I usually build my first city where my first settler is unless there is 1 step to walk to get a lot of better spot. The other guy(scout or warrior) will explore manually... every promotion will be woodsman... with 2 woodsman promotions I can move faster in jungle/forest. In research... I try to get hinduism(buddism is hard to get unless I start with mysticism). Then priesthood, then bronze working... For this time I need first worker. Then I just chop rush oracle and I will take the best tech... when I miss hinduism I usually take code of laws(confucianism). Then I'll take writing. Some worker actions(what needed for first city) and then alphabet(In normal games I have met 3-5 civs) so I just trade techs ... have some tech lead, but I don't give away alphabet. Next I try to get literature(great library rocks, not only the 2 specialists, but I get atleast 3-4 academies). Sometimes I want to get music to get free artist. I keep it for culture bomb a spam city near my borders.
There is no difference what kind of victory I'll go the start is usually same(I've not played for conquest/domination, so this is for peaceful game). Then I'll go for education/liberalism... get another free tech. Then one of them... democracy or economics(depends of game). I want to be first who has universal suffrage/free speech/emancipation/free market/free religion... now my economy rocks. Also I never build farms, they just suck in this game... I don't need rioting workers/ill peasants. Farms just give me more people, more trouble, cottages are far better. Maybe in expansion or in patch they will improve farms. They are only good for getting resources. Perhaps farms should have chance to get a food resource as mines have chance to get gold, silver...

How this starting strategy is and what should I fix?

the start is usually sameYou should fix this first. First of all, you have to adapt your moves to the terrain, opponents and so on. Also, just experiment and try different strategies, research other techs and then see what works the best.

For example: You said farms suck in this game. Cottages are better if you're maxing out commerce, but again it depends on the terrain. You must remember that pop = power, so if you have enough luxuries farms may be a better choice. Make some specialists if you have too much food, you'll get even more GP.

If you play like this everytime and you win every game, move up a level. You'll see your strategy won't work that well (if it will, be happy and move up another level), and you'll have to come up with new ideas.

How this starting strategy is and what should I fix?

I didn't see you mention WAR. I think you should fix that. :D

with 2 woodsman promotions I can move faster in jungle/forest.

That's a good point; I never realized that. I usually get the strength promotion because I'm worried about losing those units to barbarians.

What difficulty level are you playing at?

I don't think you mentioned when you get settlers. This is very important, obviously.

Farms are important to this game. Watch your cities and make sure that they don't grow past the happiness or healthiness thresholds. Whenever a city is about to make an unhappy citizen or an unhealthy citizen the next time it grows, you can pull a worker from the food tiles so that it stops growing and make a specialist (alternatively, you can let it grow and slave rush, or build a settler/worker). Not only do specialists have certain bonuses, they also contribute to your great person points, so it can be useful to have a city almost entirely dedicated to food growth and great person points just for that since each city's great person points are independent of each other.

Farms are also useful early because the extra food contributes to worker and settler production.

I used to always do woodsman as well, but now I give my warriors strength + healing, because I seemed to spend more turns healing than I ever saved with woodsman.

Yes, I'm looking what I'll do... I usually love financial, industrious or spiritual trait.... I'm playing on prince right now.
Wars... I'm usually peaceful, but once I've got declared on...I'll mobilize and make AI pay dearly. Universal suffrage, Nationhood works perfect for this:)
Yes, when I'm playing on islands, I'll try to get sailing techs as soon as possible, but continents fits more for me. And this strategy in noble worked well... just I've adopt to play on prince. Lost some games, because I was alone in my continent and once I met fellow civs, i was far behind in tech so I quit. And I've adopt that barbarians are more active in prince.

But the healing promotion only makes the unit heal 10% faster, according to the mouseover hint. Will 10% make a big difference at all?

It doesn't heal 10% faster, it heals 10% of it's full health in addition to normal healing, so it normally doubles the healing rate.

healing is nice when you are at war... the normal healing is too slow in enemy lands. Sometimes I've to wait 15 turns.

Buddy, you have a big problem with your starting strategy.

Now, I can't be sure what type of game you want to play, but if your goal is to win as fast as possible, by as much as possible, this is what you should do:

1) Found your first city and begin researching Bronze Working (if you start with mysticicm you might want to research Meditiation and then Bronze Working, but I wouldn't).

2)Send your first warrior/scout out exploring and set your city to build a warrior.

3)Once this warrior is completed, and the population of your city has reached two, begin building a worker. Once you research Bronze get The Wheel, then Iron Working or Archery.

4)Once your worker is completed use that worker to chop down a forest (which you can do now that you have Bronze Working) and use those hammers to build another worker.

5)Use those workers to connect up any bronze/iron/horses within your starting city's boarders.

6)If you have a lot of forests, chop them to create one or two millitary units (archers or axemen). If you're low on forests save them and just build those units normaly and let your city grow.

7)Use your two workers to chop two forests to build a settler, even if you have to chop the last two forests you have. Expand.

This strategy, and variations on it, are called "worker chop" and it's by far the best starting strategy. If you play this early part of the game right you'll be able to build up a commanding lead over everybody by either expanding faster or building a huge stack of units to crush people nearby and steal their cities.

I take it you regularily beat Deity, DangerousMonkey, since you know exactly what the best strategy is in any starting position.

It fails only if you don't have any forest to chop.
And sometimes it happens :)

Another tip: try to focus your strategy according to the traits of your civ, and keep in mind two victory conditions, not five :)

Bettter to state te obvious \o/ |o| _o_

Another tip: try to focus your strategy according to the traits of your civ, and keep in mind two victory conditions, not five :)This is a good tip. :goodjob:

DangerousMonkey's strategy probably works for forest-heavy starts and military games, but if you're short on forets, do you just restart? Also, even if you have them, chopping them all in the beginning will make it hard for you to build wonders, you'll lack health and that extra hammer.

To me a start without some forests to chop is the first step to a restart with a better position. The only exception for going on without forests to chop would be a start next to the sea with some seafood, which is more easy to harvest because a workboat doesn't stop your city from growing.

Another many posted tip is not to start on the spot you start in, but to move to a plains/hill. You'll receive an extra hammer in your city and easily make up for the time lost while moving to the location (within reasonable limits...)

Try going bronzeworking first, and using a worker to chop nearby woods for faster production. The bonus hammers are quite significant that early. Also, if you see any nearby plains/hills, BUILD THERE! Not only does it give you an extra point of production over any other square, but its also a defensive bonus!

I've been playing on Monarch and I feel like I have to chop from the start to have a chance. The AI grabs land so damn fast any peaceful expansion has to happen very early.

Yeah, by Monarch, chop-rushing is essential. The question is when and what, and how to balance settler production with resource linking and general city improvement. And this depends ALOT on your civ attributes
and starting position, so there is no one size fits all rule.

For example, if you have stone nearby and are Industrious, you're building
the pyramids ASAP, and waiting to chop rush until AFTER the stone is
hooked up, so you get the max production for your trees.

If you're spiritual instead, you probably found a religion before worrying
about chop rushing, and work on Stonehenge early instead. In both these
cases, you might go to Pottery rather late, especially if you have horses
and cows to link up, and Animal Husbandry is higher priority.

But if you are Financial, you will grab Pottery quite early. It all depends.

I'm not sure if Gufnork is being sarcastic, but actually the strategy I just posted is the best starting strategy on any map, under any conditions. You could be on an island or in the middle of a massive continent.

I've played a lot of civ4 games, and I can honestly say I've never had a situation where there haven't been 4 forests either within my starting boarders, or within a few squares of them, and that's all the raw materiels you need (you can chop forests outside your boarders for hammers, but you don't get quite as many). Of cource, the more forests the better, but you don't "need" any more than 4.

I'm not saying other starting strategys won't work, I'm just saying that they will work less and less the higher you set the difficulty level or the more skilled your human opponents are. If you don't believe me, just ask some top players (especially in multiplayer) how they do things. Or, better yet, just try it yourself.

I'm not sure if Gufnork is being sarcastic, but actually the strategy I just posted is the best starting strategy on any map, under any conditions. You could be on an island or in the middle of a massive continent.
I'm not saying other starting strategys won't work, I'm just saying that they will work less and less the higher you set the difficulty level or the more skilled your human opponents are. If you don't believe me, just ask some top players (especially in multiplayer) how they do things. Or, better yet, just try it yourself.

Just off the top of my head, there's at least one time that this strategy isn't optimal: when you have an early UU that doesn't require bronze working.

Not that you didn't give good advice... you did. Best of all is the suggestion to try it yourself. :-) And, keep an open mind.

Wodan

@DM: You still haven't specified your difficulty level ... :D

I must be silly.....

I play on noble, mostly because I'm not a warmonger.... and I always build a settler first. It's a bit tricky, but I have a 2nd city long before anyone else.

Mostimes I can get at least one good resource, or more, tied up in my culture before the AI has time to explore all my area... I build a warrior and then stonehenge in the 2nd city; A warrior then worker in the first after the settler. By then, I've researched enough for my worker to build a quarry, build the road to it, build the mine and the road to copper ( if I'm lucky ) and to chop for rushing the pyramids... which I can build in that 2nd city with no tie ups to keeping the empire growing... Then it's another warrior, another settler and another worker in the capital. If I get Stonehenge built fairly quickly, I'll wedge the worker in city #2 and go to a warrior or archer in my capital. I can usually have 3 cities up and running before the AI has 2, and then I take a breather and let them develop a bit. I used to keep pushing and expanding, but you end up with 8 cities and a 20% research rate wondering why you're so far behind in techs...:cry:

I can't take full credit on this, I had started doing it because it was basically what I've always done, but there are other forum threads that helped me tweak the implementation into a viable strat.

Building one or both of these on a plains hill is outragously helpful. It can shave many turns off of what you're building. I will even try to get a 4th city going if I can get 2 of my first 3 on one. ( It allows you to develop so much quicker you can afford to carry the 4th city for a bit... )

It does backfire on occasion... especially if Metamucle or Capac for Sure are nearby ( 50/50 shot for me it seems ). But 98 times out of 100 I do just fine. You do start a little slow, but you cannot beat the flexability or the luxury of the extra city off the rip.

Tim aka...antracer

In response to Pentium, I guess I could specify the difficulty level that general worker chop strategies work on as "all of them and multiplayer too." Or, to rephrase, it's the best strategy in all situations, all difficulty levels, and against all people. This may sound extreeme if you arn't experienced in Civ4, but the math doesn't lie. Of cource, there are a million minor variations on it for different situations, but at it's core it'll still be highly simmilar.

Umm...none of you mentioned how somebody is supposed to know that they have those horses to hook up; particularly when they are heading for bronze/wheel. Horses are not shown until Animal Husbandry.

I used to always do woodsman as well, but now I give my warriors strength + healing, because I seemed to spend more turns healing than I ever saved with woodsman.

I often do the same for the reason stated and because once the exploration phase is done woodsman doesn't do much for me, whereas a medic might be good to promote later or at least help heal later units.