Should I try for iron working?

[Loukoum427]

Hi all,

This is Emperor difficulty, Fractal map, Epic game speed. Playing as Hattie, I was hoping I could charriot-rush my neighbours, but no horses... No copper eitheir, so I am wondering what to do at this point : Trying to get to iron woking (37 turns), or go to archery (14+10 turns) ? At this point, I couldn't explore as much as I would I've liked to, due to a great deal of lions, panthers, bears,... The good thing is, my warriors are experienced, but I'm afraid it won't be enough when the barb axemen will come...

 

[pandamancer]

Not a good starting position you have there...

IMO, researching Iron Working at this point won't be useful because:
1) you don't have nearby neighbors to rush
2) you don't have jungles nearby
3) not even a assurance that you will get iron

If I am in your position, I will restart my game Err... go for techs like pottery or writing. And have my 2nd city ready ASAP.

Given that you got a marble nearby, is it possible to get the Oracle? But given the date, it is a risky gambit.

I can research Archery if I want to be safe but not a high priority (not sure what date will the Barbarian Axeman starts to appear). But in case you meet a barb spearman or archer, be sure to fortify your warrior on forested hills.

 

[soundjata]

You are suffering a major commerce issue on this start.

You must definitely forget iron working.

For barb defense, if you can have a couple of warriors sitting in your second city you should be fine.

Focus on a path of commerce.

If I were you I would bring back the settler and settle the 2 coastal sites first.

Go (Archery) Sailing Writing as your next techs and open borders with Sumeria while un-fogging the coastal route to one of his cities.

Another possibility would be to gun for The Oracle, delaying writing and sailing for a little while. With Marble online and a 1 pop whip (70 hammers), a couple of chops (80 hammers) + 1 turn cow production (12 hammers) you can built TO in one turn with excess hammers ^_^.

How many turns do you need for researching Mysticism>Masonry>Polytheism>Priesthood?

 

[soundjata]

^^ Afterthoughts

Nah! Oracle techs = dead end techs.

Instead just gun for The Great Abusehouse and you should be fine.

 

[Thrar]

Gah, what horrible land!

Great Abusehouse seems to be the way to go here. Hopefully it's not too late. A massive cottage breakout might work as well; at least there's plenty of room. Definitely not IW - there's nobody to conquer and no jungle to cut.
Second city can go to rice/silk, third one up with the marble. No point expanding so far west for one measly cow at the moment.

You can tech Sailing -> Masonry, build a regular lighthouse followed by the great one. I guess if you don't have sailing yet you might as well finish the second worker, but I don't think you actually need it at the moment. Thebes shouldn't be sitting there at size 2, there's tiles to work!

 

[soundjata]

^ good point Stagnating at size 2 instead of 3 is horrible seeing at the mine is the only commerce tile you have got.

If you have whipped from 4 > 2 it's a mistake. Reload?

Edit: Feel free to provide the nice starting save

 

[Loukoum427]

Thanks everybody !

Not a good starting position you have there...

Well, that was what I thought (plus, there's no freshwater), but I wanted to see if I could manage Emp with a poor start...

Gah, what horrible land!

Great Abusehouse seems to be the way to go here. Hopefully it's not too late. A massive cottage breakout might work as well; at least there's plenty of room. Definitely not IW - there's nobody to conquer and no jungle to cut.
Second city can go to rice/silk, third one up with the marble. No point expanding so far west for one measly cow at the moment.

OK, I'll try this.

^ good point Stagnating at size 2 instead of 3 is horrible seeing at the mine is the only commerce tile you have got.

If you have whipped from 4 > 2 it's a mistake. Reload?

No, I just wanted a worker to help with the second city, I guess it's a mistake, I'll try as you said...

Edit: Feel free to provide the nice starting save

Done !

FYI, I tried without reading all the advices, went IW, then built TGL very late, it sure helped a lot ! 10BC, 8 cities and 2 more to build to backfill my land, quite behind AIs in techs except for currancy which I intend to monopolize until one or the other AI discovers it. Funily, they don't seem to build at lot of wonders, I think the great Library isn't built yet, nor the Temple of Artemis. But Mehmet has got 11 cities... My goal was CS (did I mention there's no freshwater on this part of the world ?), then see what I can do.
Well, now I'll go back to -2600BC, then try as you suggested, and compare how I fare.