I did some bad micromanaging here, especially since I'll want the GLH. Before building the Horse city I brought both workers to road to it, and on the last turn before founding the city both workers were left with nothing to do. Result: one moved onto a forest, and another one just waited a turn to start pasturing the horses. What I should have done: use only one worker for the last road - the one on the horses - hence not losing a turn, keep the other worker in the capital, and save both forests for GLH, while whipping the necessary builds (Monument, workboat and Lighthouse). Now I'll have to whip things into the GLH, probably Chariots, as there's only one forest left to chop and one more production tile (horses).
About city placement:
- I could have founded Horse city 1W of its current location to get rid of the desert and to increase the chances of border-popping my way to another continent if there is one nearby, but it would have lost the sheep, a few good land tiles, and most importantly it would have meant that horses would have been in the second ring. I wanted to get them online ASAP, as warriors won't cut it for long - already lost two. Don't think I'll build barracks in any city anytime soon, as I just thought of something: the capital has quite good production, why don't I try for the Pyramids too? It would mean skipping Monarchy (even if I end up still adopting Hereditary Rule after a while if I'm isolated) and concentrating on the other techs that I need. IIRC the Stonehenge, the Great Wall and the Oracle have already been built, so even if I don't finish the Pyramids the cash should allow me to expand even faster.
- the SE city (sheep+crab+deer) might be shifted 1NE of its current location for the same reason as moving the horse city: hoping to border-pop to another continent. It would lose the deer, so I'll probably shift the S city to include both deer tiles. The future double-deer city is a low priority anyway, as I'd rather settle the North first.
Health-wise Harbors are really good on this map: we have all three
water resources for a total of +10
with Granary and Harbor. Not bad even if we're isolated. Math is probably gonna be delayed for a while, as there's not much to chop: I won't build Aqueducts and I won't go for Construction/Calendar anytime soon. If still isolated I'll probably research it just before Civil Service.
I have to remember to try to get a HE unit, although I'm not sure I'll head for Literature that fast. Even if I build the Great Library in the capital with the GE-polluted pool I might not get the needed GSs to go down the Liberalism line. On the other hand GEs might bulb Metal Casting and Machinery, which aren't bad at all on this map as they help me get to Optics... Ooh boy, I really should have played some LHCs...
turkis: Good luck with the Oracle, you're gonna need it.
You'll probably want to pre-chop those forests before Priesthood is in, just to make sure you have a chance for it. Not sure if the GW was worth it, I guess the next round will tell. The good thing about the map is that barbs will come just from the North, so it will be easier to defend than on a more spread-out map. The southern cities will need one garrison unit and that's all. But I guess it made sense to build it if you didn't research AH because you went for the Oracle. Interesting take.
In order to help the first three categories it means the 50/50 ones will have to accept playing easier maps from time to time, and the Immortal beginners like you and me have to accept playing tougher maps. But for beginners to actually learn something from the tougher maps they should provide detailed reports so that others would be able to detect where they went wrong; and the better players should also provide detailed reports to show the beginners how it's done. In two words: detailed reports.
instead
Alllowded them to attack. my bad.
