As I mentioned earlier, this was my first game on Epic, I've never played anything but Normal in the past. So I was a little freaked out when I settled in place and was like OMG, 23 turns for a worker? Then I remembered the speed. I'm not thrilled with this capital site, even though I normally love seafood, just because I'm used to more production than this in my capital.
It seems obvious that Fishing has to be the first research target, and with all this forest, hard to see how BW isn't second. Now, we could build that worker and have Fishing and BW done just about the time he arrives... but it seems like an anemic start, and you're not taking advantage of the expansive bonus for worker-building if you build it at size 1. So we'll build a scout instead and plan on building the worker at size 2.
One move later, "Gah! It's an island!" Forget the scout, first build is a worker. First border pop reveals some flood plains to the south, maybe our second city goes there once we can get off the island.
Fishing pops and I realize the research times will take some getting used to. My worker is due in 15 turns but he will have nothing to do as BW won't be done for 23. By switching my tile to the clams, though, I lose 5 turns on the worker build but pick up 4 turns on BW, making them come out at about the same time. Much better.
Humorously, a forest grows on the one unforested tile in my inner ring. Hmm, maybe I'll be able to chop out Stonehenge or something since I feel obligated to leverage my Industrious trait early and often.
On turn 23 my enter-pressing is interrupted as I meet Saladin across the strait to the northeast. He's the founder of Hinduism, and might be competition for Stonehenge.
I see what looks like a cultural border behind his archer meaning his capital is VERY close, although without Sailing it might as well be a million miles away.
BW pops and to no one's surprise, looks like copper on my island in only one more border pop. No point in building another city to take advantage of it because the land on this island is so crappy, I'll just work it from Berlin. I choose sailing next as I want to vote myself off this island at the first opportunity. Sailing pops, just about the time my 2nd work boat is coming due, and I'm thinking Ag>TW>Pottery after that. I've lost interest in Stonehenge because it looks like my early expansion is going to be too delayed to get much use out of it.
On turn 48 I get a great random event:
It occurs to me that this might be a sort of distortion of how a "best ball" event is supposed to work, at least in the early going. Later on, there will be far greater distinctions between games than an event or two, but right now it's hard for me to imagine how anyone's game could have diverged too greatly from my own. Then again, maybe everyone is getting the same event.
I build a galley and decide to build a lighthouse next, rearranging my tiles to set up a 2-pop whip once Berlin grows to 4 (if I keep working the mine, like I normally would, I'll have too many hammers and will only be able to whip one pop by the time the city grows). The city will regrow super-fast with 2 lighthouse-aided clam tiles.
All game long, that goody hut has been staring at me, taunting me from across the water. On turn 59 my scout crosses the treacherous waters and finally pops it to receive... experience. Sigh.
I quickly find marble on the island to the south and I start getting the Industrious itch again. Looks like there's room for 2 cities on this island, although marble city will be a little weak due to lack of riverside tiles.
As planned, I whip the lighthouse and put the extra hammers into a settler for development of the southern island. I get a quest to build 8 chariots which sounds less than thrilling. No idea if I have horses yet... and it's an island map, so I'm not all that curious either. Once the settler has the surplus, I drop a barracks in the queue so the city can grow before I finish off the settler. I'm going to pick up copper in about 12 turns with the next border pop, and who knows, I might want some promoted axemen to rush Saladin or something crazy like that.
The island 2 to the south looks to have tundra, putting me at the southern edge of the map. On turn 74 pottery finishes, and I need to do some thinking.
My next tech can be mysticism, to enable monuments for my upcoming cities, or masonry, to be able to quarry the marble. It's probably a moot point as I should be able to get them both by the time it matters.
More to the point, I have to figure out what I'm doing with the southern island. While I have space for 2 cities, the eastern half has lots of hills and no food to work them with...
In fact, even with CS, I wouldn't be able to chain irrigation to that hypothetical eastern city, so I'd be limited to working the marble and one grassland hill. With machinery, I could put up a couple pointless windmills, but there's still no way for me to work any of the plains hills.
A better option seems to be building a single city, on the plains hill smack dab in the middle of the island. I get an extra hammer in the city center, both flood plains, and marble in the second ring. The only thing I miss out on is the two riverside grassland tiles to the far left of the island, but that's the way it goes. This seems like a much better option than having one nice city that gets all the riverside tiles and one pointless city that exists solely to access the marble. I'd rather farm the flood plains and have a decent production city.
But where is my commerce going to come from? Maybe if I rush Saladin he'll have some better land than I do. It doesn't look like I have anywhere to go except through him anyway.
Berlin expands and... I realize that border pop doesn't pick up the copper after all. Well, that's a problem, now I definitely need a city that can access the copper. Looks like it won't be much of a city till CS, though.
So here we are in 2000 BC, having just whipped out a settler in Berlin, and using the overflow on a warrior because it's about time we got a garrison to avoid the happiness penalty. Personally, I want to settle him in the plains tile on the eastern side of the island, where he can share the farm and the tin-boosted mine with Berlin, and work the copper in the 2nd ring. Using that mine, I'll be able to build a monument in no time and expand for the copper, because it's RUSH TIME!!! Note the research in the bottom right corner - Saladin has 14 turns on BW, meaning he's a ways from getting copper hooked up even if he has some. But can we really rush on an island map?
The alternative is settling the southern island and getting marble... the problem is that these two islands have no commerce to speak of and thus no real future. This is not a site from which we can patiently tech in isolation, we will get clobbered with that game plan. Either way, here is the save. Note that the turn is not over yet because the settler still has to decide where to move.
(j/k)
