I'm playing this on the same day that I started the Final Frontier succession game, so I'm in a mood for excruciating detail.
This spot has lots of food, but only three hills. Not so hot for wonders. I can get the most information by moving the scout S-SE to the hill, and the warrior north to the coastline.
That spot C is pretty good. Freshwater corn which makes up for losing seafood, at least five hills, plus on a plains hill. So let's move the settler that way.
Another food resource, and loads of flood plains! Heck, the settler's current spot is even tempting, with the five flood plains. (If only there were a site that could reach all three food. Next I will complain about Cindy Crawford's mole.)
Anyway, on the next turn we get another scout and warrior move before deciding on settling.
The warrior found pigs that would have been within reach of the original start. Four food resources there, plus five flood plains - absurd for a specialist strategy. But that's in the past now. I'm not looking for specialists, I want wonderful hammers. And I can now see that the C site has SEVEN hills, and enough food to work them all (2 city center + 4 watered corn + 3 sheep + 2 flood plains = 11. 5 grass hills + 2 plains hills = -9 food.) So here we go. And there's even gold down there.
Having moved away from the coast costs me a bit of purity on my plan - now the coastal wonders are out of play. But the last time I tried to build all the wonders together also missed out on one situational wonder (Hoover Dam.) So we'll go with it. Moving off the coast also helped in that now I don't need Fishing and Sailing in the early tech plan.
Now, what's my plan. The order of early wonders is pretty set: Stonehenge, Great Wall, Oracle, Temple of Artemis, Pyramids. The last two come in that order because ToA is cheaper and its priest helps build the Pyramids. And I shall Oracle for MONARCHY. The hugest obstacle early here will absolutely be the happy cap, and Oracle to Monarchy is the fastest way to bust it. It's also pretty much the only way to get good Oracle bounty without Writing. Yes - this is a rarity but I have a plan that can neglect Writing for some time. Heck, I can even skip Pottery.
First things first, though - Agriculture and a worker.
Oh boy, Montezuma to the north. At least it's only Monarch.
Whoa though, some scouting found STONE only a stone's throw (
) from Delhi! Is it possible to hook it up in time for Stonehenge and the Great Wall? I actually worked through the numbers - it's possible to grow to size 4, start a settler, get it to exactly 40/100 hammers on turn 31, double whip. But can't reach Bronze in time for the whip.
So I can't whip the settler - must straight build it if I want it. Straight build at 4 turns +5 and 10 turns +8 (after the corn is farmed) puts out the settler on turn 29. That's possible. Go for it - yes I am starting a settler right at size ONE.
Racing for the stone is a slight loss on the early wonders. Stonehenge and Great Wall total 180 base hammers figuring Industrious, which the stone drops to 108, recovering less than the cost of the settler. But getting a second city going is essential to build military (barbs are on). Until it got going, I brought home the starting warrior for police, and parked the scout on the stone fogbusting.
And start research on The Wheel the worker can build roads whilst training the settler. To complete the jigsaw plan, those roads also help speed the settler to the destination.
Next techs were Masonry, then Hunting-Archery, need barb defense and no wherewithal to go find resources. Then Polytheism. Always do the Poly route towards Priesthood, never Meditation. It costs 30 more beakers, but Poly is needed soon for Mono and Literature, but Meditation can wait until Philosophy. Also I need Poly anyway for Temple of Artemis.
And there's my stone city. No time for a quarry, we had to settle right on the stone. 3 hammers from a city square makes for a great military trainer while the capital is busy. That "24" turns to Stonehenge is on nothing more than the two city center hammers. It would drop once Delhi added mines right away at size two. (I haven't yet gotten to AH or had worker turns available for the sheep.)
And... got it.
Two down. Notice I mistimed Priesthood research ever so slightly; Delhi sank a few hammers into the Pyramids in the meantime.
Change of plans from Oracle-Monarchy, though. Stone will make the Pyramids come soon enough anyway, and we'll definitely want Rep instead, it gives happy too and we will have settled Great People. So the best thing I can Oracle is Aesthetics, nice shortcut to the Great Library.
The first Great Person is due to arrive, and call it the Ruff_Hi start: Stonehenge and Great Wall competing for it. Stonehenge won with its head start and gave me a Prophet who settled. 2 extra hammers will add up to an extra wonder within 100 turns.
There she is...
... and there he is.
By the way, notice the sheep still unimproved. Delhi grew past the happy cap just fine on the corn alone. Improve the food first isn't always the right move. Neither is stopping growth at the happy cap, since now I can flip to Representation and the newly happy population is already born and ready to work.
Wait, didn't I say Temple of Artemis? Why Pyramids first? This:
While Delhi did the Pyramids, Bombay put out an archer-worker-settler trio who built a road to the southeast coast and then a city there on top of the marble. Now I have the resource doubler for the Temple of Artemis too.
Delhi got the ToA too no problem, and started on Aesthetics wonders. My second Great Person came out right after that...
Jackpot! A Great Engineer in my wonder crazy game! But... no, he can do something even better than rush a wonder in Delhi. Hammers in Delhi would be wonderful too, but I pass on that too:
Rather, this. Now I can get ALL the wonders, even if the coastal ones aren't in Delhi. This move may be weird definitely is silly actually will be pretty productive with a bunch of coastal cities.
The third Great Person very quickly thereafter was another Prophet. Again he has a job besides settling in Delhi.
Bulb Theology. This accomplishes several things: opens up the two wonders for me, gets me a religion, discourages the AIs from researching the tech - and also from researching Divine Right with two more wonders.
GP #4 was an Artist thanks to the Parthenon, and we know what unwanted Artists do. Saves me two turns of anarchy in adopting a religion and Org Rel. Right AFTER I did that, Buddhism random-spread to one of my cities. No problem, just changed to Buddhism at the end of the Golden Age.
Fifty-nine Great Person Points per turn - in BC YEARS. By the calendar change, Delhi had added all of the Parthenon, Shwedagon Paya, Hanging Gardens, and Chichen Itza (briefly at risk since the AIs went to Code of Laws early).
That fifth GP came out as a Great Spy. Yes, settle him - I want espionage research visibility on Mansa. 6 beakers don't hurt either.
ooh, 150 BC Zara popped a scientist and bulbed Taoism. Gonna have to catch up to Angkor Wat sometime soon.
Meanwhile, the fruits of Bombay's loins had spread out to populate my little peninsula.
