New player question about specialization in tech tree/cities

Hi all,

New to the Civ franchise and have been playing Civ V for a little bit now. I have read through a number of beginner guides, which I have found mainly fall into two groups: 1) What everything IS in civ (victory types, resources, etc), and 2) the thought process in the first 50-100 turns.

I am at a point in the game where I at least understand the broad strokes of what I am looking for if I want to go for each type of victory, and how I should work through the tech tree early (kinda like pottery/animal husbandry/luxury resources/writing etc), and what to build early (some combination of a scout, getting a monument up (if not from tradition), a worker, shrine if you want religion, and a library en route to a national college).

But the sheer breadth of the game gets to me at that point. After turn 100 or so, I have felt like there is just so much going on and sometimes I feel like I don't have a plan. The thing I'm especially struggling with is how much to beeline through the tech tree, or how much to get most techs in an era. Like I was playing as the Mongols earlier, and I wasn't sure after I got my luxury techs up, was the best thing to do to just beeline to chivalry?

Same thing with building things in cities. I think I went for scout > monument > > work boats (both my luxuries were sea based) > library > stables > settler. And I didn't even have a worker yet. And as I was getting farther into the game, I wanted to start building up an army, but then I was like "my city doesnt even have a granary or shrine yet". I know it changes w/ each circumstance, but is Civ more of a game where cities can't "get it all" and you have to really pick and choose what to get and leave stuff behind, or should I be thinking like every city NEEDS certain buildings early?

Sorry for the long post! Basically, I'm just curious how to learn when to beeline through the tech tree and in city buildings and when not to. If anyone has a link to any resources for someone like me, that knows the basic mechanics, but wants to learn more about how to actually play, that'd be great!

Thanks in advance

The best tip I'd have is don't play on too easy of a level, you'll only learn bad habits. Prince or higher for sure.

Also try and play out some of the bad terrain starts. You'll appreciate a come from behind victory off a tundra start more than a multi-salt god site.

Then it comes down to practice and experience. Play to your civ's strengths and play to the dirt you get.

Finally pick out how you want to win and then move towards that goal without getting sidetracked. If the goal is domination don't try and build all the wonders.

Yossarian11 said:

But the sheer breadth of the game gets to me at that point. After turn 100 or so, I have felt like there is just so much going on and sometimes I feel like I don't have a plan.

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How many game have you finished? Everything you described was my experience starting out as well. Except I have a history of restarting video games to tweak my approach with new things I've learned. As a result, in Civ 5, I found myself focusing so much on the early game that I was lost in the mid game. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I think making a plan and moving forward involves being familiar with the mid and late games, which you'll only get by finishing games.

Yossarian11 said:

Same thing with building things in cities. I think I went for scout > monument > > work boats (both my luxuries were sea based) > library > stables > settler. And I didn't even have a worker yet. And as I was getting farther into the game, I wanted to start building up an army, but then I was like "my city doesnt even have a granary or shrine yet".

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Unless you're playing on Archipelago (not a good idea if you're newer to the game), building two Scouts up front is well worth the opportunity cost. If you're playing Tradition, then you'd probably want a Shrine and then 2-3 Settlers. If you're playing Liberty, a Monument before the Shrine is probably a good idea.

Basically, you want to settle as fast and as much as land and happiness will allow. Then once your borders are established, you can work on developing the lands that you have. I think it's a good idea to have an early Worker since that helps keep the happiness flowing while you're still in the establishing borders phase.

Are you able to steal a Worker or two? You mentioned guides, so I'm assuming this was covered. One of the many advantages of a second Scout is the ability to steal more workers. You should only declare war on any city state once, but doing it 2-3 times during the ancient era won't be much of a penalty at all.

Thanks for the responses! As far as actually finished games, I've only actually FINISHED 2 domination games, and then a single victory of each of the other types. Definitely need more practice, and yea, I do tend to just restart after a certain point when I feel like I'm making bad choices again, or don't know what to do. So I'll try to stick it out a little bit more to become more accustomed to the mid- and late- games.

I do think I may delay settlers a bit too much, I struggle to get up more than 2 expansion cities within the first 100-120 turns. I am also learning to put my cities closer together, when I started, I was putting way too much land between them I think. I haven't been stealing many workers, but I'll start. On the difficulties I've been playing at, it seems like it takes a long tiem for the CS's to actually get workers out, so I end up building my own.

I've been trying to watch Let's Plays, and I know most of the big LP youtube names, but sometimes I feel like alot of the commentary is a bit over my head. Is there any Let's Play or video series out there that really caters to explaining what the thought process is of every major choice?

Also, is any of the victory types best for getting an overall view of the game? I've been focusing mostly on science, since it's involved in all the other victory types, but should I be going for any in particular as I learn?

Well I'm not the best player, but I always make it a point to narrate with the beginning player in mind. I also do shorter videos on lesser known game mechanics, military strategies for peaceful players, and stuff like that. Link is in my sig.

As for victory types, diplomatic is relatively easy. The other ones require some strategy and specialization though. I tend to play towards all victory types so I don't limit my options. I think this is possible because I mostly avoid world wonders.