Brave New World help request

[TheBossInTheWal]

So in playing Civ 5 I was able to win routinely playing at emperor difficulty. I moved myself back to king difficulty for BNW. And i'm still getting my arse handed to me. The removal of gold from rivers and coastal/sea tiles is very rough. From what it seems with the BNW expansion you can either not expand and get a wonder off and then expand and maybe be competitive. Or you can focus on building infrastructure/expanding without any chance at early wonders. Or you can try and get a head start on religion. Building a military is out of the question. Now I do not think that you can't do it all, but it seems like if you can't do two of those you can't be competitive. And I can't seem to do two together and not be out expanded and/or attacked before I can build a military. Which is extremely hard to pay for. So much time is spent building your first two caravans as well.

This is what I have been doing:

Start a game with the founding city on a river. Build a scout. Then build a shrine. Then build a monument. I am doing Liberty cultural upgrades during this process(and using a civ that isn't war like early on). By the time my monument is finished I have a worker from the Liberty upgrade "Citizenship." I build a second worker and then two archers. After that I build a settler and usually by the time the second settler comes out my first city's improvements(farms, mines,etc) are mostly done and I keep it at lvl 6 pop to avoid unhappiness until I have a third luxury resource. At this point I build roads to both of the new cities I founded with the settlers and my next build for the capital is the pyramids. I rarely am ever beaten to completion of them. After the pyramids I build a water wheel, then if advantageous enough a stable, then a barracks, and then I try to get 4 Horsemen. I tried building caravans before the horsemen, but i invariably am attacked around this time. And gold has run out around

So suggestions? Maybe not build a worker at all? Not build roads for a while? Skip the water wheel or stables or barracks?

As a side note, anyone else notice with BNW on maps where more often than not if there's plenty of space you still start out very close to another civ's capital?

 

[dysent]

I'd go monument before shrine. I'm not sure about king, but normally for me a single early shrine isn't nearly enough to actually make a religion before the AI locks them all up, and the 1gpt cost is significant over time.
If you're going to be picking up the worker from citizenship and later two from pyramids, you might not actually want 4. Workers each cost you gpt, and 3 with both those upgrades really should be plenty.
I'd build caravans about the same point where you were building worker/archers - at least the first caravan so you're bringing in a bit more money. Be sure to make at least one of your cities close enough to someone to trade with them. I've found that trade routes really are the most important way to make money right now. It's a pretty big amount of extra income. Also, you might want to go commerce next after liberty. Comp bows + walls are better than horsemen for defending yourself, as well (and cheaper to maintain since you need less of them). Will tend to get pillaged tho' :\

edit: Honestly though - even post-BNW, I've always been a firm believer in tradition. Having a bunch of large early cities can be such a big advantage later on. I'd give tradition a try, though you will need to work a bit slower on settler / worker progress.

 

[MantaRevan]

I'd say go liberty. For whatever reason, all of the AIs only build 3-5 cities per game and then pivot to beating you at all of the wonders. Only beeline what you need, and settle a lot of the land that is left by the computer.
EDIT: Also, don't freeze your growth at 6. A 2% penalty really doesn't mean anything in the early game since you aren't getting anything upwards of 15 hammers anyway. Just let the city grow, you'll have more land to work and you'll be glad in the long run.