Learn as you play monarchy!

[Sisiutil]

On the screenshots--try running the game full screen rather than in a window. Printscreen should then save the game screen to a file in My Documents\My Games\etc. I'd recommend shrinking them a little before posting; Microsoft has a free tool for this, part of the XP Powertoys IIRC.

 

[Naismith]

This is especially true of the capital. If you want to settle on a plains hill to get the extra hammer, that's hard to argue with (in general; settling on gold to get the extra hammer is nuts), but the extra defense should really only matter in a border city. If your capital needs +25% defense to survive, start over -- you already lost.

I agree with all this, except - since the capital is on the ocean, it's a border city. I'm nitpicking, I admit.

 

[Sisiutil]

I agree with all this, except - since the capital is on the ocean, it's a border city. I'm nitpicking, I admit.

Boy, you really are. I've never seen the AI do a significant water invasion until after it has Astronomy. The worst you'd have to worry about until then is a Galley dropping of a couple of pillagers. And if the AI has a closer target available over land, it will usually go for that instead.

 

[Andrei_V]

I've never seen the AI do a significant water invasion until after it has Astronomy.

I've seen a few times. The AI seems to be tempted to declare war and land a couple of Archers with Combat I/Drill promotion, if the city is protected by a single Warrior or an Axe.

Two Archers have a good chance against an Axe in such a city.

Better protect your coastal cities with a couple of different units, like Axe+Chariot, or Axe+Archer.

 

[Sisiutil]

I've seen a few times. The AI seems to be tempted to declare war and land a couple of Archers with Combat I/Drill promotion, if the city is protected by a single Warrior or an Axe.

Two Archers have a good chance against an Axe in such a city.

Better protect your coastal cities with a couple of different units, like Axe+Chariot, or Axe+Archer.

Fair enough, but I don't think that's enough of a threat to put a coastal city on a hill if there's a better location nearby.

 

[Andrei_V]

Fair enough, but I don't think that's enough of a threat to put a coastal city on a hill if there's a better location nearby.

That's true. I believe it's having a single defender which is tempting, but not the city placement.

 

[Jeff1787]

Yeah, if you're the AI. That leaves you with three coastal tiles that can't be improved with a lighthouse.

So it is never any good to have coastal tiles if your city is not on the coast?? I don't think so.

 

[Sisiutil]

So it is never any good to have coastal tiles if your city is not on the coast?? I don't think so.

It's just not optimal and therefore you want to minimize it if you can't avoid it. Without coastal access, you can't build a lighthouse, which means those tiles are only producing one food and two commerce (three if you're financial) and can't be improved. This makes the tiles only marginally better than tundra. I can tolerate one tile like that, maybe two, but three or more and you start looking for a better spot.

This early in the game, the possibilities are wide open, so there's no reason to settle on (or for) a sub-optimal location. In addition, remember that this is your first city; it will be one of your largest. It's also the capital and will likely be the beneficiary of the bureaucracy civic, so you want it to be the best it can be.

 

[Jeff1787]

It's just not optimal and therefore you want to minimize it if you can't avoid it. Without coastal access, you can't build a lighthouse, which means those tiles are only producing one food and two commerce (three if you're financial) and can't be improved. This makes the tiles only marginally better than tundra. I can tolerate one tile like that, maybe two, but three or more and you start looking for a better spot.

This early in the game, the possibilities are wide open, so there's no reason to settle on (or for) a sub-optimal location. In addition, remember that this is your first city; it will be one of your largest. It's also the capital and will likely be the beneficiary of the bureaucracy civic, so you want it to be the best it can be.

I don't disagree with your logic. However, ultimately I don't think it really matters that much on which of the two squares the first city settles on. I think sometimes people worry too much about this. Give me either square......both will work....

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Alright points noted, but you have any idea how to get rid of that horrible white bit at the bottom i just can't seem to be able to i'm using paint BTW.

Dimensions under Image:Attributes, reduce height, white space reduced.

Or, there are four tiny, tiny (2-bit?) squares at the four corners of the image. Hold the mouse over one of the two bottom corners until the arrow turns into the standard resize icon (looking like two diagonal arrows), then click and drag it straight up toward the screenshot part of the image. When you let go, it crops everything below where you let go. You can't get it back if you go too far.