If you’re playing Fallen Enchantress, which is best?
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The more essence you've got in a city, the more control you have over how the city gets built, how soon it does, and how well it will focus when you make important choices in its growth. I went with 3/3/2.
I second the 3/3/2. Better to go with a balance and have the 2 essence. This way I use the Sovereign's Call for the first and the other either production/research boost.
A balanced start is fairly important for most turn based games in this vein, with the Civilization series being the most obvious. Without knowing what the lands around your city are like, you have to cover for any potential weakness. Since the beginning of the game is generally the most important, starting off right is essential. A 3/3/2 start seems to me to be the most balanced and flexible of starting cities, allowing you to adapt as needed later, when you have an idea what your other city sites might look like.
Both 4/2/2 and 3/3/2 are the best but for different city types.
4/2/2 is ideal for a conclave and 3/3/2 is ideal for a fortress. The other 2 tile combos you mentioned would probably be used as towns in my games
This is a rigged question. Obviously, for a generic start the best start would need a reasonable production and a reasonable grain supply so a 3 / 3 / 2 seems best.But, I tend to like my first city to be a town and a money maker, so I prefer a higher grain. I went with a 4 / 2 / 2, although I am extremely tempted by the 5 / 2 / 1 start.
I went with 3/3/2. Essence is invaluable under the current mechanics, and you need to grab land as quickly as possible, which means building Pioneers, which means materials.
For me, this is an easy choice. I definitely prefer more essence over less essence because it gives me more flexibility, particularly in my starting capitol. I don't count on it being my biggest city, so I can sacrifice food for production. Thus my vote is 3/3/2. That's enough food to grow to a reasonable level, and more than enough production to have some rapid development.
My ordering would be 3/3/2, 4/2/2, 4/3/1, 5/2/1 for preference in starting location.
Now, throw a 3/4/1 into the mix, and that makes the choice a bit more interesting.
This is also open to alot of other factors too. Such as what spells your sov has (enchanted hammers makes a 3 material start site less important as long as you have 2 essence). Another thing is how many other build sites are around - if you're playing a ravaged map with few build sites then food becomes more important as you may be stuck with 1 city for a while
Pariden takes a 3/3/2 and makes it a 3/3/3. The motherload! Soon gets +3 Growth, +3 Research, +15 Production. Then I go after Sorcery to get +3 Grain later on. So now we have a 6/3/3 for the midgame. That's a level 5 city and much faster too. There is so much win in a 3/3/2.
I like 4/2 over 3/3 for a starting city, but that's mostly for Kraxis who can rush build. For most factions 3/3/2 is better.
The optimal options are essence and getting pioneers out fast (there's rarely reason to not pioneer spam)
I shoot for a 1/1/1 personally.
Interesting Question: Glad you asked ...
Of the choices you offered (all adding up to 8), I think 3 grain, 3 production, 2 essence is usually best. Most of the time a balanced start is best, because you really do not know (beyond a very small area) what you will encounter. As Cauldyth suggested (in this magic-oriented game) essence is the most critically important thing in your first city. Production is second, and grain is third.
It DOES drive me crazy, not to have my first city be the biggest city, and a fitting Capital City; so I really wish my first city could always have at least 4 grain, or even 5. But in the short to middle term of the game, growth and population can take a relative back seat to magic and production, at least in your FIRST settlement.
By the way, as a practical matter, I usually settle a 4,3,2 (adds up to 9, of course) for my first city ... I generally won't "settle" for less ...
Since population is of such little use now, Grain is the least important. Building on a spot with high materials gives you instant production, so that is important. Essence can be turned into +Grain or +production, so it is the most useful because it is the most flexible. Now if the rules changed....
3/3/2 because 2 essence is 4 times as good as 1 and when you get an oracle or Scrying Pool it becomes 9 times as good. Also you can directly boost grain by essence so your starting grain doesn't matter if you have essence.
Considering most 3/3 border or are in forests giving you the logging camp to boot is there any real option?
Leveling cities should smack you in the face every time you hit a new level, cause right now population is worthless and city level bonuses are underwhelming. You should see a 5/2/2 and be struggling whether you want it or a 3/3/2 cause right now that one extra material is worth more than those 2 grain.
I know you don't want to do too much more with pop but making units cost pop, or at least making pioneers cost a little more in pop would make it matter at least a little more.
For the first city, 3/3/2 is the best. The capital is is for churning out pioneers. My best start was with a 2/4/3 near a river.
Essence is super important, if only because enchanted hammers turns it into early production. I should really get on with my playthrough...
No offense Frogboy, but if you have any doubts which of the above choices is best, you need to look at the way some of the worst min-maxers play. And I count myself amongst them
I voted 4/2/2, but normally I mix that up during a game as I play, depending on the role I want a city to play.
This one^
4/2/2
I would switch my vote to 4/3/1 if this particular tile is next to a forest and river. Since these location bonuses are often better then the production bonuses from essence.
More grain means higher city level, and the level up bonuses that are given to cities at lvl 4 and 5 are great even though your production is hurting.
After reading some of the responses in this thread, I will start considering 3/3/2
Wow, overwhelming support ( >70% as of writing) for 3/3/2.
I picked it because when you start maximum production is the best. who cares if the city gets big if it takes forever to build anything. 3 mats and 2 essence for the calculation of how much extra production you get from enchanted hammers, AND you can put inspiration on as well. VOOM perfect starting city almost everytime.
Has anyone picked an option with only 2 mats (game suicide right there!)?? I think those options were at 0% of votes.... must go check
wow, 15% for the 4/2/2 option. Sounds like from reading above, people like the 4/2/2 options for much rarer scenarios. Eg, when playing Kraxis (but no other civ). Whereas 3/3/2 seens to be good in much broader scenarios.
^
Sovereign's Call is barely worth the 25 manacost.
3+ mats > everything.
ofc essence >material>grain
grain is a not a factor early and there are sources for it anyway, material is always a factor, essence is just op( more like enchants are too cheap)
The problem with essence is it's exponential in value, meaning increasing your essence results in huge gains for enchantments
1 essence = 1 "enchantment point"
2 essence = 4 "enchantment points"
3 essence = 9 "enchantment points" (with Pariden)
Having enchantments based on the total amount of essence the city has is the cause, and at this point makes the scrying pool OP.
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