Would this be an optimal starting location?

[Krill]

GE?

[Arrian]

Blake,

I play raging for similar reasons InThane does... but if you're handed stone in your starting radius how do you not build the GW?

The barbs will still be out there - you just have the luxury of going out and engaging them when you choose. Further, it will put added stress on your AI neighbors

-Arrian

[Blake]

Originally posted by Arrian
Blake,

I play raging for similar reasons InThane does... but if you're handed stone in your starting radius how do you not build the GW?

-Arrian

The easy way is firstly to not found with the stone in radius, since that means losing the goldmines at the capital, or having abysmal health.
Next, you don't research masonry since other than wonders it's not that useful until much later, and mansa musa doesn't need wonders because he is Financial.

Finally you thump your chest and yell "BRING IT ON! I HAVE SKIRMISHERS!"

Pretty simple really.

[absimiliard]

Originally posted by Blake


Finally you thump your chest and yell "BRING IT ON! I HAVE SKIRMISHERS!"

Pretty simple really.

Falls over laughing!

-abs

[binTravkin]

[Xmudder]

I had a similar starting location in my last game, no gold, but 12 flood plains, some forested grassland, and 3 plains hills, plus stone, rice, and eventually horses. There was only 1 location, on a hill, that allowed me to rise to size 2 w/o incurring health penalties.

I ended up, after some trial and error, building on one of the plains hills near the water. I then built a scout while waiting to reach size 2, then built a worker which researching pottery.

I'd post a screenie if I knew how to take one. The game is going quite well - I'm trying to decide whether or not to finish it. I had to scramble my settlers to grab nearby heath resources, of course, but it was a fun beginning.

I dunno about it being a good start, but it is definitely a challenging one.

Edit: I'd definitely move your first city to the north to get away from all the flood plains. The plains forest to your upper right looks like your best bet, esp as your second city will have access to stone and floodplains. But I'd move your warrior to the gold hills with water first just to make sure. I'd love to see a screen shot of what that shows.

Any reason you chose rampaging barbs over aggressive AI? Aggressive gets your GG points, barb stomping doesn't.

[gdgrimm]

I'd found the capital one tile South of the Cows.

Then the next city would be 2 S and 1 E of the stone.

Split those FP's up between 2 cities to keep the health penalty, but keep the commerce of the Gold mines centralized in the capital.