Help with early game build order

[Montymolethedog]

I usually use the exact same build order for every civilization, as it seems the most logical to me. It probably isn't. I would appreciate some feedback on how I can make it more effective.

I always start with a warrior, because my starting warrior/scout is used for scouting, and I need defense in case of barbarians.
I then start building my first worker, so that I can improve some tiles around my capital, which I consider a necessity in early game city development.
I then usually build either a monument or granary, depending on which technologies I have. This is so that my city can gain some pop before I build my first settler, which is usually next. If I can bring back my scouting warrior, then I use that to defend the settler, but if not then I have to build one after the monument/granary. From here I build units and buildings then settlers, repeatedly until I have enough cities.

This isn't something I plan out at the start of every game, but this is just how it ends up happening.

 

[Gator Country]

Welcome to the forum.

I only have time for a quick response, but others will be along soon to fill in the gaps. But in almost all (90%+) cases, your first build should be a worker, and you should be researching a tech (such as Agriculture, depending on your starting techs) that will let him get to work on a food tile as soon as he's finished building. Then build a warrior to let your city grow.

Early barbarian units (the animals) will not enter your cultural boundaries at all, so you don't need to worry about defending your capital from them. And usually, the only unit you need in the capital is a single warrior to prevent "We fear for our safety!" unhappiness, and even there you have a a few turns before that becomes a factor.

 

[elitetroops]

Yes, like GC said, barbs will not attack early. In fact, they will not enter your borders until the average amount of cities/civ in the world is >3. On the lower levels it takes quite a while to get there.

Almost always start with worker, then a couple of warriors, then settler. Warriors should not hang around inside your borders, but just outside of them to prevent barbs from spawning nearby (no barbs can spawn within 2 tiles of any other unit).

I can't think of any situation where it would be worth it to build a monument in your capital. Getting a granary up early is very good though.

 

[Lexicus]

The build order is generally worker then warriors to size 3 or 4 and then settler (first Settler should come around 3000 BC so if you grow to 4 fast enough...)

The exception to worker first is if the only nearby food is seafood and you start with Fishing, in which case you will usually want to go work boat first.

Important, to make worker first pay off you must research techs appropriate to your starting location, or your worker will waste a lot of time sitting around with nothing to do. Ideally you don't want any wasted worker turns, as these are arguably the most important thing to manage in the first 50 turns or so.

Sometimes this is a non-issue as, for example, when you play a civ starting with agriculture and your nearby food is farm resources. But most often you will need to research at least a tech or two to unlock the necessary improvements for your capital.

 

[Tatran]

When you play with raging barbarians and a goody hut gives you barbs they will certainly enter your borders very early in the game and before they start spawning every where.

 

[rah]

Isn't there a limit in terms of distance from you cap that you can't get a barb from a hut?

 

[civfanchambers]

Isn't there a limit in terms of distance from you cap that you can't get a barb from a hut?

No there isn't. I had a game with 2 huts just outside my capitol borders. Sitting Bull's unit moved in popping 3 barbs. My undefended city building a worker was destroyed. Defeat in the year 3640bc. My game lasted 3 minutes. I believe that to be a civ world record. As for the OP concern "normally" something stupid won't happen. Starting game strategy is build worker first - research a food base tech so your worker can do his thing. Build 1-2 warriors to fog bust. Build settler around city size 3-4. Another warrior- worker. From there it all depends on map and starting place. Good luck and welcome to the forums to the OP.

 

[ConfusedCounsel]

I can't think of any situation where it would be worth it to build a monument in your capital. Getting a granary up early is very good though.

Ethiopian culture victory
Otherwise agree with what lexicus and elitetroops said.

 

[Tatran]

There's a distance 4 or 5 tiles from your borders/captital where a goody hut won't give you barbarians.
The situation mentioned by civchambers is possible when a foreign unit enters a goody hut close to another civ borders.

 

[rah]

There's a distance 4 or 5 tiles from your borders/captital where a goody hut won't give you barbarians.
The situation mentioned by civchambers is possible when a foreign unit enters a goody hut close to another civ borders.

Thx, I thought I remember reading that somewhere and it matches my experience. I knew it wasn't far but I knew it was there.

 

[Montymolethedog]

Thanks for all of your advice! Very helpful, and I now realise how figuratively porous my build order was.

 

[Enyavar]

According to this guide ("Optimum Early Growth Strategy") the best early build order is worker/worker/settler in nearly all cases.

The idea behind that: Your capital itself produces 2 food and 1 or 2 hammers, i.e. 3 to 4 production. Virtually every unimproved tile (forest, grassland, plains, floodplains) give you another three production, plus maybe a bit of gold. Your first inhabitant is using up two food, so that 3 or 4 production remain.
Growing your capital first results in a second inhabitant who works your second unimproved tile, giving you additional 3 production (food+hammers). Of these, the second inhabitant uses up 2 food - so you are producing your stuff less effectively, while still working unimproved tiles.
Popping a worker, then another, and then a settler, means to be able to improve your tiles with the first or second worker, then probably chop the first wood just in time to produce the settler. That requires beelining BW however.

Now, I also have a question for the experts on the same topic.
I stumbled upon this piece of advice when I started playing (again) in late 2015. So far, I used it as a broad guideline (there may be circumstances or opportunities, at least once I needed to sneak in a warrior before the settler), but I had perfect starts in my single-player monarch/emperor games with this strategy, even with my starting positions not ideal.
The advice and the underlying calculation is however pretty old. My question: Is the worker/worker/settler approach REALLY and/or STILL the "general optimum" strategy in BTS, or are different approaches also recommended?

 

[sampsa]

No. One worker is usually enough to improve enough tiles for the first 3 cities. Once you start chopping, you will need more workers. Whether or not you should chop pre-math depends a lot on the circumstances.

The best line is usually worker-warriors (until size 2-4, depending on what kind of tiles you have)-settler-settler.

 

[6K Man]

Kudos for realizing that using the same build order all the time is suboptimal. It’s true that some builds are almost always a good idea (Worker first, for example, and every city needs a Granary at some point) but it’s important to be aware of your starting techs, your map situation, etc. The priorities are always:

Improve your food (to grow your city quickly)
Scout the land
Get a second or third city founded quickly (for faster growth)
Hook up Copper, Horses, or Iron (for defense)
Find your neighbours
Improve your other special resources
Develop a plan to accelerate your research

The order of these priorities may vary a bit from game to game, but these are all things you should accomplish in the first 100 turns, the sooner the better. And your builds and tech path should be tailored to accomplish these goals. Improving food means a Worker should come first because the best food tiles are usually irrigated Wheat/Corn or Pigs. Fishing Boats only yield 4 (Crab/Clam) or 5 (Fish) food until you have a Lighthouse. In other words, don’t go out of your way to improve Clam/Crab unless you don’t have better land food.

Tech path should be: Techs to improve food, techs to improve other visible resources, Bronze Working (to reveal Copper for defense, chopping and Slavery), Animal Husbandry to reveal Horse if you don’t have it already, Archery (if you have neither Copper nor Horses), Writing (for Library and hired Scientists), Pottery (for Granaries/cottages). You can consider diversions to things like Masonry, Priesthood or Horseback Riding, but only for specific reasons (you’re industrious with Stone or Marble and want Oracle/Great Wall, or Genghis with visible Horses and neighbours without metal)

As noted, build a Worker first 99% of the time. Exceptions would be:
- if you have no grain tile to improve, but you have Fish and start with Fishing (especially if you have a 3 hammer tile to fast-build a Workboat)
- your only land food requires Animal Husbandry to improve, every hill is forested, and you have none of Agriculture or Hunting or the Wheel (so the worker will have nothing to do when finished)
- building Warriors to Warrior-rush a very close opponent, on very low levels (or high levels if you’re Inca)

After that, build Warriors to explore and find new city sites, and perhaps a Workboat(s) to improve seafood. Build Settler(s) when your city is size 3+ and working improved production or food tiles. Chop forests and/or whip to speed Settler production (and subsequent Workers). Use your Warriors to fogbust, and generate some Chariots/Axes for barbarian defense (situation dependent). Build a Granary in your capital and a Library. If you don’t have Gold/Gems to improve, put cottages on riverside grass/floodplains.

 

[elitetroops]

According to this guide ("Optimum Early Growth Strategy") the best early build order is worker/worker/settler in nearly all cases.

You should be very cautious towards old strategy articles. Back in 2006 there was no BTS and nobody knew how to play the game. Iirc, one big reason why two workers was considered good was that you immediately got 30 hammers for chops. No need for maths. This made early chopping very efficient, and chopping everything asap was probably the correct thing to do. In BTS you will want to save most forests for maths.

 

[Enyavar]

No. One worker is usually enough to improve enough tiles for the first 3 cities. Once you start chopping, you will need more workers. Whether or not you should chop pre-math depends a lot on the circumstances.

The best line is usually worker-warriors (until size 2-4, depending on what kind of tiles you have)-settler-settler.

Huh. One worker for three cities seems WAY too few for me - unless I'm stealing them instead of building. Are you building your roads later or are you settling very close-by?

Warriors and eventually more settlers, plus a few buildings and even a wonder is of course just the next bullet point in my build order.

You should be very cautious towards old strategy articles. Back in 2006 there was no BTS and nobody knew how to play the game. Iirc, one big reason why two workers was considered good was that you immediately got 30 hammers for chops. No need for maths. This made early chopping very efficient, and chopping everything asap was probably the correct thing to do. In BTS you will want to save most forests for maths.

Thanks for clarification, this is exactly why I asked. I did roughly follow that guideline, not clinging to it, since I also learned here that you should stay flexible. But that build order really helped me getting started again, since the AI tends to settle more aggressively above prince, and making the same "error" as the OP previously, I would be last in the pecking order. I was like "" when I saw that in the same game, work/work/set boosted me to the top of the crowd within the first 3k years.

Actually, just like you suggested, I'm sparing my forests and only chop the one I need to quickly finish the settler, or the ones that grow above resources. With work/work/set, I can quickly improve the land around the first city, which is usually between four and six high-yielding tiles, then settle forward and immediately build roads and improve on the second city. I usually research Math or Alphabet early, but even then, I think I'm a tree hugger. Running slavery, all the forests in my land aren't going to be worked anyway, if I were to improve the tiles. So I only chop for urgent wonders. Sacrificing 2+ population is worth more than one chopped forest, and population is a quickly renewable resource.

But now I know that this old strategy article was exactly this: old. It was the worker-first part that made it successful, not necessarily the second worker and the settler.

I already internalized the advice on early priorities that 6kMan told here. On the "accelerate research" angle, I found very different solutions, always depending on the leader and how badly the REXing hurt my research.

 

[Pangaea]

One worker for three cities is too little in the long run -- but it's more important to settle the cities first. You can always catch up on workers later, but even a size 1 city working an unimproved tile will start to develop.

 

[Tatran]

Entering a goody hut 6 tiles from your cultural borders isn't safe.

 

[Tatran]

... and 5 tiles away from your borders is also not safe.

 

[Pangaea]

Depends a bit how this is counted, whether it's from the city tile itself or the border. But in any case, diagonal tiles count 1.5, while horizontal/vertical are 1. So the count is probably higher than you mention in these posts.