Wow. WOW. Tough decisions - yes. But what a start. Marble on hand, in fact IN the fat cross if we settle in the place. FPs, and enough forests to chop any early wonder we wanted. A happiness lux IN the fat cross if we settle in the place AND an instant goody hut if we do so.
I would see out capital as an early production powerhouse gradually becoming the most academic city on the planet. We've got enough hills to make early production very feasable indeed. There's a strong chance it might not stand up to some of the more advanced cities that are really in the hillside, but its going to be no slough. We've got 4 floods, perfect for cottaging, and a lot of grassland once we've chopped the forests. Grassland too is great for commerce because cottages there pay for their own food, while still providing the boost (2 food per grassland tile). We can rely on the floodplanes to keep us growing and using more and more of the grassland squares.
We could use marble for a shot at the oracle - and perhaps more importantly the key wonder to keep up with the tech race, The Great Library. This wonder has been the cornerstone of many a tech comback, but also acts as a double edged sword in that it tends to produce a quite horrific number of great scientists. Of course this can be useful, with many adadamies around the empire always a good thing, but it tends to dilute the number of other GPs we get - and thus it damages our golden age potential.
If we were to heavily cottage the area around Delhi - an eventual (or early with Pyramids) switch to Universal Sufferage would blow the production out of the water overnight.
If we worked all the FP tiles, we would have enough food to keep on growing as long as the 'new citizens' are put to work on grassland cottages, and eventually stop growing with the hills mined for that little bit of production, and the quarry on the marble bringing in an anvil (?)
Two hills, an anvil, and a city founded hill don't give the greatest production in the world, but they would let Delhi hold its own. In the early stages, there are enough trees around to slingshot us to a few quick settlers, the workers to get the cities blooming, and perhaps even a wonder or two.
Having over expanded myself many times, I would be VERY wary of doing so, but I belive three or four cities would still be very possible, and would give us several places to produce our early millitary to fogbust and fortify our boarders.
All this from settling in the spot. Although we are not on the coast, we have fresh water - and there is a fish resource not too far south, that could be a target for our first coastal city.
By moving the warrior one tile north-east we'll get a clearer idea of what lies past those flood plains. Unfortunely I think it might be desert - thats what it looks like from the hills, forcing us to perhaps hug the coast. However, just imagine if there was gold.... TWO happiness resources near our capital, and the potential to chop ourway to any early wonder we wanted...
I think we may well have been given the best start on the planet in this game, if we haven't been, then any AI with a better start is sickeningly lucky.
Can you imagine if we found copper in those hills...
Delhi has the potential to be the jewell of not only our empire, but of the world. And I'm sure there are better alternatives to the spot that I haven't seen yet...
Tom
I hadn't considered that tile before, but peering into the fog makes it appear that way. I can't be certain however, as I don't have blue marble. I can't see any reason that the coastal tile won't have some food resource - which not only gives another whopping bonus to the already fairly food rich Delhi, but will also let us chop more of those forests, as Kikinit had pointed out, we would have taken a health hit. I hadn't thought of that before.
