[BNW] Guide: versatile tradition-based start for Immortal / Emperor

[Lanstro]

Introduction

After having played quite a few BNW games, I thought I'd share my game opening strategy for players looking to move up the difficulties or who just want a more systematic understanding of the early game. It's more a set of guidelines than hard strategy, so almost everything below will have exceptions. This works well on Emperor and Immortal, though is not enough of a min/max strategy for Deity.

The goal of this opening is to arrive at the mid-game peacefully with a strong foundation of 2-6 quality cities, solid infrastructure and science, good diplomatic relations, and all of the victory options open to you. It is very light on wonders and religions, so you should be able to pull this off in most games, without having to depend on getting lucky with the AI not getting the wonder / belief that you wanted. It also doesn't rely on stealing workers, which I consider to be an exploit. This should work on standard settings on any of the standard maps other than archipeligo.

1. Ancient Era
Your goal at the start of the game is to build your first expansion city, link up your luxuries/strategic resources so you can sell them off, and keep your holdings safe from barbarians / other civs.

1.1 Settlement position
Where you put down your capital is a very important decision. It's good practice to spend a minute thinking about it, even if the choice seems obvious at first glance.

Relevant considerations are:

• settling on top of a luxury should be seriously considered. So much so that imo, you should be thinking to yourself 'why should I NOT settle on that luxury?' That extra +2 per turn, plus being able to sell the luxury to another civ earlier, means you get to buy a worker quite early.
• if settling on a luxury would make your capital rubbish, then see if you can get on top of a hill. The +1 is helpful, and sometimes the added defence also comes into play. If you're really lucky, then you'll get to settle on top of a gems or gold or silver or bronze, for the best of both worlds! You won't be able to build a windmill later, but the windmill is a pretty mediocre building and I think the trade-off is well worth it.
• if you can see more than 1 seafood, then you almost certainly want to settle on the coast. With a lighthouse up, even without a work boat, seafood tiles are excellent.
• riverside is still a solid bonus – you get to build the water mill and later on, hydro plant. Also you'll have a few fresh water tiles, which get you +2 farms once civil service is researched. Failing a river, being close-ish to another fresh water source is good.
• right next to a mountain is good too – you get to build observatories later, for a huge 50% bonus. A few wonders (albeit unimportant ones) also require nearby mountains.
• finally consider the quality of the immediate 6 tiles around the capital. Ideally you want at least one unimproved tile to be 3 yield or better, otherwise you'll be spending large chunks of the early game working a substandard tile.
• having lots of in the capital isn't as important as it was in Civ 4, and especially not for this strategy, as we'll be going down the tradition tree. Still, good to have.

These same considerations are relevant when choosing subsequent city locations also. You should prefer to settle towards other civs rather than away from them – the settlements further away from your opponents can usually be settled safely later on.

Don't settle too close to an enemy capital unless the spot is just that good. If you do go for this, then at least try to pick a reasonably defensible spot for that forward city, and then you're going to need 1-2 more archers than usual.

To the extent you can, early cities should grab at least 1 new luxury that you don't already have, so that they mostly mitigate the unhappiness that they generate.

1.2 Build order
Always open with a scout to help your warrior to explore. By the time the scout finishes, if it looks like you're on a reasonably sized landmass, then seriously consider getting a second scout also. They're going to remain useful later whether it be exploring faraway lands, escorting settlers, supporting your warrior or fog busting (or if you're really lucky, being upgraded to super-archers!)

The first thing you should build after scouts is a settler. Why?

• settlers cost not much more than workers to build, yet provide far more benefits for your civ than an early worker. A new settlement starts with a guaranteed 21 in its central tile, plus whatever the citizen is working. By contrast, a worker will only improve an early game tile by about generally about 2 yield, and it will take it at least 6 turns to improve it to boot. Ideally, you will be purchasing your first worker soon after you plop down your first city anyway. Happy to debate this point further if you disagree.
• monument not required as you will be opening tradition and getting legalism next.
• shrine is too luck dependent for emperor/immortal.
• extra military unnecessary at this stage of the game, and only adds maintenance costs.

The capital then should a worker, then it depends on how the game is unfolding:

• if there's good land around, then probably another settler
• if you're feeling in danger, then an archer
• if your land has a heavy abudance of one type of improvement/terrain (eg seafood, quarries, precious metals, camps, desert, jungle, etc), and that pantheon hasn't been taken yet, then consider a shrine
• if none of the above, then if there's a very nearby neighbour, then a caravan for the , and reducing the likelihood of war. Otherwise probably a granary or water wheel, then consider a settler
• if your land is infested by jungles/marsh and your important luxuries are affected, then consider another worker

New settlements should generally build granary -> water wheel -> library, but this is pretty flexible depending on location. Your goal is to grow as much as your happiness allows, but also finish your libraries in a decent amount of time so you can get the national college early.

Keep an eye on your early gold. Buy a worker the moment you can.

1.3 Tech order
If you settled on top of a luxury, tech towards unlocking that luxury so that you can sell it to an AI for up to 6 per turn as soon as you can - often the AI will only have about 3 per turn at this stage.

Otherwise, open animal husbandry (to show horses before your settler pops), then pottery (to unlock shrines/granaries), then your choice in techs will be driven by what luxuries you have nearby. If there are gaps in your tech order (very likely), then grab archery (if you're feeling in danger), bronze working (to show the iron) or the wheel (for linking up your cities and water wheel). There's no need to beeline any particular tech at this stage.

1.4 exploration / military
Be thorough with your exploring – try not to leave tiles unexplored. Good exploration sets you up for the rest of the game because you will find more ruins, be able to plan future city expansions better, meet city states earlier (meaning you get to buy your first worker earlier, and get more city state quests), find natural wonders for the +1 (which sometimes is quite important), etc.

Around 30 turns in, you need to bring your warrior back towards where you plan on settling your first city, so that your settler doesn't get captured by barbarians. From that point on, that warrior's job is to deal with barbarians. Do not get it killed – it's quite an important unit.

If you were lucky enough to have a scout upgrade to an archer, or if you built an archer early, then be proactive with it and clear barb huts for city states. Early friendships with them give a small but noticeable boost to your empire.

Unless you have a hyper-aggressive neighbour like Shaka, or if you settled in an extremely provocative way (eg within 5 times of another civ's capital), you generally don't need much of a military. 1 warrior, 1-2 scouts and 1-2 archers added later will generally be fine until medieval – sometimes you don't even need the archer(s) if you have great terrain.

1.5 diplomacy
Just play nice with everyone. Only exception is if it's obvious that everyone hates one civ, in which case you may as well join the majority.

Sell your unnecessary luxuries and strategic resources to everyone – there aren't many reasons to have more than 4 happiness at any time in the early game and there's no need to have any iron or horses on hand unless you are planning on going to war. Luxuries sell for 6 gpt to neutrals and 240 lump sum to friendly civs. Strategic resources sell for 1 gpt. You need that to buy early workers, and buy buildings in cities that have poor production.

If any civs refuse to pay you 'market price' for luxuries, it's because they're annoyed at you for some reason. This could be an indication that war is coming.

1.6 social policies
In most games, you will go tradition -> legalism (free buildings in first 4 cities) -> landed elite (+2 / 10% growth in capital) -> monarchy c5happy: / in capital).

If it's looking like you'll be playing a religion-based game (you have a religious civ, or you have a religious natural wonder), then you should consider mixing in peity, possibly as early as right after you open tradition.

If you're Songhai, seriously consider picking up the honour opener (and nothing else in the tree) to help you clear barb encampments for the bonus cash.

Otherwise, finish off tradition. The finisher (4 free aqueducts, +15% growth and can buy engineers with faith) is excellent.

1.7 economy
Depending on how good your land is, by the time you have 2-4 cities, your economy should be operating at anywhere between a tiny surplus and about +40 per turn. This lets you occasionally buy a worker or building where you need it most in your empire – generally in your newest cities.

As the expansion phase of your game comes to a close, you should try to use up all the trade routes you have available. They bring in good gpt, generally 2-4 each, and reduce the chances of war with your trading partner. At this stage of the game, land routes are much safer than sea – although more lucrative, sea routes are quite difficult to defend at this stage. When you can, pick one town to be your trade hub (preferably your capital), and build a caravansary there. It's a significant boost in trade income.

You should manually control your workers. Improvement priority generally should be:

1. luxuries
2. strategic resources
3. pseudo-resources (like wheat)
4. farms on fresh water tiles
5. mines/lumber mills and
6. connecting your cities up by road.

Of course exceptions apply.

 

[Lanstro]

2. Classical / Medieval era

Your goal in this phase is to work towards the main point of advantage for your civ that will allow you to start catching up to the AIs, who up to this stage are more than 2 techs ahead of you and may be as much as double or triple you in score. What that advantage should be obviously depends on the game, your civ and what you feel like doing:

• if you have an early unique unit, and the terrain around your neighbours' lands isn't too disadvantageous, then it's probably time to build an army
• if you're a builder civ and you have decent land, then it's time to get a good early wonder or two
• if you're going for a strong religion, it's time to get your income up and try to spread your religion a bit
• if there's still a lot of unsettled land that isn't bad, it's time to keep expanding and get ready to catch up in in the mid to late game
• if in doubt, get the National College at least
• if none of these apply, then you have to bust a move. It's probably time for war .

2.1 Military path
This is probably the most straightforward. The AI still sucks at combat so even a modest force will eventually grind down an immortal AI.

The most important techs for this strategy is construction for composite bows, then machinery for crossbows. If you have a powerful unique unit then obviously unlock that too (most notably, Keshiks and camel archers). The AI is a sucker for the 'rope a dope' strategy – even if your enemy has a scary army, most of the time you only need 3-4 ranged units, not-terrible terrain and a melee unit or two to win a defensive war and kill off 75% of its army. Once the AI has suicided the bulk of its units on you, you can march forwards (with the support of some siege weapons if necessary) and start conquering its cities one by one. Just make sure to set up your troops well before walking within range of a city, so that almost all units that will be fighting the siege all move within range in the same turn or two. Unless the terrain is horrible, you should be taking minimal losses.

If you plan on a conquest victory, your goal is to get as many units to the +1 range +1 move/turn promotions as possible. They are absolute monsters and the AI has no idea how to deal with it.

You'll want to puppet the very good cities, and burn the rest. Otherwise you just won't have the happiness to manage it.

Once it seems like your existing army is enough to win the war, switch production back to infrastructure buildings – you still need to keep up in tech / economy with the other AIs.

Don't kill civilizations off completely if you can help it – the other AIs hate that. Leave them with a bad town or two. Be prepared that some of the other peaceful civs are going to hate you for the rest of the game regardless.

It's tempting to wait to build a barracks (or even an armoury and heroic epic also) but they're not really necessary. There's not a huge difference between 0 exp troops and those with 1-2 promotions. Most times you're better off just getting the war started earlier.

The only time war gets difficult is if there is a large powerful warlike civ that has also built the great wall. Then it really becomes a pain – try to gobble up a different civ if possible, and if not, don't be afraid to plop down citadels to help your advance against the great wall foe. The +1 range +1 attack crossbowmen/trebuchets really help here.

2.2 Wonder path
You won't get to build many early/midgame wonders on this difficulty, so choose very wisely. Due to the high risk of being beaten by the AI, you should only do this if you have a high production city, and you need to focus only on the very powerful game-changing ones, and beeline to them. These are:

• Petra, for a desert heavy capital. This is fairly high on the AI priority list also, so if you can see 1-2 other capitals near desert already, you should probably not go for this.
• Colossus, for a coastal town. Ditto on abandoning this if there are several AI coastal capitals.
• the religious wonders unlocked by theology.
• Notre dame. Also a high AI priority.

There are a few wonders which are not as good as the above, but are lower on the AI priority list, so you might consider them if you have a lot of hammers:

• the Mausoleum, if you have a lot of quarries
• the Oracle
• the Sistine Chapel

Obviously if you're going down this path, you should probably get the 10% wonder production policy, and then finish the tradition tree. This strategy also works well with getting an early national college.

All the other early wonders are either built too early by emperor/immortal civs to go for, or not worth the gamble of missing them, given their limited benefits.

Securing a couple of the powerful midgame wonders should secure you a good economic or scientific foundation from which to launch into the mid to endgame.

2.3 religion path
Religion is a bit difficult on immortal – the AI will almost always spend the midgame flooding your lands with its missionaries / prophets, so it can be difficult to maintain your own religion in your own civ, let alone have it flourishing as a dominant religion in the world.

That said, in the right circumstances, religion can be a massive boost to your civ for the midgame, bringing in gold, culture, happiness and setting up strong faith income for the lategame (which you can use to purchase great people later). It's also a massive help if you've decided to go for a tourism victory.

You shouldn't go for a full blown religion game unless you have a good bonus to faith production, whether it be because of your unique abilities / buildings (eg Celts, Mayans, Ethiopians), you have a faith natural wonder, or you have a good faith generating pantheon (eg +1 on deserts or +2 on quarries). Otherwise you just won't have the faith to keep up with the AIs. Ideally you should have at least 2 of these bonus sources of faith. Even when this is the case, a dedicated religion AI like the Byzantines or Spain can still achieve much greater global spread than you.

You have to know when to not pursue a religion even if you got a good pantheon. Sometimes you just have to accept that the AI will overrun your religion eventually, and you should just enjoy that early pantheon bonus while you can.

In terms of picking beliefs, pick according to your situation. The only beliefs that seem to be head and shoulders better than the rest are:

• the buildings, in particular pogodas / cathedrals / mosques, because they give happiness, faith and culture, all of which is useful all game;
• itinerant preachers (+25% religious pressure, +50% after printing press) – this is great for repelling enemy religious influence and spreading your own
• the reformation belief that gives +2 tourism per religion-purchased building – this is huge for a cultural win.

2.4 continued expansion
Sometimes there's a lot more land to gobble up even after the first expansion phase. Don't be afraid to expand past 4 cities if the land is good enough. Just make sure that you're still getting new luxuries, so that you can keep up with the happiness drain.

This strategy will delay your national college and other important midgame national wonders, but it will give you a powerful lategame. You will eventually get all your infrastructure set up, and this gives you a great foundation for a totally peaceful science win later on.

2.5 the national college and buildings generally
Regardless of the paths above you take, you should try to get the national college as soon as you can without compromising the path you choose. Its 3 bonus plus the 50% bonus is just huge when combined with your large tradition-fueled capital. The other early national wonders (circus maximus, east india company) are also good to have, but not nearly as important as the NC.

In terms of other buildings, your approach should be to build the minimum number of military units that will achieve your strategic goals, then prioritise food and science buildings, then production buildings, with happiness buildings tossed in as you need them. In a religion game you'll want shrines/temples as well obviously. Other than monuments, the cultural buildings are rubbish until later, when you need their slots to hold your great works.

The midgame and onwards
The guidelines above should set you up for a strong midgame and beyond. It should be open to you which victory condition to pursue from there on, and your diplomatic relations should be in reasonably good shape, such that as long as you maintain a reasonable military force, you shouldn't fear war from anyone other than the most hyper-aggressive AIs.

Even for games where you're aiming for a peaceful victory, you should try to get to 4-8 cities by the mid to endgame. This could be through colonising new lands, gobbling up some useless city states or war on a major civ (preferably one that nobody else likes). That ensures that you won't be pushed around so easily in the endgame, by which time one or two of the AIs are likely to have gobbled up all their neighbours and become superpowers.

 

[skip11]

Hey, thanks a lot for this guide. I'm still on Prince level, I'm just wondering you said build farms on water tiles, does that mean besided rivers? Also, what do I do for the plains and hills etc., build trading post and mines?

 

[Past Redemption]

Hey, thanks a lot for this guide. I'm still on Prince level, I'm just wondering you said build farms on water tiles, does that mean besided rivers? Also, what do I do for the plains and hills etc., build trading post and mines?

Don't ever work plains unless it has a bonus resource on it, or it has a trading post and you have spare citizens. Hills should get mines. It's usually only worth it to build farm on rivers early on. Whether to chop down forests or make lumber mills is a personal choice, I almost always prefer the eventually superior lumber mills, but if you need food, you need food.

Water tile=tile with access to fresh water. That mean it is adjacent to either a river or a lake. I don't think oases work for that, but I never bother improving basic desert anyways.

 

[budweiser]

I believe that it is possible on immortal to get at least one ancient wonder almost every time. The trick is picking which one and getting the hammers going fast to build it. Either Artemis or Stone Henge are doable most times by t40. Of course the Pyramids are also a decent option.

 

[Past Redemption]

I believe that it is possible on immortal to get at least one ancient wonder almost every time. The trick is picking which one and getting the hammers going fast to build it. Either Artemis or Stone Henge are doable most times by t40. Of course the Pyramids are also a decent option.

You will never get Stonehenge with an even remotely religious AI in the game. Artemis, Pyramids, and Mausoleum are usually doable, although of the three only Pyramids is particularly worth the effort, imo. Unless, of course, you're playing Venice. Than both Mausoleum and Artemis look much, much better.

 

[skip11]

Sorry a few more questions here (just won w/ Poland on turn 460-ish science victor; prince level, so still super noob):

- So plains should be saved for science labs from GS then?
- What about jungle/forest? just chop em down or build lumber mills?
- Farms should only be a few then? What if there are no water resources nearby?
- After improving resources, workers then primarily build roads from the cities?

 

[Past Redemption]

Sorry a few more questions here (just won w/ Poland on turn 460-ish science victor; prince level, so still super noob):

- So plains should be saved for science labs from GS then?
- What about jungle/forest? just chop em down or build lumber mills?
- Farms should only be a few then? What if there are no water resources nearby?
- After improving resources, workers then primarily build roads from the cities?

Alot of these questions have to do with context, specifically Wide Vs. Tall. Tall will eventually work every tile in the city, or at least a great majority. In that case, you'll want to trading post the plains, and start putting great person tiles when you have no hills to put them on. Jungle has to be chopped for luxes, but beyond that is the best tile in the game. Avoid cutting it down if at all possible. Tall will build significantly more farms than wide, and will likely just stick them everywhere to keep growth going. Roads should usually come after building all your special tile improvements (pastures, plantations, etc.) but before making farms on vanilla tiles or mines on hills.

Alot of these answers change for wide, though, where your worker time is better spent elsewhere.

Re: Plains, though, you just never, ever work it unless you have no other choice.

 

[Lanstro]

Sorry a few more questions here (just won w/ Poland on turn 460-ish science victor; prince level, so still super noob):

- So plains should be saved for science labs from GS then?
- What about jungle/forest? just chop em down or build lumber mills?
- Farms should only be a few then? What if there are no water resources nearby?
- After improving resources, workers then primarily build roads from the cities?

- a farmed fresh water plain isn't too horrible, I think they're worth working. Also sometimes the city location means that you don't have a choice whether you work plains or not!
- the only time you should chop down jungle is to build a luxury resource, because jungles eventually get +2 science from universities. You can build a trading post on a jungle without chopping it down. Sometimes it's worth it to work a banana, but usually that's not worth doing either.
- number of farms depends on how much happiness your empire has, and how many fresh water tiles you have. If you have both, then farm away! If not, then go for mines/lumbermills and the like to limit growth. Most games fall somewhere in the middle.
- If your city has more citizens than improved tiles, then your worker should continue improving those ordinary tiles. Otherwise yes, link up your cities, then start roading towards the civs that you plan on warring. Generally you will need around 1 worker per city.

 

[Schalke 04]

Re: Plains, though, you just never, ever work it unless you have no other choice.

somewhat right, it just sounds too negative however.

Let's look at the plains tiles in comparison to a grassland/hill combo:

pre CS with water:
3 farmed plains give 6 food and 3 production.
2 farmed grassland give 6 food and 1 mined hill gives 3 production
--> the overall yield of these two options is exactly the same (and iirc a farm needs less worker turns than a mine, benefiting the plains slightly)

post CS with water:
3 farmed plains give 9 food and 3 production.
2 farmed grassland give 8 food and 1 mined hill gives 3 production
--> the overall yield of 3 plains is 1 food better than the grassland/hill combo

Just considering the yields, the plains win here (with chemistry you gain 1 production with the farm/hill combo though, which evens it out. But it comes later)

So, talking about just the yields, plains tiles are not as bad as they are being made widely. HOWEVER, and here we come to the point, the grassland/hill combo is much more versatile. Especially in the beginning you want your capital (and satellite cities) to let grow. And for that you need food, or better say grassland tiles. Here is the real disadvantage of these plains tiles. In a fully grown city though a plains tile doesn't necessariliy need to be much worse than a grass/hill combo.

 

[Lanstro]

I believe that it is possible on immortal to get at least one ancient wonder almost every time. The trick is picking which one and getting the hammers going fast to build it. Either Artemis or Stone Henge are doable most times by t40. Of course the Pyramids are also a decent option.

It's not so much whether it's possible but whether what you're giving up for building that wonder is worth it. Artemis is a pretty mediocre wonder unless you're going for a composite bow rush. And stonehenge is both too much of a gamble on immortal, and also a bit mediocre unless you have pretty specific terrain or are a religion-focused civ.

Instead of that wonder, you could have a settler out and half a worker. I'd prefer the latter in almost every game.

 

[skip11]

Sorry but what is pre-CS and post-CS?

 

[Lanstro]

Pre-Civil Service (when all farms are just +1 food) and post-Civil Service (when fresh water farms are +2 food but others remain at +1).