I hate the early game, how to cope with it?

[Gilgameshuggah]

Another example: I start on emperor, playing Germans. I plan how I'm going to build some nice cities to cluster up those Hansa's, capturing any nearby CS's and so on. The first thing I notice is I'm surrounded by sea and mountains in quite nice spot but my access to even the closest CS's is blocked by India so I proceed to clear them out of the way. Seeing they have those elefants I build extra archers just to be sure and take out his first city when I have 8 of those plus a warrior (two additional settled cities and one bought builder at the time).

At that point I feel like it'd be nice to stop the war and focus on what I was originally doing but I also notice that I won't be able to hold on to that city and that India now hates me as well as Indonesia (who I managed to get into war together but who made peace right away) and that the other Indian city or two are still on the way. So I have to raze the first one and keep the war going. Also, what would I do with the army that I have wasted so much production and gold on already? So I proceed to take out the India and then the Indonesia who has denounced me by then and so on and so on... When I'm down I can basically pick which victory I want to have.

Another start turned into same boring drill. I fight the early war I really did not want and instead of playing to the strengths of my chosen civ and leader...

Next I will try to significantly cut down the number of civs in the game.

 

[AsH2]

Then try pangea map with old world setting to get less sea and mountains.

 

[Bitterman]

Emperor and beyond I didn't like at first because the AI got extra settlers and units in the beginning, which turns the first steps of the game into a warrior-slinger fest that I found boring (always the same).

Instead I got a mod which removes extra settlers and units but adds extra bonus to science, gold, culture etc... to AI as the game progresses, so the difficulty is more evenly distributed through the game. For me is undoubtedly the best experience and most balanced.

The mod it's called Smoother Difficulty 2.0 btw.

 

[gozpel]

If you try to make them less aggro, send that delegation.
Give them a luxury.
Give them 20 horses.

In the really early game, build a scout. (I know some of the pros here say no, but build a scout, first!)

All is map dependant, if you're close someone aggro you have to buff your defenses. Simple.
If you're not THAT close, you can build an empire or an army to kill the next guy.

I almost never kill AIs, I prefer love and peace. But on Deity that can be hard to get, but at least I try and if not, then I kill them and get hated for the rest of the game.

 

[fantsu]

How are barbs so big of an problem for so many? How much people fogbust usually? I always fogbust early with scouts and slinger or two. It seems that this makes barbs usually care more of the AI and not me. I dont play with raging barbs thou.

 

[Gilgameshuggah]

How are barbs so big of an problem for so many? How much people fogbust usually? I always fogbust early with scouts and slinger or two. It seems that this makes barbs usually care more of the AI and not me. I dont play with raging barbs thou.

I always scout with the initial warrior and with the scout or slinger I build next. However they are just twp units so barb scout may always pop right next to the city undetected. But not scouting and missing free envoys and goodie huts is not good plan either. If I play Gilgamesh or some other early rusher, things are obviously all different but it gets boring.

 

[teakbois]

I find usually you can wait until you have your 2nd or 3rd city + agoge to need to build more than an extra warrior or slinger on Immortal.
I almost always start scout > slinger > settler, sometimes or scout > a few turns slinger > settler at pop 2 > finish slinger.

Every once in a while I get the close barb camp that was the opposite direction of my warrior, but not often.

I find the newer maps (Primordial, Continents and Islands) tend to have more interesting maps. The primordial can be a bit absurd with the volcanos everywhere, but since there can be only one disaster per turn they don't go off all that often. But either of these with low seas can often give you a map with a lot of room to expand. But sometimes you just spawn next to 3 AIs. Or Gilgamesh.

 

[Loderingo]

I always scout with the initial warrior and with the scout or slinger I build next. However they are just twp units so barb scout may always pop right next to the city undetected. But not scouting and missing free envoys and goodie huts is not good plan either. If I play Gilgamesh or some other early rusher, things are obviously all different but it gets boring.

Do you actively hunt down barb camps before they start spawning? I always start by building scout and have my warrior go in a ring around the city. If I find a nearby barb camp I will build a second unit and send the pair of them to kill the camp before it starts spawning. I generally find barbs are only really pain if you are next to the tundra as then camps will keep spawning and it is annoying to have to keep taking them down.

Generally I would say that at the lower levels it is very easy to get away with passive play (i.e. where shall I put my new settler? What shall I build next in this city?) rather than strategic play. That is why I think it is important to start with a scout so as to see the lie of the land. Where am I going to build my first 6 cities? Who are my neighbours? Are they going to be friends or enemies? What are their agendas? When do their UUs come online and when does my UU come online?

Sometimes it is worth building a poor city if it blocks off a key chokepoint e.g. a gap in the mountains.

My best advice is plan 1-2 eras ahead. Sometimes you might have to modify your plan to deal with events but when everything works out it is very satisfying.

 

[Timothy001]

My usual start is Slinger, Warrior, Scout, Settler, Slinger, Warrior, Builder. If I find a weak Civ nearby, I'll then get a few more slingers and warriors, and rush. Tech wise I get the first tier, then Archery, then go for Walls. My second city is usually, Granary, Water Mill (if able), Ancient Walls, builder, Commercial Hub/Harbor, Market/Lighthouse, Trader.
If strong Ai near, I'll play nice, trade etc. Keep an army ready. If rare case, no AI near (Happened in recent game, on my own island), My capital goes Warrior, Settler, to fill out as much space as possible.
My current game as Victoria, I overran Kongo. Have a large mountain range (only 2 ways by for now, both 1 hex passes) between us and Wilhelmina. I have a large army at both passes. I've filled all the space south of the passes, and now hitting the outer island (Using Continents plus islands)

 

[Equilin]

Play later era starts then. You start with more settlers, builders, and more units of the earlier era (e.g. classical start may give archer&spear, plus scouts), and some other perks already mentioned.
you'll also get some achievements for it (that most players never even bothered).

 

[japanesesamurai]

The only reason your neighbours are declaring war is because early on, they have way bigger forces. They look at numbers + their agenda. If they outnumber you, they are hostile and/or suprise you with a war.
If you don’t like this, you can edit era.xml and give yourself a proper army on turn one. If you have an equal sized army, they will even be “friendly” (green face). By having an army, barbarians however are basically nothing more than patato sacks to gain free XP. Which isn’t all that interesting.
Instead of giving yourself an army, you can also remove the AI’s army in era.xml.
I agree, though, games on deity/immortal always turn out the same. The game is much different if you spawn somewhere isolated, but then the entire game ends up being a little bit boring...