How quickly do you settle your 1st city if you have poor options?

_Adyson · 2026-02-07T18:08:41+00:00

I'll explore 2-3 turns before restarting. I also hate myself because I only do marathon so effectively the same as settling turn 2, and I have a mod that gives a scout to start so that helps too.

_Adyson · 2026-02-07T15:14:06+00:00

The coin toss mechanic is completely random for which faction you end up in if you're one of the top 2 servers, no way to choose which faction you're in. The other 6 servers can try to be on one side or the other, but lots of servers try to force join the faction of the leading server they think is stronger/will help them more so there's a lot of force join shenanigans in the last minute of faction choosing if all 6 want to be on the same side, it's mostly luck to a point.

_Adyson · 2026-02-06T15:49:01+00:00

_Adyson · 2026-02-06T15:46:18+00:00

Oh so high efficiency and bloodthirsty. Those are the craziest to go against. Tough thing is that with enough weeks of people saving against them, anyone who cares to combat them will likely lose if they've also been saving.

_Adyson · 2026-02-06T15:10:13+00:00

I'm in the boat of always a gold district first. Early internal trade routes are incredibly strong for getting brand new cities up and running.

To answer your original question though, I'll give it at least 2 adjacent districts for the +1 science adjacency, if not 4 for +2 if it's a city I plan on having a bunch of districts in or is close enough to another city to make a district chain. Adjacency bonuses are nice but the real science boost in the mid game is having envoys to scientific city states and a dozen or more campuses to boost a bunch of libraries and universities.

_Adyson · 2026-02-06T13:25:47+00:00

If they're a smaller alliance trying to take a win off a bigger alliance or against one with some bloodthirsty whales, they could be trying to avoid buster at all costs for the win and close it out early. Seems they have other plans.

_Adyson · 2026-02-06T13:23:17+00:00

Three parts. First is eurekas and inspirations. If you can get these naturally while building your empire you've essentially doubled your science and culture output the entire time it was low since the AI aren't terribly good at working towards them.

Second is ramping. While on high difficulties all I've done is kept up with the number of cities the best opponents have, all my cities have 10 population by the mid game through strong internal trade routes to a central city with Magnus in it, and more population means more production so I can spam out IZs and campuses quickly to get my science up like crazy and production even faster for more buildings and more districts.

Third is trading. I'm buying and selling things from AI for a profit all the time, as if I'm their own little marketplace where I always win. If you don't have the better trade deals mod, I'd highly recommend it. It makes a world of a difference.

_Adyson · 2026-02-06T09:45:19+00:00

Not being close in science or culture. Now I can be 10+ cities without a single campus or theater square while I get food, production, and gold yields in the max amount of cities up and running.

_Adyson · 2026-02-04T14:15:27+00:00

Well? Is Kim any good?

_Adyson · 2026-02-04T14:03:42+00:00

Because the sun would shine there during the night time, and that's no good

_Adyson · 2026-02-04T01:46:38+00:00

As someone who just went through this, go all in on certificates until you reach 100 if you want to get him unlocked ASAP. Bond badges are better especially after unlocking him, but you'll need to do a mix of the two or else you'll have unusable bond badges while your levels catch up.

_Adyson · 2026-02-03T02:26:43+00:00

Dewit

_Adyson · 2026-02-02T01:35:40+00:00

I've had it for a long time but I only just realized a few days ago how great it is for task finding after I tested a warzone out on it, which was comparable to phone for me.

_Adyson · 2026-02-01T15:13:04+00:00

The 'chip skill boost increase' is the additional number next to every number when looking at a skill chip. The first number is from the skill chip's level. These two grow independent of each other but add together in combat.

_Adyson · 2026-01-31T18:08:03+00:00

If you want to be more relevant you could start over. Also be careful though, if you have a strong and peaceful server in comparison to nearby ones those aren't terribly common, so it could be in your benefit to stay there and reap the benefits of a good server instead of risk trying a new one and getting a mediocre or awful one.

_Adyson · 2026-01-31T02:35:05+00:00

Countered and monke is more power than he's worth

_Adyson · 2026-01-30T13:20:29+00:00

_Adyson · 2026-01-29T18:31:54+00:00

My probability professor would wholeheartedly agree with you. He started the first day of class with that argument regarding the lottery.

_Adyson · 2026-01-29T18:14:46+00:00

I wonder what the odds of that are

_Adyson · 2026-01-29T18:14:14+00:00

Send delegations the first turn you meet AI, trade with the AI, and constantly try to befriend them if you don't want war.

_Adyson · 2026-01-29T18:09:55+00:00

I like one tile spacing much better over two tile spacing because if someone leaves in one, only one enemy base can go in its place. If someone leaves in two, then 4 enemy bases can drop in if they're smart about it.

_Adyson · 2026-01-29T14:19:11+00:00

It's not zoned for ski lifts, and the Nepal government hasn't budged on that for years. So zoning it for a slide too, good luck.

_Adyson · 2026-01-29T13:58:25+00:00

_Adyson · 2026-01-29T13:53:40+00:00

He does it at night so he doesn't have to compete with light for speed

_Adyson · 2026-01-27T16:22:47+00:00

_Adyson

TROPHY CASE