Early Growth production paths

[Cyberian]

This thread shall be about early development of your capital city.

What to build in the early turns and when to build your workers, settlers and first buildings and of course important wonders like stonehenge.

A starting city working a river grassland tile has 4 science, 4 production, 4 gold and 2 food surplus leading to a growth in 8 turns. (total including palace taken from gregs final build)

Early build option and cost:

25 scout
40 warrior
60 monument
70 worker

which build path will you go and what do you think will be the pros and cons?
Which one to go for what play style/civ? What will be your preferred technology path?

I think I will go scout, worker, scout, (warrior), monument, settler, stonehenge (calender is researched after 30 turns at worst, warrior depends on barb activity)

what could be a viable strategy for early expansion is massive scouting (excluding pre Prince difficulty where you get free workers/settlers) which could lead to ruins giving you:
free population
gold
of course techs

An interesting thing that could work is early gifts of gold to a maritime city state, making it your friend and giving VERY EARLY food bonus. This would rely heavily on gold from ruins, gold gifts from meeting city states and maybe raiding barbarian camps. Maybe this strategy will only be viable for Greece (relations bonus), Germany (Gold/Unit bonus for BarbCamp) and Songhai (triple gold from BarbCamp).

 

[Tylerryan79]

Scouting is going to be big in the early game, to get all that gold etc. Scouts who pop a ruins that gives an upgrade turn into archers with large movement bonuses. I'm going to build scouts, buy a warrior, build a temple or worker, Not sure what order, depending on my tiles/techs.

 

[Cyberian]

My problem with scouting is generally that it can backfire when you build to much scouts only have about 4 ruins near your starting position and then after that you encounter other civs all around your edges who already explored all the ruins themselves. So I am not sure how much scouts really to build.

 

[Polobo]

When focusing on exploring and barbarian hunting I plan to try and get 2 scouts and 2 warrior out working generally as a team to take out barbarian villages (may split them up somewhat to increase the rate of exploration but never get them too far apart).

Scouts can attack now and likely can finish off any unit wounded by the warrior; especially when boosted with Honor and Flanking.

Mentioned elsewhere I am busy trying to rationalise that an early worker steal from a city-state is something more than an abuse of game mechanics. I have no problem on taking out a an early nearby City-State so I guess taking their worker as a first-strike doesn't bother me that much; though I may just stay at war to ease from conscious

 

[Tennyson]

Warrior first, to circle through the fog of war around the city and identify nearby resources, handle encampments, and find ruins. Scouts for fog-busting beyond the immediate vicinity. Worker as soon as I need to make any improvements. And a Monument when I have enough production that it won't cripple me for too many turns.

So, Warrior, Worker (Farm), Warrior | Scout, Scout, Monument, Settler.

 

[Polobo]

Warrior first, to circle through the fog of war around the city and identify nearby resources, handle encampments, and find ruins. Scouts for fog-busting beyond the immediate vicinity. Worker as soon as I need to make any improvements. And a Monument when I have enough production that it won't cripple me for too many turns.

So, Warrior, Worker (Farm), Warrior | Scout, Scout, Monument, Settler.

What do you plan to do with the starting warrior? The cost differential between a warrior and a scout is quite significant and the lack of terrain movement costs on the later lets it get out further (i.e., not the "immediate vincinity") more quickly during the ultra-critical first turns (turns where barbs are likely less of a threat).

EDIT: I missed the "beyond" in the scout use sentence.

Solo exploring and fighting will likley mean that the attacking unit will be heavily wounded after each victory (two attacks nominally); by pairing units up you can spread that healing between both and also maximize the chance you will kill the target in one turn. Of course the disadvantage is that you cover somewhat less ground exploring.

 

[Horserush]

If the 15% flanking bonus applies to scouts as well normal combat units (unlikely), then a warrior/scout team could be very cool early game.

I think building a worker as your second build option is more dependent on terrain and techs, and probably won't be a great option here. You might be better off building a scout and a warrior first, followed by a monument.

 

[Psycedilla]

i liked the pairing of scout and worker combo.

depending in ow much happiness you can see, i guess scout worker then either granary or warrior.

i like the idea of making the capitol a hq to spread from, so that each city build later got the pack up if its gonna need it. altso, with only capitol to start from, culture bonuses from city states helps more towards sp. unless they scale to with number of citys.

so i guess i'll go tradition, then maybe save som sp to liberty unless my capitol becomes a power house. remember a city alone cost enough happiness to support 2 people in capitol. and youll probably get a library there sooner than other city's, so you get more from that one to.

and dont forgot, the capitol is the biggest factor in trade route income to!

so as people say: scouting for luck ( hey, you may even get free pop to your cap ) and then ill skip the general idea, and go growth, and hope i get a maritime or cultural city state i can kiss ass to.

actually, siam looks temting to be my first civ with this opening

EDIT: this is maybe more general classical era idea than opening, but you still get the idea =)

and tech prog would probably rush writing, then either weel or trapping. with maybe AH for prod boost.

 

[Polobo]

...and tech prog would probably rush writing, then either weel or trapping. with maybe AH for prod boost.

If you end up being able to research wheel/trapping without animal let us know since it should be impossible due to pre-requisites.

 

[Schuesseled]

Scouts who pop a ruins that gives an upgrade turn into archers with large movement bonuses.

Huh? .,.

 

[Psycedilla]

If you end up being able to research wheel/trapping without animal let us know since it should be impossible due to pre-requisites.

ah. sorry, i didnt examine the tech tree very good, either way, you got the general conseous of the idea. so i would acctually need ah in that opening, well, good thing i wanted it in then

edit: my first post in this thread i ment, scout and warrior, daydreamed a little =)

 

[Armada88]

The scout/warrior combo would be good if you're surrounded by open ground but a bit limiting if you get stuck around any hills/forests.

I think I'll go for 2 scouts first off to go and get the bonuses for natural wonders, ruins and city states. Then honour for the first SP to get the notifications for new barbarian camps and build a warrior or 2 to go hunting barbarians.

 

[stealth_nsk]

We already know ruins do nonstandard upgrades - like warriors to spearmen instead of swordsmen.

 

[wabatt]

my plan is -scout-scout-warrior-(buy a worker with exploration gold)-settler

 

[warpstorm]

...but then, wabatt, you've given up on the culture game...

 

[ilmonstre]

i keep have to remind me i don't have to build a defensive unit any more.

1-2 scouts 1 warrior/settler and then we shall see

 

[Kordanor]

So you are all voting on pumping out early units to explore?
Is there a special amount of units you can have for free? As at some point you will pay upkeep for them.

EDIT: Don't answer here, making a new thread about it. Mod can delete this post.

 

[Spark026]

As the French

Scout->Worker->Scout->Stonehenge

French will have +33% Wonder production by Turn 24, and Calendar soon there after.

 

[Cyberian]

As the French

Scout->Worker->Scout->Stonehenge

French will have +33% Wonder production by Turn 24, and Calendar soon there after.

you need a monument before building stonehenge...

Personally I think you might be falling to far behind if you build a wonder before your first settler. All the time you build it your second city could alredy develop. But france will be very deadly thats true.

 

[Kordanor]

As the French

Scout->Worker->Scout->Stonehenge

French will have +33% Wonder production by Turn 24, and Calendar soon there after.

When you put it like that...it really seems like a huge Unique Ability, considered everyone else will have to wait 70 turns. Hardly possible for any other Civ to get stonehenge that fast. Only Egypt may have a chance if they have better tiles.

Edit: ah, if you need a temple it becomes a little bit less deadly.

For Stonehenge (fastest):
Science: Pottery - Writing - Philosphy
Build: Monument (60) - Temple (120)

So yeah, it's really a far way to the Stonehenge...