Location of your first city

[Luca Brasi]

Do you build your capital on your first turn or do you take a few turns finding an ideal place? In Civ I and II, I always looked around, but here I find myself always doing it right away. With the insane AI expansion, I rather not lose the 1-2 extra turns, plus you'll miss culture growth as well. On the other side, it often pays to move 1 spot -- I've yet to see a capital on the coast, but you often get the awful spot when you're one tile away from the coast and you get stuck with the crappy 1 food water squares because you can't build a harbor. The AI always build on the first turn as well.

There's also definately not enough rivers in the game, but that's a whole other topic...

 

[shdwlord]

What I do is have the settler wait, and move the worker in what looks like the best direction, or onto a mountain or hill if one is beside me, and the scout if I start with one. Usually, I end up building on the starting position, but will move if the worker/scout finds a better place. Using this method, I have had my starting city on the coast, moved it onto a river, and found luxuries that would be in my culture borders as soon as they expand once. All these things help with quicker growth than if I had just built the city before moving the worker and/or scout.

 

[BillChin]

It is worth it to try for one square better by sending the worker and/or scout looking. A longer delay is not worth it unless someone is playing on Warlord or Chieftain difficulty.

 

[eyrei]

If I can see the coast on the first turn, I build my capital on the coast, primarily so that I can build the colossus there. On higher levels, since the AI capitals are rarely on the coast, this is about the only wonder you have a good shot at.

 

[chiefpaco]

Now that I think about it, after 5 games, I've started my 1st city next to the coast in 2 of them & got the colossus both times and never have got it the other times (and I wasn't really challenged when I made it). Good tip - and I like the effects.
I still haven't been able to win a Pyramids race & I'm a bit challenged to get early wonders & this helped me out.

 

[shdwlord]

The only way I have been able to get the pyramids above chieftan/warlord was to build my capital on a river, build a warrior or two until there was enough pop to build a settler, and start the pyramid right after the settler, mining around the capital for the extra shields. I usually go for Literature as soon as I can, so if I do get beat to the pyramids, I can usually get the Great Library. I did that once, got beat to the pyramids by 2 turns, build the Great Library, and got so many techs that it took me to the next age.

 

[Dralix]

Originally posted by eyrei
If I can see the coast on the first turn, I build my capital on the coast, primarily so that I can build the colossus there.

I'm sure you realize this, but the capital is a great place to build the Colossus, especially if it has a lot of commerce bonuses (rivers, resources). In any other city, you will have to deal with corruption, preventing you from getting the full benefits of the Colossus. You should also try to build Copernicus' Observatory and Newton's University there to further leverage all that commerce.