Too bad we haven't found any islands yet...
Edit: I just opened the test game, it seems we do have an island
The test game's accuracy is obviously going to be lacking for the areas outside of the areas of the squares that we have revealed. There's also the chance that there are mistakes in the squares that we do see; feel free to update any such mistakes and post a new version of the test game if you spot them.
The land bridge is curious, it could lead to an AI, it could also be placed to "remove" an island (thus reducing GLH abuse). I would like to get an exploring Workboat out ASAP.
So, an exploring Work Boat would be yet another goal for our testing, in addition to the rest of your list, right?
Other possible coastal cities: 1SW of the Sheep. (There are some other sub-optimal city sites for further GLH abuse: 1E of the western Deer, 1E2N of the eastern Deer.)
There look to be several possible locations for decent Cities around the north-west Sheep and north-west Deer. Since there are multiple configurations that we could use, I didn't want to put a "CITY" sign on the map.
Yes, it's a good idea to eventually put another City in the far north-east, by the entrance to the Tundra passage, to share the Food Resources as a Coastal Commerce City.
1) Earliest date for 2nd settler
I might not say "the absolutely earliest date" for such a Settler is necessarily going to be the best way to go, but it probably will be. Like, if were to Chop a Forest to allow the Settler to settle 1 turn faster, but it was a Forest that we wanted to save for Chopping into a Wonder, then I'd say Chop a different Forest, even if it means delaying the settling of City #2. That said, I agree here--since we already passed-up on the idea of a fast Library, getting a quick Settler is going to be a very solid play.
We should also consider the possibility of Chopping out a quick second Worker and then using both Workers to Chop out our Settler for City #2. It may be that our limiting factor is more based around Worker turns and less based around the exact date when we settle City #2. Still, the goal is the same: get a pretty quick Settler out for City #2, so even if we make a second Worker first, we'd be using both Workers for Chopping/Farming/Mining/etc to help with getting out that fast Settler.
2) 2nd city site: Fish City or Fish/Pig/Deer city
I think that we'll have to test both options (and possibly a Sheep City option, too) and compare them to each other. Until we play out some test runs, it will just be guess-work as to which approach plays out better.
It could also be that if we decide to get a 2nd Worker before the Settler for City #2, which of the above Cities to settle first might change, based on the new timing of events.
3) In relation to (2): if we go for FPD city, do we research AH after BW (instead of Pottery)?
I agree that this question needs to be resolved and the answer to it will be closely tied to which Cities we decide to settle and in which order we settle them.
The key point to remember is that if we want to Oracle Metal Casting, we'll need Pottery either sooner or later. Ultimately, what may get delayed is The Great Lighthouse, so we have to ensure that the payback from getting Animal Husbandry will be sufficient to offset this cost and will hopefully somehow make up for this tech detour. Since we're likely to only improve one of the Pig or Sheep within a short timeframe (even if we settle two Cities, one by each Resource, the second Resource will only be improved for a very short period of time and thus won't see much payback), it's going to be hard to justify this approach, unless we come up with something like:
- due to having an improved Pig, we can pump out an extra Worker or Settler from said other City, freeing Paris to hire Scientists for longer and thus using the Pig's excess Food to help justify making some extra Commerce in Paris
OR
- due to getting Pig City growing quickly with a Pig, we work some Coast squares (even before building a Lighthouse) to use that Food to help earn us some more Commerce
Even if we don't generate an early Great Scientist, we'll want the Library there for it's minimum of +2 Flasks per turn at a Science Rate of 100%.
That said, we'll probably need to hire Scientists in order to help fuel our research.
We're going to require a careful balance between building Workers/Settlers and hiring Specialists in Paris.
Building the Oracle outside of Paris gives us the flexibility of delaying when we get our Academy and it also leaves Mitchum's suggested location (Paris) for The Great Library on the table.
That said, we're not even sure if we're going to be the ones building that Wonder. It may make sense to let an AI build it and then capture some Academies... and even gift The Great Library City to another AI so that they can also build us some Academies.
5) Where to build Oracle, and when can we build it
This point is up for debate and could have a pretty significant impact on a test run. For example, it will be relatively easy to Chop it in Paris, but how does the timing of doing so coincide with generating our Great Scientist?
If we need to build it outside of Paris, that puts us needing to get out 2 Settlers, one for the Oracle and one for The Great Lighthouse, which will drive our testing down a certain path.
I think that everyone agrees that "having more Cities is a good thing," but if we have a solid test run that only has 2 Cities settled but has other convincingly-good things about it (both of those Cities are well-developed, for example, and we have a plan for getting a Great Scientist at a 100% chance), then I'm sure that we can consider the possibility of delaying City 3 in favour of meeting our Wonder and Academy goals.
If someone finds a way to get a guaranteed Great Scientist and the Oracle built within a reasonable timeframe within Paris, then I think that such a scenario should be considered; we don't have to decide up front and it can be up to the person doing the testing to try out various locations for the Oracle and then make their case for why they think their favourite option is the best.
- Where to build the Oracle. At the moment I'd be inclined to build it in Paris. I am not fond of our capital and would like to use it for workers / settlers, military, Heroic Epic and some wonders to prevent pollution other cities' GPP pool
You raise a valid point. As I said, rather than trying to make a decision mostly based on long-term factors, we'll leave it up to people doing test runs to decide where to build the Oracle and to make an argument for why or why not their choice was a good one.
- Oracling CoL. If we can do a massive REX with loads of coastal cities & GLH, is Oracling CoL an option?
It's an option, but my understanding was that we were going to be low on production. The nice part about early Forges is that they give us a cheap boost to production.
Oracling Code of Laws:
1. Puts us further away from an Optics beeline
AND
2. Gets us closer to Civil Service, but Civil Service will still take a lot of manual research, so our Cities won't be building Forges for a while (not until after we have researched both Civil Service and then Metal Casting)... and if we don't go for Civil Service very soon after, then Oracling Code of Laws has less value
AND
3. Since we have cheap Libraries (and cheap Forges for an Engineer Specialist per City) and can benefit from Slavery, I don't see any pressing need to switch to Caste System in the early game
AND
4. While a Religion would be nice, it's only really nice if we also get Monotheism for Organized Religion. While that's a cool idea, getting all of these extra techs starts to conflict with our other tech priorities. I'd be fine with going for early Organized Religion, if that's what we plan to do, but if we're not going for Monotheism, then the Religion holds less value. If we generate a Great Prophet, that's when it really makes sense to go for Monotheism, as Monotheism is a prerequisite of Theology, which we could Lightbulb with the Great Prophet
AND
5. Gives us +1 Happiness, but if we get earlier Forges, we can also build Settlers quicker (Organized Religion doesn't help with building units like Settlers), and settling one additional City next to a Happiness Resource (provided that there is one on the map) will net us +1 Happiness in every City, whereas the Religion would only give us +1 Happiness in any City that is running that Religion, provided that we select said Religion as our State Religion. While it would be nice to have both early Forges and early Organized Religion, I think that I prefer the early Forges, since they come at half price and give us a boost to production on all build items, whereas Organized Religion, which is normally great for helping to set up your Forges, only has a maximum contribution of a 12.5% Hammer bonus to production on Forges, which, due to Hammers not always arriving in groups of 4 Hammers, probably translates more to a 10% boost on producing Forges. To me, that's not a sufficient bonus to justify getting Organized Religion going before building our Forges, seeing as how we have to make a choice between the two of them by needing to choose which one to take with the Oracle
Edit 2: After some quick tests I see a couple of short-term downsides of the FDP city:
- no resources in 1st ring
- no food tiles that can be shared with Paris
- Hunting / AH needed to make the city better than the city 3E of Paris
- 3 tiles distance from Paris
- roading takes a bit longer unless we road forests / hills (which wastes worker turns)
Will do some more tests to see if we can mitigate these as FDP is a much stronger city in the long run
The no Resources in the first ring bit is partially mitigated by the fact that we are Creative, but it does hamper us from getting that City up and running.
My gut instinct is to build Fish City and use it to pump out a Work Boat for Pig City, but I will be open to any interesting-looking test run.
nice testing, but it was a little overboard based on such limited map knowledge. While I haven't been contributing much to the discussion, I have been reading everyone's points.
If we build the GLib, it will be to pump up our science rate and to help generate early scientists for either an Education or Optics beeline. If the idea is to build te GLib just to gift it away, I'd say we have better use for our hammers...
Dhoom's screenprints from the real save did not show the tile (2NE from the pig) where in the TEST game there was an island. So without checking the real game I assumed there was one.
