But the FP are out of the way of the cow and improvements take longer to build on FPs, so you'd actually be delaying improving the cow by several turns.
And now you've backed off that being a perfect example and more into the generic "it's good to have agri or hunting in case you need AH" which is what I said in #34.
Ultimately I would not agree even in this example (where we have the slowest starter techs AND no farm/camp resources) that better starting techs would put you in a totally superior position that could not be more than equalized by having good traits as opposed to poor traits. We'd have to go even further and knock out the forests, or at least the one workable hill. You'd have a huge food advantage, but I'd have some compensation in the form of a small commerce advantage even with a fast 2nd city. The Wheel and an early road gives me +2from connected cities. The FP and PH are both riverside for another +2
. I'd certainly prefer this position if it came with better traits, especially FIN in this instance.
Consider this topic as: Player 1 gets to pick his preferred starting techs and sabotage Player 2 with the worst starting techs. Player 2 can do the same but with traits. Who has the advantage?
We're considering a somewhat cherrypicked map here and I'd still prefer Player 2's position. On an average sampling of random maps I'd say the advantage would be huge for Player 2.
My bad... To be honest, I completely missed the FP on this start. Didn't look at it carefully enough. Anyways for virtually all starts it's better to have Agri/Mining than Wheel/Myst. In some cases this tech combo gives you a larger edge and in others a smaller one. Consider a start with only Agri resource. Even then China still has a big edge. Byzantines will typically go Agri/Mining/BW and reach BW close to turn 30. China go BW right away and can start chopping on turn 20 and maybe even sooner if they can settle on PH and get a Worker out early.
Re: this particular start. China will work the FP as well and given the myriad of rivers, you need to road one tile in all likelihood to connect the 2nd city. I trust you judgment on this start more than mine. Don't take this as me disagreeing!
You're right about the FP being out of the way. The sabotage topic is interesting. Depends on the map and their starting proximity. If it's a MP Duel match I'll probably take the techs over traits and pick Player 1 because an edge on turn 50 = win. If it's a 12 player Ironman FFA on a Huge map then most probably traits and Player 2 because it's gonna be a long game. Whether traits can equalize better techs varies from game to game I would venture. But I linked this start because better starting techs will clearly play a huge role.
