Alone on small Continent, what to do?

[batavier]

I started a game with Elizabeth with civ4 on prince level. It appears I'm alone on a small continent. It doesn't look very
promising. I have only one happiness resource and no help from an early religion.

This is what happened so far:

4000 research bronze working
4040 got a scout from a hut
3680 The Wheel from a hut
3640 Buddism Found i distand land. It's quiet around here.
3520 Hinduism FIDL. still not seen anyone.
3440 Bronzeworking done, start pottery.
3400 Worker done. will build mine first. start warrior. Play around with worked tiles to get the warrior ready as the city goes to size 2.
3200 mine ready.
3080 pottery done, start on agriculture
3000 warrior ready. start settler. worker will cottage flood plain (the ONLY flood plain on my continent)
2800 agriculture ready. start on animal husbandry
2760 scout killed by lion. well it was free after all.
2520 settler done, start on granary
2400 Animal husbandry done. start on ?????

I need to get culture in my new cities. that can be done with obelisks or a library.
I don't think I can found a religion soon, or should I still try to get to code of laws first?

I don't see any great city spots. I can put a city between the pigs and the horsed to the east that will have a lot of grass and riverside tiles, but also some desert, or it will be one tile off the coast. Another spot is along the south coast next to the sheep and the horses, altough there is more tundra than I want.

The borders of the capital will envelop the copper in 10 more turns, so there is no need to put a city next to it now.

[Theben]

Pics?

[Lancer]

Research monothiesm, and may god help you.

[Ari]

On prince, code of laws is a definite possibility. I often get that first, especially since by that point, all the religious AI's have nabbed the early 3. In the longer term, though, try to beeline for optics. In fact, I'd prioritize that far above a religion. -1 happiness isn't the end of the world, especially since you can expand more readily, knowing you're alone (and thus eliminating vertical population growth for long periods of time). Also, low population will let you slave-rush more easily. And if you can pick up monarchy, then your happiness is solved anyway. If you're near stone, masonry will quite likely grant you the pyramids (the AI doesn't seem to favor them, perhaps because of their crazy cost) which'll let you immediately reap monarchy's benefits. Also, being alone makes culture in general less important, so the extra culture from temples and monasteries is irrelevent, the research bonus is paltry, and the happiness can be obtained cheaper under monarchy with extra troops (which as an extra bonus make you a less appealing target for other civs).

In the initial part of the game, there aren't really any benefits to having neighbors anyway. Until alphabet, there's really NO benefit, since there usually aren't trade connections or connected resources before then anyway. So you're not losing as much ground as you might think.

If you're the first one to meet n greet everyone, you'll almost certainly have a few techs to trade, even if you keep optics close to the vest initially for the circumnavigation bonus.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you do found a religion, it'll be a different one than everyone else. You might want to build the AP if only to keep everyone else from ganging up on you. Multiple naval invasions are no fun at all.

[joncnunn]

You might want to take a look at some of the results from a previous AU course that I think was entitled "No Civ is an island" which was on an archepello map. It was under Warlords so there are some differences between that and BTS, but it's still good for giving ideas.

But basically here are some of the things you can do with confirmation of being alone in a landmass:
1. You definately don't need to build any more scouts.
2. And you'll only need one defender per city for a while and even that can wait for the city to grow enough for unhappiness from we demand military protection.
3. So Baracks & Walls will also not be needed early on.

What you are going to need to do is try to found a religion, Monothesism & Confucism are the better choices. I think I'd go with Confucism as the far more likely to succeed.

Then your going to need to make sea techs a priority along with some galleys to explore.

Later on, you may want to consider building the AP to deny it to your opponents so you don't get sudenly find everyone at war with you.

[Blake]

Maaap!

The solution to this is easy. You're Philosophical!

Start cranking out Great Scientists. I'd use the first for an academy in the capital, the second can lightbulb Philosophy, switch to pacifism and just settle the next few in the capital.

You'd want to try and run 4-6 scientists at all times, for quite a while. Remember that you don't need a large city to run scientists, a size 3-4 city working a 4+ food plot can do it. The Great Scientists don't count against the happy cap, they're free effective population, in effect.

There is no question about this. Philosophy! Scientists!
Even run Caste System if you can afford to not run slavery, and can afford to run more scientists in places. It's a lot better to run 4 scientists in one city, than 2 scientists each in 2 cities.

You might also want to try and get the Colossus, so you can pull in maximum income from the coast.

[joncnunn]

A couple more notes considering your playing Liz.
Your Financial, so cottages along any rivers are especally valuable to you (assuming there are any). And the coastal tiles will also be more useful to you as well along with any ocean resources.

And it shouldn't be that difficult on such a landmass to find a very good location for the Moi Statues either.

And a note: For ocean resources Financial synergizes nicely with Philophisical. But in grassland/river & especally floodplains these do tend to conflict so you'll need to choose your own path.

[Theben]

If you're on a small enough landmass and get pyramids, screw monarchy and go for rep. As Blake said you'll want to emphasize specialists and you prolly wont have much more than 6 cities anyways.

[batavier]

I Thought I attached a pic to my post. Only a 52 Kb Jpg file. so it should work

[Blake]

Here's where I would found cities, including rough order for the first few.



Pigs city is excellent because it can grow to size 4-5 and use the surplus food for scientists. Clams city can grow to cap then run 2 scientists. Your capital has 3 hills and can build the Colossus, if you choose to pursue that.

You want to found 10-11 cities, nearly all on the coast. Financial + Colossus will bring in much money. Colossus isn't strictly essential because it goes obsolete with Astronomy anyway (a tech you want ASAP for trade routes), but it's a good wonder anyway since it's on the astronomy path and is cheap to build.

[Blake]

Another thing.

In this case, I would recommend Caste System. Just don't bother with a whole lot of infrastructure in your cities which don't have mines.
You might want to run Slavery eventually, but Caste System will let you start running scientists in "Clams" long before you'd get a library up there.

[Theben]

I believe w/BtS Colossus is obsolete w/Sci Method.

[Krill]

Getting pyramids costs way to many hammers. I'd just expand like a weed and use warriors for happiness and covering FoW.

[wodan11]

I think people sometimes forget the power of Fin + Colossus + Pyramids. If you can get it going, it's huge. Elizabeth is the Queen of this strat. How can you not go for it when you're Elizabeth???

Wodan

[batavier]

Well. I played until 1080 AD. I circumnavigated the globe in 1000 AD and have just met everyone, and can start trading.

Other players are

Asok - Christian #1 score
Mansa Musa - Confucianism #6 score

Saladin - Hinduism #3 score
Mao - Hinduism #5 score

these form two blocks who hate each other

Then there's

Kublai Khan - Judaism #2 score. is more or less neutral to everyone. Tried to trade with him but wants 50% more beakers than he gives out.

Isabella #5 score. Buddism. Seems very backwards and
has no techs I want.

I wonder if I should try to join asok/mansa or saladin/mao

I come last in score. No doubt because my cities are much smaller. I still seem to be ahead in technology so far

I researched until alphabet - calendar - optics - civil serviceand should get astronomy in 18 more turns, and then I can finally trade resources.

Happiness is still a big problem. I researched monarchy early to get hereditary rule to increase happiness. Is it worth it to produce more troops to increase happiness?
(after you start paying upkeep)