What to do with early gold pile?

Buying a caravan or archer doesn't work into my tech path...i start pottery,writing,mining,calander...then archer/animal husbandary. Taking mining early gives my cities enough production to hard build units and building,in mind cant justify spending gold on something i can have in a few turns of patience. So i start using my cash to court cs friendships/alliances. Also i dont know if im just lucky but more times than not my first scout hits a upgrade ruin so i have an archer and have found a archer warrior combo enough to hold for awhile. So maybe i should re-think my starting tech path to grab trade quicker??

Well, that's all dependent on what you think is comfortable and what difficulty you are playing at. On the lower difficulties going writing and perhaps even calendar before archery/anim. husb./mining can be viable, but on the higher difficulties I rarely find that to be the case. I usually go Pottery -> Anim. husb. -> archery -> w/e I need most. but the first 3 are usually set in stone. Animal Husbandry also reveals horses after all, and I like to see my strategic resources so that I can plan my future cities a million turns ahead of settling them. (But that's just me)

Grabbing an early archer is also usually very well needed on higher difficulties. Both to help clear camps and to escort settlers/workers and help defend agains intruders.

My first 220 gold almost always goes to a worker. Either that or an extra unit to protect a settler/worker because my other units are exploring.

After that important tiles are purchased such as hills, lux and river side land.

I tell myself I'm saving for a library. I don't want a turn 150 NC.

Then I buy six tiles and... Oooh lookie... A shrine!!! So shiny.

Then I get a turn 150 NC.

You usually have a few buildings early on you'll want to build such as a Granary, Monument or Shrine I like to buy the one I'm not building, especially a shrine to start accumulating faith

Primacide said:

I tell myself I'm saving for a library. I don't want a turn 150 NC.

Then I buy six tiles and... Oooh lookie... A shrine!!! So shiny.

Then I get a turn 150 NC.

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you should get your NC around turn 45 - 60 unless you're doing a city spam build. Turn 150 is like modern era.....

CraigMak said:

you should get your NC around turn 45 - 60 unless you're doing a city spam build. Turn 150 is like modern era.....

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Maybe on Quick Speed, yes. Let me know if you can hit Renaissance at T150 on Epic or Marathon on Immortal or Deity difficulties.

FaohKi said:

Maybe on Quick Speed, yes. Let me know if you can hit Renaissance at T150 on Epic or Marathon on Immortal or Deity difficulties.

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Yeah, I'm not aware of the timings on other game speeds. Hitting the next turn button repeatedly for no reason seems pointless to me.

Gold differences are so easily attained that I eventually don't worry about making money early and spending it because once you get your military growing and buildings built in your cities you'll eventually see a difference so that's why its so important to build and purchase gold producing buildings such as banks or mints even to continue to get that gold in after you end up seeing a difference.