Infrastructure?

[Scrivener]

Hail everyone! At what point should I consider building Libraries, Marketplaces, etc? Just as important, what should I build first? And what about Great or Small Wonders?

In my current game (still in Ancient Times) I'm still concentrating on three units: Settlers for expansion, Workers for land development, and Spearman for defense. I have no buildings of any type (except the Palace I started with as American).

I'm looking for a generic rule of thumb answer and not specific to my current game. This is my first game and I've been posting my progress at the following thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=202974.

A loyal servant,
Scrivener

 

[GVBN]

I usually build marketplaces and small wonders as soon as possible. Libraries once my military is strong enough. I don't build great wonders at all (expect GLib)

 

[gmaharriet]

I'm looking for a generic rule of thumb answer

The best rule of thumb I know is "it depends".

You'll want an early granary in the town(s) producing settlers, but whether that should be built before the 1st settler or after the 1st, or 2nd or 3rd, depends on the situation. The majority of your settlers will come from either your capital or another inner core town with a food bonus. Maybe one will be a settler factory and the other will build mostly workers. Granaries speed up the process since it only takes half as much food to replace the population.

You'll also want an early barracks (or maybe several of them) for producing veteran units, but not for the very 1st unit and probably not for several more. When? Well, it depends. Usually you won't be building units in the same towns that produce settlers/workers, and the barracks should be in high shield towns.

Markets can usually wait until you have 3 or more different types of luxuries. They begin multiplying happiness with the 3rd type of lux. (Note: 3 or more of the same type of lux, such as 3 or 4 spices, has only the effect of a single type.) You may want an earlier market for increasing income IF you are NOT doing much research.

Libraries are best when you ARE doing high research. A good rule of thumb for them is when a net 10gpt is going to science. You can determine this by looking at your City View.

When to build markets vs when to build libraries is a subject for a whole thread by itself.

Edit: Try not to build spearmen. They are defensive units, and most experienced players build mostly offensive units like swords, horses, MDI, knights, etc. When an enemy attacks your empire, you're better off attacking them before they actually reach your cities...hence the offensive units. Again, this could be a topic for an entire thread by itself.

 

[Norton II]

I generally don't start building any improvements other than granaries or barracks until I have 20 or so veteran horsemen ready to go kill somebody. After I've got my horsemen assembled and am at war, I'll build reinforcements as needed and start on improvements. My general priority is as follows:
1) courthouses if needed (30-80% corruption--any higher and a courthouse won't do much good anyway)
2) aqueducts if needed
3) harbors if available
3) marketplaces
4) libraries

If my civ is scientific, I'll build libraries before markets instead. As for great wonders, the earliest ones I'll build are Sun Tzu's and Leo's (if I can only get one, I prefer Leo's). Small wonders? I'll build the Heroic Epic as soon as i can in my most productive city and the Forbidden Palace in a city 2-3 rings away (depending on map size) in the direction I'm most likely to expand. Either one of those can come before improvements.

 

[Redrake]

Edit: Try not to build spearmen. They are defensive units, and most experienced players build mostly offensive units like swords, horses, MDI, knights, etc. When an enemy attacks your empire, you're better off attacking them before they actually reach your cities...hence the offensive units. Again, this could be a topic for an entire thread by itself.

That works if you want a war to start so that you could expand. But if you want to prevent a war, build lots of defensive units and garison them in the border cities. And always keep the most advanced units in there. A city defended with spearmen during the feudalism, makes a very tempting target for the AI.

In my regent games, I usually go for 2 paths, either going for military units, especially with militaristic civs or those with an ancient special unit, either building the economy, in which case my order of built in new cities is:
1) defensive unit (unless I brought one with me)
2) Worker
3) Temple
4) Courthouse
5) second defensive unit
From then on, it doesn't really matter, I could turn the city either in a settler factory, either an wonder builder, depends on resources.

 

[MAS]

That works if you want a war to start so that you could expand. But if you want to prevent a war, build lots of defensive units and garison them in the border cities. And always keep the most advanced units in there. A city defended with spearmen during the feudalism, makes a very tempting target for the AI.

The AI decides to go to war is for a large part based on how strong you are. And the AI rates offensive power higher than defensive power. Instead of building spears and pikes, I'd rather put my shields in horseman and knights.
It will scare the AI out of attacking you better than spears and pikes.
(though once they already on the attack they do make defensive power influence their choice of target)

In my regent games, I usually go for 2 paths, either going for military units, especially with militaristic civs or those with an ancient special unit, either building the economy, in which case my order of built in new cities is:
1) defensive unit (unless I brought one with me)
2) Worker
3) Temple
4) Courthouse
5) second defensive unit
From then on, it doesn't really matter, I could turn the city either in a settler factory, either an wonder builder, depends on resources.

I would specialize my city right from the turn it is build. Usually, at the start of the game, I'll have one or two settler farms, one or two vet unit generators, and all the other cities are on non stop worker production, until most of the free land is settled, then I'll let the cities grow, building libraries, markets, acuaducts, and courthouses where needed.
I'll try to plan my aquaduct in such a way that the city will not have to pay upkeep for it while it is still below size 7 for a while, but also not has to wait for the aquaduct to complete before it can grow past 6.

 

[Scrivener]

Hail everyone! Thanks for all the information. Obviously my simple "rule of thumb" question is quite detailed. That's one thing I like about this game, it changes everytime it's played.

A loyal servant,
Scrivener