[BTS] The (sigh) emperor warm-up exercise

[Long try]

Tech leaders are useful to focus as
1.) many of them are lower peaceweight and easy to get along with
2.) will EP focus lower peaceweight warmonger types they know, since they hate those guys

Ah, very clearly & concisely explained. Again, thanks a bunch for your time, mate!

I goofed, btw. Add one turn since I forgot you had to MOVE to the hill.

Er, what hill? No I'm not joking around, I'm currently seriously considering which gold hill the worker should mine after the farm. The one 2E seems to be where to go, right?
On another note, I've just watched like 15mins of Lain's Izzy match & he goofed right at the beginning by letting the worker sit still for 3 turns or so. Bet I'm even worse than that. So in order to beat Deity I'll have to 1st go up to you guys' "goofy" level.

I have no doubt that players better than me will have their reasons against this or for SiP, for sure, and they'll be able to prove it. That might be why Kaitzilla suggests farming a green tile in SiP, it grows faster for better settler speed and gold mines are getting backburnered for expansion speed.

I don't really get what you meant by 'backburn'. But I've found out that settling 1W doesn't come up with 2C in that tile. Damn it, I forgot it needs a river. Otherwise I'd have SIP

That it can do this while blocking Pericles and potentially snagging Ivory away from him is a bonus.

What? IMO the main purpose of putting 2nd city there is to secure the ivory, then block creative Perry, and only after that assisting Wrathful city in using all the tile to max frequency.
Ah, I see it now. The difference in goals dictate the divergence in actions. That's why your line of thoughts led to potential sites of 1SW & 1S while mine led to 1S & 2S.
This is a BIG revelation. From now on maybe we should try to state the purpose behind our analysis, that surely will lead to a much deeper & more interesting arguments.

As for hill bonus, Pericles is fairly peaceful (K-mod different though?) and his biggest problem he can cause is trolling in border wars being CRE.

Thanks for the info. Good to know that. BTW, I don't think K-mod mess with personalities, it only changed course of actions.

So watch the city numbers of your rivals.

Sorry for being dumb, but how can I do that?
Also, the link you posted provides helpful information. However, it doesn't cover when barbs appear (out in the wild)? Cause I'm trying to time my scout movements. Someone mentioned the disadvantage of scouts being weak & can only move 2 tiles for some turns before being forced to move only 1 to conserve his own life. I want to know when that time comes & take full advantage of the range we have now.

Game update: we meet Caesar of India on T20

Spoiler :

You guy's prediction are on the spot: Boudispank likes Mao & vice versa. Meanwhile, Perry like Saladman but the opposite isn't true. Does that mean Perry puts more weight on peace than Salad & therefore is a peacemonger?
Anyway, this is the view at T21

Spoiler :

We have a warrior freshly born at our capital & waiting for command, which, honestly, I don't really know what to do.

• q18: Where should he go 1st now? Down south to see the remaining 2 fogged tiles to avoid us regret if we later find out there's a resource lurking? Up north to bust the sheep & tundra area? Stay put in Wrathful city?
• q19: I also have 2 turns of waiting before the capital can reach size 3. What should we build in the meantime? You can see the barrack in the pic, that's only a placeholder before we choose what to do.
• q20: What are the hotkeys for caption and city placing plan? On that note, what are the settings I should tweak in the BULL/BAT option of K-mod for better gameplay & more information on-screen for you guys?

 

[sampsa]

On another note, I've just watched like 15mins of Lain's Izzy match & he goofed right at the beginning by letting the worker sit still for 3 turns or so. Bet I'm even worse than that. So in order to beat Deity I'll have to 1st go up to you guys' "goofy" level.

Guess that's a joke, but... he didn't goof anything. Isabella has very weak starting techs and especially with AH-resource starts you often run into spots where you lack the needed techs to improve tiles.

 

[Olafeson]

q20: What are the hotkeys for caption and city placing plan? On that note, what are the settings I should tweak in the BULL/BAT option of K-mod for better gameplay & more information on-screen for you guys?

q18: The spot witht he marble and corn + pig looks juicy, maybe fortify a warrior there to figbust to prevent barb & barb city spawn there. Also would be good to know if you can secure the spot or if the computer will grab it.
q19 : without thinking too much about it, i recommend warrior. You always find some use for another warrior early game.

q20:
alt + x : for city placement
alt + s : for sticky notes or captions

at least in my version of Civ 4. Can not really imagine Lain goofing around with workers, especially early game. He is one of the best Civ 4 players on this forum.

You also asked to how to watch for city number of enemies. Well there should be an option that shows the numbers of your cities & of the A.I. players on the bottom right at the scoreboard. It is an option of Bug&Bull and should be available somewhere in K-Mod too as far as i know.

 

[Olafeson]

If possible tweak the scoreboard to the bottom right. In my current games with Bug&Bull it looks like that. Shows a lot of information and also shows when someone is plotting for a war on someone. Here you can also see the city numbers. In the upper left there is this small green alienface button, directly under the gold display. There i can tweak the mod options for better UI.

Spoiler :

 

[AcaMetis]

Last I checked that feature of Bug+Bull was removed from K-Mod, not merely disabled. You can still check city counts manually by force-opening the trading screen (I think Ctrl+left-click on someone on the scoreboard? Alternatively you'll insta-DoW, so please do double-check that before hitting random buttons) and counting how many cities they won't trade you +1, since they can't trade away their capitol.

 

[VDNKh]

If possible tweak the scoreboard to the bottom right. In my current games with Bug&Bull it looks like that. Shows a lot of information and also shows when someone is plotting for a war on someone. Here you can also see the city numbers. In the upper left there is this small green alienface button, directly under the gold display. There i can tweak the mod options for better UI.

Spoiler :

View attachment 519693

Last I checked that feature of Bug+Bull was removed from K-Mod, not merely disabled. You can still check city counts manually by force-opening the trading screen (I think Ctrl+left-click on someone on the scoreboard? Alternatively you'll insta-DoW, so please do double-check that before hitting random buttons) and counting how many cities they won't trade you +1, since they can't trade away their capitol.

Actually, the feature is still there in the score board, but it only counts cities you have scouted. K-Mod hides the city trading option in the diplo menu unless you are in peace talks. So the only way to know how many cities an AI has is really to scout them.

 

[Long try]

q18: The spot witht he marble and corn + pig looks juicy, maybe fortify a warrior there to figbust to prevent barb & barb city spawn there. Also would be good to know if you can secure the spot or if the computer will grab it.
q19 : without thinking too much about it, i recommend warrior. You always find some use for another warrior early game.

q20:
alt + x : for city placement
alt + s : for sticky notes or captions

Thanks a bunch! I did that, ordered the warrior. The marble one does look tempting, what is your city placement on that spot?

Last I checked that feature of Bug+Bull was removed from K-Mod

Luckily I downloaded a version that still has them, phew!

K-Mod hides the city trading option in the diplo menu unless you are in peace talks. So the only way to know how many cities an AI has is really to scout them.

What a nuisance. I don't know what's the point of K-mod going with this hassle.

OK, some update:
We ran into Caesar at some point. He leads the Aztecs.

Spoiler :

Why does he hate Mao? Does that mean he loves peace? Is Ramses a peaceful guy too, based on their interactions?
Anyway, this is the demo at T26:

Spoiler :

We're leading in 1 category for the 1st time. Also, Saladmeria & Caesaztec whipped their capital down to 1 pop. What for? I think they're probably settlers...
The big picture:

Spoiler :

A few things I noted:

• War-loving Mao is 11 tiles from us and has stone in cap.
• With this layout, is blocking a viable option? I think it's hard to build a great wall of cities that long.
• Iron and/or copper is likely down there in the south. Its lack of resources make it likely IMO.
• That northern fish placement screws the cities plan royally. Get the fish & the sheep is hard to incorporate. Should we abandon that fish altogether? I will need the warrior to bust some tundra tile to the NE before making decisions.
• How to make the turns-to-complete appear in Wrathful city? It should display Setter (9) in that pic.

Now it's time for some serious questions:

• q21: given the big picture, what do you think is our biggest goal? Blocking Perry? Grabbing marble?...
• q22: this is related to q21, but where should we place the 2nd city? I've put up a poll for you to vote.
• q23: is the time right for a settler NOW? Maybe a worker instead?...

 

[AcaMetis]

What a nuisance. I don't know what's the point of K-mod going with this hassle.

Actually you clearly don't have a version that still has that function, because your city counts on the score screen read 0 by default. I'd say the bigger test comes when you have Bronze Working, because last I checked (note: a while ago) K-Mod removed the automatic pre-chopping and slavery hammer overflow calculations, so you'd have to do both manually. Also First Impressions is something you'd normally be able to see with Bull. Not sure why that got removed.

21. I'd say priority 1 is grabbing the Ivory before Perry gets it. Either settle 1S of the rice or on the PH 1W of the elephants. Either one can steal Corn from the capitol, so it'll have food, as such I'm inclined to settle the PH.
23. Settler, of course. You can build a worker while your second city is growing on a good tile your first worker goes to improve or that's already improved from the capitol's BFC.

 

[Long try]

I'd say the bigger test comes when you have Bronze Working, because last I checked (note: a while ago) K-Mod removed the automatic pre-chopping and slavery hammer overflow calculations, so you'd have to do both manually. Also First Impressions is something you'd normally be able to see with Bull. Not sure why that got removed.

21. I'd say priority 1 is grabbing the Ivory before Perry gets it. Either settle 1S of the rice or on the PH 1W of the elephants. Either one can steal Corn from the capitol, so it'll have food, as such I'm inclined to settle the PH.
23. Settler, of course. You can build a worker while your second city is growing on a good tile your first worker goes to improve or that's already improved from the capitol's BFC.

You're saying that I have to stop every chop manually? Why would someone even think of doing that for a mod??
OK with the ivory grabbing. The PH 1W of fants is the 2S option in the poll, just so you know.
Agree with the settler. So what is the best plan to build one at Wrathful city now? We're at size 4, so we can 2-whip, or build him in 9 turn, or 2-whip a worker & overflow a bunch into him? Once the gold is online in 2T, that 7 turns to BW can be shortened, but I don't really know by how much. OTOH, judging by the whippings of 3 AIs already & by guessing they were doing settlers, I think we don't have too much time to spare. But Perry hasn't whipped. He isn't even in slavery yet. Hmm, hard to guess.

• q24: On average, what turn in Emperor do AIs usually found their 2nd city? Also, when they 1-whip things early game, is it a settler or a worker or something?

 

[AcaMetis]

You did last I checked, but as I said, that was a while ago. Things might have changed since then.

As for whipping, I'm actually not sure. It depends on whether you could work all your gold mines I'd say, because I don't think you want to whip off of them. Slavery is great and all, but double gold has it's own advantages.

 

[Gumbolt]

Question is how likely will the AI go early war mode on emperor with this mod? So settling on hills protects you more. Where settling between food and ivory is better for food. Then you can share corn. Hard to tell what is coast or inland lakes here. Having 3x 3f2c would be nice.

Either way blocking peciles will be good.

If the AI are likely to spam units here an approach with catapults would be better than an HA rush. Assuming they really do spam 6-7 archers for the love of it in one city. Have to see if that really happens.

 

[f1rpo]

[...] K-Mod removed the automatic pre-chopping and slavery hammer overflow calculations, so you'd have to do both manually. Also First Impressions is something you'd normally be able to see with Bull. Not sure why that got removed.

These are all BULL features, and K-Mod is based on BUG. (I'm not sure how that happened exactly; it seems that a merge of BBAI and BULL became available in the same year that karadoc started modding.) Only a few BULL features were merged, e.g. Advanced Combat Odds. As for pre-chopping, karadoc has written that he'd like to have that option, but that the BULL implementation isn't safe for multiplayer. The rival city count/ city-founded alert and WHEOOHRN indicator were in BUG though, and karadoc changed them deliberately. The WHEOOHRN indicator had been disabled entirely until the latest version 1.46 (May 2018).

 

[ArchGhost]

Spoiler :

I don't really get what you meant by 'backburn'. But I've found out that settling 1W doesn't come up with 2C in that tile. Damn it, I forgot it needs a river. Otherwise I'd have SIP

To put on the backburner = move back in priority. If expanding faster is the priority, gold mines can wait vs. more food/hammers, as they boost settler spped and commerce doesn't. I didn't know a gold needed to be riverside for +1c in the city center either , sorry bout that. You still gain +1hpt in the city by settling on any plains hill; that and plenty of food/mines to share with another city is why I'd move.

What? IMO the main purpose of putting 2nd city there is to secure the ivory, then block creative Perry, and only after that assisting Wrathful city in using all the tile to max frequency.
Ah, I see it now. The difference in goals dictate the divergence in actions. That's why your line of thoughts led to potential sites of 1SW & 1S while mine led to 1S & 2S.
This is a BIG revelation. From now on maybe we should try to state the purpose behind our analysis, that surely will lead to a much deeper & more interesting arguments.

Sure. For me, the purpose of city #2 is to be as strong as possible, so I recommend along those lines. This is consistent with moving off SiP and splitting the food.

Blocking Pericles is second in priority for me (because it may not be possible on high difficulty like Deity AND he's Creative) and because my plan was to split food/gold mines with the capitol first.

Ivory is an either/or thing: if you choose go for it, securing it takes priority over everything as you can't execute a future planned elephant attack...without elephants!

Sorry for being dumb, but how can I [watch rival city amounts]?

I saw in other responses that K-mod may disable this, which is a feature in BUG possible in unmodded Civ4 as well.
Also, I don't really have an answer for the barb inquires as far a date/turn, it's very much difficulty dependent and on how fast the AIs+ you settle cities. A faster settling of the world will lead to barb animal being replaced faster, barbs starting attack missions earlier, etc. which is why the only general thing I could suggest is count cities

Why does he hate Mao? Does that mean he loves peace? Is Ramses a peaceful guy too, based on their interactions?

That's Augustus Caesar, and yes he's a peaceful weighted civ (his peaceweight is 8, higher is "good" and lower is "evil"), so he and Mao (pw =1) are inclined to dislike each other while he and Rameses (6) are cool with each other. Julius Caesar (4) can be more of a warmonger as he's more neutral and declares at Pleased like a warmonger.

Just for some more info, AIs even of similar peaceweights randomly "roll" a bonus to modify it in interactions, so it's kind of a range rather than a hard number. This is why Pericles (peaceweight = 6) and Saladin (peaceweight = 4) may feel differently about each other with no other diplomatic factors like religions in play yet. You can expect those further apart on the scale, like Boudica (2) or Mao (1) to not like Pericles (6) or AC (8) much with some reliability though.

Should we abandon that fish altogether?

settle it last, if ever. It's a poor spot due to the unfortunate placement (it can run some scientists or something later on) and you have other things to worry about like the eastern situation and whether you want the marble. Fogbusting that tundra is a good idea since it will be a while before it gets cultured!

 

[Long try]

As for whipping, I'm actually not sure. It depends on whether you could work all your gold mines I'd say, because I don't think you want to whip off of them. Slavery is great and all, but double gold has it's own advantages.

That's right. And having more pop also makes us look stronger militarily in AIs' eyes. I've made up my mind now.

So settling on hills protects you more. Where settling between food and ivory is better for food. Then you can share corn. Hard to tell what is coast or inland lakes here. Having 3x 3f2c would be nice.

The water between cow & fant is a big lake. Big question here, guys: is it true that only a sea-coastal city can build lighthouse? If it's true then settling 2S of rice is unquestionable. A future site at the cow will never be able to take advantage of the Great lake.

WHEOOHRN indicator were in BUG though, and karadoc changed them deliberately.

Ugh, this doc deviated a bit far from his original purpose of improving the AI. Making the game tougher by limiting some obvious features is not the way to go.

Thanks @ArchGhost for the informative post as always.

That's Augustus Caesar

Holy salad, this is 1 of the most profound revelation I've got so far. I've been wondering why this guy looks different from that multiple-stabbed guy in vanilla, but just guessed that they changed his appearance for him to be less vulnerable, lol.

settle it last, if ever.

Agreed.

I've played some more turns, here is the big pic at T31:

Spoiler :

Highlights: Mao's house, copper, fishy positions.

• Those 2 fish probably mean we only have 1 plan for the north.
• Copper is within our capital's 3rd ring in 20 turns, but in order to protect it from creative Perry we'll need another city regardless. That means the lighthouse question above needs to be solved right now for goofy-less city placing.
• Look at Carthage! 2 gems, wet corn, & stone! And only 1 population! I want to "visit" him so much, but maybe greed is clouding my vision. We can only even start building an army 24 turns later, provided we research Wheel & road the way beforehand. Mao can grow into a monster in such time. He may even bring Boudispank into the dogfight. Plus, we players don't have lots of experience with K-mod & may build insufficient or overkill army. Still, all those 4 cons and I still drooling over it. What do you guys think? A lot may depend on our important scout over there, as he may be able to peer into the land to see any metal. Or not, as animals have started roaming around.
• IMHO the 1st priority short term is still blocking Perry with 2 cities. Mid term, it highly depends on whether we decide to go all out war with Mao or not. BW is done, now what should we research to be beneficial in both case?

 

[Gumbolt]

Yes need to be near coast for a lighthouse. Otherwise you would get lighthouses for every lake you find. Never happens.

Based on air spamming units I would want ivory. That or risk the air attacking you with phants. Of course we may be over playing the air war ability?

 

[Long try]

Thanks. 2nd site fixed.

By 'air' did you mean A.I.? Otherwise imagining fant bombs dropping from the sky is scary enough for the HRE people to revolt and kick Toky out of the throne, I'm afraid

 

[ArchGhost]

Reveal of copper is nice. barb defense and support/fallback to an elephant war. It helps you with tech decision now too

Elephant war would still be my first choice between the two, and the site still blocks Pericles. But would plan to grab copper next with 3rd city, before heading west. North is pretty much free.

Mao/anybody else doesn't look that close? Unless he wanders super far with an isolated settler I think you have a decent shot at still getting marble. But that is for later, and you can just settle the corn/lake away from deserts. if he takes marble+pig.

If cap is going to pop border in 20 for copper you might get away with settling 1N of cow for copper (just pre-road it so you can mine it ASAP). That gets you to roughly 2000BC to defend/bust barbs with warriors only. If this low pop captiol stuff is the K-mod AI whipping settlers as discussed above then expansion will be quicker and barbs coming faster too. Might be dangerous? But this spot could get that lighthouse if that Eastern lake is large enough (9 tiles I read somewhere?).

Probably go Wheel then, and eventually AH + Writing. Wheel is definitely something desired to hookup that copper/gold/ivory, link cities to share happy boosts, and get to Pottery since you already have Agri+Mining+BW.

Archery in there somewhere (nice to be a Hunting civ sometimes I guess) if you want to hedge bets for survival. This is Emperor though, so not sure how dangerous barbs actually are. I'm playing a bit of a test thing real quick to get a baseline feel. I don't usually get archery for Immortal barbs especially if I already have BW.

EDIT:
on Immortal
Animals at 9
First archer spotted at 27
barbs entering at T50 (2000BC)
I didn't meet any of the AIs but typically I get 3rd city a little faster than them (t48 in this game, so my third city was actually probably a little slower and prompted the barb rush by pushing the average up to 3 cities per team in the world)

So it could be cutting it close if the AI expands a bit faster in Emperor K-Mod. It's doable with warriors if you bust well and with BW you can whip in emergency. Could be a bad habit for Deity level play.

To clarify a little bit, after city 2 in the East, I see a decision between:
1.) Riding out the next ~20-22 turns with just warriors + fogbust, then hook up copper
2.) settling copper 1st ring to save a couple turns on copper hook up
3.) teching Archery and ignoring copper site for cities elsewhere

 

[Long try]

Elephant war would still be my first choice between the two, and the site still blocks Pericles. But would plan to grab copper next with 3rd city, before heading west.

When you said 'between the two', are you referring to the other option of early axemen war against Mao? Because in the last post, I was contemplating a rush on Carthage. I've listed many cons, but actually there are some big pros too.

Unless he wanders super far with an isolated settler I think you have a decent shot at still getting marble. But that is for later, and you can just settle the corn/lake away from deserts. if he takes marble+pig.

Actually I want to block him with a city where the Sumer scout is standing in this pic:

Spoiler :

As you can see, Mao has just adopted Slavery this turn, that means my guess before that he whipped was wrong. I underestimated his stupidity in managing a capital, because his city has been at 1 pop the whole history! That may give us time, also 1 of the reasons I think rushing is better now (ok, in 30+ turns) than to wait all the way to Construction.

If cap is going to pop border in 20 for copper you might get away with settling 1N of cow for copper (just pre-road it so you can mine it ASAP). That gets you to roughly 2000BC to defend/bust barbs with warriors only. If this low pop captiol stuff is the K-mod AI whipping settlers as discussed above then expansion will be quicker and barbs coming faster too. Might be dangerous? But this spot could get that lighthouse if that Eastern lake is large enough (9 tiles I read somewhere?).

Ack. Your post contradicts @Gumbolt earlier. I thought the site has been fixed, so this is plan A:

Spoiler :

If Gumbolt is right, then a lake will never enable a lighthouse, thus only the Violet spot can take advantage of the lake. We'll forgo the copper tile & settle Cyan spot down south to get better food. Pros: less overlap with each other & with fish city in the future. That fishy one needs hills badly.
But then I read @ArchGhost 's info & dig out this thread in which @Testhero pointed out that we can build a lighthouse on a lake larger than 9 tiles. Granted, that was a mod play and I can't find the source post of someone called God Emperor who he mentioned; but if that's true then we can have plan B:

Spoiler :

Pro: secure copper in BFC. Cons: doesn't totally block Perry, squeezed together too much, and biggest: it's a gamble. We don't know whether that lake is 10 tiles or not. Using fog gazing, I'm sure that it's at least 8 tiles big, but have no confidence in 9, not even to mention 10. From the demo earlier, the civ with fewest land has 4k, that can be Perry or not. Now the lowest has 15k. Japan's border has also expanded to the 3rd ring, so we can't tell either... If we lose the gamble then cyan city will be a meh spot, a waste of resource while we want to block Mao to the west also.
Man, this situation is tough. I'm having a warrior going down there to fogbust the southern part of the lake, but there's a lion wandering, and he will have to step onto that open plain cyan tile in order to get to the forested hill.

This is Emperor though, so not sure how dangerous barbs actually are. I'm playing a bit of a test thing real quick to get a baseline feel.

Thanks! Could you do a lake+lighthouse simulation too?

 

[ArchGhost]

Spoiler :

When you said 'between the two', are you referring to the other option of early axemen war against Mao?

Between Elepult or something like Axe/Cata or Mace/Cata or Treb. No specific target yet, as nobody is really that close yet (it's early) except Pericles and another option to deal with him is just block him.

To axe war effectively on tough difficulty you need a close target and go for copper immediately i.e second city. You want a fast attack. And Pericles is there...if the idea was to kill him. Which is fine. But maybe he's a trade partner for the future?

Mao is technically close enough (maybe, rule of thumb is less than 10 tiles to capital I think) but a harder, farther target that you'd be expanding AWAY from to get the copper. Not impossible but not the best option I think, especially as axewars are more about putting down a weakling or taking land by force with no other option. Fippy would have a lot more to say about the subject.

Re: lighthouse thing
Lakes-only can enable lighthouses, if they are big enough (i.e that 9+ tile rule). If they are not, the only way to get a lighthouse built is to have a coastal connection as well.
It's a special case kind of thing. So in your Plan B example, yeah, violet can always get a lighthouse and work those two lake tiles south of it for 3food because of its coast. Cyan only if the lake is sufficiently large, since it has no other coastal connection.

The question is whether the lake in question by that cow is indeed large enough. It's not known yet from what is seen, can only reliably infer 8 lake tiles so far in that last pic. More intel is needed before pulling that trigger unless you like to gamble :/

Thanks! Could you do a lake+lighthouse simulation too?

What are you seeking to find out, generally? How quickly to get one in there?

A lighthouse is a longer term consideration (need Fishing and Sailing still) for instance, in the violet spot it doesn't mean much as it needs a border pop for 2 whole tiles. But the reason I though of it is this cyan city spot could use some help with food, and some +3f+2 tiles could be nice help.

Fishing seems like a good enough way to go once other things are taken care of - wheel, pottery, barb concerns etc. You'll eventually take those cities up north, after all. I would put more priority on other things first. One lighthouse in one city not as much. You will have a large boost to tech speed with the gold mines though, so it's not out of the question, and I like the cyan spot for all the reasons you listed -- if it can indeed get a lighthouse. Otherwise it'd be better more inland.

And if it was ambiguous, I'm not suggesting to take the cyan spot as the 2nd city -- it's an option AFTER the one that block Pericles. It would be a third city. a typical 3rd city in a decent capitol comes around T45-50, conveniently right around that border pop time for the copper.

EDIT: Not trying to monopolize the discussion, I'm just a bit a of windbag. Would love to see others' input and I wouldn't want to discount what players like Gumbolt say -- he's a great player and knows a lot about aggression in particular. Just trying to let you know how I read this map.

Scout that lake to your best ability. It doesn't have to be the third city either, could go west instead toward the pig/marble and just hook the copper with the border pop when it comes, the speed of access to Axes won't be much different.

 

[Gumbolt]

Just to clarify. For a lighthouse to be built the city must be next to coast! So if it is next to lakes too then these would get the lighthouse food bonus.I really can't tell by your image.

Looking at the Ai culture high chance that Pecilles will grab that ivory with his culture. You would need heavy culture pressure to grab this back.

Chances are he can settle round the lakes?

A city with 2 gold 2xcorn and rice could be good on the hill. Freeing your capital for growth and cottages. That or directly between the gold and rice. It could then run 2 cottages for your capital.

You do need to ensure the Ai does not try to grab your copper.