Seafood for the Dutch - advice?

[Kevin J]

I'm just about to start. Rolled an amazing start, with 5 Seafood resources in the BFC, plus one wheat. Now, what should I do with this?

Map settings:
Immortal Difficulty, Marathon Speed
Elizabeth of the Dutch
Huge Big & Small, 18 AI
Tropical Climate, Snaky Continents, High Sea Levels, Normal Islands, Islands Mixed In
Unrestricted Leaders, Raging Barbs, Aggressive AI, No Tech Brokering
only conquest and diplomatic wins enabled.


I normally play Monarch or Emperor, but felt like a challenge. I'm financial, so the seafood is a good thing, methinks. I'd like some advice so that I can maybe make a go of this higher than normal difficulty setting and fortuitous start!

Spoiler :

(I'd post a screen, but the screenshot is a .tga, too big to post, and I'm not savvy enough to convert it to a .jpg or some such. If someone wants to get a screenshot from the save up here, I'd much appreciate it.)

Here's the save.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/66571/AutoSave_Initial_BC-4000.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[Blaarg]

Can't download the save file....

 

[Kevin J]

Fixed the link.

 

[Blaarg]

There's the SS

Seafood resources are GREAT for the Dutch. They are finacial so they get extra commerce from them and thier UB works wonderfully with them. That's a hell of a starting spot for a Dutch captical. If you don't get another spot for the Moai Statues, they'll work great in Amsterdamn, but they might be better served making a terrible spot into a good spot instead of making a great spot into a terrific spot.

I might play this game when I finish my current one.

 

[Blaarg]

only conquest and diplomatic wins enabled

Oh..maybe not

 

[Kevin J]

Oh..maybe not

I normally go a very peaceful route. I figured this would force me to try something new - a world spanning fight to the end, with the possible spoiler of a diplomatic win. (Actually, I just want to be able to get the +2 from the AP, so I enabled diplomatic victories).

I'm moving up a difficulty level, so marathon and conquest-only difficulties should give me a chance against the AI.

Any advice for first moves / early strategy? I'm thinking fishing boat, fishing boat, warrior, worker, settler while researching mining->bronze working->(if no copper)hunting->archery (to cope with raging barbs).

 

[axident]

Don't develop more than 2 seafood tiles at first, else you sacrifice too much time in getting a second city up and running. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Kevin J]

I appreciate the advice.

I'm assuming it's better to throw down that first boat on the coastal clams (43) rather than on the ocean fish (51).

Or should I perhaps go for the worker first to get the 6 from the corn?
The problem I see with that is that the worker will then have nothing to do until research on BW is done.

As far as the first turns go, which tile should I work? 23 clams, 3 corn, or 21 forested grassland?

My hunch would be to go for the 21 forested grassland to get the work boat out more quickly, then switch to warrior for three turns while the city grows to size 2, then switch to worker. Worker pops, finish warrior, then go for settler. By the time that worker has developed the corn, BW will be close at hand, so I can Chop Chop!

 

[KMadCandy]

I'm assuming it's better to throw down that first boat on the coastal clams (43) rather than on the ocean fish (51).

Or should I perhaps go for the worker first to get the 6 from the corn?
The problem I see with that is that the worker will then have nothing to do until research on BW is done.

i'm no expert but i'd work the clams with the 3c before the 1c fish. i'd definitely go workboat before worker, because in addition to the worker with nothing to do problem, workboats let your city grow during the build.

i'm having to reinstall BtS to try to get 3.13 to work grrrrrrrrrrr. i downloaded the save but can't check it myself atm obviously. do you have Locked Modified Assets? if you don't, i'll have hubby turn it into a scenario (so that he sees the map but i don't), and then i can enable all victory conditions

i totally agree with your reason for leaving diplo on, i'm addicted to the AP hammers now! good luck and have fun

 

[Wilhelmus]

When you get the Globe Theatre and National Epic here, you're set.

 

[50_dollar_bag]

I'd switch to the grassland/hil/forest when the borders pops.

Look at the blue circles

 

[Indiansmoke]

This looks like a great start, although I think production is going to be a problem in mid game, so moai statues might be necessary in the capital..

i would settle in place built 3 workboats (or 2 work boats & a warrior), then worker settler. I would claim the clams with the first 2 boats for the extra commerce.

The question is do you have enough production to go for wonders or not. Ideally if there is marble close, claim it with the second city and go Oracle, get metal casting and go for colosus, it will be huge with all that seafood. You can try without marble, but I am not sure you can get it.

 

[50_dollar_bag]

This looks like a great start, although I think production is going to be a problem in mid game, so moai statues might be necessary in the capital.

This is one of those starts where you'd be silly to not place the maoi statues in the capital

The question is do you have enough production to go for wonders or not. Ideally if there is marble close, claim it with the second city and go Oracle, get metal casting and go for colosus, it will be huge with all that seafood. You can try without marble, but I am not sure you can get it.

Sometimes your second city can be better at wonders than the capital, but in this case it looks like a lot of jungle is in the darkness which would rule that out.
The capital has 2 hills and a reasonable amount of forests so a couple of wonders is possible, but I'm no expert at Immortal level.

Although if you get to HR you could do an eternal 2 pop whip with axemen. Put 4 hammers into an axemen, whip for 2 pop overflow into wonder, axeman stays as MP. With that much food you should be able to grow in 1 turn most of the time with a lighthouse.