Small patch of land surrounded by water and jungle - where to go from here

[billyi]

Hi everyone!

I'm just getting back into CIV4 after not having played in years, I recently just got my first W in monarch so i started another game.. got what seemed to be a brilliant piece of land to build on, but after some scouting it seems i have a small food rich/resource rich core that I had to share with Mansa and a thick jungle to the north, I took all the good land as best i could but am wondering where to go from here - currently trying to mass up hoplite + horse archers to take out mansa but that would still leave me with nowhere to expand--- hannibal is somewhere as he popped up a few turns ago.

I have 5 cities by 750 (i know, I'm usually much quicker) but have 3 settler popping soon - not sure where to go - I have two spots i think are good east of athens and east of sparta and maybe two more... do i start cutting the jungle through IW? do i push mansa off first? do i just expand into the jungle and keep him boxed in until i can get cats?

I've attached the current save as well as the original.
Thanks for the help!

 

[billyi]

sorry I accidentally posted the pictures before the text

 

[sampsa]

Welcome! Land is great and you are easily running away from the AI. I'd be looking to move up towards immortal asap.

A few things to improve on:

• 3-pop whip your settlers! After you have invested in a granary, you should never aim to slow build any workers/settlers, because slow building converts 1->1 and whipping 1->+2 with the exact amount depending on the size you are at. Only reason to slow build is cooling off the whip anger (and angry citizens don't consume food when building settler/worker!). So put one turn into a settler, grow to unhappiness, whip. This will win tons of compared to what you are doing now.
• chop more. With heavier chopping you would have even more strong cities up already.
• you have many strong unworked tiles. This suggests that you should've founded more cities in areas with strong unworked tiles. 4E of capital is one such spot, claiming dry rice and plains cows as well as the ability to help capital by working those fp cottages.
• all your cities should be in -cap or even growing to unhappiness, because you have so many good tiles available.

What to do now? Building 3 settlers and attacking Mansa are not on the same path so to say. For HA-attacks I'd recommend max 4 cities. I'm sure this difficulty level allows you to be strategically unfocused, but that doesn't mean you should do so. Anyway, I'd go 4E of cap, 1N/2N of western rice (your chosen spot catches more coast, which is not good) and the 3rd one to your northernmost chosen spot to claim grass cow. You are not in a rush to attack anyone and I'd just go towards construction and go for elephant+cat war, though I'm sure you can do it with HAs too if you want.

 

[billyi]

Thanks so much for the response! I'll definitely do that. I've played a few monarch games and while my opening is pretty solid (relative to the AI) i tend to have a poor mid-game where I falter between the early expansion and rebuilding my economy while maintaining m power ranking to avoid being declared by stronger rivals - I often fall to a runaway AI - that's the reason i stuck with Monarch for at lease 1 more game.

Once i settled those 3 cities I'll have a tigt grip on the landmass (at lease the southern part.) Hannibal is in the north and it looks like a lot of land (looking at the northwest it looks like land and i'm thinking my landmass is a peninsula. would you then press up and settle north of the jungle (worry about crushing my economy, yet if Hannibal is close-ish don't want to give him so much free land? cut it down and slowly move north (very resource intensive) or go into attack mode and aim to take out Mansa for next phase?

Thanks!

 

[sampsa]

I wouldn't worry about an AI settling to the jungle at all. Just let him do it, let him spend his worker turns on clearing the jungle and cottaging the land. This land will later be yours. I think you can take Mansa out if you want, but he might be more useful as a trading partner. He's the only AI who will trade you even techs he has a monopoly on. So maybe just stay at 8 cities, try to win lib, take Military Tradition and take Hannibal out with cuirassiers. Once you learn how to do it you can follow a similar strategy in every game.

 

[Gumbolt]

Too much forest around Athens. So much grassland near river that could of been cottaged.

You have the horse site. I prefer 1E of this as being closer to coast adds nothing. Helper cities for the capital's cottages too. The jungle will come into play eventually and there is some really good land there. Just the delay for IW.

Not sure Mansa has that great land. If he ever gets IW he might start removing some of that jungle for you?

Stone and Marble? Could be useful for fail gold or wonders. If you bulb maths that could help well with this for 60H chops towards wonders. (Assuming they get double production.)

With 9 AI on this map could prove harder than a usual Monarch level map. Pends how quickly you master your continent.

So new cities, take out Mansa? Sooner or later with phants? Agree with Sampsa a useful trading partner. Wonders and options to settle the jungle. Oracle is really late here.