Looking for advice.

[reknaw]

Advice isn't the right word, since I already made a decision and acted on it.

Ok, so I'm still fairly new to Civ4 but have played, with moderate success, every previous incarnation of the game. I suck at Civ4. Reading the marvelous and enthralling ALC threads has brought me to beleive that a large part of my failure in Civ4 is that im far too blasé about the very early turns. So when starting a new game as Gilgamesh (inspired by the latest ALC pregame thread), I found myself faced with a choice:



Should I have moved to the Plains/Forest/Hill tile to settle or not?

Before anything else I should say that I did in fact move to the hill to settle because:
1) The fish would have been wasted if I hadn't, unless I'd built a city later on the plains hill.
2) A capital on a hill with a protective leader seemed too good to miss.
2) An extra floodplains (at the expense of having a desert tile).

Why I later wondered if I'd in fact made a mistake was because I had no forest in my fat cross to chop or to help combat unhealthiness from floodplains.

As it happens I felt later I had made the right choice because the move put in the fat cross, but I didn't know that when I moved. However, no neighbours near enough to Vulture rush only Korea found so far, around 20 tiles north of me, and they have Chariots.

That's all beside the point though, what I really want to know is if there is a reason I shouldn't have done it, and what factors did I fail to consider before moving? (I'm sure there's a lot I missed). It's the first time I have ever not settled in place in my entire Civ playign history, so any comments are appreciated.

Also if this has been covered before all I need is a link to the appropraite thread and I'll be happy.

Cheers,
rek.

 

[danciez]

I would not have moved simply for the fact that moving would give you three more water tiles in your fat cross. You have more than enough food to work all the tiles in your cross at max population.

You waste the fish for food, but not for the health benefit. Also, you have to research fishing to actually use the resource.

The biggest benefit I could see to moving would be the river for connecting your capital and second city, but starting with the wheel you will be able to build roads during any worker downtime.

 

[oyzar]

I would have moved. Chariots doesn't stop an axerush(or even better a vulture rush) just bring some spears. With the cheap/early courthouses it should be no problem absorbing Korea into Sumeria. On another note you might be better off settling some cities first of course. Extra food is good for running specialists. If you want a better bureaucracy capital settling in place may be better but the plains hill city have so much better titles allowing you way more flexibility(whipping and specialists). The plains hill also makes for a way faster start(even though you can actually faster produce workboats from the starting position(cause of the lack of hammers before improvement on the hills)) because of the higher food potential. You still have the river and at least 3 health resources. The fact that the new spot have more ocean + 1 desert doesn't make it worse for alot of the game because it takes some time to grow all the way to size 20 or above. The unhealthiness is offset by the fact that you have so much food. In the end i would move it. Specialists are good for a rapid expansion / waring game as the uu and ub leads to. Creative help you get up faster libraries and you can expand even faster because of better city placement. The fact that your capital is on a hill should never be relevant in a not always war and shouldn't be a factor in sp games.

 

[Big Boss Man]

So many " situations " so little time

Just feel the need to get this out . I see so many players getting bogged down with " IDEAL " city placement . Getting trapped in sticking to old habits . Being trapped by old thinking from previous vers. of CIV .

I want to post some pointers I feel may be helpful to get people thinking outside the box . What ever Civ you choose play them well by using their traits to your advantage . Free your self from bad habits like always sticking to the same research paths . Try new things challenge yourself more .

Sometimes we miss out on seeing the forest because we are stuck looking at the trees . Early over expanding just kills your income . Focus more on quallity of cities rather then quantity .
Get to prioritity techs first i.e. if your capitial has a resource , hover the mouse over it and research to techs you need to hook it up .

Be flexible - think ahead - constantly adjust to the situation . Good luck

 

[xanadux]

I like the move. You can get huge early game production from the whip, and build a nice specialist economy. This would not also not be a bad cottage capital if you chose to go that route, with 9 cottages possible, 10 if you find another wheat and cottage that as well. And it would be a cottage capital that can afford to whip because of quick growth from food. You could even hybrid it between cottages and specialists if you wanted. I would personally prefer to make this a whipping factory GP farm, moving the capital at a later point to a more typical cottage, or even better in my opinion, production capital. The pyramids would be very nice, and can be gotten by settling a second city to the north in the forests to chop it.

If you go specialist, prioritize writing for a library, and CoL for Caste System. Possibly try for the Parthenon after CoL, and get philosophy earlier than usual for pacifism. You could just use a GS to bulb it if you wish. Of course, all that comes after finding some metal.

 

[reknaw]

Thanks for the great repsonses guys. I got exactly what I wanted out of this, which was not to have my decision validated as much as it was to hear the reasoning behind other peoples decision.

I did learn one thing from that game that I don't think I'll ever forget... If you try to get Metal Casting from the Orcale, don't forget to research Pottery! (I felt so stupid when I realised what I'd done)


Cheers,
rek.

 

[Tennyson]

I would have done it because 3 food bonus tiles and all those floodplains would be too much to resist.

That grassland with the goody hut is probably hiding horses or something but you'll still get it.

 

[qwertz]

what about settling on the fp 1S. you wouldn't get the fish, but you would save up a trun, get 5 forestes and, have less water and no desert.

 

[LlamaCat]

where your settler is standing now in the screenshot is perfect ... the fish is not wasted, you will eventually have it with a second city or at least your cultural borders will have it for the resource bonus. that plains forest hill will eventually have 5 hammers and 1 commerce with a lumbermill and railroad, big production square later on to go with all the extra food in this capital. you have 3 floodplains in the capital, plus gold and 2 food resources, plus all those forests to the north.