Recently I've been having a decent amount of success by sending 300w as the first shipment with Japan. My strategy lies on the aggressive side, where I use the consulate to get Clubs and military units to contest the early age 2. This is of course not the best build, but I find it acceptable. Note that I select the Toshugu shrine wonder to get to colonial.
My question is how to best use the wood during transition to the colonial age. First of all, I will briefly explain what I tend to do in the early game:
Assuming that I get a good discovery start and click up with 30 pop, I usually build 2 more shrines (250w) + 1 consulate (200w) + save (200w) for the military building. This allows me to start the colonial age with 70 pop (which I believe is respectable using this strategy). Total wood needed= 650
![Wood :wood:](./images/smilies/icon_wood.png)
Once I get to age 2, I distribute my vills to foods and gold, with shrines on gold. The first colonial shipment is 4 vills, allowing me to get batches of 5 musks consistently (if I open with a rax). I usually wait for 600w as the second colonial shipment to get the market with the techs. However, this looks fairly late for me.
I am thinking that in transition to colonial, I should build only 1 shrine (125w)+ 1 consulate (200w)+ save (200w) for the military building + build a market (100w) and get the first 3 techs: food, gold and civil servant (~115w + additional food & gold). Total wood needed= 740
![Wood :wood:](./images/smilies/icon_wood.png)
In summary, would it best to omit one shrine and get the market instead in transition to colonial using this build?
Thanks for reading and for provinding your suggestions
![Smile :smile:](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)