Help me get better - II

[madmenno]

Hey again, my first game i posted had a lot of discussion around my tactics and strategy. I hope this game will be more on topic.

To sum it all up, i want to be a consistent winner on immortal+. I currently get owned more often then not on Monarch although last game was pretty easy and might have learned enough already to win consistently there.

So one more monarch game to make sure i adapted to this difficulty. Let's get this started!

Spoiler :

The settings! Might have to switch to another image provider, photobucket is shrinking it to mutch...


So would i go 1E, 1SE or 2S 1E for the furs and the extra hammer. I think 1SE is the best option.


Would beelining chariot to horse archer be any good after i got pottery, agri and mining?

 

[vranasm]

resource bubbles! not everyone has such good eyes as you.

that PH 2S1E is somewhat luring my eyes, lacks a bit 1 more hill at least.

 

[madmenno]

Still didn't settle, 1SE seems good too, 3 hills loads of food and river and both luxery resources.

 

[krikav]

I would go for 2s 1e for that plains hill.
SE is good, but it's probably way to many floodplains for you to utilize before late medieval.

The plain-hill might also get lucky with some seafood.

 

[madmenno]

Aw.. i just settled SE, figured 1 hill is to short even with the cows and plains. If i get horses or a mining resource on that hill i facepalm. BTW 1SE loses me 1 FP...

Spoiler :

Anyway no sea food there, i do have marble there on ice island 4S3E and fish on 4S3W from.

I have scouted LOADS of resources by now, hope i can get them but i stick to the nearby expansion as i learned from the previous play through.

 

[krikav]

Gold and gems, scout abit to the south-east as well, see if you have silver.
Forge will be a nice happiness building in your game.

I would like your screenshots to show more of your immediate surroundings, so that we can see all information you see.

If you are interested in learning, the reason why settling on plains-hills are so appealing, is because you get a extra bonus hammer in your city right from the start, this is a pretty big advantage.

Also, a plains hill is a pretty poor tile on it's own. It's a huge food-sink.
grassland-hill mine is 1food 3hammers, while a plains hill is 4 hammers.

It costs 2 food to work the tile, so the total of them is not 1food3 hammers and 4 hammers but instead:
-1 food 3 hammers and -2 food 4 hammers.
If you look at the hammers per food ratio, you see that in the grassland hill, you get 3 hammers per food, and the plains hill just give you 2 hammers per food.
So a grassland hill is 50% more efficient.

This is why I am so easy to "sacrifice" a plains hill.

 

[madmenno]

Wow nice insight into the plains vs grass hill. Now you mentioned it i came across something like that a while ago.

Spoiler :

Heres a close up:


And now where to settle? The desert seems good, iirc a city will still get 2f,1h,1c on desert. My borders would connect so the food will be available immediately right?

So should i go broze working for chopping asap or get writing first to get a library up?

 

[vranasm]

Too bad you don't have horses nearby.

1E of west sheep dragged my eyes.
Your dot is too ambitious. Much better would be 1W of corn (1SE from gold)

Copper could slightly change some positioning.

 

[krikav]

Yes, that city placement is almost a rerun of your last game.
You need to learn to love overlap in your cities, if you are going to stride up to IMM-level.

Overlap isn't bad, in fact it has several advantages for two cities to share the same resources.

Once city can work the food resource and grow, while the other one is continuing to feed the cottages, and when growth is complete, the other city take the food.


*edit* Much better screenshots btw, alot easier to get the full picture of whats going on.

 

[madmenno]

Ok, i wasted 1 turn of my settler movement then. I'm moving to the forest 1W of corn.

I watched a bit of chris video's, i see he rather goes writing first. I'll take that path as well and get 2 libraries up asap, maybe expand one more before writing finishes.

 

[krikav]

I think I would go BW before writing on this map. Especially when you are lacking horses, you want to know the location of copper.

Keep in mind though, that on higher difficulties, you would not have time to research both, you would probably have to go archery direcly to fend of barbarians.

 

[krikav]

Ok, i wasted 1 turn of my settler movement then. I'm moving to the forest 1W of corn.

I watched a bit of chris video's, i see he rather goes writing first. I'll take that path as well and get 2 libraries up asap, maybe expand one more before writing finishes.

Did you know that you get 20% extra discount on researching writing, if you have both animal husbundry and pottery?

 

[Keilah]

I'd have settled 1e instead of 1se, you can take the fur with an expansion city and by settling south you:
-lose the wet corn
-block yourself from settling a city on the coast to the south. What if there is 2 fish and a clam there that you can't settle because of your t1 decision? =[

 

[krikav]

I'd have settled 1e instead of 1se, you can take the fur with an expansion city and by settling south you:
-lose the wet corn
-block yourself from settling a city on the coast to the south. What if there is 2 fish and a clam there that you can't settle because of your t1 decision? =[

Oh, I missed the corn when I looked that the first starting picture.
Shows how dependent I am on the resource bubbles. :>

 

[madmenno]

Did you know that you get 20% extra discount on researching writing, if you have both animal husbundry and pottery?

No i didn't lol... i went writing first. Probably ideal then for monarch but i noticed in chris video's that barbs start invading him already on deity with bows and spears. I'll take note for my emperor trip soon .

Spoiler :

Luckily i found iron near the sheep and settled there 1E to sheap. Problem is gandhi has horses so axes are no option. I thought the UU, gallic warrior was a maceman type... he is swordsman. I just finished alphabet so i'm going iron working now and hope i can get my hands on iron fast, would love to pop some in the plains of my capitol. It's only 5 turns for iron with those 2 libraries, but i do need to get at least 1 more worker (preferable 2), a barracks in each and probably a settler too to get the iron.

About the starting position 1E would have been ideal then? But since the fish i a bit too far out my capitol position is ok right? I could have gotten a coastal city that could have reached the marble on the 2nd border pop though...

 

[krikav]

The gallic warrior can be built with only copper, so you only have to research ironworking and hook up that copper and you are set to go.

 

[vranasm]

missed the corn too...

why IW? tech Alpha and trade for IW.

there is plenty of space to expand into (few tiles from capital east to get worked even more flood plains)

that fish soutwest screams for city too.

And who knows what waits for us around the coast more east? and into the jungle with gems eventually (that ideally should come at the point you will achieve Alpha and trade for IW)

plenty of space, forget warfare for now.

 

[krikav]

About the starting position 1E would have been ideal then? But since the fish i a bit too far out my capitol position is ok right? I could have gotten a coastal city that could have reached the marble on the 2nd border pop though...

It is probably not ideal with what we know now, but judging purely from the starting position, 1E looks pretty good.

 

[madmenno]

It is probably not ideal with what we know now, but judging purely from the starting position, 1E looks pretty good.

Yeah with the city overlapping it would be pretty awesome to expand in all direction with good food surplus.

Spoiler :

Forget war? Omg i just need to get rid of gandhi, that guy is always smiling. And somehow i almost always start near him so i got sick of him . He is starting to surround me too. I just scout some more with the gallic warriors and then decide.

Anyway, my library got destroyed... GRMBL!!!! But i like playing with events nonetheless. But now i am twisting on getting a settler in my 2nd city or a new library.

Ow and how about a oracle slingshot to CS... or machinery maybe and finish 'm all off quickly?

 

[krikav]

I think that a oracle slingshot after you have teched both writing and bronzeworking is abit risky.

Normally you want to leave ghandi alone so that he can build up your future cities for you, but in this case you are probably in a good position to rush him with gaul warriors.
Has he founded a (or 3?) religions yet? Grabbing those holy cities would work well with your spiritual trait for temples and happiness.

I would build the libraries, then the barracks, that give you time to tech ironworking and you should be able to start pumping gaulic warriors by the time it's done.