I can think of two possible NE city sites that claim horses. Continuing with my numbering scheme from an earlier post: (3a) is 1N of the plains cow, 4NE of the capital. (3b) is 1NE of the plains cow, 4NE1E of the capital.
(3a) has horses+cows in first ring, as well as 3 forests to chop. In the future it will also have access to an extra horse resource and crabs. 'The future' does not help with a HA rush.
(3b) also has horses+cows in first ring, but only 2 forests to chop. It will also eventually have access to the marble in addition to extra horse+crabs. It is 1 more tile distant from the capital, which might be a minor issue. Working the unimproved crab could be an option for faster growth and slightly more commerce (ie, teching to HBR).
Both cities could work horse+cow+plains mine @ size 3 for 0
,12
,2
. It won't really improve until more food comes online through the crabs.
(I'm working on the assumption that a pastured horse adds +3
,1
, hence plains horse = 1
,4
,1
)
Southern city, on the city ruins I had numbered (2). In first ring it has horses+wheat+grassland mine. 0 forests. Working unimproved fish is an option for growth+commerce.
Working wheat+horse+grassmine @ size 3 it has +5
,7
,4
.
If we build granary here (half price, we are EXP) then we can whip from size 5-3 to convert that food excess into 60
every 10 turns, ie, an extra 6
/turn.
Faster growth also gives us the option to expand onto some cottages.
This city is also immediately connected for trade by the road already in place.
We shouldn't neglect our economy, teching to HBR is a non-trivial part of the HA rush. Some guides suggest: writing > library > scientist specialists, especially if CRE or PHI. We are neither, so we might instead choose: pottery > cottages, which also ties in with our EXP bonus for cheap granaries and cheaper workers to build the cottages.
Of the sites (2), (3a) and (3b), I think we should aim to settle (2) ASAP since it should contribute well to the tech-to-HBR phase. Settle (3b) as our 3rd city soon after, and with some forest chops it will be ready (barracks+stables) quite quickly.
Tech Path
The HA rush is pretty minimalistic. Essential are obviously HBR (406), Hunting (65) and Archery (97). I suggest Pottery for an economic tech (130, both optional prereqs), Mining (81) and BW (195) for chopping, whipping and sight of copper so we can cut it off from the AI.
Mining > BW > Pottery > HBR > Hunting > Archery?