Deity - Need advice on dealing with an anticipated production shortfall

[Izmir Stinger]

I decided to try Random Civ Shuffle map on Deity to see if I could cope. I got Sweden and what looked like an archipelago on turn 1 (so I ran my settler to the shore) but it turned out it was a narrow peninsula on a much larger continent. I rushed to settle the entire peninsula myself, because the terrain is unbelievably favorable for preventing overland invasion, at least if Budapest is not their ally. I'd call it completely unassailable by land is Budapest is my ally... or my city?

Spoiler :

The main downside, as you can see, is that most of this peninsula is completely flat, and sparsely forested. Birka, Uppsala and Sigtuna in particular have a lack of production potential, and my capital does not have strong production, by the standards of capitals.

I have finished Tradition and am a few turns away from opening a new policy tree. I am in the Medieval era so I have lots of options (I missed the Oracle by 5 turns). I think that planning to deal with my future production problems needs to be considered now, instead of going on social policy autopilot. I'm tempted to go Patronage b/c Sweden's UA involves city states, but my earlier forays into Deity have taught me to play the map, not the civ. Patronage does little to address my production problems. I'm also unlikely to get the Forbidden Palace b/c Egypt went patronage already.

I do have one thing going for me that can help save hammers. My closest neighbor, India, is spreading Hinduism to my cities, and it recently was reformed to include Jesuit education. Buying science buildings with faith can save me hammers in those cites. It also has Pagodas and Monasteries (I have incense in 4 of my 5 cities), both of which are good, but that is a lot of demand on my faith. At the moment I only have 1 shrine. I'm tempted to get Organised Religion and maybe Mandate of Heaven to make this more efficient, before switching to Rationalism later. Is this a cost effective way to spend my policies? Also, does the cost of science buildings scale with eras, or is it fixed?

Another possible approach involves money. My capital is coastal, on a river, is the seat of a monarchy, and has a decent variety of resources, so it can potentialy be an very profitable trade city. If I grab Commerce right now and head for mercantilism I can afford to purchase critical infrastructure later, especially if no one else takes Commerce and I can get Big Ben. No one has done it on my continent yet, but there are still 3 uncontacted civs.

A more straightforward approach is to take Exploration. All of my cities are coastal, so Maritime Infrastructure will give me +3 everywhere. It's not a great long term solution, but it is fast and direct. Naval Tradition and Merchant Navy are also attractive with my set up.

If I decide right now I want to go for a culture victory, Aesthetics and Cultural Centers will save me a lot of hammers, but I'm not sure this is the strongest move even if I do go for a CV, and it kind of locks me in if I do it.

Aside from social policies, what else should I do to deal with the problem? Get workshops ASAP after Education and lock down engineers everywhere? When I get Great Engineers, should I make Manufactories instead of rushing a wonder or stealing a city state? Build windmills when they become available (I usually don't)? Prioritize research towards Industrialization and cross my fingers that there is coal in my territory?

Tangentially related; should I conquer Budapest? Unlike the rest of this peninsula it has fantastic production potential, and it is Hostile/Militaristic so it is not an attractive ally. Also, I declared war on it early to steal a worker. Are there consequences besides warmonger penalties for declaring war again? I can't remember if you have to declare war on 2 different city states before the others start distrusting you, or if the same one twice does the same thing. Does it make a difference if it declares war on me? I could deliberately piss off its ally. If conquering it is a smart move (I think it is, given the strategic location) when is best? Xbows and Pikes? If I go commerce I can get Landschnekts involved, too. I have Kilimanjaro in my borders, so my troops will have maneuvering advantages in the hilly terrain around the city. Also, once the war is over I can use the Great General to get 90 influence with another city state, right? I've never played Sweden before.

What policy tree would you go with and what else would you do to keep my cities productive. Starting and current saves attached if you want to experiment.

 

[milk steak]

The benefit of having all your cities on the coast is that you can send hammers via naval trade routes to your capital and between your other cities. I'd recommend building Workshops and unlocking techs to increase trade routes and start shipping hammers over to your capital and other hammer-poor cities. It's probably worth sending an oceanic trade route to Budapest as well (especially if/when they request one). I would keep Budapest as an ally (they are Cultural, right?).

 

[slowcar]

Declaring war a second time will trigger consequences (1 other cs getting to -20 resting), and conquering a city state will give you a quite big warmonger hit.

Birka and Helsinki (to a lesser degree, can't see all tiles) look quite weak, i think i would have stayed with Stockholm/Sigtuna/Uppsala and played a 3 city tradition opening, maybe with a food freighter or two pushing.

Your science is quite weak for the turn, 110 is kind of the benchmark for education if you develop peacefully. A food-heavy city like Stockholm should reach size 10 around turn 70 latest.
Stockholm also has okay-ish production, 3 hills, iron+horse, nothing to get really worried about.

 

[Izmir Stinger]

I would keep Budapest as an ally (they are Cultural, right?).

I wish. They are militaristic. I just checked and India currently has a solid lock on their
loyalty for now. 77 influence and they are currently "worried" about a barb camp on the far side of India, so that's another 40 for them. They also want truffles, which I haven't seen on this continent.

They are also Hostile so they are unlikely to request things I can provide like trade routes and roads. They are going to want me to beat up Monaco or something. If I spend money to ally them it will bleed away faster than normal and they will keep giving me units I don't want or need. The only thing good about them is where they live.

Honestly, I think they would be much happier as Swedish subjects. We make great pickled Herring.

 

[Izmir Stinger]

Declaring war a second time will trigger consequences (1 other cs getting to -20 resting), and conquering a city state will give you a quite big warmonger hit.

That's not so bad. I thought they also stopped giving you rewards when you meet them, too. Or was that Vanilla?

Birka and Helsinki (to a lesser degree, can't see all tiles) look quite weak, i think i would have stayed with Stockholm/Sigtuna/Uppsala and played a 3 city tradition opening, maybe with a food freighter or two pushing.

Helsinki has another fish and sheep to the west that are not pictured, and there is no approach from the West of Helsinki, due to mountains. The only way onto this peninsula by land are through Budapest's tiles that you can see. Hinduism has desert folklore so I thought 5 workable desert tiles, 2 sheep, 2 fish, Kilimanjaro, mountain adjacent and strategic value made it worth settling. I may have been overreaching.

Your science is quite weak for the turn, 110 is kind of the benchmark for education if you develop peacefully. A food-heavy city like Stockholm should reach size 10 around turn 70 latest.

This is a direct consequence of settling 5 cities. My BPT is fine for now, and it will explode in the renaissance once I have 10 scientists.

 

[joshua43214]

food is going to be a bigger problem than hammers I think. Birka and Helsinki are going to be tough to get big enough to not be a drag on your science. You will end up using all your TR's just to shuffle food around, and you are isolated enough to not get many TR's from the AI.

Commerce for sure imo, consider faith buying or generating a GE to rush Big Ben.
Alternately, go for a domination victory, you don't need many hammer for dom compared to SV let alone CV.

Worth also considering going Freedom, Order is usually much better for 5 cities, but with the SoL, you should be able to make parts in 8 or less turns and buy the rest.

 

[kb27787]

Why 5 cities? Birka in particular looks very badly placed as well as your west city off screen (NW is nice but the rest looks like coastal hills which means no food)