Ancient Era Tips

[DeltaV]

in other cases, if you actually gain production speed having more population, i say build some defense first. probably you'd want a defending unit right away for noble+. haven't been there yet.

Not necessary on Prince. I usually build a scout first, if I've got hunting. Otherwise I get hunting first and then build a scout. While waiting for hunting to be discovered, I start on barracks, then postpone that for the scout when I get hunting.

Early scouts pay off big. Besides finding more goodie huts, you also find where the resources are and where the other civs are faster than with just the one warrior. After you're done exploring, you can use the scouts as lookouts for barbarians and keep the fog of war back so barbarians don't spawn close to your cities.

I usually build the worker after the capitol reaches size 3 (depending on the city's surrounding terrain). By that time, I've got at least two scouts out, and a barracks mostly built (barracks sometimes gets delayed for the worker). My first settler goes out escorted by a scout, or at least with the scout on overwatch from a hilltop to make sure the way is clear. Since both have 2 movement points, they can evade the wild animals, and if the scout has a couple of upgrades by then, it'll beat any animals you encounter. Animals won't bother cities.

Depending on how things are going, my second settler might also go out with a scout instead of an archer. In any case, I build several archers after the third city is founded...the Barbarians start showing up about then. Since I already have a barracks, the garrison archers go out with City Defense I, and the ones destined for picket duty on the boarders go out with Hills Defense I.

My first two or three cities go to either secure prime real estate, exploit vital resources, or block off other civs from your interior with their cultural boarders. If you're the Mongols and some other civ gets to the horses first...well, it's time to try out those Mongol axemen instead!

If I encounter a Barbarian City, I station 2 archers between it and my cities on the most defensible terrain, preferably right next to the city. That keeps them occupied until I can get some axemen or something to take the city.

 

[countzero]

I found out that founding more than one religion is not a good thing at all. first of all, you have to choose one to spread and concentrate (while others will spread naturaly anyway, which will make your job difficult in the long run). second and more importantly, you decrease the number of religions the AI founds, which makes them have a single religion (if you can't be succesful to concentrate on spreading one of your own) and have good relations with each other. lots of tech trades behind you, and they hate you because you don't have their religion. the more religions you let them found, the more animosity they'll have against each other.