NGC Game 1- Washington

[Sryth]

Our first game in the Noble Game Challenge will be with Washington of the American Empire. Let's take a look at his traits....

Charismatic:

+1 happiness per city
-25% XP needed for unit promotions
+1 happiness from Monument, Broadcast Tower

Expansive:

+2 health per city
+50% hammers when building workers
Double production speed of Granary and Harbor

As we can see, the extra happiness will be very handy for early game. Building monuments for the culture boost as well as a +1 to happy. The extra health is always good in case our start is near a lot of flood plains.

Lets take a look at our set up:

And for our start:

A decent spot for now. Gold early game is always good. As we start with Fishing and Agriculture, planting our city right here seems only natural. Fish and Wheat early on will help us grow fast and with our traits, we wont have to worry about overpopulation right now. I'm thinking of moving the warrior 1W on to the hill and see if we can spot anything. If we do plant our city here, should our build order be Fishing boat---> Warrior---> Worker?

 

[50_dollar_bag]

Take a look with your warrior first and see what lies beyond.
Right now i see to possibilities for a city either settling in place or 1 tile W which would get the gold in you're capital whilst remaining coastal keep all visible resources and remove the ocean square from your Big Fat Cross (desert/hills/gold isn't that good but it's better than an ocean)

 

[Asa_asA]

1 W, start with worker for the wheat.

 

[KMadCandy]

i want to see the tile southwest of the gold. if it's not desert, i'd be tempted to move the settler 1W, swapping a useless ocean tile for the gold mine. you lose the freshwater bonus but you're expansive, you'll have a harbor, and you already have 3 health resources on turn 0.

i'm far too tired atm to do the math to work out whether the gold can be worked with the food available given all those plain tiles tho. if it can't, definitely not worth a move. and there may be enough goodies back there for another city to feed it. i just don't want to see it only get used for happy faces and not be worked for the commerce, and a fat commerce bonus tile like that is great in the capital. (i'm biased, my last start was gandhi with 2 plains gold mines and 4 flood plains in the capital, he starts with mining and i was unstoppable).

since you know fishing, i would start a workboat rather than a worker. it lets the city grow, and the fish come with commerce, the wheat doesn't. i guess i'm kind of assuming you'll get BW early to turn the seafood into hammers.

 

[50_dollar_bag]

I very rarely play Epic usually i'm either on normal or Marathon, how long does a border pop take?

Personnally I'd settle 1 west, work the grassland/hill/forest whilst building a workboat, then when the border pops switch to plains/hill/forest until the workboats done then work the fish.

 

[Scaphism]

Move the warrior NW first, but getting gold in the capital is pretty much a no-brainer, so I would move the settler 1W and settle there. The fresh water bonus isn't that important - you have 3 health resources, are expansive, and more food combats unhealthiness, and you will have food in abundance.
Workboat first would be fine - your borders will expand to include the fish by the time the boat is done.
Make sure mining is researched before you complete the worker - as soon as you have one food special hooked up (fish or wheat) the gold should be next.

 

[Elrohir]

Move the Warrior 1NW, then I'd suggest moving the settler 1W and settling. Gold in the capitol is excellent, and you should have enough food with the corn, cows, and fish. (Which you can all keep if you move only one space west)

Research wise, I'd suggest the Mining - Bronzeworking path, to get the gold online and reveal copper. I would build a workboat first, while switching between the wooded hill and the cows (Or woods on the grasslands) so that you'll workboat will get out one turn before your borders pop for the first time, so you can get the fish online right away. Then work that, and build a worker to hook up your corn.

That's how I would play this.

 

[Validator]

Expansive:

+3 health per city
Double production speed of Granary and Harbor

That's the bonus for Expansive pre-patch. Assuming you're using the 2.08 patch it's now:

+2 health per city
+50% hammers when building workers
Double production speed of Granary and Harbor (which is not totally true; it's really +100% hammers when building these)

As to the game I would also vote for settling 1W, although moving the warrior first doesn't hurt. Gold in your capital's fat cross is great for early tech rate.

 

[50_dollar_bag]

Being at size 3 with 2 food specials worked plus the gold mine would be better, that will still allow decent growth even with the food-negative gold mine otherwise with fish you'll be at +3 food, or with wheat only +2. Unless you're going to try for a religion.

My vote for Tech path is:
Animal Husbandry (you may find horses in the fat cross)
Mining (for the gold mine)
Bronze working

Build order:
workboat
worker
warrior

 

[Sryth]

Taking the advice, I moved our settler 1W and planted there and began on a workboat. By the cultrure pop, I had the gold and the fish in my control.
My exploring warrior found a hut that gave gold and a hut that gave us the wheel. Gotta love those huts
Not much to be found to our west.

After getting mining, I began on BW. After my workboat is done, I started on a worker to hook up my gold and wheat. A 3rd hut gave me a scout, and a 4th hut, more gold. I returned my warrior back to defend my city and continued exploring with my scout.

Yay! We have copper. With a source of wheat near by it as well, Our next city will probably be near it to hook us up.

I decided to research pottery. Why you ask? Our city isnt in the best place for a lot of farms. Our food supply is good with our fish and cow. So, we will get a solid cottage economy going. After researching pottery, I met some of our neighbors

I am now researching Animal Husbandry while building a settler. I am thinking of putting our next city near the copper and the second source of wheat. Animal Husbandry will allow us to work our cow and a possible chance of horse nearby.

BTW: Thank you Validator for spotting the error in Expansive. Yes we are using the latest patch(2.08)

 

[Validator]

i'm far too tired atm to do the math to work out whether the gold can be worked with the food available given all those plain tiles tho. if it can't, definitely not worth a move.

There shouldn't be any problem. The three food resource tiles will be +6 food when first improved. A lighthouse would boost the fish and the lake by 1 food each, and chaining irrigation to the wheat would be another +1 food. That should be enough excess to work all the hills and plains plus run a couple of scientists if needed.

 

[50_dollar_bag]

Hi Sryth, can you post a zoomed out pic with the resources markers on?

Is that marble 1N1NE of the wheat 2N of the copper?

 

[Sryth]

Yes, that is marble up there. Sorry

 

[vale]

I think if you enable camera flying in the ini file you can get a nice top view screenshot without the cloud overlay obscuring the view by pressing ctl-alt f in game.

 

[Uncle E]

I think that settling on the hill 1NE of the copper also would make a great chokepoint city that would prevent the AI from gaining access to settling all the land to the west. I can't tell for sure, but if a city could grab the copper, corn and ivory that would be interesting too.

Having copper there also would be a good launching point for an axeman rush for your nearest neighbor

 

[50_dollar_bag]

Thanks Sryth.

No many food rich sites around.

Cities I'd lean towards are Copper Ivory Corn (2 tiles west of the corn) gets copper in the first border expansion but will help block the AI assuming the are to the East.

Cow 2 x Gold Corn settling on the desert hill 1 SW of the corn. More of a mid-term gain city, wont get very big but you can work both the gold mines, cows, farmed grassland, corn and a mined plains hill at size 6 foe decent production and commerce early on.

Of course discovery of any seafood along the coast could change all that.

And maybe a Marble Wheat Fur city...

 

[vale]

Also, make sure to turn on the grid for the camera flying top down view shots to make it easier to see the tiles.

 

[Killroyan]

Totally agree with 50 dollar bag. Those are the best sites so far. I wouldn't say that cow/corn/double gold is a late city. I would actually say it should be your third city. Good production and killer commerce very fast. Pays itself back when it has grown to size 4. First city should be the copper/ivory/corn city. It blocks of your entrance and leaves the wheat for the fur and marble site.

I would produce another warrior quickly to check the coastal lines and pray for some extra seafood as their is not that much food.

 

[KMadCandy]

+50% hammers when building workers

validator is right (as i've seen before ). i don't know how much of a micromanager you are Sryth, but be aware that the city governor doesn't know that hammers are better than food when an expansive leader is building a worker, so you're better off assigning the tiles yourself than trusting the governor.

lots of resources on this map (of course never as much variety as we want), but a heck of a lots of plains. the chokepoint could be fun. i like gus as a neighbor, i find him easy to handle. hannibal i don't trust. he carries elephants around in his pockets, i don't think i've ever met him in a game when he didn't have them, he's a big fat cheater. this should be interesting!

 

[oyzar]

validator is right (as i've seen before ). i don't know how much of a micromanager you are Sryth, but be aware that the city governor doesn't know that hammers are better than food when an expansive leader is building a worker, so you're better off assigning the tiles yourself than trusting the governor.

actually it does. It do however suck badly at micromanaging over time given limited goals(choses to work the forested plains hill instead of the riverside cottage cause your allready 3 surplus food when your 10 away from the happiness cap or just micro out warriors in the early game.