Small Island Emperor Start Darius

[GeorgeF]

I had a start with Darius that seemed to be incredible with 6 seafood in BFC.

Spoiler :

But the whole island turned out to be less than 20 tiles, half hills. Good: an island just off the shores. Bad: Mehmed's scout is there, and its jungle, so he probably didn't go far to get there.

Spoiler :

Even if I pull off an axe rush (likely no horses on my island), I just hope I've got metal, is it economically feasible to split an empire across islands, especially so early?

My early tech path is/will be Fishing->Sailing->Mining->BW. builds are Warrior (partial) -> Fishing Boat -> Fishing Boat, etc., -> Worker timed for when BW comes.

Any better ideas? Is this start even playable, I've got 8 food resources, but likely not much else, and only room for 3 cities.

Save file attached if people are interested.

 

[Mattino]

Just my thoughts (can barely win sometimes on Emperor):

Instead of an axe rush, I`d try something similar to a Wonder Economy, like Obsolete showed in several treads. Although you don`t have a suitable tread (ind or phil), being financial will allow you for very good early research, and the masses of food will allow for a huge number of specialists.

Create an early second city in the southwest of your island. While it will be subpar in the end of the day, it will support your research in the beginning, and can produce some of the workboats you need, while you can already start to build wonders. Also, some resource is likely to show up down there, so a city will be needed anyway.

I`d try to get the pyramids via an orcale slingshot for metal casting and chopping an forge in your 2nd city to get a GE, but with the detour via Sailing, this might be difficult. Anyway, I`m not sure whether in this position it wouldn`t be better to run more specialsts via Heditary rule.

If you do have metal on your island, you might even consider putting Maoi and the Epos in your capital, for early increase in hammers. Use them to create a significant mediavel army (I`d think about Macemen / Cats), and start a war then. After the first war, move your capital.

 

[Indiansmoke]

What map and size is this? If archipelago then all the AI's will be in similar, maybe little bigger land masses. In this map type it is possible to expand in other islands early and still win

 

[Charou]

you should split the sea resources between different cities. you should settle a city next to the capital since it doubt it will use all of the fish and clams.

 

[GeorgeF]

Just my thoughts (can barely win sometimes on Emperor):

Instead of an axe rush, I`d try something similar to a Wonder Economy, like Obsolete showed in several treads. Although you don`t have a suitable tread (ind or phil), being financial will allow you for very good early research, and the masses of food will allow for a huge number of specialists.

Create an early second city in the southwest of your island. While it will be subpar in the end of the day, it will support your research in the beginning, and can produce some of the workboats you need, while you can already start to build wonders. Also, some resource is likely to show up down there, so a city will be needed anyway.

I`d try to get the pyramids via an orcale slingshot for metal casting and chopping an forge in your 2nd city to get a GE, but with the detour via Sailing, this might be difficult. Anyway, I`m not sure whether in this position it wouldn`t be better to run more specialsts via Heditary rule.

If you do have metal on your island, you might even consider putting Maoi and the Epos in your capital, for early increase in hammers. Use them to create a significant mediavel army (I`d think about Macemen / Cats), and start a war then. After the first war, move your capital.

Its a Fractal map, Epic Speed, all other settings default. The cap will make a great person farm, especially if I can keep all the trees for National Park. The problem is finding a better capital. There is land to the NW too, thats a possibility as well.

 

[tycoonist]

typical fractal map. you gotta love them. they tease you in with a great start then stab you in the back using a 20-tile sub continent. my suggestion would be hope to get lucky with metal, to attack Mehmed and hope for the best. anyway, i think this looks like a dead end, overseas maintenance can kill you early on in Bts

 

[Hesterate]

This looks similar to a game I just finished (fractal map too, standard/emperor)--I was on a similar-sized island, only the entire rest of the island was tundra or ice (my BFC was fine because of my capital, but I was in the north pole). Everyone else was on a mini-continent/big island either alone or with one other civ. I had 5 seafood, 2 hills (one gold), 2 plains, 2 grass, and 1 lake in BFC. Thought about trashing it, but didn't. I went Moai early which ended up being a good move. I went for a combined GP/Wonder farm in my cap, which worked great (note: I was Ind and had marble nearby--which I hooked up with a crap city). I beelined sailing then for writing to get a library. Hed. Rule and slavery were key.

My capital was up to around 19 pop (though it kept getting popped down again) and was producing 100 GPP very, very early. (I never founded a religion, so I founded the wonder that allows religious civics to get FR). I did settle a couple of other islands (1 city each), but through most of the game my capital did all the lifting. I just kept producing wonders (btw, i did NOT try for Pyramids) and running a ton of specialists (I also put National Epic in my cap). With Colosus and Moai, even the normal coast tiles were running 2/1/4, but the seafood tiles were outrageously productive. The specialists almost all settled in my capital, and it kept me afloat and ahead of all the other civs (it helped that they were spread out and no big trading blocs emerged). I tried, and failed to invade Japan. But, as I was in the musket/rifle era I was attacked by Monty and was able to draft my way to take his land, which gave me a good IW city. My cap and the IW city produced all the spaceship parts. Sid's Sushi was a godsend as I had so much seafood that I could add 12 food to all of my cities, plus I founded Mining, Inc. The combination in my 2 main cities was huge.

I stayed with representation through the end of the game and kept pumping out those GPs.

Anyway, it may be too late, but just wanted to recommend playing your map--you may need to use non-standard techniques, but it's possible.