First 100 turns...

[lorodie]

I've played about a dozen or so games of Civ4, and holy crap is it different from Civ3! I was just wondering what and when is the best times to build what things to get you off to a good start. This is normally my opening queue, but it doesn't seem to give me an edge:

(this is the queue for new cities until I have three cities)
start construction of a grainery...
switch to settler when population 3 is hit...
finish grainery...
build worker...
build barracks...
build warriors...
build libraries...

As a side note, I always play with civs that give the culture bonus, I love that...

Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[Elrohir]

What level are you playing on? And why are you building a granary so early? Health won't be a problem until later, and those first early turns are crucial.

I usually do this:
Warrior
Worker
Warrior (Or Archer, if I have Archery)
Settler
Warrior
Settler
etc....

You have to give your cities time to grow in between settlers, of course, and you have to build military units to defend your settlers and cities. Even so, I would focus less on the city buildings until later, if I were you. Just try expanding until your science rate falls too far, then you build buildings until you have courthouses and can afford to expand; that's what I would suggest anyway.

 

[Gaius III]

I´ve managed conquest-victory two times at the Prince-difficulty, and started like this the last time on a temperated standard map with continents and on epic-speed:

Actually, first I restarted the game since I got a crap-lokation close to Ice.
Then I got a good location by a river and it looked promising, so I continued the game and builded:

Warrior
Then I builded on the Pyramids a few turns (even if I did not have stone), until the city reached the size of 2.
Then I pressed [ctrl] and clicked on settler.
When the settler was finished, I made sure I builded a city close to my capital city, by a river so I got trade.
Then I contiuned on the Pyramids a few turns until the city reached the size of 3.

In my new city I was going for: Warrior, worker, settler, warrior, settler...

In my Capital city the size 3 was reached and I:
...pressed [ctrl] and clicked on worker.
After the worker was built I pressed [ctrl] and clicked on Settler.

In my third city I went for: Warrior, worker, settler, granary, Preatorian...

In my Capital city I continued on:
Pyramids until buillt.
Worker
Granary
Library

To sum up what I builded in my capital city:
Warrior, (Pyramids --> size 2), Settler, (Pyramids --> size 3), Worker, Settler, Pyramids until finished, Worker, Granary, Library
Next time I think I will try to, instead of swiching between the Pyramids and Workers/Settlers, swich betweeen Warrior/Preatorians and Workers/Settlers.


City-planning:
I always try to expand in direction of my closest opponent.
Then I try to build like five-six cities in a star-formation around to my capital.
And I always raze enemy-crap-cities (small cities in a very bad locations).

Science:
Founded Hinduism
Agriculture
Animal Husbandry, well I wanted a better use of the cattle around my two first cities.
Bronze Working
Iron Working

War:
Knocked out my closest opponent (Greeks).
If I do not play aggresively, I can not win, that is how I think.

Next up will be the Monarch-difficulty

 

[Mulholland]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned chop rushing.
I start with a worker while researching Bronze working.
On normal speed the worker is finshed just as you get BW.
Chop a Warrior Send him out
Chop a settler Send Him out.
Build warriors until your city is size two or three.
Build/chop rush another worker.
Now research is my priority if I have respectable military assets.
Writing=Libraries.
and so on.

 

[Conquestador]

a popular starting construction queue with chop rushing
worker - settler or
worker - worker - settler
it is based on the assumption that you don't need a warrior first because there aren't barbarians until 2000 b.c. and wild animal can't get inside your cultural borders.
a complete demostration of this start can be found on this long article on optimum early growth http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=154872

 

[Gumbolt]

Lots of ramdom comments from posts so far!!!


Not sure if barracks, granary and library needed in each first 3 cities.

I like to chop/build a few units for defence before a barracks once i have 3-4 cities. You do need some defence come 2000bc. On non aggressive civs barracks cost 60 hammers!! Costly waste of resources and time to have in each city.

Building a granary once city is built may speed up city growth but will slow expansion at start. If you dont chop the forest to speed up production you could be waiting 10+ turns for granary instead of churning out a settler and setting up a third/ fourth city. Growth vs expansion. How much will 1 extra city size speed up a settler production? Plus cost of maintaining granary at start. By time granary is built the AI may well have built on a key resource you could of had. Sometime i build warrior between chopping a settler to allow city growth.

Perhaps not a library in my military production city at start. Pends on city type and your strategy.

Im not sure how researching bronze working as 3rd/4th in your science queue can be deemed aggressive. Not a chopping lot of good. Plus why hide your copper and iron resources for so many turns. I like to be able to see key resources for an early war. If you dont start with mining thats 5th tech to research. You cant just rely on luck. Romans with +2 health and mining at start with the strong UU makes easy play if you have iron.

Try using a civ thats not so user friendly without mining at start and not financial and not the Romans!!!

I won 1 game on prince and went straight to Monarch. Its more of a challenge.

 

[Dizzy75]

Size 1 city working a 3-production tile (i.e. any combo of food + hammers) = 4 prod/turn towards settler/worker (3 city, 3 tile, minus 2 food)

Size 2 city working two 3-production tiles = 5 prod/turn towards settler/worker (3 city, 6 tile, minus 4 food).

Mines add +2 and improved resources can add more, but you can't improve tiles without that first worker. Ability to improve a tile also depends on starting techs and what you research (Agriculture, Mining, Hunting, Animal Husbandry, Masonry, Pottery, Calendar). Some of them come too late to use right away on your first city.

Think the bottom line is there is no "universal" build order - whether or not you decide to grow city size first or pump out worker/settler first depends on your surroundings. Although as a general rule I try to get a worker out sooner rather than later...

 

[lorodie]

Thanks for the sugestions. And really thank you for the 'chop rush' idea. I'd never thought of that!

 

[DarkFyre99]

IMO, the opening game varies so much that any set strategy is doomed to fail eventually. You need to tailor your opening moves to your situation, such as your leader, which techs you start out with, the lay of the land, etc...

For example, if you're industrious, you might want to save those trees for wonders... you get more hammers that way. Use your worker to improve all your food resources to speed construction of your settlers.

If you start with mysticism, you might want to go for an early religion, in which case the initial worker might not have anything to build when completed. Build a warrior (or scout if you have them) to double your scouting power, and get a few more huts.

On the other hand, if you're aggessive and have a tile that produces three hammers (the forest on a plains hill), you might want to take advantage of building a barracks early. Those barbarians are coming sooner or later, but you might have time to build a worker first, to improve that extra hammer tile. Your happiness is going to be your size cap for a while, so I'm not always concerned about growing my population right away.

 

[Jayhawk_Colin]

In the first city, I ussually build 2 warriors, settler, worker, military, settler...

I also like to build along the shore, especially when the coast is very rich in recourses. After I have a line of ~6 cities in a semi circle, i like to build in.

*note - I ussually play islands, I don't know how well that will work on contienent

 

[Griswold101]

If i'm playing with barbarians i'd ditto what elrohir said. If i'm not, i usually (in marathon speed) build a worker after exploring with my settler for about 10-15 turns and chop rush more settlers for 40 turns and then build some defense finally (archers are most likely)
I don't worry much about population in the first 100 turns of the game because what is population going to do in comparison to having 30 cities in 100 turns? Only problem with what i do is that it costs alot of money for maintnance and i occasionally switch production in some cities to workers.