First city--settle on cows?
- Thread starter brianb1974
- Start date
I would move the settler 2S1E to the hill and see what that reveals. From squinting at the screen shot I would say there is desert to the south of the gold. If that is the case then settle 2S1E on the hill and either settle a city directly on the Northen Jumbos or 1NW of the inland lake.
I would avoid settling on the cows because it looks like a rather dry starting area to the south and the West appears to be jungle. Settling on the cows means one super city and crap for city # 2.
I definately like settling on top of the northern Jumbos as your best bet. If you're either Lincoln or washington you are going to have a happy cap of 9 with a monument. Sharing the cows limits your ability to maximize that. With the cows pastured you have excess 6
from the clams 2 from the cows and 2 from the city itself. That means you have enough food for the gold mines-4, mining two hills -2 and can run 2 scientists.
Total for the city is 30
6:beakers: 15
and 6
. Sharing the cows cost you 2 and 2 That means either one less scientist or losing the 2 mined hills.
I would avoid settling on the cows because it looks like a rather dry starting area to the south and the West appears to be jungle. Settling on the cows means one super city and crap for city # 2.
I definately like settling on top of the northern Jumbos as your best bet. If you're either Lincoln or washington you are going to have a happy cap of 9 with a monument. Sharing the cows limits your ability to maximize that. With the cows pastured you have excess 6
from the clams 2 from the cows and 2 from the city itself. That means you have enough food for the gold mines-4, mining two hills -2 and can run 2 scientists. Total for the city is 30
6:beakers: 15 and 6. Sharing the cows cost you 2 and 2 That means either one less scientist or losing the 2 mined hills.Another vote for 2 south. Cows are simply to good to settle but you can't ignore 2 gold next to your capital. 2S solves those problems and leaves a clam open for a second city. Maybe 2 people should shadow games and see what the difference is between settling on the cows and settling 2S.
JammerUno
King
SSE or 2S.
StuntedAzrael
Warlord
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2007
- Messages
- 182
I also vote for 2S. If you settle on the cows you get 2 ocean tiles. By settling 2S you exchange 2 ocean tiles which are useless with 3 useless desert tiles. Besides the game will probably be decided before you could work all tiles.
The best way to decide it early is through working more tile yeild earlier which he gets by settling on the cows though... at size 5 working 3 clams and 2 gold is only 1 hammer less than cows + 2 clams + 2 gold and 2 gold more(when building settlers and workers)... And it'll obviously grow way faster...
brianb1974
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2007
- Messages
- 157
I chose to settle the cows.
But I went back to give you a turn 1 screenshot in case you think I should have done otherwise. Here's a shot after moving settler SSE on turn 0 and then moving the warrior. I hate having all that desert, so I would still settle cows.
Turns out that CivCorpse's analysis is pretty much spot on though. There isn't a strong sight for city 2. I'll post a 2000BC screenshot in a bit. But oyzar and I were correct, too in that settling on cows makes that first city take off like a rocket.
But I went back to give you a turn 1 screenshot in case you think I should have done otherwise. Here's a shot after moving settler SSE on turn 0 and then moving the warrior. I hate having all that desert, so I would still settle cows.
Turns out that CivCorpse's analysis is pretty much spot on though. There isn't a strong sight for city 2. I'll post a 2000BC screenshot in a bit. But oyzar and I were correct, too in that settling on cows makes that first city take off like a rocket.
Attachments
Skallagrimson
Deity
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2006
- Messages
- 2,043
In this particular situation, definitely settle on the cows. Most other situations I'd be hard pressed to settle on cows and sacrifice the hammer boost.
And the OP says he settles on rice? WTH... give up a 6 food for just 1 extra food? I don't understand...
And the OP says he settles on rice? WTH... give up a 6 food for just 1 extra food? I don't understand...
brianb1974
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2007
- Messages
- 157
I settled the cows to give my capital a monster start. There aren't any other great sites, so the second city will wait for a bit.
I'm stealing workers from and preventing new cities by Joao and Ramesses to the south which should give me time to grow that way. I'm playing nicely for now with Victoria to my north, who is giving me cows for clams and foreign trade routes by sailing. I'll want to settle a city or two up there to establish a northern border with her--especially that city that will claim marble and gems even though it is going to be nearly worthless until iron working.
I teched mining, sailing, wheel, bronzeworking, mysticism, pottery, writing.
Built 2boats, 2 more warriors, lighthouse, stonehenge (half built with 3 chops), granary. I just whipped population from 8 to 4 to build my first settler and give me a start on a library.
So it's 2210BC and time to settle a second city. I'm planning on having it claim stone, copper, and corn. So I'll tech masonry next to use the stone. If Great Wall doesn't go by the time stone is hooked up, that 2nd city can chop it. When its border pops in 30 turns, it will claim the copper and corn and be a decent city--maybe build me some axemen--not to rush but to solidify the choke and play defense.
Marble and Stone and Philosophical screams out for wonderspamming.
I'm stealing workers from and preventing new cities by Joao and Ramesses to the south which should give me time to grow that way. I'm playing nicely for now with Victoria to my north, who is giving me cows for clams and foreign trade routes by sailing. I'll want to settle a city or two up there to establish a northern border with her--especially that city that will claim marble and gems even though it is going to be nearly worthless until iron working.
I teched mining, sailing, wheel, bronzeworking, mysticism, pottery, writing.
Built 2boats, 2 more warriors, lighthouse, stonehenge (half built with 3 chops), granary. I just whipped population from 8 to 4 to build my first settler and give me a start on a library.
So it's 2210BC and time to settle a second city. I'm planning on having it claim stone, copper, and corn. So I'll tech masonry next to use the stone. If Great Wall doesn't go by the time stone is hooked up, that 2nd city can chop it. When its border pops in 30 turns, it will claim the copper and corn and be a decent city--maybe build me some axemen--not to rush but to solidify the choke and play defense.
Marble and Stone and Philosophical screams out for wonderspamming.
Attachments
brianb1974
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2007
- Messages
- 157
@Skall--Unirrigated rice is 4 food, not 6. I don't go out of my way to settle on it, but I won't avoid settling on it either.
futurehermit
Deity
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2006
- Messages
- 5,724
Wow lots of crappy land outside of your capital. I definitely think settling on the cow was the right way to play it in this particular case. I would definitely suggest a Monarchy-Bureaucracy beeline to power your research and production. Your capital is going to be driving your empire until you can find some better land. Before or after the Monarchy-Bureaucracy beeline I would suggest targetting construction to prepare for a classical invasion of one of your neighbours to get some better land.
brianb1974
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2007
- Messages
- 157
@Civcorpse. The settler just got built. I whipped from pop8 down to pop4 for it. That stone/copper/corn/incense city gets founded 2 turns later. I will grow back to pop8 while building the library, then whip another settler--probably to claim marble and gems and establish a border with England.
If you control the only copper around, england should not have any borders...hint hint hint.....by delaying for a library they may research IW.
This land screams only one thing. AXE RUSH!!!!! Jaoa needs to die just as Egypt. Kill maim. But yeah this was one time where settling on the cows was pretty good. Settling on the elephants though, gettting a clam and lots of cottagable riverside grassland combined with bananas isn't a bad city. Just not as second one.
Gliese 581
Your average civ junkie
You don't get a faster start from settling the cow since there's no other 3f tiles to work. All you did is waste a good tile for the ability to put citizens to work from size 16 and up assuming you don't want to run any specialists. Having poor land is all the more reason not to waste a good resource like that.
Short term > Long term here.
Short term > Long term here.
Gliese 581,
Interesting. I think I see your point here. I seen now that I was wrong when I said to settle on the Cows in my first post of this thread. The gain of workable Pastured Cows easily outweighs the loss of being able to work those Coastal Clams in this case.
brianb1974
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2007
- Messages
- 157
But gilese, I start with fishing. My initial build is a boat and I'm working max production tiles to get there. So the extra food does help me grow a bit quicker.
brianb1974,
You also start with Agg, which means you can tech AH before you build your first Worker. A Pastured Grassland Cows will produce just as much food as a Fishing Boat Clams sans Lighthouse, but the trade off is 2 production for the Cows vs 2 Commerce for the Clams. Since your first city produces 9 commerce by default, I'd say that the production is more beneficial.
Also a Worker->AH first means you can go Mining next, and start working that Gold very quickly.
Do you still have the autosave? I would like to try something.
You also start with Agg, which means you can tech AH before you build your first Worker. A Pastured Grassland Cows will produce just as much food as a Fishing Boat Clams sans Lighthouse, but the trade off is 2 production for the Cows vs 2 Commerce for the Clams. Since your first city produces 9 commerce by default, I'd say that the production is more beneficial.
Also a Worker->AH first means you can go Mining next, and start working that Gold very quickly.
Do you still have the autosave? I would like to try something.
Similar threads
