What to do with early money?

[UWHabs]

I'm still refining my early game, but the one thing I still haven't figured out is what to spend my early money on. I mean, obviously you need the money early to upgrade a few slingers to archers, or maybe if barbs or a neighbour declares on you early and you need to rush a warrior/slinger/archer for last minute defense.

But there's always some games where you get that early envoy into a commercial city-state, or you just happen to be working cocoa or diamonds early, or you can sell an early resource to get a quick 5 gpt from a neighbour. In those games, what's the best strategy for using the money? I find I often forget about it, and then see that I have 400 gold sitting there, which tells me I should have bought something earlier.

When I do remember, most of the time I either use it to buy an early builder or monument, but am not sure if those are the best things. Should I think about buying an early water mill for the eureka? Or a unit to make an invasion go faster? Or does it really just depend on the game, and I should simply use it for whatever I want to build but don't want to wait for?

 

[stinkubus]

I tend to spend it on builders and traders as units and settlers get better prod. bonuses that the builders and traders make better. Unit upgrades are also huge. Thankfully these may be planned around easily ~90% of the time.

 

[Spudsie74]

Same here, except I try to not buy too many of the same item. It looks like the price goes up incrementally each time you buy a unit or building. (Not sure how it works exactly, but) I use a lot of builders, and I try to only buy 1 or 2, in the early game. They get pricey quickly. (Perhaps they increase in cost over time, but as soon as I pay for a unit, the price goes up. I think...it appears that if you only buy 1 or 2 of the same thing, this can be avoided, but not totally sure. Anyone know how it works?

 

[Bro]

Upgrading Slingers, buying the first Trader, getting new tiles to a city(sometimes this is top priority). Sometimes I need to get some fast troops too.

 

[DanaLea]

It looks like the price goes up incrementally each time you buy a unit or building. [...] Anyone know how it works?

There are a number of items that do this. Builders and Settlers in particular. Each time you buy/make one, the next one costs a bit more. There are mods that counteract this if you prefer.

As to the original question, I spend my early gold on one of two things usually, builders and/or early units. I play peaceful and I find that a strong defense is one way to get those pesky AIs to Leave. Me. The. Hell. Alone. LOL So once I start building walls, I'll buy some spearmen or archers. Later in the game, I spent a lot of gold buying tiles, upgrading units, buying builders/settlers, and early buildings like monuments/granaries/walls in new mid-game cities.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

My first priority is usually upgrading my slingers, so I usually save my money for that. I start with a scout on most map types, so it depends on what I find. Some games I'm rolling in cash, sometimes not. If I pop a worker, or the craftsmanship eureka (depending on dirt) that's great, but if not I might buy a worker. A monument is another candidate if I have a lot of cash early, but it might not be a priority if I met the right CS. If I'm pushing for a religion I might buy a shrine, or even an extra unit.

 

[Victoria]

I will often buy a monument, it a big jump, my most common use.
If there is good workable tiles that will bump me well I will buy them (especially a culture tile)
Upgrading archers of course but you have to know how much you have to spend elsewhere.
Sometimes I will buy a slinger or warrior if I get in trouble early.
If I have no monument or tile and it builds up I will buy a settler as soon as I can afford it.
Sometimes buy a granary if very important. (I will rarely build one) but this is rare.

I will sell what I can to get more gold, horses, iron, anything. As long as I do not predict using it, if I need it I can always declare war to get it back.

 

[liv]

I use the money for upgrades to archers, battery ram, monument if needed and tiles.

 

[Victoria]

Oh yeah... and buying a RAM, cannot forget that. I'll often keep enough money to buy it in my first taken city

 

[Ribannah]

In general, I want to buy stuff that goes up in price, like Traders and tiles. And not things I can build at a discount. However, the gains of an early extra Settler or Builder can easily outweigh this consideration.