If I understand your advice, my reasoning has been nonoptimal. I had thought: fish first, because the capital can grow while the work boat is under construction.
I do that often. Why is the reasoning wrong, please?
Did you go worker first?
There's really much variation on how one can optimally approach a coastal start. Depends on resources, starting techs, and improvable tiles. In a more competitive settings, players will often use a test game to try various approaches for optimization.
BiC mentioned Fishing was a given here. Maybe so. He has played out the start. Mao has nice starting techs that give you some options here. Build worker first, farm FP and mine pigs while building wb to net fish. Then chop wb for clams, or go straight to settler at size 3 with the fish/farm/pig iron....and chop.
Without having played, I don't see much difference though of BW>Fish to Fish>BW other than the fact that you will not start a wb immediately after the worker. Farm>mine>chop wb. I'd be interested in seeing the difference in the timing of the first wb. Ultimately though, sans AH, the fish is the most important tile in Beijing's BFC, so improving that is a priority.
In other cases, say one starts with Fishing tech and you have a forest PH (3H tile) you might build a wb first using the PH. Or if no forest PH and a 3F tile like the FP, you grow to size 2 and size 2 max hammers to finish wb. Teching to BW in the meantime.
If I'm coastal and have decent improvable food on land, I may ignore the seafood for some time.
edit: and as for growing, well you can always grow on a warrior until fishing arrives.
Whip settlers? But is whipping not a mechanism that channels food toward production? Construction of settlers already channels food toward production, without whipping. Why should I take the penalty of the whip?
Some good explanations from BiC and Sampsa. Yes, food surplus is used for production of settlers and workers. Whipping settlers and workers is a way of converting that food into production. Whip a settler with with overflow (OF) into an EXP worker...cha- ching.
With that said, Beijing will have 3 or 4 strong early tiles, so argument could be made to slow build first settler + chop(s), then whip stuff later at size five or 6(3pop)...especially after fast EXP granary. General rule of thumb is not to whip off strong special tiles.
Whip penalty does not concern me..that can be managed.
(As mentioned earlier, this particular game was experimental. I did not know that I would be asked to post it! The experimental reason I did not chop would take too long to explain.)
fair enough. we're just giving advice based on what we see there.
You have just taught me a thing I did not know!
I seldom adopt the slavery civic until I have something big to build, like a library. Is this wrong?
Ideal time to switch to slavery is when the first settler has popped and is moving toward new city site. New city will not incur the anarchy turn. With that said, depending on the food in my cap and timing of BW, I may switch immediately so that I can whip the first settler. But yes you should be in slavery as soon as you can, and use it. Exception might be in poor food situations where whipping is just not optimal....rare but possible.
What is a scout wb, please?
wb is workboat...nice on maps like Fractal for exploring coast and opening fog. Opens foreign trade routes after sailing. Not mandatory mind you, but can be good idea.