[GS] Very Early Faith Generation?

[Fuddster]

I rolled this America start a couple days ago and due to general busy-ness, decided to wait until the weekend to play it. Obviously, I'm going to want to rush the Earth Goddess Pantheon, but judging from the location, faith might be hard to come by. I have not played any turns yet, so I don't know anything about the surrounding terrain. Should I rush a Holy Site? I'm looking at settling on the wheat directly south of my settler, mainly to give me pop growth and a little more room for districts, but I'm fine with looking at other options. Also, it's my first time playing Teddy, so I don't have any experience playing to his strengths yet.

(Prince, Small Map, Continents, Abundant Resources, Legendary Start, everything else Standard)

I'm willing to post the seeds and/or the Turn 1 save after I get a few turns in tonight. (I don't want to be spoiled. ) Thanks for any advice!

 

[Victoria]

Personally I would settle on the coast by the lake as the wheat is waterless and look to work the 2 water tiles for housing and t get you to a harbour. It is a great Wonder but you do need to grow into it and good sea food will make up for the lack of grassland. It is also a much more defensible position with less chance of barb scouts finding you. The camp from the deer would allow you the temple of Artemis which would be another food/growth option.
As for faith, you really needed the woods 1 tile out form the wonder to get best value for earth goddess but sure if you want to go that route feel free. I would personally skip it as the wonder is nice to work rather than build on.

 

[Tabarnak]

Settle in place and go for Temple of Artemis.

 

[cvb]

As Victoria says, that Wheat is without (fresh) water - even worse, settling there costs an opportunity of 1 Food surplus.

I'm inclined to settle on the copper to the east: you gain 1 'in need' food while keeping the extra 1 prod & 2 gold. Losing the option to build a mine there matters barely, because you have "enough" food-deficit tiles anyway. Perhaps this move brings you nearer to a good campus location in the tundra.

Settling on that copper provides 4 Food surplus tiles (3 wheat & fish), which levels working 4 Food deficit tiles (mine on the other copper & 3 visible forests next to wonder); 2 sheep & crabs are Food neutral.

The other 4 tiles next to wonder should be developed from a 2nd city - maybe on the plainsHills adjacent to the coast. Depends on whether and where you find more food.

.

 

[Fuddster]

Thank you for your insights, I appreciate them all. Having not played Teddy before, I guess I was just focused on his National Parks bonus (+1 tile appeal in cities with NPs). After reading your comments it occurred to me that I was worrying about (far) future yields before I even settled my city. I like the idea of settling on the Copper because it leaves the option of settling on the coast and still lets me work the lake resources. Not 100% sure what I'll do yet, but once dinner is digesting and a beverage is close by, it will begin. Thanks again, and I'll stop by later in the weekend with an update.

 

[Victoria]

Enjoy, and let us know if there were any other camp tiles around

 

[Fuddster]

I stopped last night at turn 113. I confess to one reload, thanks to a small Swedish problem. Some people have no respect for personal space! Norway is the only other neighbor on my continent now, and gossip has it that Canada and one of the French civs are in play as well as one more unknown civ. My puny navy had Harald upset for a while; he's friendly now but not yet ready to commit.

I have 9 cities to Harald's 5, and am now concentrating on my infrastructure and my tourism snowball. I did get the ToA, and counted approximately 10 potential camps, pastures and plantations in range. I also built Oracle and am working on the Mausoleum. I lucked into 3 straight golden ages so far, as well as an accidental religion (RIP Kristina).

I forgot to mention that I wound up settling in place. I'd be more than happy to post screenshots, seeds or saves if there's interest.

 

[Tabarnak]

Seems like you are going well. Of course we want to see!

 

[Fuddster]

Here you go! Norway is to the south west, separated from the former Swedish Empire by Antananarivo and Hong Kong. The lands south of Muscat narrow down to a one tile wide strip about 9 or 10 tiles long. Once Washington is done building the Mausoleum, I plan on changing ownership to Philly. So far I'm suzerain of Antananarivo and Muscat. I'm looking forward to ramping things up after dinner tonight!

Game Seed: -495242752 Map Seed -495242751 America/Abundant Resources/Legendary Start/ Small Continents/Everything else Standard.

 

[Tabarnak]

Thanks for sharing.

You have a great science spot city tile NE from citrus. Get more trade routes to leverage muscat with comm hubs. Reyna into Stockholm with comm hub next to harbor can be nice for more gold as well. Time to buy/build a lot of workers too!

 

[Fuddster]

Well, I stayed up way too late for an old man so I could finish this game, a Culture Victory on turn 250 with 71 tourists (Yay Prince!). I was making 615 Culture per turn by the end. I did manage to make a National Park from Yosemite. I also managed to get the Pizza Party Steam achievement for kicks. By the end I was spamming out Wonders and Film Studios. I built all of the Diplo Point wonders (finished with 14 Diplo points), and all of the +1 Policy Card wonders except for Alhambra because I never built an encampment until late game and lost it to another civ. I eventually grabbed a canal in Washington's lake to release the Galley (promoted to Caravel) that I built for Era score.

I think taking out Sweden and inheriting her Holy Site won the game for me. I wasn't planning on founding a religion, so I was surprised when I recruited a Great Prophet. I spread my religion (Manifest Destiny) to my entire continent which helped keep Canada from a Religious Victory. Harald and Catherine de Medici were my only allies, Wilhelmina hated me all game because she was out of my traders' range until the endgame, and twice I had to levy Muscat's army just to discourage Harald from doing something stupid.

All in all a fun game. I think I have a handle on how to play America now, so I won't hesitate to play him again. Now to ponder my next game!

Thanks again for all your help!