Deity advice

[Don Toh]

Hello

I have trouble with this easy(not so?) start ;-)
It seems great but it is pretty tight here.

Spoiler :

Mansa is in the east and earns his name as a tech lady ;-)
In the North Gilga and west Mao. Alpha beeline seems good here. In the north 2x or even 3x gems city spot. As one is so boxed in here then HA rush seems a way to go.
However i ended up in triple war initiated by Gilga who bribed in Mao and Shaka and i got only 6 HAs

here is the screenshot :

How would you play it, any good advice?

 

[Seraiel]

Post screenshots and give map-knowledge only in spoilers if you want advice. If you're boxed in, Settler at size 2 or 3 are your best options. Gems spot should be settled asap and if someone declared war at you too early you're screwed. Keeping one's empire small and spreading the cities out as much as possible helps prevent DoWs.

 

[MegaLurker]

Looking at the first 25 turns or so, there are a couple ways you could play this.

Spoiler :

You are a bit boxed in but with whipping and chopping settlers and little need for barb defense you could get 5-6 strong cities peacefully. You could do this while building the Pyramids if you grab the excellent stone spot to the west. Mids+lots of food+5-6 cities should generally get you into a winnable position, usually via Cuirassier/Cavalry breakout. Also possible to use this to get an early Trebuchet breakout, which could even be more powerful if you pop a Great Engineer from the 'Mids GPP.

You also have great early commerce and horses, so you could go the opposite route and do an HA rush. Hard to tell which is the stronger opening here without playing further, but the HA rush done right would land you 8+ cities by the early BCs, more than you would get with peaceful expansion, but it would sacrifice any shot at the 'mids. Early HBR for Alpha, then brokering Alpha and being able to get techs for peace from your target at least once can be very powerful. But then again...all that food and rep specialists. Hmmm....

I settled on the rice, by the way. And after seeing how close several AIs are shortly after that seems like an even stronger play than I had imagined. That 1 extra food is going to help you grab that crucial city spot a little faster. Of utmost priority is the gems/cows spot (future bureau capital, most likely, as it's better than your initial location), then either the horses (if HA rushing) or the stone/wet wheat (if going peaceful 'Mids).

 

[Don Toh]

Looking at the first 25 turns or so, there are a couple ways you could play this.

Spoiler :

You are a bit boxed in but with whipping and chopping settlers and little need for barb defense you could get 5-6 strong cities peacefully. You could do this while building the Pyramids if you grab the excellent stone spot to the west. Mids+lots of food+5-6 cities should generally get you into a winnable position, usually via Cuirassier/Cavalry breakout. Also possible to use this to get an early Trebuchet breakout, which could even be more powerful if you pop a Great Engineer from the 'Mids GPP.

You also have great early commerce and horses, so you could go the opposite route and do an HA rush. Hard to tell which is the stronger opening here without playing further, but the HA rush done right would land you 8+ cities by the early BCs, more than you would get with peaceful expansion, but it would sacrifice any shot at the 'mids. Early HBR for Alpha, then brokering Alpha and being able to get techs for peace from your target at least once can be very powerful. But then again...all that food and rep specialists. Hmmm....

I settled on the rice, by the way. And after seeing how close several AIs are shortly after that seems like an even stronger play than I had imagined. That 1 extra food is going to help you grab that crucial city spot a little faster. Of utmost priority is the gems/cows spot (future bureau capital, most likely, as it's better than your initial location), then either the horses (if HA rushing) or the stone/wet wheat (if going peaceful 'Mids).

Yes the start seems great anyway

Spoiler :

When i saw the gems spot i beelined for alpha to trade for iron working quickly and got 3 cities and managed to have 6 HAs at about ~600BC. However as i wrote i ended up with triple war.
I've thought i could share this interesting and powerful start.
Perhaps not beelinin alpha is wiser here.
On the other hand prolly i should do 4 citities before rush if this is fissible... I'll try this one again for sure

 

[PattonTwo]

I'm not sure if the Alpha beeline is helpful enough. It seems the AI will tech alpha so quickly anyway that you won't really need it for trading and are better off getting something (aesthetics is typical I think) for trade fodder. HBR if you are going for a rush also makes sense I think you have to tech only 2-3 turns into alpha to trade it if you still want to.

 

[Don Toh]

Normally yes, but:

Spoiler :

Start has gold mine, and 2nd city possible 2-3 gems
And if you get alpha quickly, you just get all techs and AI stays behind a bit as it is even possible not to trade alpha... e.g. you can trade bronze working for writing + pottery