how do you manage the early part of your game?
i usually go strait for polytheism then build a warrior or two before founding my second city, then come workers.
it works well for me on prince.

A standard strategy many people use especially if their civ starts with mining is:

Mining ------> Bronze Working
Worker, Worker, Settler, ...................... then whatever :crazyeye:

I do this about half the time. Especially if I have a close neighbour or two. If I have a couple or more aggressive neighbours NOTE: Trigger-Happy Alexander whose butt I have to whip regularly, Julius Ceasar (They should change Rome's leader or add (I think this would be better) to Augustus (Traits: Creative and Aggressive?), Good-ol-Monty, Genghis (Not too much), and that b**** Isabella. :lol:

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :scan:

:lol: :mischief:

Personally I prefure Scout, Scout, warrior,worker-worker- warrior-setler start.
Reason, I really like to explore all land fast befor mass animals/barbarians appear. Poping all this huts with explorers is a good idea to.

With research - hunting, mining, bronse working, worker tech.

I play on monarch dificulty, all rundom, so starting tech change.
Remove some tech if you allredy have them.

Yes on higher difficulties when Civs become more and more like sharks when they smell blood, I would go archery, worker tech, mining, bronze working. Not exactly like that but the gist of it.

Yes on higher difficulties when Civs become more and more like sharks when they smell blood, I would go archery, worker tech, mining, bronze working. Not exactly like that but the gist of it.

Exactly for the reason that civs become more and more like sharks in higher difficulties, it is imperative not to "lose" turns for research of a very passive military tech, like archery. That's the additional reason for definitely going Mining-->BW in higher difficulties: best defence is IMO the dynamic one, i.e. to kill anything that enters your land. After that it's worker techs (wheel, agriculture, animal husbundry, pottery) with whatever order seems fit for the specific occasion.

Don't be so much afraid that AI will declare war in 4000 BC - they just don't do it.

On Monarch or above:
1. Worker. Research Bronze (if you have mining).
2. Let city grow to 2 while building a warrior or scout. Mine a hill. Best if it's got forest on it, then you can time the chop for a SECOND worker. If not, mine & then move to chop.
3. Second worker out, chop (both workers chopping) for settler.
4. Let the warrior or scout finish if it didn't already - your "overflow" will finish it quick.
5. Found that second city as close as possible. Build warrior. When workers have time, they can chop another worker out of this city.
After BW, get Wheel, then either Fish or Agr depending on surrounding terrain. Then get Pottery to get those workers busy on cottages. Hook up your two cities ASAP.
If you don't have copper within first 2 cities, get a 3rd settler if copper is CLOSE. If not close (you can't afford a far-flung city), research IW and then Animal Husbandry to find those Horse.

Yes, actually I don't go for archery, I go for bronze working and get those axes to beat anything that invades my land before they pillage it all to hell. If my neighbour is close enough and I have a lead on him in the number of axes I have, I go take his cities! mainly his capital.

:goodjob:

Feel free to experiment

-> bronzeworking

then chop all of these -> worker, worker, worker, worker, warrior, worker, worker, worker, worker, warrior, settler, worker, worker, worker, worker, axeman, axeman, axeman, axeman, axeman, axeman, axeman, axeman, declare war, axeman, axeman, axeman, axeman, axeman, axeman, axeman, axeman, ...

:king: :mischief:

It depends on the 'lay of the land' but usually:

mining -> bronze working (curse if copper is not close) -> some worker tech depends on land to unlock pottery -> pottery -> writing (library) -> alphabet (trade for anything you're missing) -> priesthood ( you should be able to get the rest from trading) -> Code of Laws -> time Oracle so it finishes when you finish CoL to get CS slingshot -> Switch to bureaucrazy: congrats you survived the ancient era ;)

Obviously if I don't have copper, I have to either get archery, horses, or ironworking in between, but depending on how close/aggresive the surrounding civs are, I might gamble for alphabet and hope to trade either of those 3 techs.

Building order is usually worker, chop 2nd worker, chop 1st settler, build/chop library, chop oracle, with 2-3 warriors in between which I use as 'placeholders' (switch between build just before forest is chopped).

I play most games like this. Obviously I change strategies depending on the game, but this is the general idea. Alphabet is skipped by the AI so it's your only real edge when playing at higher levels. You need to chop your first few builds in order to catch up to the free units the AI gets, and the CS slingshot compensates for all the other bonusses the AI gets. Basically you're just trying to minimize the starting bonusses the AI has during the ancient era, while trying to stay alive :)

I think archery can be traded once you have alphabet. Unless your missing copper i dont find much use for them. Plus i would rather research something more productive for land/ expansion or later units like axemen/ swordsmen.

Without copper against the Romans is a pain as they soon have the praetorians if they have iron and they take some bashing if at war.

I go for bw then worker and a lot of chops for axemen.