What's Next? Help on this Isolated Start...?

[vale]

Many posters here abbreviate Pyramids as mids.

 

[Bleys]

Attached is 4000 BC start. Bleys: what lvl do you normally play?

Thanks mate. I am a "Monarch bordering on Emperor" player, which means I can compete competently on Emperor, but prefer the more "loose" style of game that Monarch allows. I love gambits, shiny wonders, "non-ideal" strategies and such, and Emperor is not very flexible with most of my "fun" ideals, so I play Monarch, where I win 90% of my games pretty easily, but still, I stick to what I enjoy most.

With your game, knowing I have no AIs to sweat actually makes a big difference in development, so there is no real instructional value to playing it, other than practice for the LHCs, which I play pretty regularly and enjoy thoroughly. I will have fun building a pile of Wonders and spamming out a pile of cities though, thats for sure. I likely wont play it much past Liberalism, I already have WAY to many games half-finished.

 

[Bleys]

OK I played til 1000 AD or so. A tip for you, Fidar, ALWAYS build and extra Work Boat ASAP and start sending it around. I have met 5 of the 6 AIs with my little boat.

I also have a few strategic suggestions. One is skipping the Mids. Not worth the hammers at all. You are going to need to be in HR for happiness, the 5 cities from Rep will only cover . . . well 5 cities. I have 4 now, 2 more settler-warrior combos headed toward 2 more coastal locations. I dotmapped out 12 easy, well fed, coastal cities, and a few more inland, river-hogging cities that will be strong cottage-spam or killer production locations.

The GLH is going to be huge with these AIs on their islands. You can likely build up a nice tech lead and use that power to force them into wars with each other, allowing you to grow and build comfortably and mostly in peace.

Now, if you wanted to go with the Mids, by all means, go for it. Its a very strong wonder and you have a TON of food that can easily feed piles of specialists. You can always trade for Happy resources, because you have an excess of most health resources. Your land is so strong, that almost any solid, steady, focused plan will be plenty good enough. Just try to maintain that plan, and it will play itself. Avoid jumping around with ideas here and there and everywhere. Thats one of the biggest keys to success in this game and understanding it will move you up the difficulty ladder very quickly.

Good luck mate, I am not going to play it out, too many other commitments, and there are WAY too many blue/purple AIs for my taste! (heh, thats a relate to another thread, BTW)

 

[vicawoo]

Building wealth as indicated to keep afloat. Also the extra trade route, while it will be a +1 trade route which is nothing to be jumping through hoops over is a boost. It is on the path to CoL and thus CS if you don't go through the religious techs which with no marble at all, seems like the way to go.


Who said he would run representation off the Pyramids? And with all those forests, you don't need to (and shouldn't even try to) hook up stone. Clearly he needs to get HR running early. The problem with teching Monarchy or Oracling Monarchy is that you have to sink a lot of beakers into a path that in my opinion is off the target which is Bureaucracy for this amazing capital. Unfortunately, if you get Bureaucracy without Hereditary Rule it is essentially wasted.

And yes, in isolation lightbulbing isn't spectacular. That doesn't matter though because he could just as easily settle the specialists he gets to boost his capital even more.


Yes, but do you want to make more hammers over time or less hammers over time? You have trait cheapened granaries here. So the outlay to get a city whip ready is a 1 population whip.

And you are rushing for city spots in a way if only for their fogbusting value which is pretty huge on this ginormous continent.

Some interesting points, getting pyramids to avoid teching monarchy. However, if I were to dwelve into the numbers:
by base technology costs: mysticism (50), meditation (80), priesthood(60) plus oracle (150 hammers) for monarchy (300) versus masonry (80) + pyramids (500 hammers). By side issues, you probably want mysticism for border pops, code of laws/writing cost less, you get heavy discounts for mysticism and probably priesthood, GE points are more useful than priests.
And currency, 400 base beakers.

If our master of lonely hearts advocates trade routes, who am I to argue. I'm still skeptical about currency without foreign trade routes, it seems two courthouses at far away cities provide similar yields.

Whipping, well when someone says whip ASAP, that usually implies inefficient whipping, as in whipping without granaries, whipping wonders, or whipping off high production tiles, most of which I would discourage in an isolated start. As opposed to watching your cities grow into unhappiness more than 10 turns after your last whip.

 

[vale]

Well, masonry is a required tech for the great lighthouse too so if that is part of the plan, early masonry is required early that way too so I was ignoring the tech cost of masonry (and mysticism for what its worth).

It isn't a huge beaker investment to tech priesthood and oracle monarchy. I guess pyramids or teching to monarchy would be the extreme choices and the oracle would be the middle ground. Maybe it is best, but one other advantage of the pyramids is later if you meet up with AIs and trade for happiness resources, you have the flexibility to switch over to another civic as desired.

Clearly though HR is the way to go early, the only question is how to go there.

As far as inefficient whipping goes, pottery is way too important a tech to bypass on the way to Writing. It unlocks the most important building in the game that is double production speed thanks to expansive and (arguably) one of the most important tile improvements in the game. Plus it discounts Writing even further. There is essentially no good reason to not get it and prioritize a granary as the first or second (after monument) build in a new city.

 

[Fidardorist]

So I immersed myself in said studies and tried to incorporate it all: this thread up to Ulitmocrat post, r_rolo's key (22pg) guide to iso start, "You, Yourself and Your Shadow." Even glanced at the end of ALC 15 to see where Sis got tripped up on an isolated start.

Then of course, like Bleys says above and many anticipated, we weren't really all that isolated.

Nevertheless, I thought many of the comments applied to our nice open land mass so I tried to follow consensus. Then I just dove in and started playing and here we are at 485 BC, just short of 100 turns later. I'd give my self a middle-ish grade on sticking to consensus.

What I Stuck To

• Great Light House: check, we got it. Though I missed that masonry pre-req mentioned above until the last minute.

• Cottage Spamming: we've got 6 cotts up and 2 more in the works. Seems decent for 4 cities. Which bring us to...

• Rexing: 4 cities, three of which are 'full grown' (i.e. unhappy), one is a pup of pop 2 and 1 settler in cue. All have their home grown obelisks. Did the NW food heavy one I said and then followed the advice for the inland production city, though I had to bite my lip with all those useless peaks in the picture. Then the new one from crabs and copper. Next, I'm thinking south near the resources down there. Seems decent vis a vis Bleys' post, but not against the AI, some of whom already have 4-5 cities themselves (Gilgy for one.)

• Monarchy: There was talk of HR and then there was talk of beeling to currency and COL. Well, I can't take this unhappiness no more, so I am after Monarchy. Is this clever or am I just buckling? Feels right.

What I Stuck To Not-so-Much

• Currency and COL: well I zigged to Iron Work to cover the military gap and get the iron up. (Which was nice for that mine, but not sure if it was the right (big) beaker investment.) And zagged to get Metal Casting for my Colossus coventessness. This is by the book, or by the guide or a section there of in r_rolo's guide, though clearly it is contextual. Another bonus is of course the cheap forges. Shame we have no gems or precious metals... Now I'm back to Monarchy to cheer everyone up. Have the makings of a decent standing army already in place.

Well, what do you think? Do we get with the Buddha to appease Gilgamesh, get temples and run Organized Religion or do we soldier on all Godless-like and find other ways to deal with the general unhappiness? How do we handle the blues? Is the Colossus worth it at this point? Is there a city site we must not forgo? Other priorities for exploring or settling? How about that bit about moving the capital? I still don't see it...

Thanks again for all interesting and informed two cents.

Attachements here or to follow...

 

[Yxklyx]

Newbie here. Colossus does not fit well with a Cottaging strategy (they're at odds with each other - coast vs. grassland) - also, it's not good if you're isolated because it expires with Astronomy and that's what you need to get un-isolated - BUT someone mentioned they played the save game and met other Civs. One problem I think is that in your initial exploring you weren't hugging the coastline - my scout/warrior always hugs it. I had a similarly large continent with Fractal (Prince) but I was totally isolated without Astronomy. Of course with GLH leave Corporation for the very last. I will reiterate that you have an abundance of food but an alarmingly small amount of happy resources. Also, if I had played this game my capital wouldn't have reached 4 pop before I had founded 1 or 2 more cities.

 

[Fidardorist]

I will review everything and post something tonight, perhaps I'll even play!

Bleys, I would really like to see your dot map and/or save is you have a chance to retrieve/post them.

This morning I think to myself, 'Self, it may well be that with all this rich land and westerward expansion, it doesn't entirely matter which strategies and policies you choose, or even how zig-zaggilly you persue them as long is there is some basic competence in the execution. Doesn't this diminish the point of a focused, thought and strategy based conversation/approach to this particular game?' To which I reply, "No, self. You're just sounding downright un-American. [Un-German?] Westward hoe. [Eastward hoe?]We got expanses to conquer and railroads to build and you may as well do it the best way you figure out how to do it! Hee-heyeah." The gruff and salty 19th century tinged self in me thusly wins the arguement, persuading me to press on toward excellence, such as it is available with this set of givens.

That said, what's next?

 

[Bleys]

Bleys, I would really like to see your dot map and/or save is you have a chance to retrieve/post them.

Sure thing bro. Here is my dot-maps:

Western half:

Spoiler :

Eastern half:

Spoiler :

My plan was fairly basic. Get the GLH, spam coastal cities, tech to Monarchy, take MC from the Oracle on the way. I am a Forge Junkie with IND leaders and a FE, getting 90 hammers per pop-whip is so strong, and with EXP, the Granary and Harbor are highly whippable as well. I ALWAYS ALWAYS try to get the most bang for the buck with the Whip and Chop, its all about hammers for me, really.

After Monarchy, I was planning to hit CoL and hope for my own Religion. I was also planning NOT to switch to it, but to secretly keep it and spread it and build some temples in it for the happiness. Then I would pull an AP switcheroo. Getting access to a couple of the AI religions would also be nice, for diplomatic reasons. I would likely switch into whichever religion it looked like would please the most dangerous AIs, for the OR bonus.

I also agree that the Colossus isnt worth the hammers in this game unless you get the copper hooked up. With Copper, IND, and the forge, its cheap enough to be worth building for the extra commerce in your seafood tiles + 2 GM points alone. Its a shame you didnt have marble nearby, I would have gone for the ToA as well, that Wonder, with marble and IND, is almost worth it for the +5 GPPs alone as well.

With regard to the dotmaps, your goal, once you have the GLH, is as many coastal cities as possible. In our recent Monarchist Cookbook, we played Bismark, and some of the shadows with real city packing had solid economies. My plan was to skip IW, dont need it right away once you have Horses for barb defense, and rapidly REX along both the north (to the copper) and southern (to keep those AIs on the SE island from coming onto your land).

As for my save, it really doesnt have any instructional value. I KNEW there was no AI threat, I NEVER would have gotten as many settlers done had I been in the dark. It matters quite a bit, honestly, so I dont want mislead you. I would have gotten the 4 cities I have down, and the GLH and Oracle, and I definitely would have met the AIs because I always make an extra work boat in coastal starts, just ask my SG mates, LOL.

As for the rest of my advice, well, take it with a grain of salt. I am no expert, and although I have Monarch and Prince difficulty mostly "solved", I do have some wonky tendencies. But, since you DID know the map you chose, and discovered you had your own island, but could see land both to the West and Southeast, assuming that those landmasses had AIs was a safe bet.

Again, though, focus is the key. Why go for IW (you even questioned it yourself)? You have very little jungle, and you already know you have both horses and copper for military units, so IW could be put off, and even traded for later. Heading to Monarchy with those beakers would have pushed those happy caps up sooner. And remember, the AIs are not strong with the naval aspect of wars, so keeping them off your continent was pretty important, even if you have to suffer some loss of slider to spam into the SouthEast. If they DO get the drop on you, speaking for myself, I would try to culture flip and city they put on your land.

You seem to have a pretty solid plan. I suggest Open Borders with everyone, since they are all in galley range, and trade for some happy resources if you can until you get to Monarchy, and even to help with it after. Once in HR, I like to build unit-building-unit-building in each city until you have a comfy cap. Get the forges chopped out, get the granaries chopped out. In my save, I went for Maths before Monarchy, but that was as I ran into happy cap problems pretty quickly as well. Whipping helps, those cities are so small, though, that they regrow fast. With all that food, you can use workers and settlers in all cities to slow growth while the unhappiness whip-anger fades.

This should be a good game to get some solid lessons from. Diplomacy, REXing, financing REXing, etc etc. You are in "non-isolated Isolation", so to speak. Looks to be a fun game for sure.

 

[Ultimocrat]

You need to ReX faster than 4 cities by 500 BC, to protect the land that is rightfully yours from being stolen away by another land-hungry civ. You're playing as if you need to expand vertically, but with such a low happy cap and no happiness resources, you actually need to be expanding much more horizontally, until Monarchy and HR. You're running a profit at an 80% slider? Expand faster!

Agreed that IW was a waste of beakers, as was Archery, and Metal Casting should have been delayed until after the more crucial techs of CoL, Currency, and Monarchy.

 

[Bleys]

I am a big fan of early MC for IND leaders, the cheap forges add production to every single hammer created, be it from a whip, a chop, or citizens on tiles.

 

[Fidardorist]

You need to ReX faster than 4 cities by 500 BC, to protect the land that is rightfully yours from being stolen away by another land-hungry civ ... Expand faster!

Agreed that IW was a waste of beakers, as was Archery, and Metal Casting should have been delayed until after the more crucial techs of CoL, Currency, and Monarchy.

Well Ultimo, you do dole out the hard medicine, but I admit that I agree with you for the better part of it. I may defend archery bcs it's cheap and archers to longbowmen = a long shelf life on a backbone unit and thus I like to build them much more than yet another handful of chariots. ...And I do like my forges from MC and it secured the Colossus, though perhaps all that could have been delayed for COL... If/when (more likely when) a meddling third party starts horning in on my sweet but unclaimed land, perhaps the rex rushing lesson will sink in for true.

So, I've got the wonders, cottages and HR and am about to get currency and COL in quick succession circa the BC to AD turn. Is it late? Yes it's late! Late, huh? Yes it's way too late! Also reached back for TofA in a coastal city that wasn't too busy anyhow and may get that or a load of $, good for random events/more aggressive rexing phase.

So I was tempted to grab hanging gardens, but perhaps I will be chastened and overcome shiny wonders temptation.

BIG QUESTION: what are the next wonders to be prioritized?

For what it's worth to all advice bringers: I am listening & even the not-towing-the-line part of this little exercise is bringing the learnin' in big dollops. I hope that's also true for the lurkers.

I may go back after this game, replay and see what a letter-of-the-law approach gets me, while sort of role playing ignorance of what I ain't supposed to know before I should have discovered it. Kind of academic, but for me this is fun.


So, will perhaps play some more and post for tonight/tomorrow.

 

[Fidardorist]

BIG QUESTION: what are the next wonders to be prioritized?

Seriously, though, folks, which wonder?

We are at about 220 AD, have our COL and Currency and a few turns to hit Beurocracy. We got Colossus, Temple of Aritimis and G. Lighthouse. I put up an engineer specialist to snag the TofA in Hamburg and am inclined to keep running him with the fast growth there anyway. This will result in a likely GE in just over twenty turns. So the candidates are:

• The Pyramids: If it's still there (it shouldn't be) for the happiness and the boosted specialists from the civics switch
• Parthenon: GP's are swell and we are def. going into the indust or modern age. Durned if I know the math on this though.
• The Shdgn Paya: least likely. I'll have philo soon enough for pacifism switch
• The Great Library: tempting for the two scientists in the booming capitol
• Norte Dame: Can't knock more happy with the fewness of resources here
• Wall Street: sit on the dude until we get to the chance to build this hammer heavy nat wonder.

Perhaps we build one and we use the engineer on the other. Say Parth and GL for the GS synergy there?

Many new decisions to be made soon (tech path, space vict or domination, priorities other than $ and beakers), so we shall see what we shall see in the post on deck....

 

[Bleys]

Personally, I am a HUGE fan of the MoM lately. I specifically tech Music for the Great Artist, and hold him until MoM is built, and time the Golden Age for something important, gearing for war, teching through to Rifles, whatever. I will often save it until I build the Taj and, with MoM, get a 30 turn Golden Age.

I also like the SoZ, but mostly for defensive purposes, I hate letting an AI grab it.

However, in your case, definitely the Great Library. You should be teching through Aesthetics and Literature now anyway, I often hit this much early. The GL is a good Wonder to get into the "habit" of knowing well, since its one of those that you can often build on higher levels as well as lower ones.

Personally, I wouldnt waste an Engineer on any Wonders with an IND leader unless you think you are REALLY late. But with the GLH trade routes, ToA is a decent one. Get the GLibrary as soon as you can, and get those Scientists churning out for either Academies, Settling, or popping Philo and part of Education on the way to Liberalism.

 

[Fidardorist]

625 AD, Turn 215

We're rich! We have COL, Bureaucracy and we just picked up Compass in 4 turns and will have 3-4 cheap Harbors to further increase our strongest suit: trade. This is going to put upwards of more than 20 new shiny gold pieces into the boom time economy in the next 6 turns. Hard to argue with that.

And for the bad news, Gilgamesh swiped the Great Library. I get the feeling he used a GE to build it bcs. he didn't even have Lit about a dozen years ago if I have that right. Anyway, when I saw that I was determined to deny him the free GA from Music, which I did.

As you can see, he is parked in my future shrine city with my brand new Great Engineer, except that it wasn't a GE or even a Great Prophet, it turned out to be a Merchent. So there they sit discussing the affairs of the world, waiting to be deployed. HOW? Light bulb? Settle in future shrine town for all that cash? Build MoM per Bleys and pop the artist on a Golden Age?

Which brings us back to the old question: which wonders, sans the GL building from scratch. Is the Parth important? [Edit: not for how long it lasted, turns out.]

You will note from the info screen that we are over double the GNP of our nearest rival, but are conspicuously weak, nearly half strength of Gilgamesh with Carthage not far behind.

Well when Carthage decided to join the buddhists I immediately jumped on board with the faith (it's really more of a philosophy, don't ya think?) This puts me at friendly with Gilgy and pleased w\Hanny, the two militarily strongest and more or less best techers on the board. Voila, instant triangle diplomacy. According to my trusty dusty printed reference guide, this also makes it so that they can not attack me - neither of them - with these relations. Perhaps I don't worry about military catch up until closer to the age of the transport...

Which brings us to another question. Napolean, exorcising his delusional complex, just attacked Hannibal, his clear superior. He must not use the BUG mod. Should I jump in against Nappy just to garner some favor with Hannibal? Couldn't hurt, right? I hate to cross someone who adopted my underground religion, but hey, this is real politick.

What else? Tech path...Should I go philo (for the switch from slavery to Caste/Pacifism), then bee line for liberalism, or should I think about machinery and guilds to get those grocers (like the harbors, more for $ than health)? Happiness is precarious. After some whipping and a call from Gilg to cancel the wine deal we had, I saw a crash that put red faces everywhere. Then there was a slave revolt in the cap.

Or perhaps I should just say, what are the big picture goals at a time like this on an isolated start?

Oh, and that $375 in the bank is due to me consenting to sell semi-early religious techs to all comers. Hey, they asked.

Again, thanks for tuning in and adding your two bits. Attached, depictions of the state of the empire and the save.

 

[DaveMcW]

Build the "4 more settlers" wonder.

It gives +50% of everything!

 

[Fidardorist]

Build the "4 more settlers" wonder.

It gives +50% of everything!

uhhh...schooled?

 

[kazapp]

Build the "4 more settlers" wonder.

It gives +50% of everything!

That's actually a great idea!

Add a Wonder which costs somewhat more than 4xSettlers in price, and when built, provides four "free" Settlers in the city it was built.

That way, us wonder addicts can REX too...

 

[Fidardorist]

1400 AD, Turn 300

Latest update, now with image hosting and sweeter screenies!

So this maximum trade/maximum tech strategy has been really inner-esting and fun. I've only in the last few hundred years been leading the crowd on score, but I've had them in the dust the whole game on tech, and this without getting a great prophet to get my shrine up yet. I've gone so far as to build walls to get to castles (the stone helps) in juzzabout all my established coastal cities, jacking them from 16 to 20 trade route yield, 26 in my cap & gold (& would be shrine) city Hamburg.

Info Screen Showing $ Dominence

Spoiler :

In keeping with this modus operendi, I am quite the chum to several. This could get me into Diplo-victory position...which isn't really my plan. But right now I am using it for safety from attack and trade, trade, trade.

Diplo Glance Screen

Spoiler :

This trade is bringing in on the order of 14 gold per turn for resources (though I haven't tried extortional subsidies as described in the war academy article here: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/subsidies.php. It's also bringing in loads of happy resources, resulting in 5 extra to the happy cap. Now the primary issue that I've been dealing with is fighting this unhappiness and for that I got to build a wonder without shame: Notre Dame. Additionally defensible bcs it doesn't go obsolete (the word, not the civfanatic). Keep this in mind when we visit the capitol later.

First though, the newness of this approach includes a totally different tech path than I've ever taken. Maximizing beaker bonus from Liberalism, I research astro and sci method with the help of a GS. This meant I could grab the expensive physics with Lib and generate another GS, just in time for him to meet up w\ another GS that emerged from my cap\GP farm. It's been doing been doing pretty durn well producing GP with just Pacifism for the boost, but not Caste Sys for extra specialists. Slavery has been too good to me to leave behind and GP's have been coming at, what? the rate of about one every 15 turns or so. Got to say, feels like now I've got that strength-to-strength-synergy-type-bounce you have in some games (I didn't earlier in this game). This is in part due to finally rexing aggressively and turning the lack of mili from a problem into an opportunity through trade/lightbulbing/beelining. And the strong capital, of course. This tech pace would feel brisk on normal, so it's really decent for me on epic.

Beelining Tech Path

Spoiler :

Well, we did discuss the possibility of someone hosing in our lovely land mass, did we not? And so it was. Check Gilgy's two sites in SE in the image below. Gilgy is a friend, sadly, bcs with all these wars I've passively been involved in, I may just have nicked these cities for cheap, but I didn't want to blow peace and harmony, so I've had to look to other solutions. Luckily, per confusion in last post as to how to use the artist, I still had him around and bombed him from Dusseldorf, culture style when the two towns were in their infancy. I thought surely that would have done to get that populace ready for a switch. Well, it got me land space but was singularly unimpressive as a city flipping gambit. His Isin is only at about 7-9% as we speak. What does it take to culture bomb a city these days?

State of the Empire, Down Here at Mid-Bottom of the Post

Spoiler :

So, what does the future hold?

I've got production issues, by my lights, in many of my towns, but I still have plenty of trees around for lumber yards, and I'm researching replaceable parts for those and to boost my new and multiplying wind/watermills.
-Tech Questions: Steam looks attractive for the levies, and then those two scientist discussing the their research in the cap can pop us to Electricity for the coinage advantage on those mills. Plenty of priority questions when it comes to that honeycomb tech path (bee lined, but full of holes.)
-Happiness Issues: Note also in the below image of the capitol that the happiness looks swell until you realize it's founded on sand: 5 from the trades, yes and 7 from the HR garrison. But how long until you kick your addiction to HR? Gotta happen sooner or later. So happiness will continue to be primary issue.
-GP Decisions: Should I throw both scientists at electricity or think about settling one or even a new academy? Speaking of GPs, what do you think about prioritizing a G Prophet to get my shrine up good and proper (now with banking coming in - can you say Wallstreet)? It could bring in say 9-15 base gold just on what we have now + spreading it on my own cities and then, beyond. But then, corps are just around the corner.

Great Scientists Confer In Capital"

Spoiler :

-War Choices: One turn before this save, the world broke out into a massive war. You can see the battle lines below. It's quite convenient, bcs it's a dogpile on my nearest adversary who is not in the club, Caesar. I feel like I ought to join in for another passive one, just for consistency. Haven't really thought seriously of getting anything out of actually taking part and getting some spoils as, well, it's across the sea and would require effort and would dent my economy and... Maybe send some knights for a pillage party? Am enjoying first totally peaceful game maybe ever. If war comes, seems to me it would be a combo of my UU (panzers) and a dominant navy to bombard coastlines (destroyers) and provide adequate passage (transports) . My VC has been Domination or Space Colony and is feeling increasingly like space.

Diplo: Dogpile on Caesar

Spoiler :

Ok then. Did I mention how sweet it was to obsolete the Parthenon so quickly after I got beat to it? No? Yeah, probably best left unsaid.

So I will be on a work trip all this week which will limit post/play possibilities. What is up with that, am I right? I'll check in where I can. Thanks for playing.

-Fidardorist

 

[paulthebug]

Some advices:

- Forget early wonders .... you have good land and settlers will be far more useful than wonders in here IMHO

- Check if you're really isolated.... it is still soon in the game and you may have a coastal bridge somewhere ( like in the SE )

- Try to not crash your economy while expanding and beware of barbs ( you need to do all the fog busting....

- Tech CoL and currency ASAP

Sorry r_rolo, I actually disagree with all your points.
- I will go for all the early wonders, aka Obsolete's style. GWall is a priority. With that, don't have to waste hammer building frogbusters. Stoneage is nice & cheap, each new cities don't need to invest hammer to pop border. Pyramid is of course, very nice for SE-center economy. Bismark is industrious, not stone/marble is fine. Not going for wonder seems such as waste for industrious trait.
- SE-centric econ can probably land you liberalism early to break out from isolation.
- If you can land Great Wall, I wouldn't want to expand too fast neither, can just take city from barb later.


Looking at the map, I would use Berlin to build one setter first and try to land Stoneage. After that, Berlin will be my main settler/worker factory. The second city (somewhere in the middle of the land) will be the wonder-spam city.