Maya Flood Plain Start

[tigerden27]

Check out this Maya starting location. Plenty of food, plenty of shields (once I mine those mountains).


My question is, where should I start the city to get the most food out of it? In other words, can I turn this into a Settler factory?

One other question do I need to research to Monarchy or Republic right away? I'm not sure I can wait to use the Javelin Thrower to until I get Monarchy or Republic? (This would be the ideal case right, for a full Golden Age.)

This is one of my first Monarch games, so I'd appreciate the input.

BTW World creation stats:
Size: Standard
Barbarians: Random
World: Continents 70%
Everything else the middle selection.

 

[Commander Bello]

aargh.. I hate my mouse.. ok.. next attempt...

Since you are at floodplains, there is a certain probabililty of you getting disease, that is, your citizens might get killed by disease. This problem can only be solved by the invention of sanitation, which you will get in the industrial age.
So, I would not rely that you will get your settlers out in time.
Additionally, you cannot mine floodplains. So, you have just 2 desert tiles to be mined, which will give you 2 shields each. The hills will give you 2 shields as well, as long as you are in despotism. But they will take 6 turns for mining, IIRC.
After all, this location doesn't seem to be THAT good... Prepare for a slow start.

 

[ETO_Peregrine]

I wouldn't call that a good start, actually. That area will be very productive in the middle and industrial ages, but your capital will almost certainly be sent back to 1 pop point by disease early on. I would reccomend moving your settler diagonally to the Southeast. It looks like there will be some grassland in range if you do that. You need some flat resource producing terrain for starting out. Don't have your capital hog all the floodplains, since once city won't be able to use more than 4-5 until sanitation.

 

[Ukraineboy]

Yeah, I made this mistake, in my capital city there is now so much disease...

 

[Qitai]

Use the whip. Also Disease always comes in pairs.

 

[Speaker]

With 3 floodplains-wheat tiles in view (the third is peaking out of the fog in the southwest), I would try to fit in 3 closely packed cities, each using 1 of the wheat tiles. You will need plenty of workers to get this start running, but Industrious will help you there. Post a screenshot after 50 or so turns if you don't mind. I would love to see what it looks like.

 

[Chauliodus]

I hate floodplains

 

[Aggie]

What an interesting start! Do you have a save for me?

 

[Black Waltz]

I say move the settler once to the west. Then you'll have more mountains and hills to mine.

 

[Aggie]

Originally posted by Black Waltz
I say move the settler once to the west. Then you'll have more mountains and hills to mine.

But you would miss out on the river and can't grow to size 7...

 

[ssvensson]

I've had a similar starting position once - got my butt kicked because disease sloved down my progress in the beginning!

Just a warning! ;-)

 

[Black Waltz]

Didn't realise you had to be directly next to the river. Then I would suggest NW. You need a good balance between food and production in floodplain cities.

 

[keiselhorn]

Mayans are agricultural. Deserts are never a problem for agricultural civs, they are an advantage.

You can found 2 even 3 cities in this area, save the other wheat spots for your 2nd and 3rd cities, they will need them much more than the capital. They are industrious, the hills will be worked quickly, also because Mayans get slaves even with the barbarians.

When founding the first new cities I wouldn't care about overlapping 1 or 2 squares, because they will already produce a lot. I personally prefer to build a city in a very good location rather than to have 21 squares without max power.

I wouldn't found the city over the flood plain because of disease. Move the settler to the desert. It will produce 1s/2f/1gp, which leaves you with only one desert square, which must be irrigated (will produce like an irrigated plains for an agricultural civ).

I think you should emphasize production instead of food, since food is totally guaranteed with this start.

I would move the settler in a way that its radius still takes both sides of the river, so you will have a huge commerce bonus. With your workers/slaves mining the hills, the aqueduct won't be a prob (it's much cheaper for the agricultural civs)

This start is just perfect for the Mayans, man! An agricultural/ind civ starting with river, wheat, flood plains and plenty of hills. Higher chances for iron (although the Javelin guys are more than enough), don't worry be happy.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

Originally posted by Qitai
Use the whip. Also Disease always comes in pairs.

I think disease can come in more than pairs. I had a start like this once, and disease kept hitting and hitting. It was a game killer. Maybe a Firaxian can enlighten us on exactly how disease is coded to strike, it does seem to target one city at a time, and keep striking for several turns.

You are taking a chance here, if you are not hit by disease you will be able to crank out settlers like nobody's business, but given the perversity of this game in matters of random chance, you will probably get hit. You have plenty of food, but disease will eliminate shield capacity also, just as deadly if you are going for a settler factory.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

Originally posted by Qitai
Use the whip. Also Disease always comes in pairs.

I think disease can come in more than pairs. I had a start like this once, and disease kept hitting and hitting. It was a game killer. Maybe a Firaxian can enlighten us on exactly how disease is coded to strike, it does seem to target one city at a time, and keep striking for several turns.

You are taking a chance here, if you are not hit by disease you will be able to crank out settlers like nobody's business, but given the perversity of this game in matters of random chance, you will probably get hit. You have plenty of food, but disease will eliminate shield capacity also, just as deadly if you are going for a settler factory.

 

[Commander Bello]

My observation is, that disease may easily drop your population from 6 to 2. This happened to me some times already.
For that reason, I don't see that spot as being very good.
If disease doesn't strike, than the reduced number of shields will limit your progress to some extent... but, just test it out.

 

[Qitai]

It is hard coded. If you get hit by disease once. You will get it again the next turn 100% unless you are already at size 1. The dice will be rerolled again on the 3rd turn. And if it hits you again, you can be 100% sure it will hit again in the 4th turn and so on and so fore. That is what I mean by it comes in pair. This is one of the known hard-coding.

 

[TedJackson]

My preferred move is N, NW (to the hill). It looks as if there's more desert to the NE and more hills to the NW

Any chance of the start being posted? We could start a mini-challenge - play 40 turns and see who makes the most of the start


Ted

 

[Bleser]

Just imagine if that goody hut popped out a settler...oh baby!

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

Thanks for the info, Qitai. I wonder, though, how the dice rolling for disease works? I have had cities on flood plains, built as placeholders go disease free for a long time. I also wonder what kind of effect having more than 1 city in a disease zone, whether jungles/marsh/flood plain may have.

I think for this start, I would settle by the wheat, build a unit to explore right away and try to find some rich grassland in the surrounding areas to settle the first ring of cities on, and if there is grassland available, see how many settlers you can crank out before disease hits. If you get hit before the first settler is done, restart, you'll never get anywhere.