotmap you would have a good empire imo.

 

[AmazonQueen]

CivCorpse

City south of the capital grows quickly and is where I got the holy city so I could either cottage it heavily or build the Angkor Wat wonder there and run priest specialists.

I like your ideas for putting some of the sushi cities to good use.

MyOtherName

You're right. Although I thought having the wine and river would make it a decent commerce city when I counted the food up I decided it would be it would probably be best as a production city.
I think that the GLH and Colossos would both be useful but I suspect I'll go for astronomy quite quickly so I'll probably settle for just the GLH.

Dave MacW and futurehermit

I am a bit paranoid about border overlap. I think its a hangover from Civ II when terraforming meant every city could use every tile eventually. I shall try to fight it

Still here I haven't got to get to resources before a rival and I'm creative so my borders expand quickly so I think its worth trying to minimise it

I'm going to go off and study my dotmaps and decide what the cities aiming to be before building in it this time. Thanks for the advice.

 

[CivCorpse]

CivCorpse

City south of the capital grows quickly and is where I got the holy city so I could either cottage it heavily or build the Angkor Wat wonder there and run priest specialists.

I like your ideas for putting some of the sushi cities to good use.

Even better for farming. You can run loads of merchant specialists or priests for a strong Wall Street.