3000BC - I see that Buddhism and Hinduism are both founded already. I don't think we'd get to Judaism before the AI. The only way we'd get our own religion is to research straight to code of laws right away and I don't think it's worth it. We'll have to be the faithless for now. I'm tempted to switch research to pottery right now as I don't find bronze working to be a very valuable tech unless you plan to go to war early, which we aren't. The only forests I would chop down are the ones on the hills since a mine is better, but the forests on flat lands are good production tiles that should be left alone, IMO. I'll leave research alone as we're halfway done researching it and chopping the forest on the hill can help out a bunch on our settler. There's a lot of desert to the NE and N so there's no reason to settle there. The incense and gold will come under Berlin's cultural expansion. The land to the west has some great city sites. The SE and SW look promising as well but aren't scouted out yet.
2960BC (1) - We finish our worker and I move him to the pig hill to build a pasture. Berlin starts on a warrior due in 5 turns. Since nothing can get to us in 5 turns and we can afford the happiness hit I send our lone defending warrior to the SW to scout the blackness down there.
2920BC (2) - Nothing much.
2880BC (3) - Nothing much.
2840BC (4) - We meet Hatshepsut of Egypt in the SW. She has no religion. Bleh further exploring makes it look like it's all jungle to the SW. We pop a goody hut with our NE scout and get another scout. That scout discovers marble along the coast up there. We may be able to get both marble and stone. Check the AI's attitudes toward each other. Hatty doesn't like Cyrus but Cyrus likes Hatty. Hatty likes Louis but Louis doesn't like Hatty. Cyrus and Louis don't know each other. Nice little triangle there. It means no matter who we trade with we're going to get a rep hit with one of them.
2800BC (5) - Man I've never seen so much jungle on one map before. And for a continents map this is one giant continent. Odd I just noticed there is no happiness hit in Berlin for having no defender. Wonder why that is. We're still 5
- 2 
anyway.
2760BC (6) - Berlin finishes a warrior and starts on another warrior. Our worker finishes his pasture and builds a road. Find a possibly great city location in the SW.
2720BC (7) - Find horses in the tundra north of the desert. Crazy how fast you can go from desert to tundra.
Find Caesar to the far far far West. Woohoo he has a lower score than us. He only knows Hatty.
2680BC (8) - We finally learn Bronze Working. I don't adopt slavery as it's not worth the turn of anarchy since it's doubtful we'll be whipping at all. I start research on archery because I hate building warriors. Archers are at least useful for a bit. Aw crap. I was wondering why the pigs didn't connect to Berlin when I finished the Pasture. I didn't think I needed a road but since Berlin wasn't getting the pig I built it anyway. Now even with the road it still isn't connected to Berlin. It turns out Berlin is not even considered to be on the river, it's getting its fresh water from the lake. Oh well, I'll have to road another tile then. Berlin doesn't even need the pig yet, though so I'll go build the camp on the elephants rather than waste another two turns building another road. We can do that later. Hmm Hatty is Buddhist now with the holy city as well. I don't know why she wasn't Buddhist before since the religion had been founded already when I met her.
2640BC (9) - Berlin finishes another warrior. Start on another warrior. I have warrior in 4 and growth in 4. So after the warrior is done we can build a settler. I send the warrior NW to check for barbs by the stone where our second city is going to go. Oh I forgot to check the map for copper when we discovered bronze working. Well there wasn't any. But I just found some in the desert north of Berlin not too far from the horses.
2600 BC (10) - The worker starts building a camp on the ivory. Doh, our northern scout ends next to a lion. He's on a hill though and gets 100% bonus against animals so cross your fingers.
Ok so we have archery in 3 turns. We have our warrior and growth to 4 in three turns. We should build a settler next. Send the new warrior to the NW with the other warrior.
Here's a picture of our surrounding areas and where I think our cities should go:
Stone city - This should be our first city and hopefully build the pyramids there. That will be a strong city with the rice, stone, plains and hills obviously.
Great production city - This should be our second city and also one of our three culture cities. It has 2 spices by it which are bonus food. It has 4 grassland hills once you clear the jungle off them and 2 plains hills. It also has 2 plains forest tiles. It will be great production. Also the big body of water to the left of it is a lake so it has 2 food tiles even without a lighthouse.
Great leader city - This is where we will generate tons of great artists. It has 4 flood plains tiles, banana tile, and after clearing the jungle will have a lot of grasslands that can be irrigated.
Marble city - This would be a high production city but it's lacking in food until we can get irrigation up there. The sheep will help, though.
City here - A good solid city. We can either use this as our third culture city or use Berlin. I'm inclined to use Berlin just because Berlin will have a head start already. If not for that this city would probably be slightly better.
Later city - This is to pick up the horses and copper. It will also grab the silver with 2 expansions.
There might be a good city spot SW of Stone City as well but we haven't explored there yet.
City here too eventually. This is just a filler city next to our capital. We can make it a high commerce city to help keep up in science. I would say low priority on settling this one as the AI is not likely to settle that close to our capital so we won't lose the spot
mark1031
Shillen
Nerovats-> up
grahamiam-> on deck
Rince
jameson
edit: I know I wrote a lot. I won't write as much in later turns. I just think the early game is an important time when important decisions are made and it will help us all learn the game better if people explain the decisions they make in detail.
2960BC (1) - We finish our worker and I move him to the pig hill to build a pasture. Berlin starts on a warrior due in 5 turns. Since nothing can get to us in 5 turns and we can afford the happiness hit I send our lone defending warrior to the SW to scout the blackness down there.
2920BC (2) - Nothing much.
2880BC (3) - Nothing much.
2840BC (4) - We meet Hatshepsut of Egypt in the SW. She has no religion. Bleh further exploring makes it look like it's all jungle to the SW. We pop a goody hut with our NE scout and get another scout. That scout discovers marble along the coast up there. We may be able to get both marble and stone. Check the AI's attitudes toward each other. Hatty doesn't like Cyrus but Cyrus likes Hatty. Hatty likes Louis but Louis doesn't like Hatty. Cyrus and Louis don't know each other. Nice little triangle there. It means no matter who we trade with we're going to get a rep hit with one of them.
2800BC (5) - Man I've never seen so much jungle on one map before. And for a continents map this is one giant continent. Odd I just noticed there is no happiness hit in Berlin for having no defender. Wonder why that is. We're still 5
- 2 anyway. 2760BC (6) - Berlin finishes a warrior and starts on another warrior. Our worker finishes his pasture and builds a road. Find a possibly great city location in the SW.
2720BC (7) - Find horses in the tundra north of the desert. Crazy how fast you can go from desert to tundra.
Find Caesar to the far far far West. Woohoo he has a lower score than us. He only knows Hatty. 2680BC (8) - We finally learn Bronze Working. I don't adopt slavery as it's not worth the turn of anarchy since it's doubtful we'll be whipping at all. I start research on archery because I hate building warriors. Archers are at least useful for a bit. Aw crap. I was wondering why the pigs didn't connect to Berlin when I finished the Pasture. I didn't think I needed a road but since Berlin wasn't getting the pig I built it anyway. Now even with the road it still isn't connected to Berlin. It turns out Berlin is not even considered to be on the river, it's getting its fresh water from the lake. Oh well, I'll have to road another tile then. Berlin doesn't even need the pig yet, though so I'll go build the camp on the elephants rather than waste another two turns building another road. We can do that later. Hmm Hatty is Buddhist now with the holy city as well. I don't know why she wasn't Buddhist before since the religion had been founded already when I met her.
2640BC (9) - Berlin finishes another warrior. Start on another warrior. I have warrior in 4 and growth in 4. So after the warrior is done we can build a settler. I send the warrior NW to check for barbs by the stone where our second city is going to go. Oh I forgot to check the map for copper when we discovered bronze working. Well there wasn't any. But I just found some in the desert north of Berlin not too far from the horses.
2600 BC (10) - The worker starts building a camp on the ivory. Doh, our northern scout ends next to a lion. He's on a hill though and gets 100% bonus against animals so cross your fingers.
Ok so we have archery in 3 turns. We have our warrior and growth to 4 in three turns. We should build a settler next. Send the new warrior to the NW with the other warrior.
Here's a picture of our surrounding areas and where I think our cities should go:
Stone city - This should be our first city and hopefully build the pyramids there. That will be a strong city with the rice, stone, plains and hills obviously.
Great production city - This should be our second city and also one of our three culture cities. It has 2 spices by it which are bonus food. It has 4 grassland hills once you clear the jungle off them and 2 plains hills. It also has 2 plains forest tiles. It will be great production. Also the big body of water to the left of it is a lake so it has 2 food tiles even without a lighthouse.
Great leader city - This is where we will generate tons of great artists. It has 4 flood plains tiles, banana tile, and after clearing the jungle will have a lot of grasslands that can be irrigated.
Marble city - This would be a high production city but it's lacking in food until we can get irrigation up there. The sheep will help, though.
City here - A good solid city. We can either use this as our third culture city or use Berlin. I'm inclined to use Berlin just because Berlin will have a head start already. If not for that this city would probably be slightly better.
Later city - This is to pick up the horses and copper. It will also grab the silver with 2 expansions.
There might be a good city spot SW of Stone City as well but we haven't explored there yet.
City here too eventually. This is just a filler city next to our capital. We can make it a high commerce city to help keep up in science. I would say low priority on settling this one as the AI is not likely to settle that close to our capital so we won't lose the spot
mark1031
Shillen
Nerovats-> up
grahamiam-> on deck
Rince
jameson
edit: I know I wrote a lot. I won't write as much in later turns. I just think the early game is an important time when important decisions are made and it will help us all learn the game better if people explain the decisions they make in detail.
).
