Favorite Build Orders

[pokertito]

I am still challenged by some of the early game decisions. What are some of your favorite build orders as you increase the difficulty level? How about when playing multi-player?

Thanks in advance for the info, I've already learned alot from this forum.

 

[R3dKnight]

Skipping multiplayer altogether. Simultaneous turns? No way!

Single Player:

Hoplite Rush -
1. Build Scout then Worker. Scout for goody huts and city states / barb camps for gold gathering.
2. Research Mining > Bronze working
3. Worker should just irrigate a river tile while waiting or mine a luxury resource if possible.
4. Honor State Policy unlock. Then Adopt Discipline when possible.
5. Bronze Working research complete, Hoplite. Chop forest if you want quicker rush. Sell away Open Borders to AI for 50 gp each to get more gold.
6. When first hoplite is 1 turn away. Buy a Hoplite. Attack nearest city with 2 hoplites. Kidnap workers and pillage tiles to accumulate enough gold to buy another Hoplite before taking over the city.
7. Dominate with Hoplites then work on towards Horseback Riding for Companion Cavalry.
8. Congrats, you win

Tested in Deity. The first computer opponents cannot cope with such focused rush, but the 2nd and 3rd civilization will be ready for it. Good luck.

 

[Poomermon]

My favourite build order is scout-worker-settler (settler at 3 pop). I also buy second settler asap when I manage to get enough money for it. Scout should try to survive and meet all the leaders and city states if possible and warrior scouts nearby areas while defending against early barbs. New cities usually go monument first. This is on immortal btw.

 

[lissenber]

Here goes nothing...

1. Start building a worker.
2. As soon as your population goes to 2, switch to settler. Once you`ve built your settler, switch back to the worker.
3. Depending on your terrain, choose your tech path.

If you have some plains with a river nearby and some forest in your territory, you can go for mining and then bronze working. The reason to go for this path is that you will be able to cut the forests, farm the plains and start producing Spearmen in your 2nd city very early.

If you have lots of unforested grasslands then go for animal husbandry and trapping. Your worker will simply build trading posts whereever possible. And if you`re lucky, a few camps too. The downside of this is that your 2nd city will have to build a warrior instead of the spearman. The upside is that you will have more gold per turn and the warrior takes less time to build. Important if your neighbour DoWs you early.

If you have 2 calendar resources in your city borders and 1 just outside (culture expansion will make it available in time) then go for pottery, calendar. As soon as you get your worker built, improve those tiles and possibly sell all of those resources off to the AI. It`s not probable but in case you do go into negative happiness early on the 30 GPT from selling your luxuries to the AI totally makes it up. And you should have enough money to befriend a city state and get your happiness resources from them.

4. Keep in mind that you should not spend all of your income away asap. If the AI attacks you early you should be ready to buy a spearman or atleast a warrior for extra defense.



This is appropriate for Deity difficulty. If you try this on Emperor then you are taking unnecessary precautions and possibly crippling your early economy. Additionally, i have only used these strategies in Marathon games.

 

[Nunya]

Playing on continents I go:
1. Scout
2. Worker
3. Settler

In tech I beeline Horseback Riding, although I might grab Mining if the situation calls for it. I drop my second city on Horses to save the time I'd otherwise have to wait for my worker to complete the pasture. I then make a Chariot Archer in my new city and a Horseman in my capital. When I'm 1 turn away from completing my Horseman I buy a second one. Meanwhile I send my Warrior towards the nearest AI capital. When my 2 Horsemen and Chariot Archer are done I send them the same way and start working on a third Horseman.

I then use my army to take out all the AI players on my continent. I might let the last guy live for a while, but I want him dead before I make contact with the civs from the other continent.