You guys really stirred up my curiosity about docking first.
I played some practice RoR games today to test by fast bronze skills again. Also I wanted to test the pit first , granary first debate. I was getting high 12 minute bronzes with assy making 20 villagers whether I pitted or built a granary first using the same RM and restarting to test the other strat.
I decided to switch to a slow civ and went with Hittite on a large narrows map against 2 AI opponents at hard level (same as with Assy). What was interesting was the computer gave me a perfect spot to try the dock first method. Here is how it went:
I built my first house with 2 villagers as my third started scouting. I found shore fish but they were spread to far apart to pit. I found a small peninsula that was a great dock spot but couldn't be pitted. I had 4 straggler trees near my TC and my berries were wrapped around a gold pile and down the side of a peninsula. So why not try the dock first.
I built the dock with 2 villagers as one was building the second house and the others were cutting wood. I was able to immediately start building fishing boats non-stop as soon as my dock was complete. I ended up bronzing with 8 boats and 13 villager (21 in all) in 14:17.
Now I used the same map and decided to build a granary first then a wood pit and dock. I bronzed with 21 total (8 boats and 13 villagers) at 14:48. I wanted the exact same number of villagers for comparison.
Next I built the granary first again but didn't worry about villager count. I just played as I normally would. I got a 14:37 bronze time with 24 villager/boats and more resources when I got to bronze (about 700 food).
In my last test I docked first again. I had realized a better way to manage my wood when docking first, and the advantage of a few more villagers, so played it smarter than the first time. I bronzed at 14:33 with 24 villagers (8 boats, 16 villagers) and over 1050 food when I reached bronze. That is with Hittite.
Now I understand that this was not under the stress of a multiplayer game. That makes a difference. But I will say that I used the same initial scouting routes for each test since I obviously knew where everything was after the first go at it. I attempted to make it as accurate in that respect as possible.
I guess what this means is if the map is favorable with enough straggler trees near the TC, then docking first may be the way to go. The times were very similar but the resource level really jumped up when I docked first the last time.
Jehu
[This message has been edited by Jehu (edited 12-03-98).]