Hi there, I got hold of Civ 4 a little while ago and I'm very much enjoying it, but I'm a bit unsure on how to proceed in the early era. I'm playing on Noble as Catherine (financial/creative), normal continents settings. I've started on an area of land with only one neighbour as per this pic:

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/369/civshot.jpg

I'm unsure as to what my immediate/short-term plans should be. Destroying the Chinese is the obvious goal, but I don't know whether that should forego or depend on cutting off his access to the southern land. I'm leaning towards getting two cities, one diagonally north-east, one west/south-west, but I'm not sure whereabouts to place them or when to do so. Incidentally, the resource cut off at the bottom is a sheep on some tundra, with a fur on the ice next to the southern coast, and in my city I've got nothing but the palace. I've yet to research Bronze Working/Iron Working/Animal Husbandry, should I do that before I settle to pick up any bronze/copper/horse?

Suggestions on how to proceed would be most welcome (and the reasoning too would be very useful so I can learn)!

Could you also attach a saved game file, please? ;)

It looks like you are alone on a continent/island with the Chinese. Expand towards the chinese. Always toward them. Unless you spot a strategic resource you want to your south. Make sure you have solid culture all the way across the island.

The reason? Once all the land is settled, China has nowhere to expand to, while you have plenty of unsettled, wonderful looking land to expand into at your leisure.

Basically, get as many cities to the north as you can, take out China, then backfill to the south.

From what it looks like, you've got a decent location to the NW with Rice and spices, a GREAT (post IW) location with 3 Gems to the N, and a coastal rice and spices to the far E.

Also, rice/cow or cow/stone cities you might be able to get (to the far north) but I doubt it. Looks like China can get 3/4 cities at most. You would have the 4 I mentioned, possibly more if you spam settlers.

Then just look at all that land to the south.

Hey, thanks for the help with this. I did actually play on, managed to get rid of China but it took a while and they forced my hand, I ended up in some okay-but-not-great positions. I got to about 1950 and was just about to complete the Apollo Program when my bad habit of not improving my defence for years and years came back to haunt me (I was attacked by someone with whom I had signed a defence pact two turns prior).

But I think I was overreaching a bit by just asking for early game help when I still did not undertsand the full mechanics of the game, so I've spent a large portion of the weekend reading through the guides on this site, they've helped out a LOT.

In any case, I went and accidentally deleted the saves for this map yesterday evening. :(