Monarch Julius Caesar of Rome

[dgang]

HERE WE GO
Please help me lift my playing to a higher level. Before I took a break I was winning pretty often on Prince. I'm diving right into Monarch.
I generated a random pangea map with normal speed/settings with no huts/villages or events.
I got Julius Caesar of Rome as my leader.
Even though I plan to wait for advice ... it is a long weekend for me with the 4th of July so I'm hoping to move this at a decent pace over the next few days.
Thank you in advance!

Spoiler THE START :

Spoiler THE SETTINGS :

Spoiler with a title

And I believe I set up the save right (BUG mod in custom assets):

 

[lymond]

Were you trying to get my attention

Good you were winning on Prince. Good you are moving to Monarch. I can't recall or remember seeing your playstyle to really know your experience, but eking out some wins on Prince does not necessarily mean success on Monarch. But moving to Monarch and getting help here IS the right thing to do. Just say that as a warning that you may yet have much to learn.

Anyway, ok start. Coast irrelevant here for most part but two foods - though poorish - but 3 FPs make it nicer. I'm often inclined to move away from coast if possible, but with PH start and the visible tiles this should be decent.

Warrior can move 1E or 1NE just to spy what should be more FPs out there, but who knows maybe something tempting.

Assuming SIP, AG is obvious start tech. I might be inclined to go BW with others, but AH appears strong here simply as the cows are strong for IMP bonus..and you do need the food. Rome has mining anyway, so you can get to BW soon enough.

Still, if you are not aware, select/deselect a tech the first 5 turns of the game, as the game stores beakers and you might meet AIs that start with AG for small bonus.

 

[dankok8]

No better civ to test out a new difficulty than Rome.

 

[reflec]

@lymond can you explain what you mean by deselecting tech?

 

[migalhone]

@lymond can you explain what you mean by deselecting tech?

Not lymond but select/deselect is basically picking Agriculture as the next tech, then de-selecting it. You can do it on the bar on top of the screen, just need to click the icon

 

[sampsa]

Select/de-select:

Spoiler :

Not sure if the timestamp works, but starting from around 6:45.

 

[dgang]

Yeah, in @sampsa post you can see Lain forced to select a science and then deselect it.
Taking @lymond suggestion (1 NE seems to expose more tiles, especially around the second plains hill, and satisfies Part 1 of https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/beginner-help-the-basics.648469/#post-15513615 )

Spoiler Move 1 NE :

I settled in place. This seemed obvious and consistent with Part 1 of Flippy's guide. If you think there were any other real options please let me know.

Spoiler SIP :

Ok , on turn 1, I am thinking 1 NW

Spoiler Stopped on Turn 1 3960 BC :

On the south it looks like coast. Actually it looks like coast almost everywhere.
The east river looks like it ends.
The desert has some river which makes me think there are flood plains in the NW.
Should I move 1 NW?

 

[sampsa]

I think you can scout either NW-NW-NW or NE-SE-SE-SE. It's not a big deal either way, as your next warrior is out already T20, well before your settler is done. Maybe the NW-area is easier to scout now than later, even if I'd say it's more likely that the best spot for 2nd city is not in NW but in E. Well, then there is the clam-area to the W which is insta-connected.

 

[sampsa]

Actually... Maybe NW is better also because you are in time to scout the clam area when worker is done. Then it's possible to go work boat after worker, if the clam area is an attractive spot for the 2nd city.

 

[Jarno]

Working improved dry wheat and cow + imp bonus I believe you can crank out an 8t settler at size 2. Combine this with a quick workboat and the clam area is indeed an attractive option for your second city

 

[dgang]

I moved NW-NW and found:

Spoiler Turn 3 at 3880 BC :

CORN!
This may change where I move ... towards clam or maybe around the corn (corn is by water too!)?

 

[sampsa]

Yup, wet corn is such a great tile that a 2nd city towards that direction becomes more attractive. 1W of corn looks like an option. You can see jungle though and no reason to scout the jungled area. Warrior NW-SW-SW-SW or something like that I suppose.

 

[dgang]

Working improved dry wheat and cow + imp bonus I believe you can crank out an 8t settler at size 2. Combine this with a quick workboat and the clam area is indeed an attractive option for your second city

@Jarno looks on the mark:

Spoiler Only For Those Who Want To Calculate :

2p+3p+1p+50% imperialistic=9 production (plains hill capital, worked plains cow, plains wheat)
2f+2f+1f=5 extra food (auto +2 food, farmed wheat, pastured plains cow)
9+5=14 a turn to settler, it takes 100 p for a settler and 14x8=112 ... and maybe in 7 turns if we can get 2 hammer overflow and 7 turns is 14x7+2=100

Jarno got me to look at a population 3 with a plains hill mine: the +4 hammers and 50% gives 6 in exchange for 2 food, a net gain of 4 per turn on a settler, 18x6=108 so
WE CAN CRANK SETTLERS EVERY 6 TURNS with an 8 overflow

wow, mind blown ... will be back and forth to keyboard for a few hours, this is a lot to think about already

 

[Jarno]

look at a population 3

But how long would it take you to reach pop 3

 

[sampsa]

Yep, IMP with tiles like this is pretty amazing (also IMP settler whips). This means that early game are not an issue, which also means that BW is not very urgent. Probably better to go pottery before BW and lay down cottages on those floodplains.

 

[Fippy]

Size 3 settler looks like the right timing, cows wouldn't even be ready at size 2

 

[dgang]

Ok, I think I got it, PLAN:
build: finish worker, warrior, warrior
reach population 2 while building first warrior and 1 turn before 2nd warrior
build: settler at population 2 after 2nd warrior

Worker builds farm and pasture but done before settler so WHAT DOES WORKER DO then? Build mine on plains hill for population 3 settler?

research: farming, animal husbadry

explore: warrior 1 goes up and east (right) to coast (?), warrior 2 goes to clams in time for settler to pick 1 of 2 locations, warrior 3 explores east

after settler grow city to 3 (maybe building boat?)

THE PROBLEM: this will leave me short a worker for the second city? Population is 3 by around turn 34. Will this be 2 settlers and 1 worker ... 1 worker for 3 cities?

 

[dgang]

What's better 3 food 1 gold or 2 food 1 hammer when building a warrior (after the worker but before farm is done) at the beginning? I would guess 2 food 1 hammer.

 

[nebux]

i will always try to grow fast first turns so i ignore the lower food tiles

 

[dgang]

Ok I went to turn 20 and stopped. (I did keep a save for if I need to go back ... I would like to try to do this well.)
Who I met and what religions were founded by turn 10:

Spoiler :

I met Wang Kon. Buddhism and Hinduism have been founded. Espionage was matched but went down by around turn 17 ... so Wang Kon must have met someone.

I ended up circling East with the first warrior. The second warrior I headed towards corn/clams. Look at all that food:

Spoiler :

What science should I build next? (by the way the worker put a turn into a mine on the plains hill while waiting for animal husbandry)

Spoiler :

Here is the save up to now: