Early game, please guide

King Younk

Warlord
Joined
Jan 30, 2020
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Chicago
I'll be patient this time. One turn per bit of advice.

Playing as Native America again.

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My scout got hunting, so I built another scout. Not sure what to do now.
 

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I'll be patient this time. One turn per bit of advice.
Broke this on first post. You played until 3400 BC before getting any advice.
 
Worker could farm the wheat and then cottage the flood plains and grassland after pottery is finished
 
Wet wheat (5:food:1:hammers:) is so much better than clams (4:food:2:commerce:) that I'd go worker first (not workboat, and definitely not scout).
 
I usually go food/worker first, but if I have hunting and a 3 hammer tile from turn 1, it just makes sense that I should try for some goody huts, and to build one or two scouts.

That's at least a good strategy with Charlemagne, no?
 
The issue with that strategy is that it becomes less and less viable as you go up in difficulty, since the AI starts with increasingly more units to grab what huts there are first and delaying your first worker (or fishing boat) becomes an increasingly larger setback, especially when you don't luck into grabbing a hut the AI missed and get something worthwhile from it. It's generally not recommended for that reason (not that goody huts in general are recommended for standard play, but...). Worker first is the consistent strategy.
 
I skipped playing with huts after one year of Civ 4 and never turned back. It is random, distorted and gives you a false sense of security. You will not learn how to manage your commerce early on, because you almost always pop up some 50 gold.

Also, on EMP and above, AI runs around with 2 scouts each and grabs most of the huts before you. You cannot imagine what they pop up sometimes. Isabella once switched into Hered. Rule at Turn 22, which means she had beelined Priesthood and got Monarchy from a hut. Do you want this to happen?

For me, running around like an idiot in the hope to grab a nice technology puts a 1. lot of stress (will I be the first?), 2. incites me to build scouts/warriors first (often without any payback), 3. neglects fogbusting (because you run away too far), 4. makes a kill more likely (because you run into the jungle, do not recover, do not fortify) and 5. makes my scouting even more unconscious (because I focus only on huts instead of evaluating a next city site.) So after all, I have revealed useless parts of the maps and sometimes don't even know my surrounding towards a particular cardinal point....
 
Yep always play no huts no events. The only downside is I wish one event was still active. The slave revolt. It was the only attempt to equalize the otherwise over powered slavery civic. People claimed it was too penalizing but seem to ignore the too good aspects of slavery. It couldn't be that bad because it never seemed to discourage the use of slavery.
 
I tend to miss the quests from time to time. The reward is often not worth the effort but it can give new focus to games where focus is lost.
I definitely do NOT miss the burnt down forge, the flooded roads (on copper, when you are about to being dowed) and the reduced population due to herbal experimentations :lol:
 
Or the hurricanes that destroy your Pasture literally the turn after you build them, the dust bowls that destroy a dozen+ tiles worth of irrigation by destroying the one key Farm, the stacks of barbs showing up on your doorstep with no warning, the gracious opportunities to gift a strategic resource to an AI at war (who never do the same for you, naturally), the dynasties worth of your people leaving foreign *insert suitably important, era-appropriate position here* standing on the altar and straining relationships, the many variations of "set a bunch of your precious money on fire or *insert bad thing here* will happen (and likely continue happening again and again until you actually pay up)" events...

But hey, you can find Truffles for +1:food:...on a Mountain tile :gripe:. Totally worth it :goodjob:.
 
LOL. Huts/events definitely can unbalance a game and if you're learning, they can induce bad habits. I still play with them on, because I don't play competitively and I'm OK with retaining my bad habits. For me, they're fun, and my usual refrain for SP games applies: "Play the way that's fun for you".

Current game, Lalibela just whipped a Granary and saw it destroyed by a hurricane the next turn. :lol: Annoying, but I can deal with it. And if the Vedic Aryans show up, there's always Worldbuilder. :goodjob:
 
Yep always play no huts no events. The only downside is I wish one event was still active. The slave revolt. It was the only attempt to equalize the otherwise over powered slavery civic. People claimed it was too penalizing but seem to ignore the too good aspects of slavery. It couldn't be that bad because it never seemed to discourage the use of slavery.

I agree. Huts and events, arguably, have a balancing as well as an imbalancing effect on the game. The Deity AI gets 2 scouts so as to presumably have an advantage in hut-hunting. Turn off huts, and you make Deity a little easier. Turn off the slave revolt event and slavery has one less downside.

The slave revolt would be a better event if it affected everyone equally - event happens, and everyone running slavery has one city go into revolt. Or perhaps if it occurred every 20 turns? As it is, it has the potential to derail otherwise careful planning, so people hate it.
 
It was usually a death sentence in MP games. ;)
 
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