Hunting as your first tech?

[XxtraLarGe]

I have been playing around with different strategies with the opening game, only going so far as about 1000 B.C. I have been playing as the Romans, which start out with a warrior, not a scout. Something I have found to be highly effective was to research Hunting as my first tech after I found my city. Then I start "scouting" around with my original warrior, trying to spot goody huts, and start producing my second warrior.

Once I discover hunting, I interrupt my warrior production and start a hunter instead. This usually takes up about 5-6 turns of production, but I think the pay-off is worth it. Once the scout is produced, I use my original warrior to stake-out the goody huts I have found until my scout can get close to them so they don't "go dark" and spawn barbs or beasts.

In the last game I played, I was able to pop 3 goody huts and get Sailing, 5XP which I used to upgrade my scout to Woodsman 2, and Agriculture all before 2500 B.C. I know the goody huts are random, and this may just be good luck on my part, but would I be better off following this strategy, or should I started after a different tech and just popped the goody huts with the warrior I started off with?

 

[crunch]

Well, perhaps the strategy (?) would be even better if you selected a leader who starts with a Scout instead of the starting Warrior, or at least with Hunting.

And yes, one can really benefit a lot from the goody huts. Especially at lower levels, when you can get free settlers from huts.

 

[XxtraLarGe]

Well, perhaps the strategy (?) would be even better if you selected a leader who starts with a Scout instead of the starting Warrior, or at least with Hunting.

That's obvious, I guess my reason for doing this is because I like playing as the Romans, but I think it is a good strategy for any civ that DOESN'T start out with hunting or a scout....

 

[Sjaramei]

You got better techs to spend research on than hunting in the beginning. At low level difficulties this should work good, but when you start doing harder ones you are lucky to get 3 huts tops (which usually only gives gold anyway).

But if you think it's fun, keep doing it, i didn't intend to spoil your amusement.

Edit: (reread a bit, only got 3 huts with this start? then i strongly suggest doing something else, i sometimes get 3 huts with my warrior alone, don't need another scout for it)

 

[XxtraLarGe]

You got better techs to spend research on than hunting in the beginning. At low level difficulties this should work good, but when you start doing harder ones you are lucky to get 3 huts tops (which usually only gives gold anyway).

But if you think it's fun, keep doing it, i didn't intend to spoil your amusement.

Edit: (reread a bit, only got 3 huts with this start? then i strongly suggest doing something else, i sometimes get 3 huts with my warrior alone, don't need another scout for it)

I play on Noble, which probably qualifies as a lower level, but the 3 goodies was due to the fact that I started on a small/medium sized-continent with another civ on it. I could have in fact gotten 4, but I popped the last one with my Warrior since my scout had gone in the opposite direction.

 

[OctavianFlu]

Well you would get more goody huts from a scout rather than a warrior who only moves one square per turn. I guess its an investment. Do I waist turns on Hunting in order to obtain a scout, that would then in return provide me cash for sustaining more cities, or do you skip the latter, and follow through with advancing via tech.

I guess my opinion would be to only go for hunting if I have a "hunting" resource in my city square. Otherwise, I would let my warrior loose, while building a worker while researching something that worker could do once they are out. As Roman's, I would assume your first priority would be to find Iron ASAP.

When I play as either ceaser, I usually go BW [chop chop], then Iron, then roads, then straight to currency, with supporting tech's along the way for land improvement. I guess it doesn't really matter what you do, so long as you have fun, and you win

 

[Giaur]

Civs which start with scout (only Vanilla )

Aztecs
Germans
Greeks
Mongolians
Persians
Russians

 

[martin031]

I start researching hunting if I have something useful around that requires a camp.

And, You should also let border expansion pop the huts near your capital, if you can. You will get better results, or I guess less bad results.

 

[XxtraLarGe]

Well you would get more goody huts from a scout rather than a warrior who only moves one square per turn. I guess its an investment. Do I waist turns on Hunting in order to obtain a scout, that would then in return provide me cash for sustaining more cities, or do you skip the latter, and follow through with advancing via tech.

I guess my opinion would be to only go for hunting if I have a "hunting" resource in my city square. Otherwise, I would let my warrior loose, while building a worker while researching something that worker could do once they are out. As Roman's, I would assume your first priority would be to find Iron ASAP.

When I play as either ceaser, I usually go BW [chop chop], then Iron, then roads, then straight to currency, with supporting tech's along the way for land improvement. I guess it doesn't really matter what you do, so long as you have fun, and you win

I usually don't even worry about Iron until I have a few cities. After I have that, I can create some Praetorian Goon squads.

Before I used to start out Bronze Working->Wheel->Pottery->Agriculture or Animal Husbandry (depending on what's near my city)->almight Iron Working, then after that pick up some other cheap techs like Hunting, Archery & Mysticism.

The idea was get to slavery right away, then chop a barracks, then whip a granary, and then finally a settler. The problem is, this wasn't working out very well. The barracks was completely wasted, since I wasn't building any military units yet, and the granary was somewhat of a waste as well, since the city's growth is stunted when you start a settler.

Now I'm going Hunting->Bronze Working->Mysticism->Wheel->Pottery->Iron Working. The extra few turns I get from doing hunting first allow me to usually have 1 extra population before I start building a worker, which makes it easier to Pop rush them, then I can go ahead a chop-rush Stonehenge, then use the extra production to start a settler and pop-rush them, then use the extra production to build a granary. It's a better start, but I'm sure somebody else has a better way to start the Romans w/Caesar.

 

[Sisiutil]

Pah. You're playing as Rome, one of the strongest civs in the game. Goody huts are for weaklings! Same thing for wonders--let those foolish AI civs build them for you and wrest them from their cold, dead hands!

Try this approach when playing as Rome: research Bronze Working first, then the Wheel. Found your 2nd city to claim copper. Build Axemen for early defense, especially from Barbarians. Now research Iron Working. Find and claim iron, build Praetorians, conquer the world.

 

[AnitaGaribaldi]

Hunting first is only useful when you don´t need it. I don´t know if I would do it at noble, I think you still has a change of getting workers and settlers but it´s small. It´s always a gamble.

 

[Storminator]

Pah. You're playing as Rome, one of the strongest civs in the game. Goody huts are for weaklings! Same thing for wonders--let those foolish AI civs build them for you and wrest them from their cold, dead hands!

Try this approach when playing as Rome: research Bronze Working first, then the Wheel. Found your 2nd city to claim copper. Build Axemen for early defense, especially from Barbarians. Now research Iron Working. Find and claim iron, build Praetorians, conquer the world.

I just finished my first Rome game, and wow! does that strategy work. I only got one axeman out before I got Iron, and then it was off to the races. There were so many techs I didn't research... really made me rethink what's 'necessary.'

Sorry for the threadjack...

PS

 

[Sisiutil]

I just finished my first Rome game, and wow! does that strategy work. I only got one axeman out before I got Iron, and then it was off to the races. There were so many techs I didn't research... really made me rethink what's 'necessary.'

Sorry for the threadjack...

PS

I have to give credit where credit is due. The above strategy for Rome is a quick 'n' dirty summary of a more detailed version that Moonsinger describes in detail in this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=152148. She wrote it for Deity level, but hey, if it works there, it works on any level lower than that, too!

Unlike Moonsinger's constant anarchy, though, I prefer to rely on cottage spam and early-as-possible Code of Laws (for cheap courthouses and the Forbidden Palace) to keep my economy going.

I still think this is relevant to the OP--he wanted opinions on researching Hunting first when playing as Rome; I think that's far from optimal and the Rome strategy I follow makes it clear why.

 

[cabert]

IMHO when playing rome, you go straight for Iron. Who needs copper?
The first settler should grab a gold or silver or gem site to fund an army.