Round 1: 4000 BC to 3125 BC [35 Turns] - The Unkind Map Creator
As I mentioned before, I settled in place and started a worker, who could improve the rice tile in the capital and the pigs (only if I researched Animal Husbandry). The other options were not appealing.
- Warrior - No, because I want my food improved immediately.
- Settler - I need to explore first and get warriors for security.
- Barracks -
Since my warrior was heading east, I decided to keep him going in that direction. In retrospect, it probably would have been best to head west first, but I could not have known that in advance. Oh, and I started with Animal Husbandry first, to see if there are horses nearby and to improve the pigs. In all honesty, unless the horses ended up in the third ring of the capital (easy to get with Creative), it would be hard to use them as a security against barbarians, especially on a large map.
Once I finished
Animal Husbandry, I began
The Wheel, as you can see below. I had to think long and hard about which technology to pick.
- The Wheel - Allows the worker to continue improving the capital with roads, prerequisite for pottery. [Boosted by Financial]
- Hunting - The safe path. Allows Archery, but forces the worker to be idle.
- Mining - Not very useful, despite being a prerequisite for Bronze Working, because there is only one mineable tile in the capital - the marble - that is going to be quarried over eventually for the extra commerce.
- Mysticism - Not useful, since Willem is Creative
- Sailing - You must be joking.
- Writing - You must be joking.
- Horseback Riding - You must be joking.
I settled on The Wheel. I figured that I would meet new AI's because of the map structure (Big and Small on a massive continent is similar to a Pangea). Furthermore, this is an excellent capital for laying cottages and The Wheel leads to Pottery. Finally, the only barbarian threat could come from the south and southeast to us, so as long as there are some warriors there on some good locations, I don't see barbarians to be a big problem early. If archery is ever necessary, having roads in the capital early thanks to The Wheel would be useful for tactically moving the archers.
(Yes, Tokugawa is in the game once again.
)
As soon as the first worker was done, he naturally went to the best tile.
The pigs were pastured six turns later, and the 6F-1C tile was a great boost to the capital's growth. It soon reached size 2. While the worker was farming the irrigated rice (meaning that the improved tile would get 5 food instead of 4 for unirrigated), I decided to work the marble hill, to get a second warrior out fast. I felt that the second warrior would be necessary to help fogbost the eastern area while the first warrior was still exploring. Thankfully, he has not died yet. In fact, he's only seen one barbarian as of the end of this round, and a wounded warrior at that.
Once the warrior was done, I resumed maximum growth.
I concluded this round when the wheel was researched. We now know Fishing, Agriculture, The Wheel, and Animal Husbandry. The technology options are shown below. As horses have not been discovered at all, the Hunting -> Archery path is still a viable option, since Mining -> Bronze Working is both longer and riskier.
The map of the known world. I am debating on whether I should keep my western warrior on the hill or move him south of Amsterdam.
I have several city sites where I think the first city could, potentially, be created. Sites A, B, C, and D all have their advantages (and disadvantages).
- Site A - On top of a plains hill (+1 hammer), gets gold and pigs, can help the capital work cottages, but lacks much blocking and fogbusting value.
- Site B - Highest food options available, improves an otherwise uninspiring plains tile, riverside, but lacks gold.
- Site C - Gets corn and gold, but is not on a river and has many poor food tiles.
- Site D - On a river, has the most fogbusting value, but lacks gold.
Perhaps I will settle one of those sites; I could also settle south of Site D once the warrior finishes exploring that area. In my opinion, settling by the floodplains/corn area is a smarter move than settling by the west, towards Peter. Don't be fooled by the gold - the only city that has a reasonable amount of food to work that western gold would be a city on the plains hill to get the corn and gold, and Peter is likely to get that site before us. (On top of that, Peter only has 2 cities at the moment, so he is bound to found his third soon.)
Settling to the west to get the fish and cow could be an acceptable city, although it is not as great as any city would be by the eastern floodplains.
This looks like a challenging start with unfriendly neighbors, so I am curious to see how it unfolds.
The save is below.
(that's sea and fresh water perverts) 
and let's see if we can finish this before the demo of CiV.
