Shadow Game: Prince, Justinian

[Ghpstage]

Well the land you've been given is incredibly awful, very little food, a neighbour whos in the tundra and tonnes of jungle down south.
Still though, Turfan should never have been placed like that! Its going to be more or less worthless for a hundred turns or so . If you wanted to make use of the horses you should have followed Lyonds advice and settled right next to the horses.

I think the first priority is to find out whats down south, send one of the capitals warriors to scout. Theres very little of value anywhere to the north bar a stone/sheep area city and Sury's capital, maybe the pickings are better down south. Your definately going to want Iron Working pretty soon.

 

[lymond]

Yikes, Testie! Don't settle in jungle like that with absolutely no productive tiles whatsoever. Important thing to note: You don't have to settle a city on the coast if there is no seafood. Having a couple of coastal tiles in the BFC is not a big deal if you settle a city that is productive from the beginning. 1SE of the horses would be better.

See if you can grab an autosave from before you settle that city and settle it right.

No biggy on Myst/Writing. Looks like you got myst now.

Again, you really should have improved a grass mine. You are missing out on a better tile. You should be size 4 in the cap now. But get the settler out. Have those 2 workers chop immediately.

Looks like Testie's scouting was aborted as he got eaten. You really should scout down south as that is likely the direction you will expand.

This indeed may be one of those cases where you need to grab IW early as opposed to the usual trade.

It is really unfortunate that you rolled such a craptastic map. I mean, it is really bad. Tough for learning, and you are somehow semi-isolated on a continents map which distracts from the diplo side of the education, although semi-iso is something to learn. Still, what a crap map. I would not even bother with anything up north.

 

[Testiethree]

i'll replace that jungle city. i thought the coast may help with scouting using a galley or something idk. how did i do on the north city? i thought i should grab the copper resource too. was that a good idea?

also, is this game win-able?

 

[lymond]

North city is fine. That's where I recommended you settle. It will be a great production center and HE city. (Make sure you put a farm 1E or the wheat at some point before Civil service to immediately boost the wheat.

Getting out a scouting work boat is a good idea, but I would not settle a totally crap city to do it. You have those clams down south, which should probably be your next city. You do not some warriors out to spawn bust.

It's too bad the land is so horribly bad and resources so spread out and sparse.

 

[Testiethree]

where should i settle next?

 

[Revent]

where should i settle next?

Beshbalik is working a farmed plains tile. Plains tiles should almost never be worked in the beginning game. You'd be better off running a specialist or working the mine.

As for cities, down south there's a grassland cow city spot. Explore that area. There's also the clams city.

 

[lymond]

Beshbalik is working a farmed plains tile. Plains tiles should almost never be worked in the beginning game. .

I don't necessarily agree with this comment. It is situational. If working a farm riverside plains tile gets you growth faster, then it is worth working. It really comes down to a matter of good city micro and it does provide some tile flexibility. However, with that said, at this point the city should be working the mine. The city still grows in 2 turns but at an additional 2Hs per turn. Testie, keep an eye on these things. (As for working a specialist, well it depends on if you a) have specialists b) your current goals. Food can be more important if you are trying to get an army out

Testie...I'm torn on where to settle. Grass cow is the best tile visible. Clam gets you a coastal city and scouting WB, although maybe not quite a priority yet. I'm leaning towards the cow since a) you have AH not fishing b) you are rightly getting IW (again, you would usually trade for it but the land is so crappy and jungly) c) it makes a pretty good site for cottaging.

I've marked the map for you:

Spoiler :

edit: You could potential settle cow city 1N of the spot I have marked, but it will have very little early production other than whipping

I hate the large swaths of empty land, but that is just the way things worked out.

Other notes:

1) I'd really like to see Krak at size 4 by now. Switch citizen from PH mine to 2F1H forest tile which will allow you to grow to size 4 quicker. Then adjust tiles.

2) As mentioned above, Besh should be working the mine and still grow in 2 turns. You are wasting production here by not microing your cities early.

3) Testie - I've mentiond numerous times now the riverside grass mine, yet you are mining another hill. It will be okay, but you are missing out on one of the excellent early tile improvements in a riverside grass hill (1F3H1C) vs. (4H) vs. (1F3H) The sooner you get it up the better off you will be. This should have been your 3rd improvement. The PH should not have even been mined yet, that was a waste of worker turns.