Settings: Monarch/Marathon
I'm a solid prince player but I haven't won a non cultural-victory monarch game in like over a year lawl.
Took a lot of notes this time around.
4000 BC: Settle in place, researching AH first. Worker first. Will build a farm on flood plain while waiting for AH, then pasture on the pig.
3895 BC: Warrior pops sailing. Yay.
3820 BC: Warrior pops Mysticism. Double yay.
3730 BC: Warrior eaten by a bear nooooo
3535 BC: Oh fun, Genghis finds me. He's NE somewhere. Can't see much of map due to warrior dying.
3460 BC: AH finishes, researching mining.
3205 BC: Kinda bored worker atm. Farming flood plains to keep him busy.
3145 BC: Mining finishes. Decide to go for masonry over BW here, not sure if it's the right call.
2995 BC: Well, I very luckily made the right call (at least this game) as a warrior pops BW lol. Not really any near enough copper for my second city though. Third for sure, but I'm not a fan of founding second city far.
2800 BC: Masonry done, will found my second city near the horse, not really any nearby copper so I'll go wheel for chariots to fend off barbs. Course I could just go for TGW to solve that problem, but I start going for Stonehenge instead.
2710 BC: New York founded. In retrospect, I may have been better off founding it 1W as I could have worked the horse much faster and I'd gain 2 more grassland/river tiles but at the time I thought I'd want the extra hills (I'd lose 1 plains/hill + 1 grassy hill).
2360 BC: Stonehenge complete in Washington. This start is so much better than XI, hehe.
2320 BC: Wheel done, Going IW next. Building TGW in Washington. Can finish it pretty fast with minimal chopping too.
2160 BC: Great Wall done, yay. Maybe I'll get a barb event and have them go beat up on Genghis! (who I haven't really properly found yet due to warrior dying early and Washington making mostly wonders) Meanwhile, I still haven't found another civ... or rather I should say another civ hasn't found me since I haven't really been looking. I'm positive I'm not alone with him though based on Genghis's espionage point spread.
1950 BC: Boston founded. Plains/cow + Plains/Copper with food to support early on will be nice I think. Probably will look to workshop it later and use as military production center.
1930 BC: Finally meet another civ, Mansa, who actually is closer to me than Genghis I think, yay.
1870 BC: And another... Hatty is on the continent as well. With any luck, Hatty/Mansa can share techs with me and keep Genghis at bay a bit. Also, found Iron in Washington's cross which is REAL GOOD!
1520 BC: Great Prophet born and settles in Washington. I probably make a poor decision of hoping I can get a GS from washington with the diluted gene pool rather than trying to get it elsewhere. However I'd have to farm some GLs in New York to get it, and likely not work my high production tiles in Boston to support scientists, so I choose to take my chances with Washington.
1510 BC: Philly founded. Not sure this was the right move, probably should have expanded north first, but I really wanted to hook up some silver as I have no religion yet. Hatty founded Judaism and spread to Mansa but currently I do not have it.
1440 BC: Raze some beat ass barb city north of Washington. Will resettle in a slightly different spot soon.
1400 BC: Judaism reaches New York and we're now all Jewish on our continent. Silver + Char + Stonehenge is making the happiness situation pretty solid, much better than last round!
1320 BC: Atlanta founded near razed barb city. I rarely settle on resources (at least when they're revealed) but I thought I'd try it here. The rice wouldn't have been irrigated for a while and would require a reasonable irrigation project. Of course, as it is, it's a pretty weak city until at least monarchy.
1140 BC: Got Alphabet, first on continent I think. I usually play with no tech brokering so I'm honestly pretty bad at remembering to trade techs and researching techs that no one else has, but I'll work on it. Pick up some older techs from Mansa and Hatty... (hunting, poly? I forget)
1010 BC: Chitown founded. I may have gotten lucky to get the gems here, surprised it wasn't taken yet. This probably should have been my 5th city, or even 4th, I could have waited on Philly. TBH I forgot that monuments gave +1 happiness for char leaders so I probably over-valued the silver. Also, the barb city you can see in the SS will hopefully be razed and resettled 1 SW. Though if I see someone about to take it, I'll end up taking it myself.
810 BC: Mansa + Hatty are at war with Genghis. I agree to cancel deals with Genghis but I don't declare. Obviously I'm happy to keep MM + Hatty happy and willing to tech trade me and hopefully help keep Genghis and his massive stack away from me. (uh that sounds kinda bad. lawl)
800 BC: Seattle founded near that barb city as planned. Reasonable production potential with bananas feeding the shield producers I think.
640 BC: Chopped the crap out of Temple of Artemis in Washington so now my gene pool can be even more dilute! (I got a great spy some time earlier. I definitely dropped the ball on getting a GS) Meanwhile, Hatty takes a city from Genghis then peaces. Mansa still going at it. Genghis had 8 cities (now 7) though, so he's still very much a threat. His power rating is way higher than everyone elses on the continent.
440 BC: I grab TGL in Boston. Not exactly sure why I built it as I only have two coastal cities atm, though I'm planning to found one more once my economy settles a bit (only recently got CoL + Currency).
20 BC: Parthenon built in Washington. Yeah, I'm never gonna get a GS here.
1 AD: Well this is what the map looks like for me right now. Empire economy has settled a bit with courthouses built/whipped/chopped and a few markets placed as needed.
Tentative plan is to found at least 2 more cities, one by the iron/fish East of New York, and one more somewhere between Philly and Boston, though despite staring at it for like 5 minutes I still can't decide where it's going. There's Fish, Wheat, and Iron there, though the iron is on tundra. I can place it to get all three but there will be a ton of tundra in the cross and only 2 GL/river tiles. I could put those statue things to make the water tiles reasonable I suppose. The other options are to give up the fish but keep the iron/wheat and get 4 GL/river tiles, but that leaves 6 workable tiles (i.e. not tundra) and its not coastal. Settling kinda north I could get Iron + 6 GL/rivers, 2 GL/hills and some other tiles but no food so I'd have to farm stuff.
Curious to hear where you'd guys settle here. Keep in mind I do have TGL and Moai Statues are still available.
As for later game plans, I'm not the tech leader but I'm reasonable and neither MM nor Hatty particularly worry me. At some point I'll look to take a few cities from Genghis with their help, but ultimately I really want MM's capital for the Jewish shrine, and maybe the Confucian shrine also. Course, god only knows whats going on in the other continent, though the updates say MM + Hatty are tech leaders with me somewhere around 3rd/4th.
I'm thinking I'll try pushing a little on Genghis around gunpowder, or possibly rifles, Then a brief rebuild period and hopefully getting MM's capital. Of course, I'll probably just do something dumb and throw the game away in the mid-game like I usually do
