Starting problems on Emperor and above

[themoffster]

I read this forum for the first time in years yesterday and it made me try a duel game on Emperor (or Immortal, I forget). Anyway, suffice to say it was at a level greater than my usual Prince/Monarch.

I had a good capital placement, but I just could not produce settlers quickly. In the time I had one settler built, the opposition had three cities already in place. How are you meant to compete with such a disadvantage?

I normally start by building a warrior, then move on to a settler but by the time the settler had been built, the two warriors (one is one that I start with) had been off exploring and had seen three enemy cities already.

I either continue and get three cities built and get attacked as I have such a poor military, or I get two and build up an army - in which time I have lost room for expansion.

I did try building one city then going on the offensive, but the opposition took out my attackers with ease, then walked into my capital.

How do you compete?

[King Flevance]

AFAIK you will always be at a start disadvantage. On Emporer+ its about starting small and growing large. Or just staying small to compete. I personally would rather grow in empire size. Usually I dont start trying to out settlers on higher difficulties until my capitol is at least a 3-4. I emphasize food as much as I can until then. My building queue is usually like this:

-Workboat if coastal with resources.
-Barracks next or first if inland.(I usually play agg civs)
-Research beeline for archery.
-Archer comes next after barracks if I can. If not, I kind of give the city busy work. Like a Work boat if coastal and have a resource to hit or warriors or something.
-If city still isnt a 3-4 by this time, time for more archers until it is.
-I dont make workers until I have 3 cities. You can live off the land fairly well.

Now the AI will have 5 cities by the time I have 3. But I do another settler rush to follow this once I begin connecting the cities and having them defended well. If you play raging barbs like me, they can get annoying and slow your 2nd rush to a crawl. The safest route here is to have you settlers duck and hide in cities and such on their way to the next spot. Also make sure they have an escort.