Ok - here's my plan. Small map on emperor means we get a good start or die. This game is not going to be decided with cities of population 20+ so I'm going to plan my cities on the assumption that none will need to get larger than 12. This means a fairly tight build - each city will have 9 squares and share the rest so I'm going to be building 3 squares apart. This also has the great advantage that once roaded I dont need ever to leave a unit in the open. Good for defence.
So - build in opening location and start mining BG. Warriors on mountains looking for a close site for second city. I want to have 3 cities up and running as fast as possible. So settler out of starting city. Second city will build granary if near food then pump settlers for rest of game. First city now builds granary and pumps settlers and workers. Other cities build barracks then pump chariots to be upgraded.
In my tournament games, there was no doubt that early horsemen were much more effective for me than swords even on small maps. They can move so much faster in attack and are much more flexible on defence, able to hit and run. Given our later Sipahi, I'm heading straight for wheel and hoping that horses are nearby. If not then plan B.
The drawback to the tight build is that you can lose out on landgrab - ideally there will be a choke point I can block to prevent AI ingress.
The higher the level the more important luxuries become. Having two or more can make the difference between success and failure. Trading one lux for two can be very lucrative and a good way of keeping up with tech is to trade lux. Any and every lux in sight will get a city. Any lux between me and the AI will be a priority. If necessary troop building cities will have to wait.
I'm not planning an early rush - depends too much on the luck of the dice roll (ask Killer and Wildfire
) A solid economic base is needed first. When I have 7 or 8 cities and 3 or 4 of those are pumping out chariots/horse then I'll consider the first attack. I'd like 30 horse but 20 may be enough to do some damage and gain some leverage. Again I'll mainly attack to gain luxuries and resources first.
I rarely build any wonders before middle ages and often not then either on Emperor level. Often ToE is my first wonder and I'll prebuild in a non capital site so I have palalce as prebuild. I certainly wont be attempting to build any at the start. I've had to swallow losses of 300+ shields in the past and its such a waste. Let the AI build them. I'll trade masonry to my nearest neighbour and hope they build Pyramids for me
Of course the reality is that we will have three rabid warmongers nearby, be surrounded by desert and jungle and all plans go out the window before 2000bc. I'll start playing Sun eve all being well.
After further reading, I think I will settle for patch 1.14.
