Help with City Placement (pics included)

[Hakai]

Could you please post the original .gif without your cities drawn on top? I'd like to draw out the borders for how I would place cities.

[Arrian]

Come to think of it, I might split yellow into two cities (one down by the southern clam & corn, the other north of there. This would work well with moving the pink city east to the river).

-Arrian

[inca911]

Move the red dot city one square to the EAST (i.e., to the right). You'll get the sheep from your capital culture anyway and this will rope off access to the green and purple in the south using the coastline as a barrier. This will allow you to then do the blue dot city next and block off everything to the west. You can then backfill at your leisure in the other city locations. Establish a max border first, then backfill.

[Fosse]

This thread is so much fun. I always spend twenty minutes in the Strategic draw mode plotting where my cities will be.

The AI ALWAYS messes up at least one of them. But it's a great exercise.

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Velociryx
* Chop-Rush two additional settlers out the door, settling in Purple & Blue, respectively, and hold.

This is indeed a choice, and maybe the only way of getting blue first. However: you have 5 forests in your capital's reach. That's +2 health... together with a flood plain those forests might give you better use leaving them alone.

* Close your borders with the Americans, build up sufficient culture to block him off, and use the gold mine in your sphere of influence to offset any maintenance costs you may have.

the gold mine needs to be worked asap. gold hills near rivers (like this one) are the commerce equivalent of farmed wheat, mined iron, or fish with lighthouse: they generate the highest bonusses in their class. At size 3, you should ideally be using the wheat (irrigated), and the gold hill. Size 4, add an irr flood plain. Size 5, specialist: priest (2 shrines to build: you want these early on so they help spreading your religions!)

However, on the blocking issue I don't agree: a defensive builder is better helped with establishing good relations with his neighbours. The moment you settle a coastal city, it will be worth your while to open borders with the US. Add harbors, and open borders might give you as much commerce in a starting empire as a gold hill would. It's better to use that advantage to offset maintenance, and instead of turtling and keeping the US settlers out, it can help you expanding faster so you have all your cities up before they can reach them.

DeepO