(1) 4000 BC
I really hate this starting position from a strategic standpoint. We're literally in a river valley so that if we should face an early aggressor we're not going to have a great defense at this city. On the other hand we have lots of luxes, fresh water and two bonus grasslands to work with as well.
I decide to start with my scout and move him due south to the hills. I know I won't pop a settler from the goody hut if I have an active settler. It probably won't matter because from my research it seems you have to have less cities than the other civs as well in order to pop a settler from a hut, so this is probably all academic anyway. However, by moving to the hills two tiles south I can at least get a better lay of the land. I'll move the worker to the bonus grassland to the NW to see what awaits us over there. Here's what they find:
I guess this is what starting things off is all about. I decide, given the info available to me, to settle on our starting location. It's a tactical nightmare from a defenseive standpoint, but it has good growth potental. I start working the BG S of London and we begin to train a warrior (ready in 5 turns). Another bonus that I didn't think of... building a city along the river, along with the commercial trait, gives us more gold (I think).
I'm going to make another executive decision here which may or may not be a happy one for everyone. I start us researching writing (rather than The Wheel or Bronze Working, my two typical favorites for the first tech). My reasoning is as follows: our unique unit is Man-of-War, we're on a map with continents and our commercial trait would reduce corruption in far away cities. In ct3 we're discovering the value of having the great lighthouse early so that you can park your galleys on sea squares, I'm thinking that brokering contacts and techs between civs on the two or three continents could help us later on, so I'm planning on siting our second city on the coast and building the lighthouse there as soon as possible.
I set the science slider to 80% so that when we do pick up an extra gold when the road is completed we'll be researching at 1gpt still. Here's how things look at the end of the first turn:
(2) 3950 BC
Okay, checking the top five cities I find out that our competition includes but is not limited to the Iroquois, Russians, Zulus and Romans. I would expect, given our culture group, that the French and maybe the Greeks are in there as well.
I decide to pop the hut... the Valdal tribe teaches us Warrior Code. I don't discover much else about the countryside, other than there are plains and desert tiles all over the place to the east. I have our worker start a mine on his tile to the NW. I make an odd discovery messing with the science slider... we get Writing in the same amount of time with two coins going to science as we do with one. I dial down the slider to min science (20%) giving us 2gpt.
(3) 3900 BC
Our scout continues to move NE to see what's to our immedate north. He finds nothing exciting.
(4) 3850 BC
I move the scout N then NW to the hill tile to see what he might discover. Besides jungle along the river to the N there is a wheat tile on a coastline next to a bonus grassland. I'm thinking that hill tile on the coast may be a good location for city #2 now. Also noted that the Persians are on the top five cities list now as well (not the Greeks as I suspected).
(5) 3800 BC
I move the scout N then NW to another hill tile. He finds more jungle and the edge of a water tile. At this point I can't say if it's a coastline or a river though. It's an odd shape.
(6) 3750 BC
Now that our warrior completes his training I fortify him and start a scout. London will grow in another five turns. I change the tile worked to the tile that is being improved so that we take full advantage of the mine when it's ready.
I'm starting to suspect that this map is like that God-awful RBE map that Sirian designed that put premium points on building a great lighthouse. That water tile turned out to be a pond when I moved the scout W to the mountain tile. I hope the same isn't true with our other coasts. I'll have to explore over there quickly.
(7) 3700 BC
I move our scout S then W to get the most range out of him (other tiles would have consumed his range with one move).
(8) 3650 BC
Our worker completes his mine and starts a road. I move our scout SW, then W to see what I can find on the other side of the river. It looks like there is an end to this jungle after all! For ease of reference I'm going to name this scout Sir Walter Raleigh in order to make it easier to distinguish from our next scout due soon, whom I'll call Drake.
(9) 3600 BC
Neat! Wally moves SW then to the hill tile SE and discovers that it is in fact a coastline we've found. Yay!
(10) 3550 BC
Okay, Drake (ya gotta love the Drake!) is ready to explore. Now I've got an interesting question. London will grow next turn. Ten turns from settle to first growth. Ten turns from settle to second growth. If I change production to training a settler then I'm out one turn of production because London won't be big enough to support sending a settler till the following turn. I guess that doesn't matter though because we'll be picking up a shield anyway and there will be even more production lost. I'm going to set it to warrior for now, that way the settler will have an escort when it's done and we don't lose any production. With production increase that comes with city growth the warrior will be done in 3 turns, not four as it says now. That will leave us with eight turns before the city grows large enough to send a settler. At 30 shields it'll take 8 turns at 4spt to complete the settler at an overage of 2 shields (which may be absorbed by additional production from a mine). I think this strategy will work best.
I decide to send Drake up NE to investigate the possible coastline and see if we can figure out if we have any neighbors that way. Wally will stick to the SW coast and see what he can find there.
(11) 3500 BC
Big year infrastructure wise! Our worker finishes the road, Londons borders expand and it grows! Wow-e-wow! I check London and set our new citizen to work the BG tile N of the tile we just improved so that our road and mine will take effect immediately.
I move our worker N to start on a road (so we don't waste extra shields with added production). Wally continues to slug through hills and jungle down south while Drake makes a move to the E and discovers that we do in fact have a coastline to the NE as well!
(12) 3450 BC
Worker starts road. Wally moves along coast. Drake moves north. I experiment some more with the slider and find that no matter what we do, it still takes the same amount of time to research Writing, so I leave it at 20%.
(13) 3400 BC
London completes training it's warrior and I set it to producing a settler. Wally moves along the coast and discovers a river delta while Drake moves to a hill on his coast.
(14) 3350 BC
Our scouts continue their coastal explorations
(15) 3300 BC
Our worker finishes his road and begins a mine. Wally moves along the coast into a forest and Drake starts slogging through the jungle to the north.
(16) 3250 BC
Our scouts continue coastal exploration. Wally discovers (I think) diamonds to the south.
(17) 3200 BC
The are diamonds! Whohoo!
(18) 3150 BC
Not only are there diamonds, but there are two tiles of them. Drake finds silks in our northern jungles. No neighbors yet!
(19) 3100 BC
Well, Drake's silks seem to be on a jungle-ridden peninsula, but there looks to be grassland across the water from the peninsula, so I'm going to send him to check that out. Wally found a wierd kind of choke-point formation.
(20) 3050 BC
No one came off the top five city list prematurely, so it looks like we're all getting our growth at the same rate (no grasslands in floodplains or anything like that for the AI it would seem). Whoot! Wally finds the Romans! It is a choke and the Romans have LITERALLY no where to go. That may be a positive thing for us down the line. Caesar starts off cautious. He doesn't have any techs that we don't have, though he lacks Pottery. He seems to be on max science (he only has 10gp) and they do have furs connected, though none extra.
Conclusion
Man, not a whole lot to tell, those 20 turns went quick! I think we should leave that scout in place and let our next scout flesh out the rest of the area SE of London. Our priorities should be to explore west of London as well. I feel like that's probably where our next neighbor will be coming from. Here's a map of where we're at.
I also put together a rudimentry dot map so we can start discussing city locations. Orange dots are potential city sites and I numbered them in what I would consider my priorities. My philosiphy is to expand toward your immediate neighbors to maximize the area your culture can dominate.
My reasoning for the first dot placement is to get the whales. I realize if we go with these placements we're going to skip tiles like the incense two tiles south of London and the forest two tiles east of potential city 1. But this is just an idea and I'm sure everyone else will have an opinion on this as well.
Here's the save (zipped):
SUL5b 3050BC
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