Early game - What to do

[NWOG]

After trying to pick up as much as possible during my small period of time here, I've noticed a few people saying that the early game is perhaps the most important period in the whole game.

As it is the most importnat period in the whole game (?), then surely your moves in the early game must easily be the most important?


I'll cut the crap.

When you start, what do you do? What will be your first moves?

Do you start building a warrior? A worker? A settler?


In short:

Do you have a build-strategy you find useful and efficient?

 

[Ginger_Ale]

First off, try reading some articles in the War Academy.

The ones very important relating to the early game are:

cracker's Opening Plays Tutorial
Bamspeedy's Settler Factory Article
Trip's Article on Food and Its Power

The others there are all top notch.

Try reading some threads in the Succession Games Forum, where people keep a log of the turns they play as a team, and post screenshots and have discussions. Great way to see what to build on a map-by-map basis.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

Depending on the map and stuff, this will depend on a lot of things, but "classic" first moves are to start with either of warrior(or scout), settler (high food nearby for 2nd city), granary(all purpose) and worker(if you can get a fast 4-tun factory going).

Read those articles if you really want an answer, though.

 

[BlackBetsy]

You also need to think - how do I want to win the game? What victory condition should I satisfy?

If you are going for cultural 20k - i.e., one city amassess 20,000 cultural points, your opening sequence is very different than a domination win. Similarly, a spaceship or diplomatic win is also much different - you would be concentrating on science.

A lot of games I first started playing, or even GOTM games, I didn't have a plan to win - and wound up futzing around and getting a late victory because I couldn't make up my mind.

But, unless you are going for a 20k win, the opening moves are generally to set up your capital as a settler factory to expand, expand, expand. That involves building a warrior to explore/pop goody huts, a worker to speed up the production in your capital, and then a settler to get an early second city.

In my QSC for GOTM 41, I went, trying to expand as fast as possible, here was my build plan:

Warrior - Warrior - Settler (after cutting down a forest for extra 10 shields) - Warrior - Granary (with two forests chopped) - Warrior (to calibrate settler factory) - Settler - Settler - Settler - Settler - Settler - Settler - Settler - Settler - Settler

That was the sequence from 4000 bc - 1000 bc (first 80 turns).

 

[Dutch Leader1]

Dear NWOG,

Some tips when you start Civ3: (it doesn't matter if you have an expansion pack or not)
- First control your military units, check how strong you are(when you get attacked)
- Let your cities build 2 or 3 settlers, you can than expand your empire! -> you build new cities!!
(A lot of the area is still not explored! And not occupied by an another Civ)
- Let your workers make roads to get good connections with all the cities.

The "rest"? Well, you should experience. I am busy with Civ3 for about 1.5 years and I'm still learning!
You can even get new ideas and new experiences with Civ3 after 1.5 years!

Good luck and I wish you a nice playing time!
Greetings, Roland

 

[WackenOpenAir]

The build order will change from game to game.

The most important is to understand that growth is everything and the only thing in early game.
Growth Food Population Cities Settlers Granaries Workers
If you got that hammered in your head properly, start using your brains and see how you can apply that in your games.

Sometimes you will need to build a granary, sometimes you need to build just settlers without granary, you will also need workers to get those cities operational and enable them to build settlers and granaries etc. And yes, you will need a very few units for scouting. Most usually you should build 1 scouting unit before you start your first granary or settler.

 

[ThePrankMonkey]

i usually start out with warrior warrior settler warrior settler and do this until i get about 4-5 cities then set my capital to building wonders ASAP (i want a wonders victory but i keep getting the cultural victory first) and let the other cities do the same warrior settler warrior settler method. after bronze working i go with the spearman isntead of the warrior.

with each new city i will build a worker first, sometimes two, one for the city, one to create roads connecting cities. the more cities the more roads i need so i build an extra one or two workers as needed.

i expand, ALOT. as mush as possible, roads also allow settlers made closer to the center to get out faster along with connecting resources and luxuries. all i'll do is make city after city. i wont actually start improvement until im almost done with the stone age and when i do i start with libraries. gotta get that research rolling ASAP IMO. then a marketplace then a courthouse (for corruption) then a temple...

i also use my kings (from the mass regicide option) to explore so i can map out where im putting my settlers. some might view using kings as cheating/exploiting but i dont, its not my fault the AI is too dumb to use them as scouts (and leaves me with more goody huts to plunder giving me more techs)'

yeah sure many might look at how i play and bash it and tell me a hundred reason why its not good strategy but it works for what i do in the game and thats all that concerns me.

expansion should be priority one though. depending on what you want to do though...