[SPOILERS] Mardoc gets back on the horse

[flugauto]

Another dotmap.
1. 1SW of the sheep. 2 deer, shares the sheep, has fresh water.
2. 2N of the west fish. Fish, clams, silver, shares the western deer.
3. 2N of the east fish. Fish, deer.
4. The desert hill.

[Mardoc]

I appreciate having the alternative to think about, but I think I'm going to stick with mine.

Yours has better satellite cities in the long run, but less food sharing and less ability to grow capital cottages. It also leans on the overseas tiles more. That means the cities won't get started as fast.

And, honestly, I don't think the starting island is ever going to be a powerhouse, except maybe the capital itself. We just don't have good enough terrain to work with. Rather than try to optimize it, I'd rather hurry up and get off the island. And not steal the good tiles from the mainland - going to want mainland cities to stand up fast themselves.

[Mardoc]

We have horses. Can use them in both dotmap options.

[flugauto]

The tundra tile has become a lot better. I wonder where the copper is.

[Mardoc]

Well, the desert hill city won't be all that great. Probably still worth building, assuming we get the Colossus, but almost all its food will have to be borrowed from a neighbor.

Scout's headed south to defog the one tile that might spawn barbs. Since, yeah, I really don't want to have to deal with those, not even animals.




Everyone's grown to size 2 but us, so we must be the only team to go worker-worker. No one can have a second tile improved yet, though, so I don't feel too bad about being behind there .

[flugauto]

Scout's headed south to defog the one tile that might spawn barbs. Since, yeah, I really don't want to have to deal with those, not even animals.

What is the tile? Is it the horses tundra?

[Mardoc]

Yep, that one. I believe the rule is that a unit or culture defogs for 2 tiles all around, and that tile is three from our culture.

[Mardoc]

And...we have a more urgent reason to consider settling the marble island:



Still less important than the mainland, I think, but it just got a lot closer.

[flugauto]

Nice, a third happiness resource.

[Mardoc]

Finished Pottery, on to Bronze. Toyed with going for religion first, but I think we'll want slavery soon, and chopping. An extra high-hammer tile will be a nice bonus as well, of course .

Post bronze, I don't see anything more urgent than Priesthood. The tech itself is not particularly expensive, so I think we can delay Sailing until we've got the Oracle started. I do see a reason to go Buddhist instead of Hindu - Meditation is significantly cheaper. Although I wouldn't redo the opening and skip the worker techs...it is possible that someone could beat us to the Oracle if they tried.

Although as a reassurance, still no religions have fallen. So we're not doomed yet.

The workers have prepared for city two, and are now working on some additional tiles for Lavoisier, as well as a bit of roading to city three. I'm probably going to put Lavoisier immediately on a granary and let it grow up, once the settler is out, so we do need to prepare tiles sharpish. Maybe do some pre-chopping of forests, too, or at least put roads in them.