First of all, you made pretty good deductions for being someone unfamiliar with RFC.
I am very familiar with the standard Earth map and the Earth 1000 scenario, so if Rhys throws a TON of differences into play, I understand if my suggestions are foolish....but based on what Strijder20 says (and based on the map and history mechanics) you are going to face Persia and Rome early....if Rhys hasn't fixed the AI's inability to do amphibious invasions, you won't have to fear Egypt much.
One of the mayor things in RFC is the way how war-declaring works. Some civilizations are now more bound to attack another certain civilization. Persia and Rome both like picking on Greece. Egypt is a complete peacemonger and won't attack anyone.
So my suggestion is that I agree on settling on the hill to access the sheep (settling on the marble to get a quicker access to wonderbuild goo might be useful, but the city won't grow as fast, losing the great person spam leverage)...and then, I would hit Rome before Persia. Persia is going to spam immortals, and you already have the answer to that in pocket. Strijder says Rome already has Praetorians, so I agree, get crossbows and head that direction.
Yeah, sounds fine to me, but then you are deteriorating the spot of Byzantium.
Rome gets Praetorians on spawn (750 BC). Crossbows are indeed one useful way of beating them off, but if he wants to go for the UHV, oracling Machinery might not be the best choice. He might have to take one of the wonder techs to be on time.
Also, you have proven in your other conquests that Europe is chock-full of the best places to build cities (and again, if the AI still can't handle amphib well, you are guaranteed another Musket-spamming base later in the United Kingdom/Ireland) I would just guess that regardless, an early possession of Europe would be superior to an early possession of the Hills of Turkey and the plains/flood plains of Persia....but if small, production cities spamming units sounds more savory than larger, wonderbuilding/vanity project/great person farms of Paris, Rome and London....then persia might be a good target...(Rome in 1000AD tends to be a very versatile city for production OR culture/GP growth though...)
Nope, that's not how RFC works. If you go outside your 'historical area', you will suffer stability hits. Historical area is where the civilization was in real history, by the way.
On top of that, spawning civs 'convert' all units and cities in their historical area to themselves, so Berlin will flip to the Germans at 700 AD in case you found it.
Even though I understand the value of settling 1 NW (get on a hill, get closer to future targets (because the best defense is the best offense) and of course, leverage the sheep, I would put that the sheep will still be 2 tiles (and a peak) away from your settled capital. Until a worker can take advantage, etc...you might have to deal with an invasion called by rome or persia by the time a worker gets out there. So, possibly another risk, settle 1SW on the marble. Since settling on anything non-food bonused results in enough food to grow, you get the marble resource immediately, a hammer and can exploit the much-needed 2 gold and 2 food from the fish as you tech towards crossbows, and more likely that one work boat could be protected by your "fleet" more than the pasture could, and more likely if you are going to leverage gold in Athens plus leverage your philosophical trait, odds are you are going to build a lighthouse early anyway.
Settling on the marble? Interesting, but you'll lose a tiny bit of production.
And there are no 'traits' in RFC, only UP (unique powers). But you might have meant that.
Greece's UP is +150% Great Person Points until the end of the Middle Ages.
Even considering that, if the plan is to come out of the gate early with a beeline to crossbows, in the meantime building units to keep strength up enough to dissuade persia and Rome, settle in place or settling 1NW as the original idea both have advantages (in place to gain 1 turn of production, 1NW to get the defense plus the two seafood resources, which I would expect will be developed before the sheep) . I am unsure if monarchy is part of the original plan. But if it was, also settling 1N on the wine might be in order for the expected future.
That is, if he doesn't go for the UHV. If he goes for the UHV, mercenaries will be efficient (and almost obliged), as he can't really spare the production.
However, already having one (two?) galleys, you also definitely have a quick way to amphib assault that goody hut on a risk...or maybe even attempt a cheap-quick rush at Cairo. Even so, fail on that risk, and I think the game would become...difficult.
Knowing Egypt, there is a chance their only garrisons are warriors...
Based on how you (successfully) war, Neal, I bet even with the Rhys mod, monarch level is going to be a cakewalk, especially if you play it safe...
And I don't think so
Unless he goes for the UHV, he'll be stuck with a relative small empire until Communism (which allows larger empires without collapse).
