I wrote this yesterday but the forums were down. Some of it may not follow after reading your most recent posts
Originally posted by Sir Bugsy
Some immediate decisions that need to be made.
1. What are your next two city locations.
2. What are your worker priorities.
3. What will you next tech to research be.
Next City
IMHO
City Number 4 in Shogun's Dotmap should be the next priority (See the handy-dandy Cross-Reference for a link).
EDIT: Scouts Green Dot. The horses can wait because you don't plan on building any right now. The NW city proposed by scoutsout's dotmap (below Shogun's)
EDIT: Red Dot in the map just above is in the middle of a bunch of plains and will have trouble growing on its own. The greener pastures on the NE pennisula, while good for growth, do not help transporting units towards Japan.
What we need is 2 things, as many bonus shields, fast to improve and strategically located. The only BG we have is in the green dot, unless you stretch for the blue dot. I'm not a fan of out expanding your supply lines. I think you will see a Japanese city near the white choke within the next 5 turns. (Read the turn logs, a settler left Jap Cap heading east.)
Founding a city N,N,NW of the capital will have it's own BG that can be mined, river plains tiles that can be irrigated (faster than mining the grass in the NE for same 2f,1s). Note that you can't get units from the capital to this city in one turn but they can get there in two turns with one more roaded tile. You can road the plains directly west of the city or the BG SE of the city. Both tiles are important to be improved for this city anyway and should be the priority.
Another plus for this city is that you can steal the cow AND the wines if you ever want to shift your capital away from settler production (like to build a market for more commerce, or to build some quick military, while letting the new town grow). Lots of MM possibilities here. It can steal the BG MINE as soon as the capitol gets its third BG mined.
EDIT: About Red Dot. The only thing I like about it is it's got a FP for growth. (See Worker Farm, it will get to use it 2 out of 3 turns.) After that, it's pretty bad. First, it has no 2f tiles. Needs irrigation to keep going. It's still two turns from the capitol. It doesn't help with the road to the north because you'd have to spend a lot of turns roading the hill or mountain. It's a b*tch to defend as its in a valley surrounded by high ground. The AI can sit units up there and never come down until the town is taken. I definitely dont want this town until we have pushed our borders farther north. We want to be able to stand on the hills and attack into the grassland. Having our borders around the grassland will slow the AI units in our killing field.
Worker Farm
I've been trying to figure out how Niagra will get us a three turn worker farm without a granary (and without a courthouse). I am going to make the assumption that we lose the 3rd and 6th shields due to corruption. All FPs are irrigated, the one plain is mined. W=wheat, FP=Flood Plain,F=Forest,P=Plain,C=City.
Start Size 6, no shields, no food: C,W,FP,FP,FP,F,P.
Thats +6f, +4s (1+0+0+0+0+2+2-1corruption).
Turn 1, 6f, 4s.
Turn 2, 12f, 8s:
Switch Plain to fourth FP. Thats +8f, +2s (Grow in 1, Worker in 1)
Turn 3, 20f grow>add Plain. (1+0+0+0+0+2+2-1corruption) 12s, build Worker, shrink to size 6. MM back to start condition if needed, Repeat.
That means Niagra needs all 5 FP irrigated/roaded and the Plains mined. (41 worker turns) Having the Forest roaded would be a nice bonus since it's used every turn.
Worker Turns
I think workers built in Niagra should stay there until it's got all 41 worker turns done.
FP Irrigation has the priority. Being religious and having all this food, at worst case scenario, the city can build a temple for 10 turns and whip it to keep growth in check, but I'd rather build a worker in ten turns than waste pop on a whip and useless temple. Unless at size 6, this town should be working only FP. (No negative food tiles. It's strength is its food.)
Capitol is about done. It could use a road on the forest it uses during expansion turns, just for the added commerce. That's low priority in my opinion, unless it helps unit movement.
Grand Rapids needs its FP irrigated. After that it has three plains tiles to improve. I haven't tested this but my thinking is, since we lose the third and probably sixth shield to corruption the first plain should be irrigated (that plus center tile =2s), then the last two mined. When using 1 plain, it doesn't matter if its irrigated or mined because the extra shield is lost to corruption. When using two plains, they should both be mined, because 5 dropping to 4 is better than 4 dropping to 3. When using all three, we won't have enough FP to support all three being mined plus the forests, so might as well have irrigated plain for MM ability. These improvements are second only to Niagra Falls as this is our most powerful city besides the capitol.
At least one worker should start helping the next town, since it will need help to get building units efficiently. If the next city is City 4 is as above, the plain irrigation has priority over the BG because the extra shield from the BG mine will be lost to corruption, and we need a 2f tile to keep growing at pop 2.
Warning, the following is NOT Socratic. It's very detailed movement of workers. Don't read if you want to figure it out on your own. Then you can come back and see how you did. I would road the BG, Irrigate the NW plain, road it, then return to mine the BG. I would then hit the SW plain, then the W plain, ending on City 4's side of the river and be ready to head NE to City 5 
My 5th town
Would probably be in the NE Unless Japan hasn't settled the Eastern cow Choke area. (Highly unlikely.) If they haven't settled it, I'd go for white dot. If they settle near white dot but north of it, blue/yellow circle is good.
The AI
We really are assuming Persia doesn't come for the horses/incense. To insure that, we need a unit on the choke NOW! Having look outs on the mountains not only prevent barbs from appearing but also give advanced warnings about "Persian Incursion"
. As far as GK's block goes, we're a long way from having three spare units to prevent the Japanese. Our focus now should be to use our food to settle anything they dont. "Cherry pick" the best shield tiles. Build our millitary and reclaim the Japanese land for ourselves. Looking at their land I definitely think using our GA against them would be wise. I also would consider calling a fake war against the zulu and drap Japan in against them when we get writing. That would get Japan to turn it's back to us for us to stab at.
Research
With the unexplored territory remaining, there is still the possibility that there are more goody huts. I would rather get a second level tech than a first level tech from that so I would recommend blocking the alphabet path and hoping for a hut to get HBR, IW or even Monarchy. If not, no loss done. I suspect Alphabet will be available soon. If it is we can buy it. If it's not we can sell it! I would consider putting some money into science if our unit cost isn't bad. We have three lux to grab so happiness shouldn't cost much. Self research gives the gold to ourselves, not the AI. Doing more-than-min research will come back as a discount when buying Alphabet from someone else. An if we get it first we might be able to get writing first too. (Wishful thinking probably.)
Enough rambling from me for now. Any questions SK(Playing)? Nick(new Noob
)?
But I appreciate the offer and will keep you in mind if my situation changes (maybe when I retire in 20 years!) Thanks again.
