So domination seems more likely than conquest. In which case settling more early cities becomes more of a priority. Plus side more cities means more troops and guess we are going to need a lot.
With a tiny islands start, early cities will not actually add much land for domination. But they will add research, and if they have decent food available they will add some troops as well.
I agree that we are going to want huge numbers of cities for many reasons. As
Sleepless says it will help with domination, especially the larger islands. As
haphazard1 says it will be great for Research.
Settling in place will make our Capital a very quick Settler spammer. I'd like to see that start optimized; how soon can we get Nets on all three Clams, a connected Corn Farm, build a Lighthouse, Granary, Monument, probably via Slavery (great reason for a Granary). So goal is population 4 ASAP. Will that be soon enough to start our first Settler? Should the first Settler be build at Population 3 with Lighthouse in place and before Worker built? Lots of initial city micromanagement to be explored.
We should also think about how to get a Work Boat off east and west, probably via Slavery and maximum overflow from whipping.
Since each Population at Epic speed generates 44H, we can get up 43H of whipping overflow, enough together with the City's remaining Hpt to build a Work Boat in a single turn. For the Worker build, we may want about 30+H overflow, so a 2 Population whip will generate close to 43H overflow.
To use whipping effectively, our first whipping target should be a Granary, so we must research Pottery quite early.
We have not really spoken so far about more ambitious targets for the Oracle, such as CS. Admittedly, with our capital not likely to be a real monster at either hammers or commerce it makes much less sense to risk losing the free tech. But maybe we should consider CoL? A religion of our own for happiness could be useful, and getting cheap organized courthouses going to reduce costs and get some EP going (Hi Sun Tzu Wu!
) could be very useful.
I still like getting Metal Casting from The Oracle and building The Colossus. We need to optimize both building The Oracle and The Colossus. We need to consider how to whip maximum overflow when Priesthood completes. We need to consider chopping 1 or 3 Forests to speed The Oracle and thus hasten the Forge and The Colossus builds. The Oracle probably will need to be built in the Capital, since it is likely to be the only mature City with enough Hammers to complete it in time, but we should consider a second City with high Hammer potential for building The Oracle, if feasible; that will permit continued spamming of Settlers from Capital. A nearby island that has numerous Forests which would be a great place to build The Colossus; in any case, building The Colossus in another City would be best so Capital can continue spamming Settlers.
I played a similar test game to Sun, except I did not get the galley but I successfully got the COL via the slingshot.
I settled on the corn, fwiw.
We can get Code of Laws from The Oracle. What do we with Code of Laws, other than build half priced Courthouses (which will be great for our economy)? Run Caste System? Slavery might be better. Maybe, early half priced Courthouses is reason enough.
I don't think this is a win-early game. I think the target time is going to be around the time of knights/trebs/cur/muskets. So I'd rather go strong economy @ first and then using worker builds transition to hammers around the time we start getting these units, probably the ideal transition time is immediately around getting the knight build ability.
Courthouses via Code of Laws works for improved economy. Also, Currency will provide a second trade route plus selective Market builds can help.
Technologically more advanced military units will be a key ingredient to successful War campaigns combined by an first assault that captures all of an enemy's Port cities. So we must maximize Commerce that can be diverted to Research.
We can try to capture key Great Wonders like The Pyramids and The Sistine Chapel. The Pyramids for Representation (+3 Bpt per Specialist). The Sistine Chapel for 2 Cpt per Specialist (even Citizen Specialist) and 5 Cpt per State Religion building. This will help expand borders of widely spaced captured cities where there's no room for new cities.
Workboats for scouting = huge.
OK, so we need more than the two Work Boats we send East and West to circle the globe. Maybe 1-2 more Work Boats. We will want a Galley and Warrior/Scout after we get Sailing, if we encounter larger islands that can't be fully explored by a Work Boat.
Sun Tzu Wu
