Thanks for the save Copterman.
As suspected, the resources you’ve explored to the north did indeed change the nature of the proposed city sites. So you can get an idea, I’ve enclosed a proposed dotmap for you in the attached save.
The most important thing IMHO that the save highlighted was that the site NE of the clams can only serve as a very short term GP farm at best. As soon as you settle the riverside site to its north for a 2nd horses, that new city will need the pigs (assuming you cottage up the 2nd horse site). Indeed you’ll also notice that I’ve got a couple of other city sites sharing resources eg. fish / 2 gems / corn to the NW and the gems / corn site right on the island’s north coast. As with the NE of clam spot, the northernmost corn / gem site (which is necessary to work the gems IMHO) may well get an early boost borrowing the corn from the fish / gems site on the NW. You could also move the fish site 1S to temporarily borrow the corn but, long term, the corn is needed by the corn / clam site to work all those plains. Note also that I’ve added a junk city on one of the spices just to work all the tiles on the island.
That northern coastline BTW looks to be some very nice land (in the context of the island you’re on). Clearly, the 2 gem site is the best early site available since it raises the happy cap and provides you some much needed commerce, but it’s only of use to you after you get IW. NE of clams has the advantage that you could can already use its clams and pig, maybe cottage the FP and it can serve as a GP farm until you settle the 2nd horses. Fur city will raise the happy cap and provide some much needed commerce, whilst sites N and NE will block land. IMHO, settling either NE of clams or fish / fur next has merit, but I'd lean toward the NE of clam site if you're comfortable with some heavy whipping / using cottages / specialists to stay under the happy cap. (After all, I note an academy in the capital will pop borders and give you the furs in approx 50 turns.) I'd be very interested to see what better players than me suggest though. Of course, the order in which you settle the cities and maybe even the city sites themselves may change depending on where / if you have iron.
The other thing I think your save highlights is just how good Saladin’s capital is. In short, it’s the best GP farm on the island and is a holy city. Others may disagree given the trade routes he could provide you with but, to me, the potential to later get gold from a shrine means he’s becoming a very juicy target. Although very unlikely, it’d be great if he built either the GLH and / Colossus for you given how handy either or both will be on this map by the looks of it. (That said, my experience is that he’ll build military, so there’s value in getting him to pleased to avoid him DoWing on you.)
IMHO, your tech path at this point depends on where you settle next. If the fish / fur site, then I’d recommend detouring to hunting before finishing masonry, otherwise finish masonry to hook up the marble. Once done, you need to clear the jungle to the north and establish if you have iron (which may help guide the timing of a war with Saladin – after all, if he has copper and you have no iron, things could get interesting), so that means I’d tech IW after masonry. To help speed research, I’d recommend working the pigs and sheep, and temporarily running two scientists in the capital (which is starting to suffer from whip weariness) while you finish the barracks. (You’ll need to adjust tiles there to time regrowth on the turn whip weariness wears off.) As IW approaches, have another city build a settler for the 2 gem site. Once the capital generates a GS, you might consider removing one or both of the scientists to whip a settler or a worker who could build a cottage or two. (Indeed, building and working cottages across your empire is something you need to assign a high priority to as you note in order to help pay for expansion.) BTW, whilst the GS could bulb maths for you (which is actually not without merit when you’re RExing or warring since it subsequently opens up the potential for very early access to currency or catas), I’d be more inclined to either settle it or build an academy to maintain research while you're expanding.
In other cities, I’d whip a warrior in Bursa pronto: the fact that the city is your only source of horses at the mo’ means it deserves a garrison IMHO. I think you also need to build a road W of Edirne to speed troop movement. Your workers need to improve Bursa’s pigs and horses ASAP as I’m sure you’re aware. And another worker or two would be handy – yep, I know, loads to do but you’re doing very well.
Once done, I’d also produce a few chariots, as a defence to barbs and deterrent to Saladin – I note all the expansion and infrastructure building means that you’re 7th in power from the demographics screen. That reminds me, in your next game, it might be worthwile building an extra worker or two rather than early infrastructure to ensure that your cities are working improved tiles as often as possible. In fact, I think you mention at one point that there’s not much to build; going forward, think first whether building another worker would help at such a point. As I’m sure you’re aware, getting around 1.5 workers per city and maybe even 2 per city if mired in jungle is a very good norm.
Lastly, a couple more tips to help improve your civ. I notice from the screenies that you seem to be whipping things when they have just one turn left to build. It’s much more efficient for you to whip instead when you’re one or two turns away from growing another pop – that way, you get back the tile(s) you whip away ASAP and can then get the food, hammer and / or commerce benefit from the tile(s) again. The only exception to this AFAIK is the granary where an article I’ll put up shortly suggests you should whip it either when the food bin is half full or just before. (The short answer is that time when it’s most efficient to whip a granary varies.) To see, perhaps try this in Edirne with the granary there – let the pop grow to 4 and the food bin to roughly somewhere between 10 and 14 /28 and then whip the granary for 2 pop. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how quickly the city regrows. (All that said though, I'd be inclined to put another turn into the granary, switch to a worker for one turn, whip it for 2 pop and then continue the gramary. That worker will come in real handy cottaging the FP if you settle NE of clams.) The other thing I noticed from the save is that you seem to be switching builds in a number of cities. Whilst queuing them is fine, just be aware of hammer decay, which I’m sure you know.
Hope this helps. As mentioned, very well played to date.
Look forward to seeing the next round.
Edit: Two other points I thought about after my post when looking at your save again. Firstly, with its fish and pigs, Bursa could also run a few early scientists but this would require raising the happy cap assuming you work the pigs, fish, horses and 2 scientists. (Running scientists in Bursa would give you the added advantage of being able to cottage the capital for commerce or work mines for settlers / workers.) Perhaps this argues in favour of settling the furs next? Admittedly, there is also the very tempting option of changing the tech path to iron and sailing and settling the fish / corn / 2 gems site to do this but, IMHO, I’d wait until you can produce a chariot to escort your worker, settler and defend the city if going this route (given how isolated & difficult to reinforce the city will be). Maintenance costs would also be a short term concern but this would cease once the gems were mined and roaded. The second point meanwhile was another exception to the whip at the sweet spot argument: monuments frequently get whipped immediately the population reaches 2 to pop the borders ASAP.
