Expansive strategy in early game

[finlogo]

Hi!

What do you think about following strategy in first rounds:

1) Game starts (reseach 90%)
2) Build settler
3) When settler is ready, find a good place for the new city (+ start build a worker)
4) Start to enhance your city with different improvements

In the new city do steps 2-4.

In this strategy you will expand your territory fast... Is this wrong or right approach for the game?

 

[Err0l]

Settler first is quite a mistake imo. I normally go Worker, Warrior, Settler, ... because the faster you get cottages or other improvements up, the better - the benefit increases exponentially.
Also, the worker can chop forests to provide hammers for the settler.

There's a thread somewhere which proves that wrker first is the best start possible, unless you are on the coast and have seafood.

 

[Gliese 581]

What do you mean by research 90%? There's no reason to lose turns on vital worker techs early on by lowering the research slider if that's what you meant.

 

[ylea]

When I begin a game i build a warrior then a worker and after that two settlers and i have my reseach at 100% and lower it after my first(90%) build city and second (80%)

 

[madscientist]

Fin, welcome to the forums.

My view after playing the game many years it to find Snaaty's excellent post and read how he starts a game early (just his early part). It's great stuff and has greatly improved my game.

What to start first depends on starting techs, map, resources. Here are some hints

1) You should grow your city to the happiness cap 90% of the time.

2) Your first build is dictated by the available resoruce. If you have fishing and available seafood build a workboat ASAP, even if you only work a 3 hammer forrested hill. If you start with agriculture, build a worked unless your in the middle of a forrest. 80% of the time I start with a worker, and those games I usually start off very strongely.

3) Your first tech should be a food tech unless you start with several like the Americans. If you have agriculture or hunting and there are cows or pigs in the BFC then Animal Huisbandry is very powerful as it opens up horses.

4) Once you are satisfied with the food situation, shoot for hunting and archery and mass build archers until you hit the happy cap. Others may say mining/bronze working and sometimes this is OK, but 90% of the time go archery, trust me on this.

5) Once you are at the happy cap, build your settler and more workers/settler from the capital while your other cities build monuments and barracks. Sometimes you need to get either the wheel or sailing to communicate the cities.

Some leaders need to be taken with a grain of salt and do not fall into the above ritual. One I had alot of problems with was Charlemange who starts with hunting and mysticism. Temtping for an early religion but you have to be willing to expand slowly, not always a bad think as I finally found out to win.

 

[madscientist]

Oh, one more thing. Keep your science slider at 100% until you at least get your second city.

 

[noto]

What do you guys think about building a warrior or scout before a worker? Do you think delaying the worker by some turns would be offset by popping more goody huts and getting better recon on the terrain? I got used to building warriors/scouts until I hit pop 2. I then tried the worker first strategy. The thing is with the warrior/scouts first, I can often get 1 or 2 techs from huts and lots of gold.

 

[futurehermit]

If I start with hunting I may go with a scout first, especially if the other tech is also crap, like mysticism or fishing and I start inland. Basically, there would be nothing really for the worker to do anyways. Otherwise, getting tiles improved is just way too important.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

What do you guys think about building a warrior or scout before a worker? Do you think delaying the worker by some turns would be offset by popping more goody huts and getting better recon on the terrain? I got used to building warriors/scouts until I hit pop 2. I then tried the worker first strategy. The thing is with the warrior/scouts first, I can often get 1 or 2 techs from huts and lots of gold.

This has been a hot topic lately. I used to always grow my city to at least size 2 before I built a worker, but lately I've been starting with one and I like it awhole lot more.

 

[AmazonQueen]

If I don't start with a scout I usually build 1 ASAP. More than 1 is overkill since you quite often find more scouts or warriors in huts anyway

I usually try and grow my city to size 2 before building a worker unless I have mining, hunting or agriculture and something valuable in my BFC which the worker can get to work on quickly

 

[hiddie]

If I don't start with a scout I usually build 1 ASAP. More than 1 is overkill since you quite often find more scouts or warriors in huts anyway

I usually try and grow my city to size 2 before building a worker unless I have mining, hunting or agriculture and something valuable in my BFC which the worker can get to work on quickly

Maybe a stupid question, but where does the "B" stand for in BFC. I always thought it was Fatt Cross, does it stand for Big Fatt Cross?

 

[Zanttu]

Maybe a stupid question, but where does the "B" stand for in BFC. I always thought it was Fatt Cross, does it stand for Big Fatt Cross?

Yep, it's Big Fat Cross.

What do you guys think about building a warrior or scout before a worker? Do you think delaying the worker by some turns would be offset by popping more goody huts and getting better recon on the terrain? I got used to building warriors/scouts until I hit pop 2. I then tried the worker first strategy. The thing is with the warrior/scouts first, I can often get 1 or 2 techs from huts and lots of gold.

This may work on lower levels, but on higher levels the AIs start with so many scouts that they will get all the huts by the time you have built your scout.

 

[CivMcNut]

A couple of advantages I've found on not getting that settler out right away is that it gives you turns to research Bronze Working and/or Animal Husbandry which can reveal to you where copper or horses can be found, if they're not in your capital and can be found close by, that can often make up your mind pretty quick if you plan to do some early fighting.

Also the warrior or scout you start with has valuable extra turns to survey the area and see what would be the most resourceful site to found the 2nd city. A 2nd city in the right place can really be more valuable than 2 cities in bad spots.

 

[finlogo]

Thanks of your replies!

Happy New Year 2008!

 

[Verge]

Worker first, 90% of the time.