Nobles' Club 301: Hammurabi of Babylon

[AcaMetis]

The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.

Our next leader is Hammurabi of Babylon, whom we last played in NC 215. The Babylonians start with Agriculture and The Wheel.

• Traits: Hammurabi is Aggressive and Organized. Aggressive gives all Melee and Gunpowder units a free Combat I promotion, and gives a +100% bonus to Barracks and Drydocks. Organized cuts Civic Upkeep in half, and gives a +100% bonus to Lighthouses, Courthouses and Factories.
  
• The UB: The Garden, a Colosseum with +2. Consider it an Aqueduct that costs 20% less while providing +1, which can be stacked with an actual Aqueduct when the Industrial Era rolls around and Coal Plants generate inordinate amounts of .
  
• The UU: The Bowman, an Archer with +50% vs. Melee units. Melee units make up most of your opponents during the era in which Bowman are relevant, so especially with an AGG Barracks to back them up these guys will keep you well safe against barbarians. Both the regular kind and the uppity neighbour kind .

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Inland Sea, Temperate climate, Medium sealevel, +1 AI to balance the board.

Spoiler edits :

Strategic resource swaps to give AIs nearby strategic resources.

The WB-saves are attached (zipped; they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC 301 Hammurabi Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels). You can play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.

Spoiler what's up with specific difficulties :

In each scenario file you can select your level of difficulty, but that doesn't give the AI the right bonus techs by itself. Use the Noble save for all levels at and below Prince. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

Spoiler what is demigod :

The difference between Immortal and Deity difficulty is akin to the difference between Noble and Immortal. Players eventually reached a point where Immortal was too easy, but Deity was still out of reach, and so neither difficulty provided a fun experience. "Demigod" is an otherwise standard Deity game where the AIs are only given their Immortal level starting units, in an attempt to bridge the gap.

Spoiler for players on Monarch or above :

You should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This cannot be done in the WB save file and must be done in Worldbuilder as follows:

Spoiler how to add techs to the barbarians :

1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labeled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
6. Exit the worldbuilder.
7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.

If you're playing at higher level than Monarch, consider also giving them Hunting at Emperor, Agriculture at Immortal, and The Wheel at Deity.

Spoiler huts and events :

Note: The standard saves have no huts and have events turned off. If you want tribal villages and random events, choose the saves with "Huts" in their names. If you want huts but no events, select the Huts saves and use Custom Scenario to turn on the option that suppresses events.

 

[AcaMetis]

I can't see much argument against SIP. 1E would give +1 floodplain, but burn a turn moving, ruin a forest, ruin another PH for a potential second city...it's not the most inspiring capitol, but I think SIP can get the job done. I guess move the warrior 1E first in the exceedingly unlikely event that there's something that justifies moving a whole two turns onto that PH, though I highly doubt it.

What do the experts think?

 

[Qactus]

From the starting screenshot I'd say 2E on the elephant looks really nice for the extra hammer and loads of floodplains (6 or 7, even if it's seven FP, unhealth would still only be 2, 2.8 rounded down). Maybe pottery first then and start cottages directly after wheat?
Would be nice to know what we'd be missing SWW of the settler, but with the warrior position there is no way to check that out...1E looks like the logical warrior move

 

[AcaMetis]

Feels like I miss something every single time . The elephant certainly does look tempting, keeps the 2 city tile and the wet Wheat while adding many floodplains and auto-connecting +1 the moment you research Hunting. You do lose out on some forests and a turn spend moving, as well as three potential spots for resources, but you gain at least that many in the process, so whether that's a win or a loss is purely down to luck.

As for tech path I'm not sure, but Pottery first sounds like an idea that could pan out at the very least. It'd delay Mining->BW, going to need to get settlers out somehow and cottages aren't going to accomplish that, but cottages will speed up research considerably, so the detour might end up paying for itself.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Disagree with pottery first even on deity. The starting techs are agriculture and the wheel. Mining, bronze working, then pottery is fine. The first couple of tiles worked for the first and second cities have 1 commerce due to riverside. Pottery will come online before third city is settled and the economy crashes. Hunting and archery can come after pottery if there is an aggressive neighbour nearby.

What does everyone think?

 

[Mr_Trotsky]

Disagree with pottery first even on deity. The starting techs are agriculture and the wheel. Mining, bronze working, then pottery is fine. The first couple of tiles worked for the first and second cities have 1 commerce due to riverside. Pottery will come online before third city is settled and the economy crashes. Hunting and archery can come after pottery if there is an aggressive neighbour nearby.

What does everyone think?

I’d agree. Given that, I’d perhaps favour SIP because there are more forests and I’d be chopping everything I could. I’d like to give this a go but still slogging away with Saladin.

 

[Fippy]

I don't really like building mines with an already good start for some scouting warriors.
So on deity i would def. go pottery first (and settle on Jumbos).

 

[drewisfat]

Oh wow, first Sally and now Hammurabi. We've finally reached the rock bottom leader
Like Trotsky though, I'm busy losing with Sally. Would have never tried KMOD if I saw what land France got...
I'd lean towards SIP just because I hate losing potential resources NNW and WSW. Chop starts are generally better on pangaea, FP starts better on big fractals. SIP, 1E, 2E and 3E1S all seem like reasonable capitals with different tradeoffs.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

I don't really like building mines with an already good start for some scouting warriors.
So on deity i would def. go pottery first (and settle on Jumbos).

I didn't know settling on ivory gave 2 production! Oops. OK, yes, pottery first then. (I was concerned that pottery first did not produce fogbusting warriors quickly enough.)

Also, a personal rant. Players do not pay attention to starting techs when ranking leaders! No leader that starts with The Wheel and Agriculture are "bottom tier" or anywhere close.

 

[AcaMetis]

Specifically plains Ivory gives you a 2 city tile, since you get 1 from plains and +1 from ivory. If it were a grassland ivory tile it'd be 211, and more valuable as an food neutral improved tile rather than a tile to plant a city on since you'd only get the default 211 city tile.

 

[konata_LS]

Satan's voice : Settle on the wheat ! <-- : Don't do that. Just don't .
^just joking

SIP is certainly good. Settling on Ivory wastes 1 turn but gains more riverside tiles. I think it's a trade-off between and . Besides, if the game has to go beyond Steam Power (such as in some continents maps or large maps), settling on Ivory would be better than SIP, because settling on Ivory makes the capital able to build levee while SIP doesn't provide this advantage. Unless playing as Dutch, as Dutch UBs can be build in cities adjacent to a lake.

No leader that starts with The Wheel and Agriculture are "bottom tier" or anywhere close.

Agree about it. Good starting techs can compensate some unimpressive traits. Charlie would be less terrible if he starts with Agri + the wheel; Gilgamesh would become a below-average leader if Sumerians start with Hunt + Myst.

 

[konata_LS]

Hammi's starting techs are very good. ORG is probably not very impressive on Deity, because Deity AIs expand very fast, and the human players is often boxed in. But on Emperor and lower levels, the human players usually have room to expand, so ORG becomes quite useful. Cheap factories and CHs are also nice.

From T0 to T207

Spoiler :

Settings as below, no huts:

SIP, because these forests gave for the early expansion. Plus, in Inland Sea maps, health tends to be a serious issue; I'd prefer to split these flood plains into 2 cities. Tech Hunt-Mining-Pot-BW-AH-Writing. AH revealed I had no horse. After Alphabet, got IW trough trade and there was an Iron. So I had to attack with Cannons.

Met Toku's scout around T8. Some turns later, my warriors saw Toku's border. Not good . Gifted a city to Toku, got him to Pleased and open borders with him. I didn't do Elepults, as on Emperor I usually can build 8 or 9 cities. Besides, I really don't want to mess up with PRO leaders too early. Toku's land was poorly developed; if I Elepults Toku, he had no techs for me to extort in peace treaty.

Peacefully expanded to 9 cities. Also converted to Buddism, as both Joao and Toku were Buddists. Darius founded Buddhism and converted Roosevelt, Toku, Joao and me. Giggle founded Judaism and converted Alex. WK was the only Hindu. AP was Buddhist.

Something unusual happened in this game: I managed to get Toku to Friendly . In most of my games AI Toku is generally Annoyed towards me, if not Furious .

WK DoW Alex in 900AD.

And Alex capitulated to WK in 1070AD

Lib Chemistry. Pre-built trebs, generated a GMerchant and upgraded trebs & 1 catapults to Cannons. Seized a dogpile situation, because Toku DoW Darius and his stack was in the city he took from Persia . Toku and Darius made peace via AP resolutions.

Toku was the most backward AI, but he kept spamming outdated units. I had to capture Kyoto - let Toku recapture - retake Kyoto - let Toku retake that - repeated for several times to clean up his stack (that's why in some screenshots above, Kyoto only has 1 pop on T207). Finally Toku capitulated on T207:

Lost some Cannons. Had to upgrade a Bowman to longbow when some Japanese HAs sneaked in my land.

Toku still used HAs while I was 5 turns from Rifling, because he didn't have Guilds. Killed some Swords and Axes but only 1 Samurai, because Toku finally got Civil Service 2 turns before his capitulation. Typical Toku tech pace .

Tech situation on T207. Toku doesn't know Paper when all the other AIs have Education . Toku still uses HAs while Giggle already has Cuirassiers . It seems getting Toku to Friendly doesn't change Toku's true personality - he's a poor techer as always . Maybe I should gift Guilds to Toku so that he can stop spamming HAs and start building Knights instead .

Next target would be Joao. The shows Joao goes for Democracy, but he is very close to Cuirs. Rifles + Cannons should be enough to conquer Joao. As WK is pleased towards Joao, I might switch to Hinduism (too bad, Hammi is not SPI) and beg 1 from WK so that he wouldn't be bribed in a war against me.

 

[chinemol]

inmortal 1870 domination

Spoiler :

reloaded a couple of times: joao planted an absurd city behind my lines, failed to prevent wang from plotting, declared on toku one turn before he would have declared on me. other than that nice map. once I got the idea of how the map was, I went for a forward city to plug joao to the north (those nice FP+copper) since he is easy to keep happy and two hill cities to the south to stamp out toku's expected hordes (however he didn't declare till he had samurais, I had libbed steel by then and had reached grenadiers). once toku was dealt with, gifted a city back (he got pleased just for it and became my best war partner!) and went for darius. he bribed wang in, but capped shortly after. dealt with wang with not much since he suicided his stack by leaving it on the open against a cople of my cannons and whatever else I could muster. went for my friend joao. decided to wipe him out, then on for alex, big stack, but behind in tech. capped easy, gifted his city back and went home to tech for tanks. gilgamesh was hard, wiped 2 of my armies because of my reclessness, but eventualy got his capital, capitulated and with the city he threw into the deal got domination. in the meantime darius got 2 of fdr's (gilga's vassal) cities!
next inland sea map should have a warning to un-click tech trading or sth. got courthouses, massive starting empire, currency and all and still it was a real challenge to keep up. good thing there wasn't a mansa
thanks for the map as always, AcaMetis!

 

[konata_LS]

From T207 to T295

Spoiler :

Settings

Converted to Hindu and begged 1 from WK. Attack Joao with Rifles + Cannons. He capitulated after he lost his capital. Captured MoM and Sistine from Joao.

Moved my army to attack Darius. Captured a very nice shrine

Darius capitulated after only losing 2 cities:

During my wars with Darius, Giggle DoW Roosevelt. Had to give Giggle Railroad to bribe him out of the war . After Darius' capitulation, the next target was Roosevelt. He also capitulated quickly.

Started a 12 turns GAge. Adopted Theo and SP. High cities built factories and some buildings.
With the overflow from a military unit, my HE city's 1 turn factory was really nice

In other cities, ORG factories only took 2 turns

Attacked Giggle with Inf, Artilleries and Cavs. He capitulated on T274

A sentry knight located WK's stack :

Who cares about PRO Infanteries. Who cares about PRO marines. Just build a bigger stack and get ready for the war

We have enough on our hands right now

Another shrine captured . +1 - from Rock n Roll was nice as well.

WK capitulated immediately after he lost his capital and Alex broke free:

Alex capitulated on the same turn:

Next turn, conquest:

Built many sieges:

Killed many Cavs. TBH Cavs were easier to dealt with than Inf., as there were PRO Infantries but there were not PRO Cavs .

It's a good map for learning & improving: it provides people with different practice/challenge according to the levels they play at.
For those who play at Monarch and above, this map offers opportunities to practise the economic recovery after the expansion or war and how to catch up in techs, as Darius, Giggle, and WK are all competent techers and they all like trading techs. Besides, the map also asks the human player to make prudent choice in terms of diplomacy, as AI Toku gives -2 penalty every time the human player refuses Toku's request.
For people who play at Noble level, it's a map that they might get rid of warrior rush. I know many players here don't play below Immortal for a long time, but there are also some lurkers who play at Noble/Prince, are too shy to post their write-ups but they want to practise and move up. From my (still fresh) memories at Noble level, one of the bad habits at Noble is warrior rush. Hammurabi and Tokugawa are the only two AGG leaders who start with a warrior, so Noble players often do warrior rush if they play as Hammurabi in a Pangaea map (I did it, too). In comparison, Inland sea's larger distance between AIs makes the warrior rush less doable, and the player has to think about other ways of early war such as Elepults, or just learn how to peacefully develop an empire and build up an efficient economy.

ORG factory is nice for the games who go beyond AL. But during this game, I had to waste 1 turn of anarchy when changing my state religion, as unfortunately Hammi is not SPI. I also had to wait for a GAge when I wanted to change several civics. Maybe I should try NC295, also Inland Sea but with ORG + SPI leader.

Thanks for the map.

On a side note: I know people can direct the vassals' research. But in BTS, is there a way to direct what the vassals should build in their cities?

Spoiler :

When I was busy cleaning up Giggle's stack, Roosy was busy building SoL . Darius ignored AL, went straight for Rocketry, didn't send a single unit to the front when I fought against WK - he was probably too busy building Apollo Programme . When WK's stack threatened a Portuguese city, Joao finished Broadway . I really wanted to tell these vassals "stop building wonders during war-time! build Rifles!" .

 

[Mr_Trotsky]

I didn't know settling on ivory gave 2 production! Oops. OK, yes, pottery first then. (I was concerned that pottery first did not produce fogbusting warriors quickly enough.)

Also, a personal rant. Players do not pay attention to starting techs when ranking leaders! No leader that starts with The Wheel and Agriculture are "bottom tier" or anywhere close.

Would you be going pottery first with the intention of sticking down a cottage or two after improving the wheat? And if not, why go for it first? I can’t imagine ever feeling like I had enough production to start cottaging that early. My deity loses have all been barbs or getting boxed in because I didn’t chop/whip settlers quick enough. I accept this makes me a bit paranoid (as well as inexperienced) about this though.

I’ve actually started this game and the barbs were as bad as I’d expected for the map type.

I agree that a leader with agriculture and TW can only be considered so bad. I’d still probably put Hammy lower mid-table, probably in the bottom third albeit near the top of that illustrious « tier ».

I think the thing with starting techs is that it’s quite rare for them to be game ruiningly bad. Any start with an agriculture resource or two won’t be disastrous with any starting tech combo and even agriculture-TW isn’t great in all circumstances - if you have seafood and wooded hills for example.

 

[Mr_Trotsky]

Deity NHNE T109

Spoiler :

SIP, a bit underwhelming as there was nothing in the fog. Still lots of forests so I went mining and BW for chops. Then hunting, archery because no copper, no AH resources, lots of barbs, the river ivory is a nice tile and I wanted to see if bowman were any good. Then went pottery.

Chopped settler for desert hill on the flood plains river in Toku’s direction. I didn’t love my land. Green and lots of trees but not a lot of resources. I decided to go construction given the ivory. Not sure if this was a good percentages choice given I had unit spamming pro-agg Toku to the south and HR loving (hence potentially early feudalism) Joao to the north. But I reckoned I could at least get a few good cities from Joao even if he went for longbows early.

Slow built another worker in Babylon and whipped one in Akkad. Chopped another settler in Babylon and settled the copper city. A barb city had spawned on Babylon’s NW border.

Went writing and whipped a library in Babylon for maths bulb. Then went mysticism to get a border pop and more forests in Dur-Kurigalzu and for cheaper masonry. Then teched masonry for construction.

Slider down and wait for maths bulb.

Settled fourth city along the river east of Babylon to stop Toku settling around me and to share some cottages.

Bulbed maths and traded it for alphabet and IW. Whipped a settler in Babylon once I’d got the GS out and gifted Toku a junk city to get him to pleased so we could open borders and he wouldn’t kill me.

Started teching to construction. Built a few swords and other metal units. Took the barb city. Started building catapults. Had to tech AH before HBR but ready to attack with 2 elephants, 4 swords, one axe and eight catapults T101 with four or five units ready to cross the border the next turn.

Traded currency for construction and HBR with Darius and some diplo points. Declared on Joao. I perhaps should have begged from Roosevelt because Joao bribed him next turn. I’d thought it wasn’t going to be possible because I couldn’t beg anything from him and didn’t clock that that had changed the moment I got currency. I wasn’t too concerned as I could see he had border tensions with Darius and, as he didn’t have OB with Toku, it was a very long way round. I bribed Toku on Joao for construction, HBR and currency. This was partly to keep him busy, partly to get war success to get him to a solid pleased and partly because he might actually be able to help a bit.

One of my scouts met Gilgamesh and I traded something, perhaps currency, for monarchy. Revolted into HR.

I’ve taken three of Joao’s cities and captured the MoM. I’ve just this turn gotten Hinduism by capturing a Hindu city from Joao and the AP has been built in it. I needed to work out what to do from here so I took a break. Think it's going OK although teching slowly.

 

[Mr_Trotsky]

100AD

Spoiler :

Played on a few turns and took Oporto, Leira and Lisbon. They’ve got the Hanging Gardens, TGW and Parthenon because Joao hasn’t let being in a war stop him build wonders. He’s also built the Great Library in Braga which I’d quite like. He took an eternity to get feudalism - last of the AI in fact - so I don't get to complain about RNG this game.

I captured Lisbon the turn before the AP vote so no need to worry about a stop the war against Joao vote as it was his last Hindu city. I was hoping for a stop the war against Roosevelt vote so I could get out of that one. Instead I got a declare war on Gilgamesh vote because he’d just declared on Roosevelt. I voted no but it passed and now I’m at war with Gilgamesh too. He’s the other side of Wang and doesn’t have OB so not a disaster but I lost a dye trade and a tech trading partner. The dye is annoying because Joao has the SoZ and happiness is a bit of an issue.

Wang has just capped Alex and I think Joao might peace vassal to him if I press end turn. I need to work out if I can stop this and if whatever I need to do to stop it is worth it. Toku might cap him anyway and perhaps taking some techs for peace is better anyway. Not sure.

A turn or two from CS. Tech wise things aren’t wonderful.

 

[soundjata]

100AD

Spoiler :

I'm not sure Jao can peace vassal to Wang when they don't share border
Also the combined power rating of Toku and yourself should weight against that decision for Wang. Not sure.

The possibility that Jao vassals to Toku seems unlikely seeing he did not grab any city for himself. His power rating should be low...

Keep warring until you get everything imo. You have a 1.7 advantage.

Anyways if Wang declares, joke's on Tokugawa

Also you could maybe leverage your other friendship (with persia) against Korea. Negociate an embargo or something ?

 

[Mr_Trotsky]

Spoiler :

I'm not sure Jao can peace vassal to Wang when they don't share border
Also the combined power rating of Toku and yourself should weight against that decision for Wang. Not sure.

The possibility that Jao vassals to Toku seems unlikely seeing he did not grab any city for himself. His power rating should be low...

Keep warring until you get everything imo. You have a 1.7 advantage.

Anyways if Wang declares, joke's on Tokugawa

Also you could maybe leverage your other friendship (with persia) against Korea. Negociate an embargo or something ?

Spoiler :

Probably not obvious from the screenshot but Wang is on what’s left of Joao’s border so, if J peace vassals, that’s my problem not Toku’s. Also, not sure that Toku and I are more powerful than Wang. Wang was at war for a long time and now has Alex as a vassal. They both have feudalism and machinery so all those archers stacked in their cities will have been upgraded whereas I’ve just got one bowman in most of my cities.

You’re right that Toku hasn’t taken any cities but he has killed some of J’s units so not 100% Joao couldn’t cap.

My plan is switch to confucianism to get Wang to pleased and then either beg or use civil service to bribe Wang on Giggles and bribe Toku off Joao. Not sure if CS will be enough or whether Wang or Toku will have it by then.

 

[shyPiano]

I had so much fun with Louis XIV that I just had to grab another save and give it a try!

Since I have never played as Hammurabi, this seemed like a fun choice It is very much outside my zone of comfort - the lack of cultural, spiritual and financial is certainly going to be felt, and I'm not even sure how exactly Hammurabi's kit works. But the Garden seems like a good UB, and the Bowman might help defend my cities a bit more easily in the early game.
I also bumped the difficulty up to Prince, so I might be biting off more than I can chew, but either way it'll be a good learning experience.

This time I want to do things right, so I played it for a while, took screenshots along the way, and stopped at the first fork in the road.

Spoiler T33 :

Settling in place seemed like the best bet, a Plains Hill with a food resource on the first ring. Moving the Warrior 1E to the hill revealed a second goody hut but nothing to convince me to move my Settler.
With Babylon founded, decided to tech for Hunting for the Elephants, and build a Worker.

Grabbed that eastern goody hut with my Warrior, a map revealed the lands to my south, alongside two more goody huts!
Moved my warrior to grab the closest, on that same turn Babylon's border's expanded and grabbed the goody hut north of it.

69 and Pottery for free Nice

Hunting was also nearly done, went for Mining + Bronze Working afterwards. The capital has some nice hills to mine and forests to chop, and revealing Copper will allow me to better pick a location for my second city.
As for build order, after the Worker, I went for Granary to let the city grow its population, and started building a Settler.
With my Worker, I went: farm the Wheat, camp the Elephant, cottage the floodplains south of it, moved to forested hill between the capital and the elephant to chop the forest into the Settler and build a mine.

Continuing with the exploration of the lands, you can see the other goody hut revealed by the map, that one gave a Scout!

And with it we met out first neighbor, Tokugawa

From what I can remember, he is a major pain in the neck, and having him this close will certainly be annoying.
Taking him out would also be quite hard, given his AGG/PRO combo. If I decide to go that route, I will have to be very well prepared.

Just out of reach. Tokugawa got a free Scout out of that goody hut.

With our own Scout exploring to the south, I decided to swing my Warrior around to the north, this time taking the path west of Babylon.

I don't think I ever played a flat map before. I wonder how this will change the game for me.

Darius met me, I don't know what to think of him.

I don't remember how is his personality. But he was the founder of Hinduism, if he's nearby me then adopting it too might be of importance.

Meanwhile my Scout revealed that Tokugawa will soon have access to double gold.

This might pose a problem if I don't nip it in the bud.

And with this we reach turn 33, my Settler is just about to be fully trained, and I have yet to decide where I want it to go...
Looking at my land, this is how I would dot my city locations:

Two cities to the south, one to grab the Wine, one to grab those delicious floodplains.
Then two cities to the north, tho I am still debating where exactly to place them.
In regards to the city site near the Rice, Dye and Copper to the northwest, I am more tempted to go with the West location (labeled here as C?a W) - however, being that close to the edge of the map means it won't have some tiles in its second ring, and additionally it won't grab the easternmost Dye. The alternative, C?a E, has the biggest problem of having no food resource in its first ring - quite frankly that is enough for me to completely discard it.
Then we have the city site near the Bananas, Cattle and Elephant to the northeast. Settling on the coast (city sites C?b N and C?b S) would give me access to the sea, but there are no sea food resources for me. Each one of those would miss either the Elephant or the Cattle. C?b C would be closer to home, and more defensible too, but I would lose access to the sea, and those Cattle. I could also settle on the Bananas... If I want to settle one tile away from the sea...

As to which city to found first, that too requires some thought:
Tokugawa is to my south, and he is relatively close. Settling to the south thus becomes more of a priority to deny these city sites to him. However, I don't think these are particularly strong cities - the Wine city won't be useful until Monarchy, and the floodplain city will produce me lots of commerce but have huge health issues (... but then again, I will have the Garden eventually) and relatively weak production.
To my north I still don't know much, so I don't know how close a neighbor (maybe Darius?) is. The one to the northwest seems to me the most immediately useful, given that I can actually farm the rice. I would need a border pop in order to claim the copper, so a Monument is needed (it means I have to research Mysticism right away). But it also seems the least likely to be stolen by another empire. As for the northeast one, the bananas won't be of much use until both Iron Working and Calendar, and that is it's most important source of food. But the Warrior is nearby, and assuring my settler is safe is of utmost importance.

As I was unsure where to settle, I decided to stop for now and sleep on the issue.

And that's it for today! I would love some feedback I admit playing on Prince is leaving me feeling a bit nervous about messing up, so I'm taking it slow.