You win some, you lose some… 
Well, I chose the coastal start, to take advantage of my Seafaring abilities and get Curraghs out contacting. Was it the right choice? It didn’t look so hot by turn 8 or so, as my exploring warrior headed north to reveal a plump, juicy Cow (on a BG!), just outside my radius, that I would have had if I’d settled on the spot. Oh well, hopefully the early curraghs can make up for it. Based on that, I built the warrior, 2 Curraghs (one to go south, one east), and then went for a settler first before granary. It might work out for the best, if I can still set up a settler factory at city #2 (it looks like I can, the cattle + AGR bonus =+5 fpt), and let the capital take on military production and/or a run at an early wonder – Lighthouse, maybe? But we have a ways to go before we hit that crossroads.
My warrior made first contact in 3300, meeting a warrior from Japan to our north:
82.93KB
It later appears they are to our northwest. They are up Bronze, Wheel, and C.Burial, while down Alphabet and Pottery. Since two of the remaining AI civs (England, Carthage) start with Alphabet, I figure that’s the safest one to trade away, and I get Bronze +7g. I hold Pottery back until I can meet our other neighbor.
That happens 4 turns later, in 3100, as our first Curragh earns his keep:
66.73KB
Hannibal is up Masonry, but has the same techs I do. It seems like there should be a brokering opportunity here, but with no spare cash (no barb huts, no one has any extra gold), it’s hard to come up with something worth while. I could get Burial from Japan for Pottery and a deficit, but that still wouldn’t be enough to get Masonry, and I don’t need any of these techs enough to slow down my research on Writing. IF I get writing first, I should be able to trade for some of the others. I am curious about that other land mass to the SE in that picture, that’s where my curragh will head next. It’s too close to be the other continent, based on our original map request, but it looks big for an island? A couple turns later, it’s starting to look like an island, or a peninsula, but does it connect to the other continent?
Akots and I got 20 turns in our first session (very good pace), so we called it a night, just as my first settler got into position. here’s my situation the following morning, after settling Rotterdam:
114.23KB
My plan is to build a quick warrior at Rotterdam for MP/Garrison, while my original garrison returns to the capital. Empty cities are just too much of a red flag for the AI, especially an aggressive one like Japan! Rotterdam will build a granary next, Amsterdam’s already started one. The worker is moving to irrigate the cow, so I can get started on a settler factory, while the capital will pump out a worker or two (after the granary) and then go for a barracks. I’ve shown my tentative dot-map, of where I want to place my next several cities. The Red dot 2W of Amsterdam is much closer than I would normally like, but it’s the best way I could originally see to stay on the river, and get irrigation over the hills to those desert tiles. Now that my Warrior has topped the mountain, I see a river off the west edge of this map, so I may settle on the orange dot instead. I’m glad to see a second lux (incense) to the north.
Research seems on track, Writing just dropped with settling the 2nd city, and with growth I should be able to drop another couple of turns, so I’m expecting it shortly after turn 30. Since Carthage had Bronze and Pottery, in addition to their starting techs, (and doesn’t appear to have contacted Japan yet), it seems they didn’t go for Writing immediately. And with no huts, and knowing none of the AI have Pottery as a starting tech, Akots may have decided to research it himself. That still leaves England, and possibly Akots if he went straight for Writing, but I think I’m still in pretty good shape to get Philo first.
