Good starting strategy?

[Cptobvious1]

This is my first Civ game since 2 which I played way back and I barely remember. Anyways I have played through a full game on chieftan and EASILY won without pretty much any resistance, but now ive stepped up to noble and am having a hard time. I was wondering if anyone can tip me on some good starting strategies: Eg..A good number of cities to build at first, which technologies are best to research first, and what units/buildings I should go for first. If anyone could help me with a good starting strategy like that it would be great, thanks.

 

[yasic]

I am building a guide on that right now, but since its not finished:

start out with 2 cities (But dont hesistate to take any away from barbarians)

get relgion first, followed by arhcery (you may need to go through a med step for archery, in this case, do so)
After that, work on getting all the basic ones learned, so your workers can take over

Get an archer to defend each city. (1 per city to start only) Do not build any warriors

These are some tips that may help...

 

[Galumphus]

I play on Noble and here is what I have done.

1) Build warriors in city #1 until it's a 3
2) Build settler, send with warrior to settle #2
3) Improve #1 a bit, maybe a barracks or something. If you have a particularly good resource nearby, build a worker.
4) Meanwhile, city #2 does the same thing - warriors until it's a 3, then settle
5) Settler out of city #1, then repeat steps 3-5 until your immediate area is settled (say 5-7 cities)

At this point you'll want to avoid war to focus on infrastructure (terrain improvements, libraries, etc).

Anyway it's how I start.

 

[yasic]

I play on Noble and here is what I have done.

1) Build warriors in city #1 until it's a 3
2) Build settler, send with warrior to settle #2
3) Improve #1 a bit, maybe a barracks or something. If you have a particularly good resource nearby, build a worker.
4) Meanwhile, city #2 does the same thing - warriors until it's a 3, then settle
5) Settler out of city #1, then repeat steps 3-5 until your immediate area is settled (say 5-7 cities)

At this point you'll want to avoid war to focus on infrastructure (terrain improvements, libraries, etc).

Anyway it's how I start.

What maps do you use, and how many games have you played/won?

 

[Galumphus]

Small or standard. My first game was on Warlord (I think that's the one below Noble?) and I won it easily. My second was on Noble and I won. My third was a multiplyaer, and I was #2 out of 5 in score when people started quitting and we just stopped.

 

[yasic]

Small or standard. My first game was on Warlord (I think that's the one below Noble?) and I won it easily. My second was on Noble and I won. My third was a multiplyaer, and I was #2 out of 5 in score when people started quitting and we just stopped.

Heh, by maps I mean contenents, islands, desert, ect...

 

[Arkanin]

Gal has a good strategy. You don't want to start building workers / settlers until at least population 3. If you start in a situation where there's a lot of goodies to exploit on the land in your first city, though, a worker is better than a settler.

If you can, build your second city near floodplains or the coast and load it up with improvements for cash, IE, cotages, lighthouse, work boats -- they eventually generate an extra 3GPT or more. Location is a lot more important than quantity in Civ4.

If you start on a coast near fish you are golden! Build a workboat instead of a warrior, and you can continue to let your city grow while you get good infrastructure improvements.

 

[Dragoul]

i get me a worker before a settler

 

[Mr. Blonde]

My usual starting strat is to build 1-2 military (warriors and 1 scout if available) until the city is 3, then build worker (you have to plan your research accordingly for the tile improvements), build again a warrior until city is 4 and then build settler (should at this size come in ~12 or less turns, irrigated flood plains and rice/ corn or pigs/ cows with their improvement are a HUGE advantage).
City 3 follows rather quick thereafter.
I can achieve most of the time to grab a religion as well (go for polytheism, if you don´t get Hinduism you can then immediately go to Monotheism). To have a religion is must to build temples/monasteries for happiness adn research.

 

[stegootje25]

I think the starting strategy is the most important AND difficult part of CIV4

My starting strategy (i play noble)is:

- Build city as soon as you start, don't waste few turns exploring, because time is important.
- as your city is started you always have an option to focus on science (warrior is 15 turns) or production(warrior is 8 turns). i focus on production because in the beginning it's important to explore as much land as you can.
- i focus research on Mystemst->pol??(hindoism)->technologies for worker (the wheel, etc)->monarchy (more happiness by units)
- In my capital i build 2 warriors, then i start stonehenge and build untill city is 3.
- When city is 3 i stop building stonehenge and start building settler->worker-> and then finish the stonehenge.
- In new city use the same schedule as in first city.
- connect your cities as soon as possible with your workers to get culture.
- after building stonehenge build another settler in your capital to hurry the building of your empire.
- Stay building settlers in all of your cities untill the empire uses all the land it can. But build only 1 settler and worker in every city (expact the captital).
- after that build library/granary/barracks and temple.
- i'm useully to late for the oracle: question: is it better to build another settler in capital OR build oracle
- Meanwhile DON'T wait too long building chariot's as there is always an aggresive enemy nearby and to counter barb's. chariot's are very useful to counter your enemy

I find it very difficult to survive on noble difficulty but this strategy is the best i have used yet. Does anybody have some comments/tweaks for my strategy?

 

[fastspawn]

actually the wait till population 3 is flexible,

my rule of thumb is i wait for the number of turns to grow a new population is equal to the turns to build the settler, sometimes it is 4, sometimes if i settle in an area with much food it can be 5.

 

[stegootje25]

actually the wait till population 3 is flexible,

my rule of thumb is i wait for the number of turns to grow a new population is equal to the turns to build the settler, sometimes it is 4, sometimes if i settle in an area with much food it can be 5.

i don't understand this can you explain?

 

[remconius]

I playing with the idea of a no religion strategy.

Build your cities as described earlier but avoid religious techs (dont choose Spi leader) Focus on economy/growth early on. This way you dont get immediate penalty if your neighbour founds a different religion.

Then you can join whatever religion is strongest later on or take a late age religion, but then you have to do hard work to spread it afterwards. Anyway not focusing on relgion should give you quite an edge in the economy/growth department that you can use to gain advantages.

I have to do some testing, but I have a feeling it should be a viable tactic.

 

[Kolson]

Your starting strategy is going to largely depend on your difficulty level and your civilization. I only play on Immortal to start with, since I do not want to develop any strategies on the novice difficulty levels that I will just have to relearn once I have learned to play.

First off, your civilization's starting techs are going to determine what religion you will be able to found. Remconius recommends not trying to start one, but the extra trade from building a shrine is indespensible in my opinion. I can routinely get at least 10 trade from a shrine, which is huge. If you have a civ that starts with Mysticism, you have a chance to get Polytheism first. If you do not get it, you will almost definetly get Monotheism if you immediatly build Masonry->Monotheism. If you do not start with Mysticism, you will have to shoot for Code of Laws by going Mysticism -> Meditation -> Priesthood -> Writing -> Code of Laws. After founding your religion be sure to start building missionaries to spread it to your neighbors, and use specialists to get a Great Prophet to build a shrine.

As for your starting building strategy, remember that barbarians are a much bigger problem in Civ IV. On Immortal I am ruitinely building 2 warrior/archers before each settler. I generally wait until 4 population to start my first settler, because I need the extra trade to found a religion. As soon as I am done fouding my religion I start researching Archery since those archers will really help kill off barbarians.

Also do not put off your first war too long. On a difficult AI level you will never be able to outpace them by simply building your infrastructure. By killing off one civilization early you will have adequate land and cities to keep up technologically with your opponents.

 

[Footen]

Do you have an AAR that describe your beginning and middle game? It would make an interesting read.

 

[padlock]

Actually, I've found that sometimes it's best to start building a worker immediately as your first action.

I've found that, depending on your start position, sometimes a size 3 city doesn't build a worker much faster then your size 1 would. That's because each additional pop point is consuming 2 food so unless you can put them to work on a tile which produces 3 or more food + shields, then you're really no better off. And since all your tiles are unimproved, only forest, flood plains, and special resources give you more then 3.

 

[jar2574]

Actually, I've found that sometimes it's best to start building a worker immediately as your first action.

I've found that, depending on your start position, sometimes a size 3 city doesn't build a worker much faster then your size 1 would. That's because each additional pop point is consuming 2 food so unless you can put them to work on a tile which produces 3 or more food + shields, then you're really no better off. And since all your tiles are unimproved, only forest, flood plains, and special resources give you more then 3.

I agree. Workers dominate. Unless you are on a coast near clams/fish/crabs. Then work boats are better initially. I think improving your first city quickly is very important.

Against the AI on noble, I can get away with having one warrior or archer protect each city while I focus on building infrrastructure.

 

[oopsy poopsy]

actually the wait till population 3 is flexible,

my rule of thumb is i wait for the number of turns to grow a new population is equal to the turns to build the settler, sometimes it is 4, sometimes if i settle in an area with much food it can be 5.

I hadn't done this but in the future I think it's a very nice strategy. The person who asked for an explanation, this is what I think the poster meant. If you are producing extra food such that you get another population point in 6 turns, but it takes you 10 turns to produce a settler, then you aren't maximizing the growth of your population, which would be if not the primary, then at least a major factor in building new cities. This is because when building settlers or workers you don't grow anymore, that excess food goes into settler production so when they're built your city doesn't shrink like it used to but it hasn't grown during like it used to either.
If you let your city develop to the point where building a settler takes as long as growing another size, then you aren't wasting that growth point, since you've created a mobile point of population. IMO this is kind of the equivalent of civ3 settler factory planning although it isn't really the same and works as a simple way to focus on population growth and expansion at the same time. Since I haven't tried it yet and I'm not familiar enough yet with how much it takes to build a settler worker off the top of my head, I'm not sure how much it delays a 2nd city, but if it doesn't delay it too much, then I think it will become a very viable way to discern a good time for settler building.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

Actually, I've found that sometimes it's best to start building a worker immediately as your first action.

I've found that, depending on your start position, sometimes a size 3 city doesn't build a worker much faster then your size 1 would. That's because each additional pop point is consuming 2 food so unless you can put them to work on a tile which produces 3 or more food + shields, then you're really no better off. And since all your tiles are unimproved, only forest, flood plains, and special resources give you more then 3.

The sum of excess food + hammers is important. You get a plus when working tiles with more than 2 (food+ hammers). In my experience there are always more than 2 tiles which fullfill this requirement for the 1st city (noble level). Additionally you may lack the tech to have your worker doing something in the beginning, and you will cripple your early research by keeping your starting city on size 1. Worker first is imo good for your 2nd and 3rd city as you will already have researched the techs for improving the tiles.

 

[Ezy]

I am also interested in the starts for higher difficulty lvl
I only plaid on noble and monarch,(did not have much timeJ
Most of the strategies been discussed above with variations but once again its probably the most used phrase in all the forums and strats, it all DEPENS!!!
Well so far but starting a bunch of new games and seeing what I can do I also found out that in most cases I do worker at town-3 and settler at 5 in the mine time I do warriors or a scout (if available)
The question I have is what building to build? Some time I do granary( specially if I get corn) I mean like one of the first thing, but it realy does not feel right, I feel like im doing something wrong lol
I was wondering what Kolso, do u do any building at all in the start or its just units, and I mean like really early on