LuvToBuild
Prince
Checking in. Some comments to be considered (or completely ignored 
)
I favor scouting one or two turns before plopping down the second city. I like the coastal plains tile for the long term but I would concede that it probably isn't the best choice for the short term.
Once the second city is founded, research is going to be slow with -7 maintenance (~50/60%
?) so I think Mining -> BW is a big risk. If we have no copper in easy reach then we are stuck with warriors until either IW or Hunting -> Archery. I think you guys are WAY underestimating the importance of archers early on. Those barb archers come quick and constantly replacing fogbusters won't be much fun. We also can't afford to have a ton of warrior fogbusters because maintenance is already going to be a problem. I suggest we make archery our first priority followed by BW. For axemen we need a source of copper + a worker to mine the copper AND road it to at least one city for building axemen. If copper shows up some distance away, we need a settler to build next to the copper + a worker to mine the copper AND road the copper to the city (which we hope is going to be a high production city). In other words, axemen require more than just BW. They are a lot of work and a much bigger risk than you guys are thinking. Raging barbs come fast and furious on Monarch. I know because my current Pacifist SG was the same thing. We had archery and things were no cakewalk but they got better by the time barb axemen started showing up. We had our own axemen by then so it is possible to have both before barb axemen.
Wonders? It depends. The AI will have trouble with the barbs too but they have production advantages and we lack the Industrious trait. Getting to Priesthood really isn't going to be a priority while we fight for survival and we don't start with Mysticism so even Stonehenge might be a stretch. If you guys want Civil Service early then we're not going to get The Pyramids by skipping Masonry. The AI will have Masonry much sooner than us because it doesn't think in terms of "I need to put off this tech in order to grab this one with a GP". If somebody like Bismarck or Ghandi gets Masonry and has stone, bye bye PST. Having said all of that, if we find ourselves bumping up against the AI on this new land, then its possible the barb situation will vanish soon because of the AI settling quickly. This might allow us to concentrate on wonders more and less on survival. However, with an aggressive AI, things might still be tenuous. I'm not opposed to trying to get the Oracle for CoL and then a Great Prophet later for Civil Service but I think we need to be realistic. Kyoto will help our economy but a lot of its commerce is going to go towards supporting our second and eventually third/fourth city. I just don't think we're going to be able to research all this stuff and do all these things so we need to settle on some early priorities here that don't end up with us sitting in the smoking heap of our second city wondering what the h*ll happened. Luckily we would at least have the option of sitting around Kyoto for a few centuries until we finally get a boat to take us across the sea again and maybe fight some macemen (or riflemen) with all of our stockpiled warriors.
)I favor scouting one or two turns before plopping down the second city. I like the coastal plains tile for the long term but I would concede that it probably isn't the best choice for the short term.
Once the second city is founded, research is going to be slow with -7 maintenance (~50/60%
?) so I think Mining -> BW is a big risk. If we have no copper in easy reach then we are stuck with warriors until either IW or Hunting -> Archery. I think you guys are WAY underestimating the importance of archers early on. Those barb archers come quick and constantly replacing fogbusters won't be much fun. We also can't afford to have a ton of warrior fogbusters because maintenance is already going to be a problem. I suggest we make archery our first priority followed by BW. For axemen we need a source of copper + a worker to mine the copper AND road it to at least one city for building axemen. If copper shows up some distance away, we need a settler to build next to the copper + a worker to mine the copper AND road the copper to the city (which we hope is going to be a high production city). In other words, axemen require more than just BW. They are a lot of work and a much bigger risk than you guys are thinking. Raging barbs come fast and furious on Monarch. I know because my current Pacifist SG was the same thing. We had archery and things were no cakewalk but they got better by the time barb axemen started showing up. We had our own axemen by then so it is possible to have both before barb axemen.Wonders? It depends. The AI will have trouble with the barbs too but they have production advantages and we lack the Industrious trait. Getting to Priesthood really isn't going to be a priority while we fight for survival and we don't start with Mysticism so even Stonehenge might be a stretch. If you guys want Civil Service early then we're not going to get The Pyramids by skipping Masonry. The AI will have Masonry much sooner than us because it doesn't think in terms of "I need to put off this tech in order to grab this one with a GP". If somebody like Bismarck or Ghandi gets Masonry and has stone, bye bye PST. Having said all of that, if we find ourselves bumping up against the AI on this new land, then its possible the barb situation will vanish soon because of the AI settling quickly. This might allow us to concentrate on wonders more and less on survival. However, with an aggressive AI, things might still be tenuous. I'm not opposed to trying to get the Oracle for CoL and then a Great Prophet later for Civil Service but I think we need to be realistic. Kyoto will help our economy but a lot of its commerce is going to go towards supporting our second and eventually third/fourth city. I just don't think we're going to be able to research all this stuff and do all these things so we need to settle on some early priorities here that don't end up with us sitting in the smoking heap of our second city wondering what the h*ll happened. Luckily we would at least have the option of sitting around Kyoto for a few centuries until we finally get a boat to take us across the sea again and maybe fight some macemen (or riflemen) with all of our stockpiled warriors.
that would be something... I think I will try and have the settler and warrior together a bit...
) Archery... Atleast then we can build some defence for sure....
