Well there has been a moderately slow start here. Lots of late cities though, OT4E only just got one last turn so I don't think I am too behind the pack despite getting 2 workboats out already, and I did grow to size 4. Would have hoped to be a little quicker having exp with me but hey ho.
Still not quite sure if I settled the best spot here. Almost went 1N to share the clams. However given the cap has lots of hills to try and use I felt that there would be minimal sharing past the first 10-15 turns, especially as my next city will likely borrow cap clams for a while too to the west of it, therefore a bonus hammer on settling was worth it more. It delayed the settle by a turn also, but I think in 20 turns it will lead me ahead. Not doing any sims after the start now, it'll all be gut stuff.
I did decide to go for a religion - There are lots of cres out there, I don't need anything beyond hunting and fishing for the immediate future for food so I thought it could be powerful. PB30 bhuddism has been really helping me with free spreads so I think it would be a good investment. Also I already had myst.
Long term despite the barren landscape I feel relatively ok with things. This is PB22 redux in my mind. It was requested a natural map with minimal editing. I have looked around and seem to be alone. I can't imagine the land connecting in the east, nor in the west unless there is more to the SW, however I will have a lovely arid region to defend if that is the case.
Given this I have been thinking how to take things forward here - I think I should attempt TGLH. Although it is only 1 route it is still very powerful. I will need to coast hug for ANY sort of food here, the only land based food not covered by these 2 cities is another plains sheep to the north, and a couple of floods. There is also no ind trait floating around, and I have a good amount of forest and hills to attempt it from. I can quickly spam a few workers, and the basic lighthouse is really important to the cap with how many clams there are to work.
I also would want early masonry as I will pick up the marble in the BFC of the 2nd city soon. Probably would be a bit too late for an attempt at the oracle, but I am really light on required tech here currently. I could easily get priesthood after masonry. The only tech I kinda need currently is pottery, but that is for granaries - there isn't really anywhere worthwhile cottaging currently.
The other strength to this start as well as the hammer rich cap is the availability of both stone and marble early. Admittedly the stone will be hard to settle productively, but it does open up a lot of oppertunities with no inds. I have actually been having thoughts about long term options. Given the poor cottaging aspects of this land, I feel a SE could be possible here. I think I could claim the mids as I doubt they would go too early, and I would just need to burn a settler for the stone quickly (also an early moai here would be nice) This coupled with the 2 free merc specialists, and the environmentalism bonus gold could work well. This would go nicely with the buffed philo.
The other thought is whether a run on the colossus is worth it too... It isn't nerfed in this mod to any extent like in the later versions. It probably would be nice, but reliant on hitting the oracle.
A lot of these plans want early wonders. Need to make sure I don't sacrifice too much early growth for these. However I definitely think GLH is worth a run at, and the oracle after (no one else has a religion yet obviously) I will see how other things pan out.
![[Image: NzJKgm1.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/NzJKgm1.jpg)
Still not quite sure if I settled the best spot here. Almost went 1N to share the clams. However given the cap has lots of hills to try and use I felt that there would be minimal sharing past the first 10-15 turns, especially as my next city will likely borrow cap clams for a while too to the west of it, therefore a bonus hammer on settling was worth it more. It delayed the settle by a turn also, but I think in 20 turns it will lead me ahead. Not doing any sims after the start now, it'll all be gut stuff.
I did decide to go for a religion - There are lots of cres out there, I don't need anything beyond hunting and fishing for the immediate future for food so I thought it could be powerful. PB30 bhuddism has been really helping me with free spreads so I think it would be a good investment. Also I already had myst.
Long term despite the barren landscape I feel relatively ok with things. This is PB22 redux in my mind. It was requested a natural map with minimal editing. I have looked around and seem to be alone. I can't imagine the land connecting in the east, nor in the west unless there is more to the SW, however I will have a lovely arid region to defend if that is the case.
Given this I have been thinking how to take things forward here - I think I should attempt TGLH. Although it is only 1 route it is still very powerful. I will need to coast hug for ANY sort of food here, the only land based food not covered by these 2 cities is another plains sheep to the north, and a couple of floods. There is also no ind trait floating around, and I have a good amount of forest and hills to attempt it from. I can quickly spam a few workers, and the basic lighthouse is really important to the cap with how many clams there are to work.
![[Image: vC7JBCr.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/vC7JBCr.jpg)
I also would want early masonry as I will pick up the marble in the BFC of the 2nd city soon. Probably would be a bit too late for an attempt at the oracle, but I am really light on required tech here currently. I could easily get priesthood after masonry. The only tech I kinda need currently is pottery, but that is for granaries - there isn't really anywhere worthwhile cottaging currently.
The other strength to this start as well as the hammer rich cap is the availability of both stone and marble early. Admittedly the stone will be hard to settle productively, but it does open up a lot of oppertunities with no inds. I have actually been having thoughts about long term options. Given the poor cottaging aspects of this land, I feel a SE could be possible here. I think I could claim the mids as I doubt they would go too early, and I would just need to burn a settler for the stone quickly (also an early moai here would be nice) This coupled with the 2 free merc specialists, and the environmentalism bonus gold could work well. This would go nicely with the buffed philo.
The other thought is whether a run on the colossus is worth it too... It isn't nerfed in this mod to any extent like in the later versions. It probably would be nice, but reliant on hitting the oracle.
A lot of these plans want early wonders. Need to make sure I don't sacrifice too much early growth for these. However I definitely think GLH is worth a run at, and the oracle after (no one else has a religion yet obviously) I will see how other things pan out.
![[Image: RQusujo.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/RQusujo.jpg)