omgwtfbbq start

[Kuciwalker]

[Kuciwalker]

Btw yes, that's another fish west-northwest of the settler.

[Will9]

I'd prefer more pruduction in my 1st city. I'd say that is better for a 2nd or 3rd city.

[Common Sensei]

For three gems and three seafood tiles, I wouldn't mind at all having a second city worry more about the production.

Although, giving up a turn to move the settlers to where the warriors might not be too bad either.

[Pinchak]

Pretty cool.

Someone once posted a start where they had 4 gold in the starting cross.

I guess the game is generous sometimes.

[Guynemer]

I'm jealous, I'll admit it.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

I confess that I'll never know how you guys can tell which resource is which without the resource flags turned on. Still, that looks like a great start... maybe better on the tile the Warriors are on.

[Brael]

Originally posted by Pinchak
Pretty cool.

Someone once posted a start where they had 4 gold in the starting cross.

I guess the game is generous sometimes.

That one was mine. Pigs, 8? floodplains, 4 forest, 4 gold. I still have the game uploaded actually (and the screenshot although I think I changed the image link). Truth be told though, this one blows the gold start away due to food resources.

[couerdelion]

This is better than the gold start. Give me a 2/1/6 tile over a 0/3/7 tile anyday.

Now I can't decide whether I like work boat or worker first here

[ColdPhoenix]

I would have said work boat first but I don't think that's an option with China so worker's the way forward.

[couerdelion]

China starts with Agro and Mining

23 turns to worker (I am used to thinking Epic speed) or around 10 turns to Fishing + 21 turns for work boat.

Worker first (23 turns)
Workboat second (by the time it is built all Gems will have been mined)

I often find that those gem starts can leave you a little short on early game production. There’s no doubt that the extra commerce is a bonus but the lack of production can slow the early game development quite a bit. With barbs encroaching and the need to expand, I usually prefer to have food/production first and commerce coming a little later.

That said, having a high commerce capital can be hugely advantageous once bureaucracy comes around so once you’ve tamed the wilderness a little, the city is very strong.

For the reasons above, I’d be inclined here to use the bronze whip to get that workboat out quickly (Bronze as second tech). Use the fish then to grow back and the whip overflow for a warrior garrison and then another Workboat. Wheel as third tech will allow the gems to be linked before barbs start arriving (and as a consequence I think this also means that we don’t want the starting warrior to wander off). With a garrison and gems, can grow to size 4 even with whip unhappy so the double whip can be used for a settler and overflow for military.

Even though we temporarily lose a fair amount of commerce by working the fish and clams (for health reasons the clams may be better than the second fish at this stage), there is little doubt that tech rate will be ahead of rivals now and in the foreseeable future so the ancient techs should be trivial. Once you have some decent “production” sites, your capital has done most of its production and can then revert to “science/gold”

[Brael]

I was thinking something slightly different myself. The food in that city isn't based on worker techs, and the sea tiles are superior to the land tiles with early improvements. Therefore a priority doesn't need to be placed on the Worker. I'm used to playing on huge marathon maps so my suggestions would be based on that, his game speed or map size might vary it alittle.

Fishing and Bronze Working look to be the two obvious first techs here. I could see either one making the stronger opening play, but from the quick calculations I did Fishing came out slightly ahead so I would say that for the first buy and a Warrior for the first build. Once the Warrior finishes I think he would be best used as a scout. Then build another Warrior until Fishing is completed (if the first Warrior never finished, do the same thing and switch).

Next switch to a Work Boat and begin Bronze Working. BW should finish before the boat does and the city should be size 3 by this point. When BW is close to completion make a Worker with atleast 1 hammer placed into the build and arrange the que so that it looks like this (except likely with different numbers since I didn't put that much thought behind it):
Work Boat (15)
Worker (31)
Warrior (10)

Now, whip that boat to completion and move it to the best food tile bringing your city to size 2. The overflow will goto the Worker and it should allow you to whip that Worker in next turn bringing your city to size 1. The overflow from the Worker should then bring the Warrior to completion or close. Use this Warrior as a garrison or scout depending on how many were built before.

Finally, I would begin construction of additional Work Boats to act as scouts and connect resources. To speed this up have your Worker chop the forests as its first moves. After the forests are chopped it could mine the gems. The reason I would hold off on the gem mines is that the sea tiles are the ones which you want to work first so theres plenty of time to mine the gems as an unworked mined gem without access to roads is a waste of a workers time.

Moves beyond that are tough to really plan without knowing the lay of the land.

[ben04]

How about uploading a save game? I want to play that game.

[guermantes]

Originally posted by ben04
How about uploading a save game? I want to play that game.

I second that. Never had such a start myself...
What difficulty/game map are you playing?

[wodan11]

I agree... gems are better than gold any day, especially in the capitol. And, capitol having gems is way better than production. The fish and clams here will crank out settlers just fine, all while the gems crank the commerce. Yeah, you can't make wonders with this capitol, but the 2nd city sure can, and wonders tend to be a poor investment anyway, early in the game.

Wodan