Hawk02-Japan The 5 Sacred Cities

To continue learning about 5CC from my first SG-Hawk01 5CC Regent Training Game, this SG will be a 20k on these conditions:
Level-Monarch
World Size- Standard
Barbs- Raging
Land Mass- Pangaea
Climate-Normal
Temp-Temperate
Age-4 Billion
Civ-Japan

The story behind this SG is that the Japanese God declared to the Japanese leaders to only build 5 cities in tribute to him. So, this is a strict 5CC, you must raze every city you conquer. And, you must build 1 special city that everyone in the world will recognize, a 20k city.
So far, the roster is:
Overseer
Killerkid
Hawk Chieftain
Choxorn
Tasslehoff

Here is the first start:

 

lurker's comment: 1 has a lot of food potential with those FPs and the wheat - but shields will require workers to improve hills and mountains.
2 isn't bad; I'd move 1S to the plain before settling. It looks like there's a lot of desert in the area, though.
3 has nice food and shield potential. I'd probably move 1E or 1NE before settling to maximize use of the FPs.
I'd rule out 4 and 5 due to the lack of rivers.

If I were starting the game, I'd probably take a chance on start 1.

 

#2 has too much desert. #3 is not bad, but shares the same problem as #1, those floodplains. If #5 had a river, I think it would be fine. The same goes for #4. #1 would be a great 4 turn settler factory, but as we're only going to build 5, that's not going to be a factor. It is on a river, so that will generate extra gold, and there is plenty of shield potential. My only worry is the disease from the floodplains. My vote is #1, with the caveat that it can't be our 20K city, the population will fluctuate too much to keep a steady flow of shields for wonder builds. #3 is my 2nd choice, though it is a bit shield-poor. Possibly some BG's will be revealed on settling.

 

I think that start 4 would be good too. If we settle 1 SE, we get 4 BG's and a wheat. If it is a lake we're on, thats fresh water, if not, we have a chance at ocean wonders. Start 1 has less friendly terrain for other cities.

 

#4 may not be on fresh water, that may be an ocean inlet. I think thats a high-risk start. No river really hurts your income. This has to be a city that earn its' keep for at least 400 turns, and an aqueduct is something we might need for most of those turns.

 

I'd have to say #1, with our 20k city being our second founded city.

Numbers 2 and 3 aren't too bad, but the wheated floodplain is just so strong.

 

I'd also have to say 1. Another bad thing about 4 is that Tundra is somewhat noticable...

 

I'm not sure if we'll find good enough terrain for city 2 at start 1.

 

Roll a better one and we'll smoke.. err play it. I do agree there are too many mountains around #1, but it's still the best of the bunch. I might roll one myself later and post it.

 

lurker's comment:
I'll be watching from the shadows cos I can't give enough time to participate in SGs properly. I haven't played a 5CC before either so I'll be looking for tips

 

I rolled one. I moved my settler onto the hill, and saw another BG and wines.

 

An interesting start... What did you see when you moved to the hill?

 

When I moved to the hill, I saw:



I didn't move any further as that would be peeking. It looks pretty nice.

 

I went ahead in all of my 5 starts, and I like # 1 the best, followed by # 3,
# 4, # 2, then # 5.
With # 1, you can actually send the settler south a couple tiles, and we would get ocean access to build The Colossus, and still not have to build an aquaduct.

 

How many tiles?

 

I think Killers looks good, but any move at all is still peeking. I'll go with either #1 or killers. Our strategy is still not set, but I say aggressive exploring, trading, and military is what it will take to win this. Make sure accelerated production is off on these starts, at Emperor that gives the AI an extreme advantage. 1 turn horses and swords is not fun to try to beat.