BlitzkreigComin:
Hunting does not require more exploration than berries. In fact, in the games I've played lately I haven't found my berries in the first 3 mins but usually found 2 hunting spots.
Hunting spots are more common on medit than berry spots, and there are usualy 2 at about the same distance as said berries, though there's no certainty as to whether they'll be eles or gazelles until you find them of course.
On medit wood is everywhere, so you have about the same chance of finding hunting+wood as you have of finding your berries, and at about the same distance. Occasionally you might even get a gold mine near the same spot, though that of course is rare.
Shiny:
Yeah, going for the first food source you see seems like a good idea if you have strategies based on both. You should get no villie lag with either start if you know how to do it right. If you hunt, you can dock earlier so take advantage of that. If you pick berries, your early food comes in faster so you can tool earlier.
"I'm not playing persia because there bronze sucks and so does there Iron economy."
Let's look at their weaknesses, their strenghts, and how their strengths can be used to patch their weaknesses.
Persia's Weaknesses
Doesn't get chariots as goldless units. Big deal, more than half the civs don't get chariots, not the least of which are yammy and mino.Doesn't get coinage or siegecraft, but neither does ever-popular shang. Doesn't get craftsmanship, but neither do mace and sumerian. Palmy doesn't get the farm upgrades either.
No artisanship means they don't get that extra +20% woodcutting 2 mins into bronze. That only applies once the opponent gets it, which nowadays isn't before 16-17 mins.
Doesn't get +1 range from artisanship, which hurts their galleys and compies. However, it's a much smaller difference than shang's galleys vs hittite's, or shang's compies vs mino's. Again this doesn't apply until about 16-17 mins.
Animals don't last as long as berries, so you can't rely on your hunting bonus the whole game.
Persia's Strenghts
Probably persia's greatest strenght is their ability for fast age times. I've only been able to do 11 min bronze / 18 min iron with them (after an 8 min tool), but I've seen some players bronze in 10 mins and wipe everyone out with them.They do have fully upgradeable stable units all the way to post-iron, missing only scythes at that. Their archery suffers from missing ballistics and range upgrades, but they do get the full variety from compies to HHAs to EAs.
Moving Mountains to Fill Canyons
Alright, first things first. How to turn that early hunting bonus into economic advantages that could last the whole game.I usually put only 3 villies on eles/gazelles once they're down, the rest go to wood. Because I'm chopping for a pit and didn't spend on a granary, I can start docking almost immediately. About 1:30 later, those 3 join my woodies after gathering enough food to last me 4:00. That means I get a big jump on boat production without losing villie production. To make a long story short, by 6 mins I'm clicking on the tool button with 18-20 land villies and an unknown (but good) number of boats. That's the short-term hunting advantage turned into a strong long-term economy.
Tooling earlier but without any loss of villie production means getting woodworking earlier, which has a large effect on wood production. That means bigger wood stockpiles, or more scout ships, or more FBs - whichever you prefer.
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Ok, now let's talk about artisanship. You bronze in 11, they bronze in 15. What economic gains can you make from that, with no market upgrades to research?
Town Centers. You have a good stockpile of food and wood, and 4:00 to spread TCs and villies all over the map before your opponents can start doing the same. By the time they bronze, you could have 50+ reals and a dozen TCs popping more out. That's a lot of villies, chopping a lot more wood that that 20% you'd get from artisanship.
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Your compies are missing a range. Oh, sob sob. Well, there's several things you can do. Mixing other units might help, everything from cavs/camels to STs and even slingers. As a general rule you should try and stop them from getting there, but that doesn't have to mean tool rushing. Remember those fully upgradeable stable units? Well, you should use them almost every game. While bronzing put some guys on gold, get cav leather, toolworking, pump out a scout and build 1-2 more stables. Once in bronze pump out a few cavs, group them with your scout (so you can see something) and rush those annoying little danahibs. You should catch them just as they're starting tool age, putting up their first market, and kill off at least half their woodies. Switch to camels after your first cavs are out, and get ready to make compies and STs.
Ok, not much can be done about the galleys' missing range though right? Well, you get those 4 mins earlier too. You can bronze about the same time as they tool, so your galleys will be fighting their scout ships and your scout ships...
well, you know.
What if, with a lot of help from all the deities anyone ever believed in, they somehow live long enough to get artisanship with more than 2 pitless villies to apply it on? You can tough it out for a while, battles can take time with economies on that scale, but you'll want to be ready to iron by then. HAs/EAs and cats can handle compies, and your triremes (with 7 base range to a galley's 6) will have equal range but a lot more firepower.So the key then, is how to use that hunting bonus to get ahead, and how to gain from your blazing speed at each step.
"I might If I was good at tool rushing."
As I mentioned above, cav/camel rushing is fine too. I'm not much of a tool rusher either, but rushing a stone age opponent with cavs can be pretty entertaining even so.