I don't often play with this option but I've been meaning to use it more. I was wondering if anyone here uses it sometimes and if so, what sort of strategies they stick to in the "buying phase".

Since both :hammers: and :food: effectively cost 1:gold: during this stage, do you try to spend as much as possible, especially on food? i.e. growing two cities.

I'm most interested in Ancient or Classical starts and let's assume the default number of starting points.

I noticed that if you just hit Begin without spending anything the AI will do the Advanced Start for you automatically, which might be a nice way to start some games where you don't want to give yourself an advantage right away.

I'm looking for people who think they know of "optimal" strategies (in their opinion).

Dave once said that the most efficient things to buy are workers, settlers, and units to explore, but that was over a year ago so my memory of it is somewhat muddled.

Dave once said that the most efficient things to buy are workers, settlers, and units to explore, but that was over a year ago so my memory of it is somewhat muddled.

Yeah I tend to pick workers but I did notice that a settler and a new city cost the same, so just go with a city if you know where it will go. I'd imagine settlers and workers are considered very efficient because they require cities to halt their growth normally and they cost 1:gold: per:hammers: which is a very efficient early game conversion of gold. I'm not sure how much I like to spend on exploring units - maybe just build them straight away. A couple of warriors mightn't go astray, mind you.

I think buying a cultural expansions costs 1:gold: for each :culture: so it doesn't seem worth it.

I was also wondering whether it's a good idea to buy one or two of the techs if it means getting a big advantage quickly - e.g. trying to snag bronze working and use those workers straight away on forest heavy starts.

I agree with TMIT's recollection of Dave's advise (:crazyeye:), as techs are quite expensive and aren't too sure of what lies in the dark.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=7065185

Yep, definitely muddled memory. Cities, not settlers XD.

Ah thanks for the link Dave. Strange that didn't turn up when I searched for "advanced start".