General starting tactics

[OctopusOverload]

I just got steamrolled by Siam, playing as Rome on... Warlord difficulty. Yes, I'm that bad...

What I thought I'd do was, I'd start on of those threads collecting general tips and hints on what to do during the early game: What to build first, when to expand, best research ordering, surviving barbs and aggressive neighbours, etc.

One question to start it off: Should my first build order be a Worker? (far as I understood, this was the optimal choice in Civ4)

 

[Tomice]

Yes, worker was the best choice in civ4, but this time around scouts seem cheaper and there are more "goody huts". Also you'll get a greater gold gift for being the first to met a city state.

So it's scout, then worker I guess. But after this I'm also uncertain. On higher difficulties maybe a military unit, but below prince you certainly don't need them so early. Barbarians are very passive. It might be wise to accompany your settler, though.

I don't see much sense in buildings before you have 3 cities, except for a wonder you want to beeline.

You should also build the worker before the settler, and never have less workers than cities IMO.

 

[dannythefool]

I think scout first is not a bad idea this time around, for all the city states and the ruins. Tile improvements are not as crucial to get done immediately as in Civ IV, it'll also take a bit until you have the techs researched. At least that's my impression. Monument may not be a bad idea to get early either, if you want to unlock the first social policy quickly. But not sure how early is best.

Surviving barbs is fairly easy this time around, though. Cities can defend themselves well enough that keeping the starting warrior somewhere in reach is enough for a loooong time.

 

[Drago Askani]

Depends on your start, I have started sometimes building my worker first to work any potential farm spots and just purchasing my first scout off of gold the warrior gets. Or just building my scout afterwords. Though in all honesty I have been going worker, monument, scout, perhaps I should push the monument back till after the scout.

 

[Rathelon]

If you start on the coast with a water resource, work boats are pretty cheap to build early also. They wont be your first build though, because I think you need Sailing first.

 

[WuphonsReach]

On Large/Marathon/Prince... worker first is pretty much always. Except I may start adding in scouts since they are quick.

Worker, Scout, Warrior, Settler, Warrior, Worker, Moument

2nd worker might be a 3rd settler if there's land that I absolutely need to grab early (such as a different luxury, or horses/iron).

 

[Cu Chulainn]

The whole point of building a scout is to get as many ruins and city state first contacts as possible. The only time you should ever be building one, IMO is if it is the very first build. Waiting until after a worker almost guarantees that all the good stuff is gone.

 

[happyturtle]

I find I dislike ruins as much as I disliked goody huts. But still, scout first, even when I've turned them off.

 

[Schalke 04]

just compare the different production times needed to construct a unit. A worker needs way more time than a scout. Therefore I think that building a scout before a worker seems to be more useful in most cases.

 

[happyturtle]

Or maybe Scout > >Something else>, and buy a worker as soon as you've popped enough gold?

 

[DalekDavros]

Definitely scout first.

Worker is often a good second choice, but since the good early tech orders are Pottery->Sailing/Calendar/Writing (assuming you want a chance at a wonder) depending on map, it's going to be a while before you worker can do too much other than build farms, so they become less important in a high food capital (though keep in mind that if you do go for an early wonder it'll be a while before you can get a worker out). On a map with a lot of land, a second scout is nice too: send 'em off in opposite directions and get twice the benefit. On water maps, an early trireme can be nice for exploration since almost everything is coast (for some reason) although they can't pick up ruins and escorting an embarked warrior (or scout, but warrior is better for taking out barb camps) is a bit tricky.

After the exploration phase, probably disband the scouts. They're useless after you have horsemen for all purposes other than blocking the other civs by plopping them on a choke-point hill.

For expansion, either you want to rush to Medieval (Civil Service or Compass, depending on whether you're on a water map), preferably by way of the Great Library (unless you've met Egypt, in which case don't bother trying for it) or a Great Scientist (if you're Babylon) and buy up the Patronage SPs before expanding (the extra food from maritime city-states = rapidly growth for new cities, so you'll catch up quickly) or you want to grab up the Liberty branch quickly (aim for the SP that gives all cities +1 culture) and start expanding ASAP.

Barbs are usually really stupid. If you leave a unit to fortify-until-healed, the barb will often times just pace back and forth next to the unit without attacking (unless it has another barb nearby to support it), so they're easy to take out if you pay attention to terrain. If you're having problems with them, consider adopting Honor (as it does have some military bonuses that are useful later on too), although it's among the weakest of the early game SP choices.

Edit: Actually, do try for the Great Library even if you meet Egypt, until you get to King.

 

[Enerzeal]

I always play on marathon so i can appriciate all the ages, I find its just a better game playing it that way, as such this is how I do it taking into account a marathon game length on a large/massive map.

Worker - Settler - monument/warrior.
pottery - Calendar - sailing/trapping.

Reasons being -

Worker first, start him improving a farm tile, but stop him the moment calendar is finished and move onto a luxury resource. By the time you have him half way through that luxury resource I rush buy a second worker and set him up on the second luxury tile. When both are done I find two nations to sell the luxury to for 370 gold and 5 gold per turn. They will pay it upto emporer which is what i am on now. This boosted my gold per turn to 22, and gave me enough gold to grab a third settler, as my queued one is normally done. I send these two out to find luxuries and set up shop there.

With this start I have (once the two extra cities are build) 25 or so gold per turn, three cities and two workers improving away. Things are pretty open to you now. ofcourse if you get the early war declaration you can scrap the second city and buy up two warrior units and send your three on the war path, if you lucky you might be able to take a city with them, using the heal promotion.



The other option is to build a worker, then settler, send him to horses and build next to them. Send the worker over and create a pasture (animal husbandry) then grab the wheel and horseback riding. This way you have access to the very powerful horseman unit and they just love war.


Key points I would make is that selling luxuries early on is a nice way to get alot of cash. They will spend 900 gold on a luxury happily, or 380 gold and 5 gold per turn.