Need some tips on Ancient Era start

[T.C.Douglas]

I usually get out produced in production, technology, and the amount of cities while playing against the PC.
Usually what I do at the start is:
1. Put science to 100%.
2. Build an Archer/Spearman. I use worker to build mines on grassland/hill/mountain, and irrigation on plains.
3. Once archer/spearman is done I then build a settler.
4. I build more settlers/workers.
5. All my cities, except capital, are put on Wealth and I slowly build my capital up.
6. I meet a few civs that have 10+ cities while I just have ~4.
7. I get attacked through an demand deal from over 2 Civs.
Then I just start over. Is there any way I can really improve my starting moves in the terms of what units/buildings I should build, or starting technologies?
PS: I don't waste time on building wonders.
PSS: My difficulty I use is usually Warlord or Monarch.

Note: I disabled all the techs that they cannot be traded; I like the Civilization V idea. Also, I like the play as Rome or Greece.

 

[Everkane]

After you build your first city, see how many shields and food it's needed to build a settler. If not single one shield will be wasted, build one. If not, build a worker than straight to a settler. Some may argue a curragh or a warrior to explore it's better, that really depends but since you are on Monarch level you don't exactly need to know the territory RIGHT NOW. Focus in expansion.

Two important things you need to think in your level (Monarch):

1 - settler, settler, setller. Expand fast building settlers till your ring around your capital is built. Expand till you reach the border of another civ. You don't need military units more than a couple of spears in the border cities at the beginning. Actually, most of the players don't even build spears since it costs more than warriors and has pretty much the same effect on AI strategy.

2 - Alphabet -> Writting -> Code of Laws -> Philosophy -> (free tech) Republic.
Most people research 10% science in the first one, than 100% till Philosophy. You can do that, but again, depending of your start, since you are at Monarch, you can go all the way to 100% till Philosophy. Particularly, in Monarch I prefer 100% till philosophy since you can work on tiles to get more commerce and research a way faster than 10%.

If you are commercial or seafaring you already start with Alphabet. Don't you mind be far behind other civs techs, because since you reach Republic you will be able to trade Code of laws and Philosophy (sometimes even Writting) for ALL techs they have and you become tech leader AND already in Republic (which you can stay the whole game from now). You may actually get one science great leader in this little adventure, if you do, rush the Pyramids with him.

If you did everything right, now you have granaries in all of your cities (due Pyramids), you are tech leader and also have many cities due settler factory.
Work on roads and findind luxury ASAP to connect your cities.

From now on the game is probably already won, you only need to find out how to maximize how many turns you will need to win. Workers, workers, workers, a factory or two of your favorite ancient age military unit and more workers.

That should make it done.

 

[MPK]

1: forget about the 'Wealth'..... pointless in the ancient ages.

2: don't worry to much about Republic v Monarchy govts. I never play Republic, where others will always go Republic. I always go Monarch then to straight to Communism.

3: But here is what I consider to be the best link for learning about 'early'game play in Civ3.

http://www.civfanatics.com/content/civ3/strategy/cracker/civ3_starts/index.htm

PS: you can always change things in the editor to suit your style of play.

 

[bigFRANK]

Build your first city near fresh water if possible, preferably with a bonus food resource in your city limits.
Build a warrior or 3 to go look about, this will let your capital grow.
Set your science rate to zero whilst you look about, popping goody huts can gift you free science that you may have already made big contributions towards otherwise, it will also leave you with gold to trade.
Build a settler only once your capital has reached 3 pop, you dont want to cripple it when the settler leaves with 2 of your city workers.
Build a couple of workers to road between your first cities.
As soon as you meet another civ try and find a trade that you can both agree on.
Get out of despotism at the earliest possible time, only thing worse is Anarchy.

 

[Lanzelot]

Read a bit in the War Academy.

Play through vmxa's tutorial: Regent Tutorial

And go through a few of these: Training Day Games

 

[Puppeteer]

If we assume two extra food per turn, in the ideal case you would place your second city immediately after turn 20, two more cities about turn 40 and four more cities about turn 60, so shortly after 1000 BC (turn 80) you might have 16 cities.

Of course real games don't work quite like that, but food is the key to early expansion, and luckily for us food is the one thing that isn't wasted due to corruption.

If an early city can't make 30 shields (for a settler) in 20 turns (the time it takes to grow from size 1 to size 3) then I make a worker from it. I almost never use wealth in the first 20 cities (OCN for a standard-sized map), especially in the ancient age.

For very early expansion usually the first two or three cities make enough shields for a warrior or three and a settler every 20-turn cycle for scouting, city defense and settler escort, but at some point (depending on territory, barbs and rivals) I start re-purposing the capital then close core cities to "real" military production.

Reading training games, succession games and the war academy is highly recommended. Here is a video turnlog of my first 20 turns ( 9:36 ) of a training day game where at turn 20 my first settler is in place ready to start a city on the next turn. The sequence isn't typical, but the goals are: settler ASAP, take advantage of resources, scout immediate surroundings (for planning placement of cities) and--in my case--meeting rivals to trade with. You have trading turned off, but my proudest moment of this turnlog was becoming the tech leader on Emperor difficulty before turn 20 with a cleverlucky round of trading between two rival civs who haven't quite met each other yet.

 

[T.C.Douglas]

Thanks for the help, guys. I really appreciate it. Now I am in the Middle Ages playing a good game. Feels like old times when I got Civ 3.