Early treasury

[T-Money]

Just a quick question, I didn't know which was the better strategy to use.

Do you build a large military at the beginning, disregarding the treasury (since you can only have about 10 units without losing cash) or do you wait ti buidl military till you have banks, marketplaces, wall street etc?

 

[Turner]

It's not so much how many improvements I have (which is a factor, just not as big of one) but how many cities. More cities = more unit support = less gold spent on troops.

Of course, having marketplaces/banks in towns will increase how much you can spend on unit support.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Also, having a government that has unit support helps keep your army bigger and at less cost.

To answer your question, I usually wait until my cities are starting to get roaded and mined, for better production and commerce. Once infrastructure is done, then I build, build, build!

 

[Gainy]

I don't really care about unit support, goverments, improvements etc when building an army. I'll initially build a setter as soon as possible, then let my capital city grow to about size 5 or 6. In this time, i'll build a barracks and a few archers. Every time a settler made, i'll build more archers. Early on, a few veteran archers can conquer civs If I have to adjust my tax slider to do so, I don't care.

 

[nullspace]

If you have a big military and you're putting it to use, then don't worry about unit support costs. When conquering, the military is paying for itself by getting you more territory and more cities. That means more income and more unit support, so the problem will fix itself.

 

[petermarkab]

Having a larger military than your neighbours allows you to
extort them in peace negotiations, not to mention using it for
brute force. Always build as much military as you can, is what
i say, and i say that as a builder!

 

[SesnOfWthr]

Another factor is the level I'm playing on.

If I'm playing a diety game, I build lots of units because:
A) I'm going to need them to avoid/fend off demands and sneak attacks
B) It's crazy to try to self research and the science slider is at 0 anyhow. More gold coming in means unit support is less of an issue.

Of course, land mass is also a factor. If I'm playing an archipelago map, I can have less units because the AI is completely inept at amphibious landings.

Like so many questions about civ, circumstances dictate the answers.