Approximate year markers for progress (no. of cities, important techs, etc)

[Akbarthegreat]

As the title says, some markers along the lines of '4 cities by 1000BC', 'Currency by 1AD', basically things that I should aim towards. I often lose track of time, especially in the early game, and forget to make settlers after the first 2-3.

If it helps, I play on K-Mod Monarch, on Epic speed. Thinking of moving up to emperor soon.

 

[Swordnboard]

Not sure how much K-Mod changes things, but on regular BTS monarch/epic you could aim for:
3 cities, 2 workers by T75
5 cities, 3 workers by T110
8 cities, 5 workers by T150

I'd consider these bare minimums. With a good starting area or expansion-oriented traits (EXP, IMP, CRE), you should do much better (more cities/workers, or also working in wonders while meeting the same levels of expansion). Of course on higher difficulties land may run out before T150. If your worker micromanagement isn't great, try to have an extra worker at each of these checkpoints.

If you've expanded at this rate and are anywhere close to construction at T150, you should be able to annihilate the monarch AI with Catapult + X (elephants if you have them, axes & swords if not). Even on K-Mod. That being said, every map warrants its own considerations. Sometimes, building wonders like the GLH or Pyramids, or doing a pre-construction rush is warranted. But if you are simply interested in moving up a difficulty level or two, you can ignore those other options and play fast expansion and construction rush games.

 

[Akbarthegreat]

That's some great advice, thanks a ton!

 

[krikav]

For deity settings, I would appreciate some benchmarks too.
When should I be ready to attack with HA? Construction? Trebs? Cannons?
Date for Astro?
Date for the various different intercontinental invastions?

 

[Anysense]

It all depends on the circumstances but usually you'll be fine with:
1. t60-t70 HA rush;
2. t80-t90 Construction. Even t100 is ok if you have elephants.
Cannons can break anything until infantry comes into play, and therefore they don't have distinct window of opportunity. I'd say that Lib->Chemistry around 300AD and teching Steel in 10-12 turns afterwards is a fairly high benchmark for a normal deity game.

 

[Bibor]

@Snownboard can you share city dates for normal speed, please? or should I just reduce the listed turn times by 33.3%?

 

[Swordnboard]

Yeah, just multiply by 2/3 (so turns 50, 75, and 100)

 

[ArchGhost]

Slower speeds are easier, but that only means that these benchmarks should be more conservative

Also technology benchmarks are actually easier to make on higher difficulties, and with more AIs on the map, as there is more trade value and faster tech rates (since more better teching AIs on high difficulty knowing a tech speeds the research progress by quite a bit) and you cut more corners due to the more punishing mechanics.

usually play Normal speed, and I usually use turn numbers to keep progress, but I'll try to convert the ones I know to years. Also I play mostly Immortal so that may skew the tech benchmarks a little (they are faster on Deity).

Don't have a lot of what i would called "skilled" or "focused" experience much past the opening stages, I kind of wing it in my games past Currency.

City builds:
City number 2 founded by 2600-2400BC
City number 3 founded by 2200-2000BC

then just expand as you can into what land you can get. If not planning on early aggression, I usually never stop trying to expand in maps with lots of contested land (Pangaea or anything with a nearby AI) but some maps call for stopping expansion before it hurts your overall tech progress to an important point (Pre-Currency, or an Astro map) 3 strong cities ASAP to push off of is necessary unless going for something like an Axe rush or run on a wonder, and the game will be much harder if you can't secure at least that.

Techs:
-Writing by ~1000BC
-Alpha/Trade for Alpha by ~500BC, though I always try for earlier (~T90/625BC) so I can start on Currency earlier. This can be WAY faster if the AIs are cooperating as no AI monopolizes Alpha. It depends mostly on when they get it, as self-teching it usually isn't so productive in a tech trading game
-Currency no latter than 125 AD even in the worst games. By 1AD is better, I always try to beat T112 (75BC) personally

After reaching Alpha+Currency, much of the early game grind is over and the game opens up a lot, assuming you didn't go for some sort of earlier attack already.