Heres a way to get off to a really powerful start .....

[bhavv]

Find a start with lots of luxury resources, and a useless nearby hostile militaristic city state.

Hope you get a spearman upgrade for your warrior from the first hut you find, and single handedly conquer it because it has even more luxury resources, lots of food and marble despite being in the middle of the Saudi desert



I wonder if there will be any oil there later on. I'll need to improve that silver asap to allow more growth, so will need to build two workers and research mining before my wonder techs.

 

[cembandit]

Nice, even got marble to speed up wonders.
I'd sell them all to the computer for 250-300, to prevent them from research pacting.
Course you gotta scout to find em hehe.
But then you can buy them river wheat tiles for decent production and food.

Desert sucks, but if you can avoid working it early then that could be ok I guess.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

In my experience thus far, city states are stronger than rival civs and much too powerful for early warrior or spear aggression to function consistently.

 

[Ex Mudder]

Nice... I'm playing a 3 cotton 4 horses start myself. In Grassland, to boot.
Had a second city with 4 floodplains wheat last game.
Wonder how long it will take that city state to reach all that food... my city states are boring, usually one lux resource each.

 

[bhavv]

In my experience thus far, city states are stronger than rival civs and much too powerful for early warrior or spear aggression to function consistently.

They are easy right at the start if they have no defender, you just need to use up the first two promotions on heal instantly.

Nice... I'm playing a 3 cotton 4 horses start myself. In Grassland, to boot.

Having multiple copies of the same resource isnt that useful. Yes you can trade them, but thats not as reliable as having your own different ones.

I keep on restarting until I have a riverside start with a hill within the BFC, and at least 2+ different luxury resources. I've tried playing lots of games now and found it to be too hopeless without enough luxuries.

This is my first try on King difficulty too, its not really that hard now that I know how to play.

 

[Teejvan]

Nice, even got marble to speed up wonders.

I didn't think Marble did anything more other than act as a Luxury resource?

 

[bhavv]

I didn't think Marble did anything more other than act as a Luxury resource?

Apparently people are saying they give +20% wonder production only to the city that that it is near.

I havnt connected them yet in this game because they are 3 tiles away, but they should hopefully connect by the time I get to more expensive wonders.

I've already beaten Egypt to Stonehenge, Pyramids, Great Library and am doing Oracle atm. I had to restart a few times due to screw ups, but overall I can easily outbuild Ramesses on King difficultly if I get my tech and build order right, and still have enough bowmen for defence.

The problem on this start is that all the good tiles are 3 spaces away, but I dont need to grow too fast initially anyway, and no AI are coming near so its ok.

Desert sucks, but if you can avoid working it early then that could be ok I guess.

It does, but the thing is in Civ V, youre never going to work every single tile anyway. And Almaty is really going to make a superb gold city:

 

[dannythefool]

Apparently people are saying they give +20% wonder production only to the city that that it is near.

I don't know the details but that there is *some* bonus to one city was very apparent in my last game.

The problem on this start is that all the good tiles are 3 spaces away, but I dont need to grow too fast initially anyway, and no AI are coming near so its ok.

Sometimes it pays to buy the tile and build the improvement on it early.

 

[DalekDavros]

I'd buy two tiles away, but the gold cost to get to three tiles is usually pretty exorbitant.

 

[AlienFromBeyond]

I usually end up buying a tile so the border is next to a resource so the city goes after it next with its border pop. Otherwise they'll just grab some grassland for more food.

 

[Ex Mudder]

Having multiple copies of the same resource isnt that useful. Yes you can trade them, but thats not as reliable as having your own different ones.

I play as Catherine, so +2/+3 hammers per horse on 2 food tiles was a nice surprise, times 4. Spent too much gold expanding to them though . Had to go hunting for Iron as well, there was none nearby. But on a blind start, 2 different luxury resources is very nice. I just hate losing my farms to them when they show up next to a river tile.

 

[Shillen]

In my experience thus far, city states are stronger than rival civs and much too powerful for early warrior or spear aggression to function consistently.

Yeah I tried to conquer a city-state really early in the game once that was on a hill with walls. I would attack with my triremes and archers and do 0 damage.

 

[cembandit]

I usually end up buying a tile so the border is next to a resource so the city goes after it next with its border pop. Otherwise they'll just grab some grassland for more food.

This.

 

[DonRuggio]

I have employed some old CIV strategies in this version. Firstly, agree with taking a hostile city state. Works for huge maps (barbarians switched off atm).

- So build 2 scouts to get looking for 'pies' or 'Ruins' - they can be a god send.
- Get a worker out ASAP
- Set growth civic as soon as you can
- Get settler out - if you have found enough 'huts' you should have a population boost.
- Build a few units and use them to attack city state.

By this time, you should have 3 cities while most (on average game) are still on one.

This has worked wonders - I am playing Rameses II - it is 1710 AD, I have Mech Infantry!!

 

[bhavv]

Yeah I tried to conquer a city-state really early in the game once that was on a hill with walls. I would attack with my triremes and archers and do 0 damage.

If you had Triremes, then it definately wasnt early enough.

This is taking a City State with your starting warrior within the first few hunderd years of the game. It is easy as they wont have any defenders yet, and you will get enough XP to use on two instant heals.

 

[Dizzy75]

I know a scout -> bowman upgrade from ruins plus your starting warrior can easily take an early CS. Didn't think it was possible with just a warrior, but I'll definitely try it next game. Bowmen seem incredibly strong to me, even if you get them at a "regular" time.