Tips for a low production start?

I'm playing as Denmark on King using the Continents Plus map and it's a Huge-sized game. I started off on the coast and have only founded one other city. Neither has much production, and I'm nearly last in science. Any tips?

Thanks in advance

Settle expos on hills whenever you can. The extra hammer makes a huge difference in the early game.

Early focus (after a couple scouts, monument, worker, maybe a shrine, and at least one archer) is libraries in expos then National College in the cap. That will take care of your science. After that, at King, it should be all fun and games.

Don't stress about being behind in the beginning as you will catch up pretty quickly if you keep your game focused. Don't get distracted by wonders. Any units you build should be actively in play, either killing barbs or at war.

Denmark is lots of fun, the early siege units actually work: land, set-up, shoot, back in the water -- all in one turn. The zerkers are basically tanks.

beetle said:

Settle expos on hills whenever you can. The extra hammer makes a huge difference in the early game.

Early focus (after a couple scouts, monument, worker, maybe a shrine, and at least one archer) is libraries in expos then National College in the cap. That will take care of your science. After that, at King, it should be all fun and games.

Don't stress about being behind in the beginning as you will catch up pretty quickly if you keep your game focused. Don't get distracted by wonders. Any units you build should be actively in play, either killing barbs or at war.

Denmark is lots of fun, the early siege units actually work: land, set-up, shoot, back in the water -- all in one turn. The zerkers are basically tanks.

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Alright, thanks. I have Indonesia far to my south, looking at maybe attacking them. I need to build up a navy for that honestly.

Denmark does not need a navy -- just units.

Low production starts benefit greatly from:
- Cities on hills/with hills in the first ring.
- Liberty for the +1 hammer and 5% production to buildings.
- Beelining workshops after the NC (and possibly working Engineer slots).
- Production-based pantheons like +1 hammer per fishing boat/per city. Also enhancers later on.

beetle said:

Denmark does not need a navy -- just units.

Click to expand...

I chose to use a small naval force because it was a coastal city and it was quicker to move my land force via naval escort. I captured Jakarta, Indonesia's cap, and I am preparing a second siege of the neighboring city. My first attempt failed as I poorly planned my attack

When your cap start is poor you should tend to go liberty more. But you also want lots of luxes to deal with happiness and lots of land to expand into. Every city is +4 unhappiness, and +1 for every additional pop. But with religion, happiness buildings, social policies, and ideology, this can be overcome - as long as you keep your population in every city under control.

revelation216 said:

When your cap start is poor you should tend to go liberty more. But you also want lots of luxes to deal with happiness and lots of land to expand into. Every city is +4 unhappiness, and +1 for every additional pop. But with religion, happiness buildings, social policies, and ideology, this can be overcome - as long as you keep your population in every city under control.

Click to expand...

This entirely exposes my problem. I have little culture, I made the mistake of taking Honor, I didn't expand much, and I have been trading luxes because I have a lot of one but not much diversity. I think I have 2 of my own, Crabs and Citrus (this coming from the siege and capture of Jakarta)

Having a lot of one is good for gold but bad for happiness. The way around it is either to use the gold to purchase happiness buildings, buy mercantile city affection or do their quests, and buy the luxes of other civs. Also use avoid growth to prevent going unhappy.

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Apologies for two accounts, not sure why my phone is logged into another. But yes, it's the same guy.

Opening with honor is in my opinion a move for experienced players. The best way to get good at this game is to start with the basic, not too demanding strategy aka Tradition with 4 strong cities and aiming at maximizing food.

Maximizing food output is often something new players overlook (i know i did) as the effect of a huge demographics are not obvious at first (huge science, allows to dedicate citizens to specialists slots etc..)

As for low prod starts, there aint much to do about it but it can also mean that you have interesting food\commerce tiles. In that case, a dedicated production city (settled on hills, with many hills around but still enough food) might be needed to produce heavily some units if needed. And caravans for hammers from a city with a workshop to your capital if it's low can help fasten things if needed.