Seems to me settle, build warrior, build another warrior, build worker, then build settler? What have you done from the start?



With mysticism as a starting tech, going straight for polytheism will almost guarantee you a starting religion(most of the time the computer will get to meditation before you, and the AI wont try for polytheism before meditation)

Well, I think the decision whether to build the worker or settler first would depend on how much you can improve your terrain, and what imrpovements you can build. If you are able to build roads and either farms or mines, you can definately speed the production of the settler by improving the squares your city uses.

For my first game, here is the order I chose:
Scout, Worker, Settler, Archer.

Although this nearly turned out to be a terrible choice since a Barbarian was squating near the ideal spot for my new town. Luckily he started moving against another civilization so I was only delayed a couple turns.

My guess is that the best order is:
Scout, Worker, Warrior/Archer, Settler, Granery, Archer

Also, for any new towns, you should probably build the Granery first, and have another town supply the first defensive unit.

I usually explore with my first warrior and hope he gets xp to do woodsman II to become a scout of sorts.

I build:
warrior - to defend
worker - to get started on improving (at pop 2, which I usually have at this point)
scout - to explore more (sometimes build before the worker - just depends on how the map is looking and whether I've made contact yet)

Once my city is pop 3 and built all that I build another warrior and a settler to found my 2nd city.

So far I've always gone for a religion early even when not playing as spiritual, and on noble that means your workers have little to do at first.

I'll usually build a worker per city as quickly as possible to get my first 3 cities jammin', then try to build a few building, maybe start a wonder, build a few archers for better defense, and after this brief pause get back to expanding as fast as my treasure/tech will allow.

When it comes to building, I like to build the barracks first. I know it takes a long time, but typically by the time its complete my city is already size three, then I pump out a warrior, settler worker (all relatively quickly), build another building - usually the granary, warrior, settler worker, unless I am on an island which case its galley, warrior (maybe archer), and settler, by which time my city has grown again, and I should alread have a path to the new city sight. This way my warrior - who are weak to begin with - gets a free promo.

Ultimately though, it really depends what my starting situation is - for example when a hot resource is near by, I may jump to the warrior,settler, then worker, and then a building.

Don

I usually explore with my first warrior and hope he gets xp to do woodsman II to become a scout of sorts.

I build:
warrior - to defend
worker - to get started on improving (at pop 2, which I usually have at this point)
scout - to explore more (sometimes build before the worker - just depends on how the map is looking and whether I've made contact yet)

Once my city is pop 3 and built all that I build another warrior and a settler to found my 2nd city.

So far I've always gone for a religion early even when not playing as spiritual, and on noble that means your workers have little to do at first.

I'll usually build a worker per city as quickly as possible to get my first 3 cities jammin', then try to build a few building, maybe start a wonder, build a few archers for better defense, and after this brief pause get back to expanding as fast as my treasure/tech will allow.

Ok i got a question then. do you manually tell your workers to wait then or do you put them on Auto and go?

I go for warrior(defender), scout(to explore w/first warrior at game start),
worker or archer(I make a beline for archery(best early defender in the game)), settler (wait till city is at least size of 3, if not at least size 3
then barracks), send archer and settler together to found second city,
then worker (if not built earlier) otherwise archer.

I like to make worker 1st/warr or arc/ settler/ settler........ I use my #2 city to make arc for my new cities. city#3 I let it build buildings.....

I nearly always do barracks > worker > archer > settler.

If against the AI i do Worker - Settler x3 ( with the worker chopping trees )

Multiplayer is different though.

/DaK/

Barracks, warrior, worker, archer, settler, worker.

Then I go for the second building, almost always a granary.

I usually explore with my first warrior and hope he gets xp to do woodsman II to become a scout of sorts.

I build:
warrior - to defend
worker - to get started on improving (at pop 2, which I usually have at this point)
scout - to explore more (sometimes build before the worker - just depends on how the map is looking and whether I've made contact yet)

Actuallly on Noble there is no need to build any defensive until around turn 40+, unless you have a totaly aggresive AI next door.

Barbs in Noble spawn at turn 35, and it takes them 5-15 turns to get to your cities after that.

The only reason to build warriors early is for faster exploration.

If against the AI i do Worker - Settler x3 ( with the worker chopping trees )

Multiplayer is different though.

/DaK/

That is a slow way to do it.

I have tried several options, including one very similar to that one, on test games.

With a size 3 or more city, and 2+ workers, you can build them in about 1/3 the time as a size 1 city with 1 worker.

I almost always build barracks first. Not because I need it right away, but to give the city time to get to size 3 or so. Sometimes I will build an extra military unit or two next, for exploration. Then usually a worker, then archer, then settlers and more workers. Rarely, if I have some valuable resource that needs fast development, will I build a worker first.

Once beyond the first couple of builds there is no set best plan, as it can change with what resources etc you have, but that is the general idea.

The idea on most games is an early land grab, and having a size 4 city with 2+ workers seems to be pretty good for reasonably fast settler building.

I guess I'm a weird duck. I go warrior, warrior, worker, settler, stonehenge. I wait for the city to get size 3 before worker and size 4 before settler.

That is a slow way to do it.


Dont agree at all -- I have 3-4 cities when u start building ur first settler. Each settler takes about 8 turns or so - And I can start building them after the first worker is complete. U have to wait for another worker completion ( when the city does not grow ) + barracks.

Anyway there are the barbs to considder though - but chopping forest for a early settler and worker is a good idea. Not so much for anything else - cuz with anything else the city is GROWING.

/DaK/

Worker first. The rest is irrelevent.

I can defeat everything except Deity huge map now...

could you provide a replay of you winning immortal on a huge map then? (preferably with japs, without playing 250 sessions)

could you provide a replay of you winning immortal on a huge map then? (preferably with japs, without playing 250 sessions)
Dude, I don't know how to play the Japs.

It was with Catherine + 5 turns to move the capital + the pyramids that made me fully able keep up with the AI.

Basically use 1-2 workers to chop rush the pyramids, then switch to representation and research Drama.

Intersting discovery I was able to defeat the top civlization whom had SAM/Artillery/Infantry with just catepults and cossacks. :crazyeye:

But sorry, I don't have the save anymore. :(

Here was my reasearch route to keep up: Alphabet --> Drama --> Music --> Philosophy --> Military Tradition --> Radio.

I guess I'm a weird duck. I go warrior, warrior, worker, settler, stonehenge. I wait for the city to get size 3 before worker and size 4 before settler.
Not that weird, thats exactly what I do! I usually get my worker the same time I finish Bronze Working and start "cutting" to produce my settler and Stonehenge faster...;)

While I'm still searching for a winning early strat, it almost seems certain that having promoted units (such as archers with the city defense upgrade) as soon as you can, building a barracks while you study archery. This almost guarantees a city's survival against all but the most powerful early barb units (horse archers and swordsmen).

The strats that I do depend on the starting units available with my first settler:

(scout) build warrior -> worker -> warrior -> settler -> barracks -> archer

(warrior) build scout -> worker -> warrior -> settler -> barracks -> archer

It depends on what the real estate crush is like. On the top difficulty levels, smaller maps, and especially when I cram in 18 Civs, I find I have to build my first settler when my population is 2 or I lose out on the good resources. It's actually faster at 2 than to wait till three... 30 turns for an unimproved size two city to make a settler, vs 25 or 24 for a size three. Did I say faster? Yes, because the time it takes to grow from 2 to 3 is more than the difference in build speed. If your growth time is 12 turns, you're seven turns faster building at a size two city than a size three, and that can make all the difference when it's needed.

Like all other civ games it is all about building settlers as fast as you can. You might need some protection as well but there is usually no problem to leave a city unguarded in the beginning. There are several benefits of having many cities. First you can do everything faster, researching, building armies, etc. But also you gain a defensive advantage since you have the most land and the computer players need to attack to win the game. It is always cheaper to be the defender.

To all the people suggesting a Scout as the first build: Keep in mind that you can't train scouts off the bat if your civilization doesn't start with the Hunting technology. In such a case, is it better to go straight for the Barracks and allow some production growth while Hunting is developed or produce a warrior and use that for exploration instead (hoping for woodsman promotion)?

It's largely dependant on the map.

For the worker-first-chop crew, what do you do if you start with lots of flood plains and only a couple acres of woods?

I play on epic-large/huge maps, so getting the second city ASAP doesn't matter too much. Most games I tend to go warrior-warrior-warrior-settler-worker. By the time I settle my second and third cities, I have a worker that can improve the two cities, a unit to cover the worker and/or settler, and another to light up other city sites.

I've had games where warriors were killed by critters, where barbarian axeman wreaked havoc on my core, never scored any gold from huts, gone bankrupt due to rapid expansion, etc etc etc.

Seems to me how you play the game is largely depandant on the map/civ traits unless you restart over and over in order to find a start that matches your optimal strategy. Nothing wrong with that at all, really, but then if you do that it gets kind of formulaic.

Anyway. Have fun! :goodjob:

Ok i got a question then. do you manually tell your workers to wait then or do you put them on Auto and go?

I always manually control the workers to the the best efficiency out of them.

Make a worker first. Improving tiles is extremely important, and it does not pay to wait for city size 2 to make a worker. If your civ and location permits, research animal husbandry first and erect a pasture when your worker is completed.

Usually I make settlers at size 2. In general I choose how many settlers I want my capitol to make in a row then determine what city size will result in the last settler being completed the quickest. I think minizimizing the turn of the last capitol settler is better than minimizing the turn of the first capitol settler since how quickly your secondary cities make settlers, if they even do make any, is almost irrelevant for the ancient era.

Well, I think the decision whether to build the worker or settler first would depend on how much you can improve your terrain, and what imrpovements you can build. If you are able to build roads and either farms or mines, you can definately speed the production of the settler by improving the squares your city uses.

I honestly can't think of any situation where I'd build my first settler before my first worker.

Barracks are not my starting strats..

usually ever since civ 3 ived been starting with

warriors -> workers -> settlers -> scouts -> barracks -> granary -> settlers and then rotationing until i have enough cities to grow more

the 6 most important starting routine ived been practising ever since

i normally go with scout -> scout -> worker -> scout -> settler -> the oracle

I'm not a fan of the worker-chop strat myself.

I like warrior-warrrior (while researching mysticism/polytheism). 90% of the time I can get Hinduism that way. Start working on Stonehenge while warriors explore: I normally gather $100-$200 this way and possibly a technology. This lets me keep my technology slider at 100% for pretty much the whole early game...I can float -$2-$4 for quite a while with that $100-$200 bankroll. Sometimes I get behind and have to lower it to 90% around 1 AD if I expand too much.

Then I let Stonehenge build for a very few turns until the city hits size 3. Then I chuck out a worker while getting Bronze Working. Worker then chops 1 forest to finish settler in like 3-4 turns.

After this I go frequently go for another settler, or sometimes I finish Stonehenge instead. I'm still figuring it out from there, depends on the map.

well i'm fresh off the boat, so i'm more trying to formulate my own strategy than help others, but wouldn't you want to get a worker out asap to rush other things? You'd have to get bronze working, and after that i try to get a religion right after. At least at noble, the AI doesn't really attack, so i don't get archery or pump out extra warriors. So i guess i do something like:

worker > and then i'm confused.

It all depends on your immediate surroundings, but when you say that, try to specify them and what you would do in that situation, I'm really trying to get a sense of what to do in the beginning, because i always feel lost. I've noticed a serious no-no is making a settler first, it takes 17 turns if you don't have your city on a hammer, which i go for now, but it still takes forever.

Depends on the start, and the starting techs of the civ. But generally worker/warrior-to-size-2/worker/settler/barracks/axeman/axeman/axeman/axeman/axeman/axeman.......

The production benefits of having those early workers out making 4+ food/production squares ASAP as well as giving you those vital hammers from chopping right when they're most deliciously beneficial cannot be overstated. And the ability to get that boost right from the start in any new cities is equally fundamental. Not to mention the necessity of early resource/military roads. And yeah I find it generally much better to chop for my early production (except for an early warrior to get to size 2). The only time I'd consider a non-worker start would be if I had fishing and a seafood resource - but the worker would still come straight after the work boat.

And yeah, I'd rather settle a solid second city than an ultra-early second city - I want to know where the copper is (or isn't) before my second site. This incarnation of civ is (to me) the most forgiving of waiting to build your second city (as long as you can claim your copper or horses, of course!). Besides, it gives the AIs longer to build your third and fourth cities for you.

I usually build a warrior, a worker, another warrior (or archer if I have the tech) and then a settler. I might build a scout around then too, it depends. Sometimes I'm lucky and get another warrior from a goody hut. I try to find the best place for the 2nd city while the worker improves the land around the first.

Another thing that has paid off for me in recent games is the Great Wall. Its so much easier to build up my first few cities when the barbarian can't walk up to the door.

Depends on the start, and the starting techs of the civ. But generally worker/warrior-to-size-2/worker/settler/barracks/axeman/axeman/axeman/axeman/axeman/axeman.......

The production benefits of having those early workers out making 4+ food/production squares ASAP as well as giving you those vital hammers from chopping right when they're most deliciously beneficial cannot be overstated. And the ability to get that boost right from the start in any new cities is equally fundamental. Not to mention the necessity of early resource/military roads. And yeah I find it generally much better to chop for my early production (except for an early warrior to get to size 2). The only time I'd consider a non-worker start would be if I had fishing and a seafood resource - but the worker would still come straight after the work boat.

And yeah, I'd rather settle a solid second city than an ultra-early second city - I want to know where the copper is (or isn't) before my second site. This incarnation of civ is (to me) the most forgiving of waiting to build your second city (as long as you can claim your copper or horses, of course!). Besides, it gives the AIs longer to build your third and fourth cities for you.

Wow. I just had to quote this because it is so exactly right. I think I often put out my settler before the second worker, and often finish the mostly-built warrior for fogbusting, but if those are my biggest differences (and yes, of course, it depends on the specifics, etc, but overwhelmingly).
/barracks/axeman/axeman/axeman/axeman/axeman/axeman.......
depending on proximity, of course, but if someone is close enough to kill it makes me happy.

peace,
lilnev

p.s. to gyvulys624: Welcome to the forums! :king: :shifty: :king:

well i'm fresh off the boat, so i'm more trying to formulate my own strategy than help others, but wouldn't you want to get a worker out asap to rush other things?

Often. Not always. Worker asap is a great way to begin if you have enough to keep the worker busy, and if you don't have to worry about a human opponent wandering into your undefended city.

Note that worker asap doesn't necessarily mean worker first.

Also, for civs that start with Mysticism, Fishing, or Hunting, worker first is basically fighting with one tech tied behind your back.

The Cuban Isolationists (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=133492) are a couple of good players, put out their first worker in... 2120 BC.

That's a bit deep, but they certainly ended up with an interesting game.

(Sulla is also a big fan of worker chop worker in multiplayer. Horses for courses.)

Ya its interesting to know what Sulla and others do, but seriously it doesn't help that much because you can't begin to compare us. But I think I'm gonna go with the warrior at first now, because it does give me more security / helps explore a bit. I've been gettin lucky in MP and the goody huts have been throwing techs at me, and then my score goes up, and it looks like i know what i'm doing :p

So we all know what to build first, we got 2 pages in this 1 thread alone, but my next problems are emerging.
What should i focus on w/ that worker? production, growth, etc.

I notice that if i focus on growth my city gets too crowded, and i'm not sure how to fix it. I know starving the city works, but there has to be another way.

So i never know what to do with my worker, and i know automation doesn't always do the right thing, so i'm tryin to do something but its not helping. Other than that, what are the priorities in research?

Playing obviously helps figure these out, but for some reason it seems the more i play the more i'm confused, because i see different strategies and ideas and i'm confused. :confused: :cry: :confused:

So we all know what to build first, we got 2 pages in this 1 thread alone, but my next problems are emerging.
What should i focus on w/ that worker? production, growth, etc.

I notice that if i focus on growth my city gets too crowded, and i'm not sure how to fix it. I know starving the city works, but there has to be another way.
There is! It's called "beating your people to death until they make nice stuff for you"! It's great!

But how you use your worker(s) depends a lot on where you start, what worker techs you've got researched, etc etc. In the very start, maximising food and production is your friend (your palace gives you so much commerce that focusing on maximising commerce right at the very start is - gold or gem mine excepted - rarely a worthwhile move). You probably want one high-food square that will grow you to size 2 ASAP (so you probably want to prioritise researching the tech that lets you exploit any food special you have - although husbandry can maybe wait a bit), and then really, you're best off improving those squares that will give you the max food/production total. Food gives you more people who can switch to high-production squares, or who can just be whipped to build stuff, so increasing food crudely equates to increasing production. For building settlers and workers, it directly equates (unless you're imperialistic or expansionist).
In between, chopping down some forests (especially when you're building workers or settlers) will speed your production heaps. Riverside grasslands and hills forests are your best candidates for the chop.
And when you've got the basics set up, roads to connect cities and resources and to lead up to the doorstep of a soon-to-be enemy (if you're into that sort of thing) are pretty important.

Once you've got the basic foundations set up, that's when i reckon you should start thinking more about finessing the specific future direction of cities - building cottages etc for commerce cities and so on, farms and mines for production cities, whatever.

So i never know what to do with my worker, and i know automation doesn't always do the right thing, so i'm tryin to do something but its not helping. Other than that, what are the priorities in research?
It's hard to go wrong prioritising bronze working first, even if only for the slavery and the chopping (and the mines you get on the way). The production benefits are really enormous. You may want to pick up a relevant food tech first though if you don't have the right one for your resources. Beyond that, the wheel and pottery come pretty soon after.
Then it really depends on what you're doing in terms of military etc, but beelining alphabet is generally a pretty decent choice.
Of course this all differs if you decide to go the early religion route, but I don't really know much about all that.

awesome, that helped!

Dude, I don't know how to play the Japs.

It was with Catherine + 5 turns to move the capital + the pyramids that made me fully able keep up with the AI.

Basically use 1-2 workers to chop rush the pyramids, then switch to representation and research Drama.

Intersting discovery I was able to defeat the top civlization whom had SAM/Artillery/Infantry with just catepults and cossacks. :crazyeye:

But sorry, I don't have the save anymore. :(

Here was my reasearch route to keep up: Alphabet --> Drama --> Music --> Philosophy --> Military Tradition --> Radio. Did you do this once or is it a consistent win strategy? On Emperor getting pyramids is no garantee, on immortal it'll be more difficult. Worker soon is a good strat i think but only when you grow to 2 in your capital and you have something todo (so researching bronze wokring first then chop heavily). I always seem to get a coast start as Ghandi. In this case Fishing then Bronzeworking is usually the best start.

Why?,because the timing is great, research fishing start warrior, then go bronzeworking, finish warrior and most of first workboat. after Bronzeworking you build your first workboat pretty soon and you can immediately whip the second.Besides enough food this gives you 4 extra research points so you get all the other techs a little bit sooner (factor 1.3-1.5). It's also in keeping with the fact that on high levels it's difficult to defend small scattered cities (apart from the cost of this cities) so getting a good capital economy is important here. After 2 workboats the worker and subsequent settlers are not that expensive anymore so this is the time to build them.

I think a fish start is a poor start, i often wish i had a start with gold or gems but as Ghandi i never seem to get this(Of course if you get a start with Gold/gems your first priority is to work them asap). At least if the fishing start is in tundra there is a reasonable chance of silver, furs or marble, all higly valuable of course.

As Futurehermit says: you should try to get alphabet 1000 bc on emperor. You need one gold mountain or gems mine to do that i think(or give up growth in some cities to get 2 scientists at work). If you have no other resource than fish you get it around 100 bc (which is too late on emperor for trade value) if you don't work the fish. Working the fish early lets you get it around 600 bc when it still has trade value. At least this is my experience sofar.

It's in keeping with something Acydsatyr said: work your resources (then think of what else todo). If it is fish research fishing first. There is one extra advantage in fish: It's save from the barbs till +/- 1 ad.

From your Tech tree i particularly like your going for Drama after alphabet, better than code of laws in my opinion, it helps with the happiness, has very good trade value and enables Philosophy. Code of laws also has it's benefit but trade value is minimal because most of the AI's have it. Drama is always a cash cow bringing in more money than a shrine over the lifetime of a game.

The strategy I use on huge map, 18 civs, raging barb, aggressive AI, immortal difficulty.

warrior-->warrior-->worker-->worker-->worker-->settler--> stonehenge or pyramid if I have stone


Of course I only play on maps with lots forest around starting loc.

These are not friendly settings :lol:. So you're entitled to your lots of forests.
Stupid question probably: How do i get 18 civs on my map, i always seem to get a fixed number of 11?

I start by making 2-3 warriors to explore and pop the Goodie huts, then start building stonehenge, then I order a settler to slow growth and found another city, then maybe another settler if terrain is really suitable, then go for a warrior /UU rush and gobble as many cities as possible (I play with no tech exchange, usually continents, and unrazable (sp ?) cities btw.

Stupid question probably: How do i get 18 civs on my map, i always seem to get a fixed number of 11?OK stupid Q indeed, i found out now.

could be something you already know, but depending on how close other civs are, sometimes it's useful to start on a barracks to let your city grow, and then insert a worker or settler once you hit size 2. you don't lose progress on the barracks which you know you'll want someday, but your city isn't stuck at size one at the very start.

could be something you already know, but depending on how close other civs are, sometimes it's useful to start on a barracks to let your city grow, and then insert a worker or settler once you hit size 2. you don't lose progress on the barracks which you know you'll want someday, but your city isn't stuck at size one at the very start.

Why build when you can rush ? :P

Why build when you can rush ? :P

cuz i just don't rush. i'm like the worst slavekeeper ever. i don't remember to do it more than 3 times a game approximately. part of why i have to stay on lower difficulties i think.

it's not that i <3 my people too much. i just totally suck at using it as a strategy. i'm trying to learn, really, and i do remember to when a city gets unhappy, a whip is their reward!

good point tho hehe.

archery while the tech is beaing researched barracks it works for me

why even bother build or research archers???? Only time I would build some archer is when there is no copper available. otherwise you better go for axe and spear and later swordman. They are good for attacking and defending.

I think the starting strat (including build and research) depends on the overal strat you want to use.

Since I´m a builder, my overall goal is to get as much land as possible ASAP to found 6 - 10 cities myself. To do so, I always try to build my capital on a plain hill (extra hammer) even if I have to spend up to 3 turns walking there and don´t care much for the surrounding lands.

My build order is worker (warrior when possible to grow the city to size 2 in this time), worker, settler, warrior then axmen or chariot (depends on resources nearby), settler, worker.

The next city is founded ontop or next to horses/bronze and will build an axmen or a chariot (both workers going there to do the work), then worker, settler.

When you build the second city early enough you can bring out at least one axe/charriot before the barbs strart to run into your cultural territory

When doing so, about 1600 BC you can have 2 axes/charriots for defense against barbs, 2 warriors, 4 cities and 4 workers

When you then place the cities (except the second city, which must bring in horses/bronze) always in direction of the AI´s, with 4 cities you should be able to block of some more land to settle later (chop obelisks ASAP).

Research order: go bronze working for chopping, when no bronze near, then animal husbandry to see horses, then everything that lets you improve the surrounding lands

Attached a screenshot taken out of the world-builder (1640 BC) to show you, that even on deity is is possilbe to keep up (almost) with the expansion speed of the AI´s (Vanilla version):

1 AI with 3 cities (white)
2 AI´s with 4 cities (blue and tan?)
3 AI´s with 5 cities (green, orange and light blue)

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So with our 4 cities, we are doing quite good. Since the AI is dumb, blocking him off like that works fairly good and normally lets you build 6 - 10 cities altogether. When you don´t open borders with your neighbours, you can relax after your blocking cities are founded, research codes of law, lightbulb philosophy, trade that for currency and only then build the backland cities (to avoid beeing broke)

Since I´m a builder, my overall goal is to get as much land as possible ASAP to found 6 - 10 cities myself. To do so, I always try to build my capital on a plain hill (extra hammer) even if I have to spend up to 3 turns walking there and don´t care much for the surrounding lands.



Have you ever checked city screen for production? You don't get any extra hammer by settler on plain hill. You always get 2food and 1 hammer when you settle down, even if you settle down on tundra or desert you still get 2 food and 1 hammer on the tile you settled. so if theres a choice between settling on a plain hill or desert, i will settle on desert and work the plain hill. If you do it the other way around, you have a city with one less tile to work with.

I research archery usually if:
- I'm playing Mali (Skirmishers are very nice and they're cheap due to being archers)
- I start with Hunting
- I play protective leader that doesn't start with Mining
- I have no copper
- I'm not on a mood to take chances and don't have immediate need for BW (not seeing much chopping or whipping to happen early on, depends on the start)

None of these is a hard rule of course. Sometimes I go for BW, sometimes for AH, sometimes for Archery. But of the three, only Archery is a sure shot - the other two are chancy.

Also, Warriors are utter crap. Where scouts die when the see a lion, warriors at least face the lion with courage before dying.. If I can get archery fast, I prefer sending archers to the wilds - they are most likely to come back home some day, usually nicely promoted. Warriors.. they will probably die before I see much of a map.

How common is copper? Random. I've had maps where copper was everywhere, and OTOH on one map there were exactly two coppers on the whole continent (large map) - both in one (wrong for me) end of it. Incidentally the same map had two horses only as well - similarly on the wrong end of the continent for me (although not that close to the coppers - there was one civ that had all the copper on the continent, another that had horse monopoly). Later on I found that Iron was everywhere, including in all the three cities I had when I reached IW...

I´m playing vanilla version. Perhaps in warlords it´s different...

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Hm, after looking, the screenshot may be a little bit small:

there are two hammers...

You do get two hammers for city tile from settling on a plains hill. The city tile will get 2F 1P 1C minimum, but if the tile provides more, it gets that.

The absolutely best tile to settle on that I can think of is riverside plains hill wine. That's 2F 2P 2C - or 3C if financial. And considering the utter uselessness of Winery improvement, settling on top of wine is almost always better than working it. So if I see one when I start the game, I'm almost certain to move to settle on it. The early benefit is large enough that possibly substandard surrounding terrain won't hurt much - I can always move my capitol to a better site later when it matters.

why even bother build or research archers???? Only time I would build some archer is when there is no copper available. otherwise you better go for axe and spear and later swordman. They are good for attacking and defending.

They are Fast to build about 2/3rds the time of a spearman and half the time of an axeman for the same defense str without promos. if you have xp coming on build just toss them another first strike as they already have +50% defense.

its weird, i almost always use

the 3d or 4th difficulty im not sure....
worker-> obelisk->stonehenge->warrior->settler->oracle.....

should i leave the obelisks and stonehenge for later??? usually my first city gets legendary culture because of the early wonders....

worker-> obelisk->stonehenge->warrior->settler->oracle.....

should i leave the obelisks and stonehenge for later??? usually my first city gets legendary culture because of the early wonders....

Take out building the obelisk in your capital if you are also building stonehenge. Stonehenge gives you a free obelisk.

Hi everybody!

I play in immortal
My strategy is regularly building:
worker-2 scouts-one or more settler-library, worker or immediately Oracle
The most important to build Oracle at the same turn (or a bit later) when you discover code of laws.

Since I play without barbs, I don't need military (AI don't attacks me most of the time, because I do everything for their friendship).

if i start with mining, i would go worker>warrior>chop>settler
if i start with mysticsm, i would go settler>warrior>worker and found religions

It's largely dependant on the map.


So true. I recently started with Workboat-Workboat-Settler-Workboat-Settler. I didn't build a single worker until about 1300bc, as the sea was providing all the food and cash I needed (financial leader), and forested plains (one on a hill) were giving me decent production to supplement the whip. In the end, I only built a worker to hook up marble and chop a couple of forests to rush the ToA. Had I not gone for a wonder, I could have left the worker much later still.

I had a starting strategy in my latest game that worked well, in part by chance.

First city did worker, worker (with chop) and settler (with both workers chopping). Ended up finding archery from a hut, so first and second city went archer, archer, then settler with whip in last few turns.

It was a good way to get four cities quickly when most of the AI Civs had just three, and it helped me get a jump on researching techs. I was able to get to alphabet and get almost every ancient tech I hadn't researched in trade without having to give up alphabet (polytheism was the only tech I had to research).

While it's true you have to worry about city maintenance, finding gold from huts will allow you to stay at 100 percent research for a good length of time, and you can usually stay at 70-to-80-percent research with profit once that gold runs out. Of course, by then, I'll have my fifth city founded, but you can still stay at 60-to-70-percent research. If you are financial or organized, it's possible to have six cities with 60-to-70-percent research and profit.

It really depends.

Recently I have been trying to build 2-3 worriors (a total of 4) and have them to rob my neighbors' workers. Good for higher difficulty because AIs will have workers very early, and you need a certain amount of military power to cease fire or they will refuse you for a treaty.

I'm not playing as high of difficulty as some of you guys, but in non-multiplayer, if I have a [farm] food resource, I consider building a worker first to get that food resource hooked up, and then I start on warriors, finally building a settler while I am pop 2 or 3. Otherwise, if I don't have any farm resources, I'll start with warriors.