Deity Isolation Workshop (Stan/Norm/Fractal/NH/NE)

[Lain]

Getting ahead in tech by leveraging commerce potential and hitting someone with cannons before they have rifles I kind of understand. Still not sure what to do when that's not possible. I mean, on a good day Astro will come in the early ADs, but it seems like by the time you ship Trebs+x they are going to have at least Knights. I probably lack a bit of imagination. Can I do much with 10 trebs and 10 maces in ~700 AD? I know everything is situational in this game but I'm just trying to build some concept of what my options are. With bad land I'd rush someone early, but this is not possible here so I am already somewhat limited. Isolation amplifies the weaknesses in my playstyle and takes some strengths away.

I played a bit further and it's becoming a time-consuming slog of the nasty kind. Might still be able to win, but I am not too bothered at this point. Winning in 1950 AD doesn't turn this into a well played game so I'd rather reflect on all my mistakes in the earlier stages. More to gain by looking there I suppose.

Looking forward to see the progress of everyone, quite a few people considered playing this so I am expecting great things . So will be a while before the next map should be played. Hope you will chip in more feedback in the future, @Rusten. I already feel like I learned a great deal so thanks a lot for playing along and offering valuable advice. Curious to see how early you can win this one if/when you continue .

A bit uncertain what the best way to improve would be now. I can play isolated starts and practice but it feels like I need some kind of fundamental breakthrough in the way I understand the game. I mean, I don't even know when to settle past 6 cities in isolation. Not sure if the necessary material for studying all this is available somewhere in the forums.

 

[Lain]

Alright, I consider the Willem game a loss for me. It became way too tedious in the 1800s and while I usually don't shy away from tedious modern warfare, I am more interested in learning the early part of this map type.

So here is a new map for this series. I am going to play much slower and, of course, invite anyone to play along with me. Hope @Rusten and @Fippy can chip in some feedback every now and then, would be really valuable . I am interested in some discussion and will put some effort into the write-up to expose possible flaws in my play.

Here is the starting position:



I played to 2000 BC:

Spoiler :

After SIP I went Fishing -> Bronze Working. Capital built Stonehenge for 6 turns, switched to workboat upon researching Fishing. Warrior found Marble and assumed a fogbusting position. Looks like the west can be sheltered from barbs rather easily. A push towards the east will probably require something better than warriors.



I don't see islands and for the sake of learning I already decided against building the GLH. Might want to use the marble though. Commerce is looking poor so far. At size 2 I finished the workboat as quickly as possible. Little micro to squeeze out some commerce to get Bronze Working quicker.





Continued with worker and working as much commerce as possible. Whipped the worker when Bronze Working was finished (spiritual is nice).



Research so far: Fishing -> BW, fairly straightforward. Now I figured that I want to lay down cottages as quickly as possible. For that I decided to settle the wheat-marble, it can help with cottages, is close and doesn't require any barb defense. Research:: Wheel -> Agriculture -> Pottery.



Worker chopped a forest in the NE (because I assume barbs will stream in from there so that territory will be harder to work later, might aswell chop something there right now).



Boat is finished before capital is size 2, so using a turn to take a peak in the east and fogbust just a little bit.



To reach the clam NE of the capital the boat needs to sail all around the landmass, but I want the boat anyway to help fogbusting in the west and eventually making its way there.



At size 3 I will immediately start on a settler.





The warrior-boat combination is providing the fogbusting and securing that area of the map.



2nd city enabled me to move the warrior down south and freeing the boat from fogbust duty. It made its long way towards the clam.



Writing is almost in, capital got out a few warriors (successfully defended vs 1 Archer and 2 Warriors) while growing to size 4. I whipped a 2nd worker and grew back. Settler next?



Bombay working a cottage and is one turn from completing a warrior, which I delay until the last moment to save some money.



Now it starts getting complicated though.

1) Where is my 3rd city going? Fish/Sheep? Yuk. East is widely unexplored and too dangerous for now. No copper to be seen. And I want to share food from the capital which it won't be able to use all by itself effectively for a long time. Generally not sure how quickly I should expand here.



2) When Writing is in I want to build 2x libraries and skip granaries in Capital + Bombay. No happiness resources, so my cities can't grow much anyway. Food is there in abundance. Want a quick academy and power my way to Monarchy. What you think? After that maybe Literature and abuse failgold from the National Epic? I assume I will be too late for any wonders. Maybe a little failgold from Parthenon and stuff.

3) What to do about barbs? Hunting -> AH (-> Archery)? I can't move towards the east with just warriors.

4) I think about skipping Sailing until Monarchy is done. Don't really need Granaries or Lighthouses for now, I need research and for that matter, libraries.

Halp please.

 

[Pangaea]

Doesn't help for the east, but can't you park a warrior on the forest tile south of the clam, and barbs can't 'see' to your cities and thus not attack you?

I assume there is none since you haven't shown a picture of it, but is there any food up north?

Apart from plenty of food, the starting area is pretty brown, white and yucky. Marble is nice, though, and can get you some failgold to power research.

 

[Lain]

I updated a wider screenshot, just a lonely sheep in the north. No idea how to get out of this at the moment . Seems like one wrong tech choice aaaand it will be gone.

Don't really trust warriors in a forest to take out archers (didn't have time to fortify), so just defended in the city since there were no improvements to be smashed.

 

[Pangaea]

Felt like playing a less straining game than trying to force a win out of the Nutcracker Deity game, so am having a go at this one. Don't know if I'll complete it, normal Deity is difficult for me, so Isolation Deity can be brutal. But I kinda like the start the first 50 turns.

Spoiler :

I started similarly to you, with Stonehenge and Fishing -> BW. Pretty standard. Was nice to get 12 down the line. The starting warrior explored southwards, and was attacked by a lion when it came to the sheep hill. I moved it 1E and healed up, before taking up a fogbusting position one more east (so 1S of your guy). Not perfect, but it covered a good amount in the whole area.

Worked max hammers on a workboat when Fishing was in, and unlike you, I started on another workboat after that, which I whipped when BW was done in turn 21. Put overflow into a worker for a turn, changed to a warrior for 2 turns until growth, and moved back to the worker, which was slowbuilt in 6 turns (I put a chop into something, but forget what, probably the worker or one of the workboats). Thought about double-whipping it, but it would have meant double-anger, and I needed to double-whip a settler instead. With settler-production of 10 per turn, it only took 4 turns before it could be two-popped. As you can see from the picture, I took Wheel before Agri, and pre-roaded the sheep-marble city spot, which I founded 1 further west, so it gets marble in inner ring. It can still help grow two capital floodplains cottages.

Above you can also see I did Pottery after that. No commerce to speak of, so I figured we needed cottages, and I love floodplains cottages Naturally the worker improved the dry wheat first, and the first cottage is done in T50.

I've put a warrior on the forest 1S of clams, which has been netted by a workboat moving the west way. I'm slowly working on an exploreboat for the east. I did move the warrior SE to the forest there, but met a barb warrior, so it moved back. No barbs have attacked yet, so it looks like the trick/cheat I mentioned above may work. Time will tell, it's still early.

Also got AH this turn, which I did after Pottery (now it's Writing with 40% bonus from AH & Pottery). Sadly there is no copper nor any horsies

Currently working on another settler, which can be 2-popped next turn. That means losing clam or crab, but the city has so much food that re-growing is hardly an issue, and anger will soon be one. Think I'll put overflow into a warrior instead of the exploreboat (unless the Bombay warrior will do it), because I need a city watch guy, with the other bloke busy blocking barb paths.

The initial warrior is fogbusting in the south, and with that position it should also block most barb galley spawns, though not all. But it should be too soon for that anyway. They tend to pop up turn 90-100 (maybe sooner on Deity?). The settler will be whipped next turn, and can then settle the north sheep T53. Think that's the best position. Half-decent food, and close to the capital for maintenance purposes. After that I probably need to get up a library in the capital, and run scientists for an academy, with the slider off. Should perhaps get Masonry first. It's a good tile to work. Could also use a 2nd worker with soon 3 cities. Need to pasture the sheep, plus two more cottages, and I've yet to build any mines.

Have marked some city spots in the picture. Most are obvious, but the one in the east by the mountain range can be put in a few different places. Depends on what is over there. Need to chop the forest in the south prior to putting a city there. That city will claim the crab, and the capital can retain the fish+clam.

Looks like the key to bulbing Astro is avoiding Civil Service and possibly Meditation (if doing CoL), so I must try to remember that if I play that far.

 

[Lain]

Thanks for playing

Spoiler :

Basically it looks like I have one more worker, but you get the 3rd city up quicker. Take care with the sheep city in the north, I don't think it will be connected to trade routes. Not sure about that though.

I wanted Writing first because the cities don't have anything to build / to do otherwise. Granaries are unnecessary at this point and there is a limit to warriors/work boats. That being said, my 21 hammers should be in a work boat right now, rather than a granary. I need to explore the island, maybe prevent a barb city from spawning. Not sure what I was thinking.

Still not sure about 2nd worker vs earlier 3rd city here. I kind of want to get the spot S of the capital to work crabs and two mines (potentially). Need some kind of production. Too much whipping won't be possible with the non-existant happycap.

Fish/Sheep would be #4. Then in the east there is a visible 5th city and #6 goes somewhere in the fog. I don't plan to settle the sheep in the north at all. Not sure you could (or should) settle more than 5-6 cities here. I just don't quite see where cities like that will get you. Astro should be fine with the bulbing, but after that you have to breakout somehow and the best tiles seem to be coast.

Key question is also, how much to chop here? Each forest is worth 40-60 gold with the marble, but I kind of want to invest into libraries, workboats and stuff right now.

 

[Pangaea]

Thanks for the feedback, that is food for thought

Spoiler :

Can always put the 3rd city somewhere else, but I'm not ecstatic about any of the options. Not having tried isolation games in forever (and never on deity), I'm not sure how many cities it's good to have. Could well be you are right, and it's best to restrict expansion, so you can tech faster with a higher slider. Maintenance on Deity is brutal, and here we have no (good) trade routes to help out (or commerce, from what we see so far). From experience, mostly on Immortal, three cities early is usually fine, but the fourth gets expensive, almost no matter what it contains.

 

[Pangaea]

Wow, somebody are wonderwhoring!

Spoiler :

IND AI with stone, anyone?

 

[Rusten]

For the record I finished the previous game with a space win some time ago, but there was nothing noteworthy to report.
Forgot to mention it as this thread wasn't bumped. Simply added Pacal's land and ended turn many times.

On the new game:
We're south in the tundra so finding furs is possible for happiness boost (and also commerce).
IMO it would've been much more useful to send the 3rd wb eastwards and scout the area. Clam is not so much better than flood plains (especially once pottery is in), and if there is happiness out there we want to unlock it early. Probably just going to grow into unhappiness as it stands. Working vanilla clam is still an option for commerce.

 

[Pangaea]

Continued playing and felt things were going more or less well, but should probably consider the game a loss by now. An armada of barb galleys suddenly turned up, and in two turns all the seafood was gone. Rough setback when everything else about the game and settings is a steep uphill battle, and every turn matters.

Spoiler :

The wonderwhorer kept hogging wonders, and three GGs have spawned by turn 90, so there is some heavy action somewhere.

In hindsight, it would have been much better to send the workboat east. Would have known about some good spots earlier, got horses online sooner and fogbusted better. Maybe the barb galley invasion could have been prevented or at least reduced.

I turned off research after Masonry and waited for the Academy. Then did up to Monarchy and now Sailing. But it's probably simply a loss. Using whips on galleys that will probably lose to the barbs anyway is expensive. When the invasion occurred I was fogbusting the food-rich horse area in the north with a workboat -- but then all went south.

It MAY be possible to get contact with AIs by the north-east tip btw, there is an ocean tile with commerce, and I can sort of spot land by the colour of the coast. Need a Crap city without food, but could be worth it if one could get AI contact over there after border pops.

 

[Lain]

To 950 BC:

Spoiler :

Switched to a workboat for exploring the east as soon as possible. Chopped into a Settler at size 4. Finished the boat with max overflow.



Delaying additional units until the last moment possible.



Not happy with my 3rd city, but this way the capital's food doesn't go to waste. I am able to work all the seafood nonstop. After Writing I went for Hunting -> Archery (figured I want to get out an archer and start fogbusting the east, AH is more expensive and a gamble).



Meanwhile the boat finds more tundra. Oh joy.



Chopped into the library in Bombay, whipped it for 2 pop at size 5, immediately started running 2 scientists. Even starving (working the cottage rather than the dry wheat for a few turns). Slider will stay turned down until academy + library in capital are done.



Meanwhile the majestic army of archer and warrior move eastwards to claim the godforsaken area. Warrior goes ahead, so if some axeman or whatever is waiting my archer won't get ambushed in open field. Teamwork. Sort of.



Boat finding more nothingness. The captain even starts wishing for a barb galley to put him out of his misery. And who can blame him?



Well I guess all the forests could be chopped into stuff and pay for a lumbercity... time to clear out the barbs.



Halting GS production for a few turns to grow back after whip anger wore off. Library in the capital will yet take a while so no real hurry with the academy...



Delhi will overflow another settler into a library and hopefully finish it. With a chop or two.



And at last, the workboat finds some signs of life. Now that is worth a city for sure.



Warrior, Archer and Workboat fogbusting the area. Still looks rather dry though.



City #4 is founded. Figured I'd finish a monument with a mine and then pasture the sheep (only a 3F-tile anyway and I want to finish the monument quicker rather than grow on coast). But I could whip. Yeah nevermind this was probably stupid, could have finished AH by now



950 BC the library is finally finished and academy is built. Time to turn up the slider and burn through the 300+ gold I banked. AH -> Poly -> Priesthood -> Monarchy -> ???



Somehow an Axeman slipped through my perfect fogbusting net. He must have walked past my units. Great, might have to emergency whip/chop (probably whip) an archer and hope he takes him out. Ugh, one archer might not be enough.



Bombay: Figured I'd just keep running scientists, because why not. One more from here should be doable.



City #3: Slow-building a settler at size 3. For the east.



The rich island in all its beauty.

So do I resign or is there hope? Will the villain axeman wipe out puny India? Tune in next time to find out.

Feels so miserable to play this, like being on the verge of losing all the time. Really need to change my mindset.

@Pangaea: Will look at the spoiler when I am a bit further. But I will keep the threat of barb galleys in mind. Sounds rough though

@Rusten: Thanks for feedback. Yeah I never had any doubts that you'd finish the map before, you were in a great position after taking out Izzy. So do you think my city placement in this one will punish me again? Guess I missed the richer spot in the east, but not sure how that would have worked out logistically.

Any ideas for what to do after Monarchy? Literature yes/no?

 

[Rusten]

Literature is a priority.
Another big priority is lightbulbing philosophy for Taoism. That's +2 happy without maintenance (cheap temples). Not to mention the extra GPP from pacifism. Getting a religion is much more important than the GL, although you could be greedy and attempt both. I'm assuming Confucianism is already founded? Usually hard to be first to that.

And yeah, your city placing seems strange to me still. Vijay is not needed at all and Patali can wait until caste system for instant fish (it's just draining resources early on). A better city would be 3E of Delhi.

edit: And your wb scouting needs some work. You're cutting corners (not checking for connections), which is really important when you fear isolation.

 

[Snowbird]

Boat finding more nothingness. The captain even starts wishing for a barb galley to put him out of his misery. And who can blame him?

You do realise that there is very strong shelf shadow (whitish border on ocean tiles) E of the east pick? (I count at least 4 tiles bordering coastal tiles on other side). On fractal I would say there is strong possibility you can culture bridge to another landmass.

Edit: might be wrong actually, tough to say without zooming in.

 

[Fippy]

I would not tech Monarchy Lain, but work on Philo bulb as Rusten mentioned.
One big advantage of Phi is getting those GS easily, but you still need plenty techs before (Alpha, maths, CoL) and if you spend time on Monarchy first that so important Tao Reli might be gone.

 

[Snowbird]

I looked at spoilers up to 900BC, but decided to play anyway (I think deity isolation is suicidal, lol). I don't think seeing map change much anyway (I did not move capitol, although knowing the map 1N that might have been somewhat better).

General thoughts:

Spoiler :

I think there is a big difference if you know you are isolated on turn zero against not knowing. If you don't lots of more resources go into scouting, since finding connection is such huge difference.

On this map, between city placement and henge building, I think some of you are rather insane... why build henge if you have nice stuff like coastal fish/FP and are squeezed on fogbusters/workboats?

I've tried looking at what determines barb city spawning and honestly did not find any good resource (at least the one I could parse into human language).

to 2520BC:

Spoiler :

Went ---
fishing>BW>road>pottery
warrior(partial)>wb (max growth, at size 2 changed to 5hamme build)>warrior( finished)>wb partial>worker (2x whipped)
Went on chopping frenzy afterwards. 2pop whipped settler too. I do like greenhill mines, but i do not see working any of them on consistent basis.

Settled eastwards (autoconnects, does not need extra techs, nicely shares food for whipping -- I ate one turn of unhapiness in cap since I opted to move garisoning warrior -- the one on east-hill was rather injured at that point).

Started on my first cottage this turn, second worker coming in in two turns. Not sure what i want to tech next... Agriculture probably (technically could opt for mined sheep+2FP (1W fromn there mark is on screenshot), but wheat city (probably between marble and wheat) looks much better, NW fish... I guess will be ignored for long time).

I sort of wanted Bombay 1N, but this position happens turn faster, gets extra forest, and FP cottage is better than crab (before lighthouse)

Eastern fish+sheep is prob ably city four ( although one could try to kill barb pathfinding with two units and mountains), so AH and when writing I would guess. might need archery if horsies do not show up

 

[Lain]

Nobody actually built the Stonehenge, just put in a few hammers in the start while waiting for Fishing. What else would you build? Barracks? Warrior I could see, but the hammer decay would start before you can conveniently finish it. 12 gold is not that bad.

Not sure how that or a questionable city placement translates to insanity. Since I don't reload and thus don't gamble on warriors against archers, settling east like that for the 2nd city would be a no-go for me. (I should have got the spot by now since I have archers, but that's another story). And I don't think suicidality is necessary to play Deity Isolation. Just a bit of ambition needed. So thanks for playing along

Point taken on the wb scouting. But I don't want to make any contact in this game, even if it'd be possible via culture. I won't trade or interact with the AI at least until Optics, because that kind of defies the learning purpose here. In a regular game, when aiming for optimal play (rather than learning to deal with isolation), of course such options should be checked thoroughly.

Alright, I will ignore Monarchy and take a stab at Philo

@Rusten: My scouting/fogbusting didn't really allow better city placement in this case. A city 3E would be razed by the barb axeman right about now. Of course I should set that up better. But is Viji (south of the capital) really so bad? Crabs, grows a cottage and can work 3 mines. Can pump out some stuff later, for example warriors for military police. Galleys, other units. Or build research. Doesn't cost much with the proximity to the capital. Not much production otherwise and whip without happycap can only do so much.

Settling the Sheep/Fish before Code of Laws was kind of dumb and just a drain on the economy though, I can see that. To be fair, I never considered going Code of Laws here. My plan was Monarchy and then beeline Literature. So my plan didn't account for easy border pops. Scouting should have been better and I guess I should have settled the triple food sight right about now, rather than in 10 turns like it's going to be now. Well, live and learn.

PS: Why would you settle 3E of Delhi and not one tile south, to grab the crab in the first ring? (I mean in my case, since I already chopped the tile and northern FP is within culture anyway)

 

[Snowbird]

Nobody actually built the Stonehenge, just put in a few hammers in the start while waiting for Fishing. What else would you build? Barracks? Warrior I could see, but the hammer decay would start before you can conveniently finish it. 12 gold is not that bad.

Does it take more than 10 turns to finish workboat? That warrior gives you sort of protection in the east. (By the time I settled, mine was WI (killed wolf and barb warrior) on forested hill, so it is acceptable odds for me -- I did have to pay upkeep on units before pottery although). If you are super paranoic - put two units below mountains and push third towards hills (so random wanderers would not threaten blocking party -- barbs don't go for cities they can't path into -- so without stream you could deal with loose archers at your own time).

IMO, even if you have to pay for units (I think I had 3gold in unit cost - eastwards city is better--- cap can work cottages instead, and no Agriculture means cottages happen faster). I do have tendency for borderline strategy/approaches in gaming, but once again since I do no think my chance of winning isolated deity are great I am probably inclined to take more risks.

I've hoped for deep east popping barb city, but from further reads it seems that barb cities ought to prefer on more settled land until certain treshold at least. Go figure.

(The beast explanation I found was this https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/how-does-barbarian-city-spawning-work.265173/#post-6542599 --- Could someone translate that into more practical approach?)

900BC (contains whole map of the damn island)

Spoiler :

Due to having units to East, the barb push was not that bad --- warrior made to WII (~2200BC) and I had two warriors against one archer in Bombay -- luckily nothing for them to pillage. (Not too pick on anyone, but on default why wouldn't initial warrior end there? There is plenty of time to get view on tundra bellow)

Mids went 2040BC--- o_O


Speaking of shelf --- I was wrong (it is tough to see from screenshot in the fog). Rusten of course was on the money about scouting corners --

The very NE corner with yield an not be worked from this island -- so it must be workable from other side (there is slight shelf whitening in the corner of it - but I would probably fail to spot it otherwise)

Despite paying for units (or maybe cause of it and being on goodside of RNG) -- I have my academy and control of the damn island -- I think saving should go through CoL+Aesthetics -- can reach Literature through scientists and coast I guess. (I failed to get Confuby about ~4 turns but that happened later).
Well, again I do not think loosing few units would have cost too much -- maybe one chopped/whipped settler (sheep+forests is not greatest place at any rate -- I did some last second adjustments not too kill 2xseafood site above it).

Personally, i think in this case putting nearly whole unit into henge is mistake, but that is just my opinion. (Seafood already slows you, by the way at 900BC I still have zero mines )

 

[Pangaea]

Snowbird

Spoiler :

(Not too pick on anyone, but on default why wouldn't initial warrior end there? There is plenty of time to get view on tundra bellow)

Because we didn't know the map? Once we saw ice, tundra and how small that area was, it made sense to fogbust there to secure the area as much as possible, with just the one warrior. Not often you get a chance like that (at least in my experience).

Knowing the map, as I do now, I would have settled differently too, and ventured into the east sooner. I relied on the barb path-blocking trick, which worked well, nobody ever attacked me over there, but it meant no scouting, except the coast.

I see Lain's reason for not scouting corners, but I think it's good practice anyway, and as I mentioned in a previous update, I noticed the commerce on the non-workable tile too, so knew there is land nearby. Shame about no resources for a city there, but it could still be worth it (learning purposes aside). Of course, it could be a one-tile island or something, and thus utterly pointless, but at least there is hope for achieving early-ish contact.

As a more general comment on my game and discussion previously, the sheep city up north may not be great, but it's close to the capital and therefore cheap, and can help grow non-riverside cottages for the capital. I figured that was a good idea here, as food isn't a problem, and it only takes 10 turns until the cottage equals lighthouse coast -- and I was late to lighthouses, so working coast wasn't really much of an option anyway.

Said yesterday the game is probably lost, but I'm thinking about starting anew, or from a previous point. The start would probably be similar anyway. But I need to scout more sooner and hope a navy of barb galleys don't show up. I really hate those things with a passion.

Skipping Monarchy in favour of trying for Philo->Taoism is an intriguing gambit, but think I'd be worried about the lack of happiness. That said, provided we get 4 GS (1 Academy, 2 Astro, 1 free), it's probably better to bulb Philo instead of Machinery or Optics. Technically we don't need Philo until after Astro, but a religion would be useful, and Pacifism is (almost) always great, so there are big upsides.

For those that have played to around 1000BC:

Spoiler :

Did one AI hog virtually all wonders in your game? In my attempt, the first five wonders went to the same AI.

Also, did GGs spawn elsewhere? Three did in my game, so there is heavy fighting on the other continent.

 

[Snowbird]

Snowbird

Spoiler :

Because we didn't know the map? Once we saw ice, tundra and how small that area was, it made sense to fogbust there to secure the area as much as possible, with just the one warrior. Not often you get a chance like that (at least in my experience).

Spoiler :

Map knowledge is a factor, yes. But again you can see tundra like after settling?.. why would you go explore tundra instead of greenland? I am puzzled... maybe cause in my plan I had second warrior coming out on like turn 16? (I think i chopped third as soon as worker came out (second wb was out of worker overflow) ).

Fundamentally, if there is lots of tundra/ice - one likely needs archery anyway (warriors not cutting on ice) - why do you prefer scouting area you can't realistically defend with warrior instead of potentially beneficial zone?

 

[Lain]

The warrior wasn't for scouting, but for fogbusting the vicinity. It was impossible to cover the whole area in the west, but a good amount of it. For me, no barb spawned there ever. More specifically, the wheat area was covered and so no barbs would spawn and linger around over there.

I think he fulfilled a bigger purpose than straying into the east and potentially getting eaten by a lion. If you lose your warrior, you have nothing. And barbs will swarm you from west and east. And you won't even be able to settle the west (no good spots to take out archers there, no forests or hills). Now that is a hard situation to get out of.

Generally I won't explore with the first unit, I'd rather sit somewhere and fogbust the vicinity of where I think I want to settle (close to capital in any case). The shape in the west was favorable for that, because it allowed to block most of the spawns. The east, on the other hand, was a complete wild card. And would obviously be way more open if the starting area is anything to go by.

If a "strategy" (high risk-exploration for optimal city placement) only works in 95% of cases it's not good enough for me. I have a big problem with all that Religion stuff aswell for that reason, because Philo could go 700 BC and I'll look like a moron with Code of Laws and Meditation researched and nothing to show for it. But later on you become more flexible and maybe could react, i.e. leverage Caste System in some way at least. In the early game a bad roll of the dice can screw you completely though. So I absolutely won't do any gambit stuff. Hell, if I start with a scout in a jungle area I will park him within my cultural borders for the first 25 turns to make sure no panther gets him (during the first 5 turns of grace period I obviously get as much map knowledge as I can get out of him). And only move 1 tile at a time after that.

Basically as an AI I would have attack courage 0/10 and "builds wonders" 0/10, especially early. Thus I'd love to shake off the crutch named GLH and win by my lonely self, relying only on skills that are always dependable.

Now I'm not saying everyone should play or think this way (god forbid!), but maybe this exaggerated way of putting it might shed some light on a few decisions I make. Though, sadly, I am ways off perfecting my way of playing and I acknowledge the many mistakes I made here. For example neglecting the scouting and thus limiting myself to unnecessary helper cities. Taking some calculated risks is obviously a huge part of the game. But in the early game I would never risk a unit like that. And I realize many people will get better positions as a result.

But I want to beat 100% of my games and not just 95%.