So many choices

[CivCorpse]

Well I am trying my hand at Monarch finally. And this is the start I generated. I wish it had assigned me Augustus instead of Julius, but a Roman start can lead to many tasty things. As you can see from the file, I have a strong starting position. I am not sure how to develope it though. My first inclination is mega science city. Lots of flood plains, 4 gold plains hills, corn and clams. Do I farm initially or jump to cottages? The clams and corn should support a size six city which means I can work all 4 hills for gold. I am a bit concerned about health with all the flood plains. Any advice?
I should add that this is a standard size/monarch/8civ/continents map at marathon speed. Barbarians are off

 

[oyzar]

there is no reason whatsoever to not cottage over those floodplains. That is one helluva city. Corn + clams + 4(!!) golmines means an insane techmonster. I would save 2 forests just for the health cause you are gonna need it. Get to herditary rule quite fast and watch that 14+ city much through the tech three. Top priority would be to locate a nice production city that can churn out praets and ofc iron. I could easily see 10+ cities pre-col with this(monarchy>col when you have a city like this even with organized). You can prolly even put in sevral scientists as you get more health bonuses from your rapid expansion(helped by imperialistic).

 

[Kiershar]

Wow 4 gold in your capital? AND FLOODPLAINS??? regenerate because... your location is too good...

 

[mice]

Could you post the 4000 BC save. I'd like to have a go at it.

 

[CivCorpse]

Here is the 4000bc save. Also some spoilers from where I have played the game a bit and am running into troubles.

Spoiler :

OK, I have been playing a bit and am running into some serious health issues in the capital. There are few health resources available and the city is growing quite slowly. There is iron just south of the capital in a nice city location and bronze to the east. The health issues are kicking my ass. Should I farm a few floodplains as well as cottaging them

 

[oyzar]

No reason to farm if you have health problems realy and with so much food health shouldnt be a problem at all... Just herditary rule and drive the city far far into the green.

 

[oyzar]

you have weath + corn + clam + pigs + freshwater. You shouldnt run into health problems for quite a while...

 

[Peqino]

Sligthly off topic: Is there any way to play the attached save without Warlords? Guess not, but asking anyway. I'd like to make an experiment on how much commerce you can get out of that city.

Six floodplains and four gold. Insane...

 

[cabert]

you need to be size 7 at least to work all 4 gold mines, even with a lighthouse if I'm not mistaken.

You don't need to wait that long before going for praetorians.
You don't even need to use slavery in this city, since gold mines provide hammers too.

 

[Norton II]

Sligthly off topic: Is there any way to play the attached save without Warlords? Guess not, but asking anyway. I'd like to make an experiment on how much commerce you can get out of that city.

Six floodplains and four gold. Insane...

You can get 125 raw commerce out of that city. That's assuming no colossus (it'll be obsolete before all the cottages mature) and mature cottages on every cottageable tile, including the corn tile, along with printing press and free speech, and that's not counting trade route income. That translates into 437.5 beakers with 100% science and all science improvements, including an academy and Oxford University, again before considering trade route income or beakers from specialists. A financial civ could get 145 raw commerce from the same site.

 

[CivCorpse]

you need to be size 7 at least to work all 4 gold mines, even with a lighthouse if I'm not mistaken.

Size six with light house, but no growth. 5 food from the clams, 5 from the corn plus the 2 from the city site. That is 12 food which works six citizens. Until you get a religion or another happiness resource that is the happiness cap, so growth is not an issue. When I played it I worked the cottaged flood plains instead of the mines for rapid growth once I had monarchy. Even farmed two of them to start for quicker growth then cottaged them.

 

[mice]

When I played it I worked the cottaged flood plains instead of the mines for rapid growth once I had monarchy. Even farmed two of them to start for quicker growth then cottaged them.

You didn't work the gold

I'm playing it out slowly, liking marathon a lot, but it took me a long tome to realize that barbs are off

Now I'm at 4 cities and looking for trouble.

 

[Norton II]

I was wrong earlier--it'd be 134 raw commerce thanks to the palace.

Anyway, I've played this out to the early ADs:

Spoiler :

The only drawback to praets is that since they can conquer everything early, you're tempted to overdo it. I did, and my economy's a mess as a result (not running a deficit at zero research, but pretty bad nonetheless). I kept most cities instead of razing them because the locations were pretty good and I didn't want the other AIs to spam settlers, thus undoing all my work. I haven't decided whether to continue or reload from an earlier save and focus on development after my first war.

 

[CivCorpse]

You didn't work the gold

I'm playing it out slowly, liking marathon a lot, but it took me a long tome to realize that barbs are off

Now I'm at 4 cities and looking for trouble.

I did at the beginning before Hed-rule but wanted to be able to get the full potential from the city. It didn't take long to grow large enough for me to work all the flood plains and the mines.

 

[mice]

Did you finish this game civcorpse / Norton ?

I got my earliest space victory from it . 1735 .

Actually I found the gold was a bit difficult because I didn't run any scientists for early lightbulbing.

Still , cant complain about it.

 

[erkki]

Wow, i never get those kind of starts! I usually play hybrid on monarch, but i am not pro player.

 

[Norton II]

I finished it a few days ago:

Spoiler :

Space race victory in 1574, my earliest date by far. I did reload once, as I mentioned contemplating earlier. This time, I took the more traditional religious route to CoL rather than the currency route I originally took, thus founding Confucianism in Cumae. Thanks to my praetorians and, later, some catapults, the continent was mine by 700 AD or so--the AI civs never even got to longbows, so no problem there. Basically, I took Korea out, took India down a notch, took Carthage out, and then finished off India. My economy wasn't too great for a little while, but as cottages matured and courthouses got whipped, things improved. With the help of some limited lightbulbing, I got to liberalism by about 1000 AD (founding Taoism along the way), and 5900 gold from a great merchant helped me run max research for a while until my economy caught up. What really helped, though, was the five great prophets I popped, one from Cumae (in which I had built Angkor Wat), and four from the holy holy city of Bombay, in which I later built Wall Street. Can you say, "100% research with a 140 gpt surplus"? Five solid production cities didn't hurt, either, and neither did this:

 

[mice]

1574. That's impressive. I was conservative and didn't even attack Hannibal. He was easy pickings but I just thought I would build without more war. It payed off to take him out and grab Carthage it seems. Also I only pushed one shrine. I had about 90% science, and from less cities than you of course.

 

[Norton II]

Having a lot of cities can be expensive at first, but eventually your economy really takes off. The Organized trait helps there, too, but I don't think I'd try expanding quite that rapidly without a start like this one. At one point, my research was wavering between 10% and 30%, depending on whether I was working all the gold mines or not (I almost always worked at least one). Later, the other cottage farms started to kick in, but my economy was very much dependent on one city for quite a while. That GM was pretty helpful, too.

 

[Killroyan]

Civcorpse, you CHEATER, I have regenerated my map thousands of times and never got a start like this By god this is one of the best starts I have ever seen. This is a hybrid city from the start with incredible science and very good production. Factor in bureaucracy and you might never want to leave that civ with this capital.

Norton, impressive win. 1574!!!! I salute you. Incredible. My earliest victory is still in the 1800's. What speed is this on?