Interesting start dilemma

[Stibi-shimi]

Moved the scout to the current position to check out if there are any seafood tiles. Lo, there is- and its in a place that makes me consider settling 1NW instead of SIP on the plains hill- to grab ocean access, +1 food from lake with lighthouse, and crabs. Is that move worth losing the faster worker, loss of FP tiles in BFC, and loss of wet corn in first ring? ay ay ay.

Option 1: SIP, worker in 12
Option 2: 1NE, worker in 15
Option 3: settle on wine, worker in 13.

note: I'm playing with random personalities. I'm kublai khan (aggressive/creative)

 

[Kaitzilla]

That is quite the dilema!


Settle in place is tempting with wet corn, but it kind of crowds out coastal city placement.

1NW to get crab is kind of nice, but the capital works almost no river tiles and seafood takes a lot of time and to set up.


If I was playing, I'd be very tempted to settle on top of the Silk.
The tile will give +2 per turn for the capital instead of 1.
With +2 per turn from traits, the capital will pop borders twice by Turn 26.
A great deal of powerful land could be seized that way.

That frees up the 2nd city to be placed where the Scout is now giving Crab, Clams, and +1 lake.
When it pops borders after 5 turns, it would naturally form a trade route with the capital along the river and coastline for +1 per turn for each city.

A 3rd city could also be paced 2N of the corn to also take advantage of the lake, corn, and 2 floodplains.
Maybe in that case, the 2nd city could be settled 1S of the scout to get another hill mine to work to make The Great Lighthouse?

Holy Rome starts with Hunting and Mysticism? Ya, need commerce.

 

[drewisfat]

I would SIP in a heartbeat. I think other concerns are trivial compared to base hammer, movement turns, and working a bonus tile at the start. The lake especially isn't notable to me when we have this much food. I'd be more focused on how I'm going to share the flood plains than the water.

 

[sampsa]

Yep, very clear SIP for me too.

 

[Melchizedek]

I like settling on the Silk. You lose a turn and a hammer but gain a commerce, probably some great tiles for a bureaucracy capital later, and the opportunity for a great Maui Statues city grabbing two seafood and a lighthouse boosted lake. I think the medium-term economic gains are worth the turn and hammer.

 

[coanda]

My personal view would be that this looks like a killer start, and I'd be trying to snowball it as fast as possible. Which means SIP, because that gets your wet corn farm up 4 turns earlier, your second settler out about 6 turns earlier, and with the corn and all those floodplains to the south and east you know there will be a respectable spot nearby for a second city. Any longer-term gains from more convenient use of the seafood don't compare in my mind.

Side note: 1NW is a suspiciously non-forested tile. Decent chance it has a hidden strategic resource. I am curious to hear if you find something there when you play it out.

 

[Fippy]

1nw potentially kills seayum..it's the other way around imo
No city could be placed above anymore, while it's no problemo west with SIP.

Anyways forget blue circles, AIs follow them and one look at AI Survivor games cures taking them serious.
Crab & Clams are actually not as good as floodplains early. Building workboats is annoying when you have so much else to do.

 

[Fish Man]

Got the starting save?

 

[Gumbolt]

Wonder if the grassland is copper, horse or iron?

Major issue here is lack of 4-6 food resources. This will slow down start hugely. 3f flood plains are pretty slow growth for a capital. Just noticed the corn! Sweet.

If you did SIP the crabs could still be go by the peninsula city. 5 turns to grab the crabs.

Silk will have more flood plains but maybe some health issues. Albeit on a river. Corn helps with that too.