Critique my opening move, please.

[e_a_olson]

Vanilla Civ 1.61, Noble, Normal Speed, Continents/Temperate/Medium Sea Level

My first thought was, "Wow, I've got to take advantage of that fresh water. I need to get on the coast to build a lighthouse, and oh, there's some corn. Maybe I should order my warrior NW to scout."

Of course, he discovers rice! At this point I'm thinking "Great. I'm going to be two turns down on everyone else if I settle the isthmus." Natually, I settle the isthmus, sucked in by the rice, corn, lake, and coast.

I'd like to found my second city on the western shores of the lake. Eventually build a forge and the Colossus in Paris.

What seems to be a nice start has me second guessing a bit, so I'd like to hear some thoughts from the veteran crew. Thanks.

 

[Mango]

You have entirely too much water in your capital. Optimistically, your capital should be either your science or commerce center. In other words you want lots of land. Coast starts are okay if you get seafood and it isn't TOO much coast. What you have is 11 coast and 1 ocean tiles. You will be severely limited by your lack of developable tiles by mid-game.

 

[e_a_olson]

Qin Shi Huang is a little too close for comfort. My idea to settle on the western shores seems brilliant; looks like that could be a great science city. Though, I'm not sold that this should be my second city; I think I need to beat Qin to the uncharted land to the south.

 

[e_a_olson]

You have entirely too much water in your capital. Optimistically, your capital should be either your science or commerce center. In other words you want lots of land. Coast starts are okay if you get seafood and it isn't TOO much coast. What you have is 11 coast and 1 ocean tiles. You will be severely limited by your lack of developable tiles by mid-game.

I see. Plan on moving the capital then?

 

[Mulholland]

Bad move. You sacrificed a little more food for alot less production.

 

[Defiant47]

I see. Plan on moving the capital then?

Not until very late... moving the capital takes so many hammers, it needs to be a well thought-out decision before-hand.

To be honest, my thinking would have been similar to yours and would have done nearly the same thing. As long as you get that killer second city west-side just north of the desert, you've got your "capital" city.

 

[Sjaramei]

As soon as i had noticed that gold, i would have settled so i could grab that.

Most likely i would have moved 1S from the start to get less water squares, as earlier stated you don't want that much sea around your capital.
The place you settled in, is worthless in my opinion. Bad production, and a subpar food resource (rice sucks) was the only thing you gained.

 

[futurehermit]

stone in your capital and you moved your settler?!?!?!?!?!?!?! (edit: for rice that can't be hooked up pre-ironworking?!?!?!?!?!?!)

 

[JimT]

A little late unless you restart.

My opening move from the start would be move warrio SE with intention of moving settler 2E or 1E1NE. Probably 2E, giving two lake tiles and lighthouse but leaving other options open (i.e. land tiles)

Your second site would have been my intention for second city (once I explored).

After exploring my plan would change to 2nd city 1W of pigs. Nearby plains hill is a slightly inferior choice.

I can see you thinking with the lake which will be a 3F 2C city with a lighthouse but it certainly wasn't worth wasting two turns. My thinking would be lake is wasted wiles without a lighthouse so move to coast ASAP.
I wouldn't be bothered about stone as it still in easy reach (100 culture), I don't rate it that much, while I could use it in another city. My gamble would pay off with gold which is great in the early game.

My critique then is you got hung up on the lake tiles which are good but not that good. You have a pretty good whip/specialist city BUT this would be better as a second city as you have limited your option early in the game and your first war will suffer. Meanwhile the main advantages of the rice and lake come after sailing (lighthouse) and ironworking (clear jungle) won't be realised until you have a couple of cities anyway.

 

[Kennigit]

I would have moved 2E or 1E1NE as well. Gives you corn, nice grassland, and coastal squares. With luck there would have been clam or something else if you made this move, and there is gold. Then you could have a rice/fish/pig city, and clam/gold or clam/gold/pig city(take pig from other city), and a stone city.

Also, this is noble, so you should be able to fair well w/o a great start. Some people might hate how you move away from the stone, but for me early wonders aren't that big of a deal.

Good luck with your game though.

 

[madscientist]

To computer has given a great shot at the pyramids and stonehenge so I would have taken it, vanilla french you are industrious regardless of which leader you have. I rarely move my capiatal spot more than one square since I do not want to lose time si I would move ONE space South. A would also send the warrior to the hill to scout out what you have. You would 5 water tiles (good commerce, agree about future colossos), a food producing hill, several grasslands (2 clear), and stone. I assume the three invisible squares south with be forrests, hills, or resources. One city SW of rice (you cannot use that until iron working!), another east of the gold. Of course you may need to alter that depending where horses and copper/iron are.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

stone in your capital and you moved your settler?!?!?!?!?!?!?! (edit: for rice that can't be hooked up pre-ironworking?!?!?!?!?!?!)

What makes this even harder to believe is that you're Industrious!

Starting with Agriculture means you can hook up the Corn quick.

Being Industrious with stone means an easy shot at every stone wonder.

Being next to a freshwater lake means 3 forests you can chop and immediately convert to farmland.

Why again did you move? Settling 2E seems the only other move.

 

[Lord Chambers]

My first thought was, "Wow, I've got to take advantage of that fresh water. I need to get on the coast to build a lighthouse, and oh, there's some corn. Maybe I should order my warrior NW to scout."

Your first thought should be "Do I have to move my settler," quickly followed by your plans for using your leader's traits and nearby resources to expand up (population growth [working high-food squares]) and out (grab good sites with settlers and miltary). If you ever catch yourself deliberately trying to make use of water, especially when you're not financial, slap yourself.

 

[xanadux]

I would start by moving settler 1 se onto hill to see the terrain to the south. Unless I see bad land, I plan on settling 1s of the grassland hill. That isthmus can always be alater city. Land is better than water for capital.

 

[Mango]

I didn't even notice he was industrious, but yeah... industrious + stone in capital = all the early stone wonders at 150% speed. 150%!

 

[Papa Smurf]

i would hav stayed with the starting stop
early stone for wonders
in a capital

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Staying at the starting spot isn't a good move given that he has a huge freshwater sea.

The best spot is in my view one bottom right of the spot he chose. This way you are coastal so you can get a lighthouse to provide +1 food for all those freshwater sea tiles, you get gold, a hill (so some production!!!) and you've a nice corn too. Won't take long before culture gets you the stone either especially if you're Louis.

Where you're positioned you have no production, plenty of food, for those saying stay where you started, they'd cost you +1 food for every freshwater tile.

Alternatively, building on the stone would do well.

 

[Melchizedek]

I think the ideal spot for a capitol is one square SE of the settler's initial position. Building on a hill adds a hammer and 25% defense to your capitol (important with Qin next door), is within working range of stone, and has lots of valuable tiles nearby. After developing bronze-working, you can clear forests to enhance early production, and build cottages and farms to your liking. By mid-game those early cottages will be much more valuable than coastal tiles.

I like the idea of building a city on the west coast, but why build on plains instead of the desert? You get the same productivity from the city either way, but building on the desert allows for a cottage or farm on the plains tile.