Demo Game #5 - city planning

[rjmatsleepers]

What should our priority be?

RJM at Sleeper's

[rjmatsleepers]

My initial thoughts are that we are going to have a lot of trouble with corruption. That suggests to me that we need to go for an ICS type strategy. Churn out the settlers and cram in the cities. Apart from any technologies we start with, we will need to trade for more (or get them as tribute). If we are going to get any beakers, they will come from scientists which means at least one size 5 city. That will presumably be our capital. The rest of the cities can be kept small. As far as location is concerned, I suggest our leader chooses the first spot that will support a size 5 city - don't spend time searching for anything better.

What do the rest of you think?

RJM at Sleeper's

[Hydey]

more size 5 cities will enable more scientists for faster research.

[StuporMan]

I do not know what the policy is on the ruthless dictat... er, I mean graciously elected leader voting on these types of polls, so I will refrain from voting for now.

I should have a starting location up by tomorrow morning. That should help us make a more informed decision.

StuporMan

[Zedd]

StuporMan,
As citizens we need to know the thoughts and plans of our president. As the only one actually playing the game, your input is vital to making informed decisions. So please Vote away.

[Zedd]

I agree with Hydey, fast expansion and city growth is going to be essential, but I want to see our start position before casting my ballot

[StuporMan]

All right, I have posted the starting position in a new thread.

Here are my thoughts on how to play this game. I believe that we need to quickly expand to get 4 cities. The priority for founding these cities will be sites that will enable quick growth to size 5. From the look of things, we may have lucked out on getting a good starting postion for enabling quick growth.

I do not believe we want many more than 4 cities early on since happiness problems will be very hard to quell early on, since we cannot build HG. Also, since we cannot use Monarchy as our government form, many cities will cause massive amounts of corruption, waste, and unhappiness with little early benefit.

So my current priorities appear to be:
1. Get 4 size 5 cities for scientific research.
2. Explore and find other civilizations.
3. Build helper cities to support our science cities.

The main question I have right now is what to do with our second settler. To have 2 cities, or to explore and improve the land. I am leaning more toward exploration and improvement since there is not a big benefit to an extra early city due to no city science.

StuporMan

[dunnm]

After a long time lurking ................. time to post. Can the game 4 posting be untopped ? Perhaps even Cavebear may return to help ?????

View - settlers..... but would like to see opening first

[StuporMan]

Dunnm,

Welcome, we are always happy to have more citizens!

Everyone,

In case you missed it, the starting location (picture and description) is located HERE

This will hopefully give you the information you need to make an informed decision.

StuporMan

[Zedd]

dunnm,

Welcome aboard. As for your question, I have allready PMed cavebear to try and remove the demo4 posts. IIRC he is also moderator of the demo thread so he would be the one to do it.

comments: Definately a good startig point, I think StuporMan has it right-on.

[atawa]

For our capital I suggest 1 step SW.

I also agree with the fast expansion so we can Xin with size 5 cities.

Only problem is we need to get our first city to size 5 asap, its the only way for us to gain tech since attacking with warriors is not realy worthwile.

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by atawa
For our capital I suggest 1 step SW.

I'd be inclined to put our capital on the starting position. atawa, why are you suggesting the tile to the SW?

RJM at Sleeper's

[atawa]

We could posibly uncover 2 more specials in the dark.

[dunnm]

I agree with StuporMan as regards the second settler. As to the positioning of the first city would SW or NW give us a sweet spot ( map analysis is one of my many weak points ) ? Do we want to look for sweet spots with these game parameters ? I am finding it hard to formulate a strategy with so many restristrictions. I have played with most of the restrictions before but only one at once................ I predict a steep learning curve ahead

[StuporMan]

With all this talk about "sweet spots", I thought I would do some analysis. I calculated and figured out that moving 1 space either SW or NW will net us one extra special. I have also found the 4 closest locations for 4 special sites.

I do not know what the rules are about exploits in Democracy games, so I do not know what the policy is on using helper programs and black clicking or I could find out if these are viable city sites.

As far as I can tell, the benefits of a "sweet spot" is essentially twofold. Trade specials will benefit taxes, luxuries, and trade deliveries. Production and food specials will help with civilization growth.

I believe that in our first 4 cities what we are looking for is food more than anything else. After that, production would give us the biggest benefit. Trade specials, however, might allow for WLTXD growth during Republic, giving us more science producing cities. So, trade vs production specials may be a toss up.

Stuporman