These are probably best for people who are transitioning from Newbie to Noble, because at lower levels it doesn't really matter -- you are always going to be way ahead of everybody even if you are brand spanking new to Civ I II III or IV, like Mrs LHudson73.
If you want an early religion, and you aren't Spiritual, go for Financial. After you found your first city, work a coastal or lake tile, or any tile that gives you three pennies. Research Mysticism, then Polytheism. Don't bother with Meditation -- the spiritual AIs always go for it, because it costs less than Polytheism, even though if you have three pennies in your first city square, Polytheism is only 6 turns instead of 5 to discover. For some reason every time I start noble/huge/18 Izzy gets it. Is there some sort of rule that says in the event of a tie, Izzy gets Buddhism?
If someone beats you to Polytheism, then research Masonry and Monotheism right away. You will get Judaism about the same time as your first warrior, and your city will be size two. You can even try for a "religion whore" strategy. If you have Hinduism in your capital, then wait until you are one turn away from Monotheism, and then switch to another tech, and then right after you have your second city, switch back to Monotheism.
After you get your religion(s), you can start on a worker, and you can research farming, mining, camping, sheeping, depending on what resources are in your city radius, and you will have two or three of these techs discovered before the worker is even built.
After you get your worker, and before you build your first settler, change your tiles to maximize production, and if you have stone in your city square go for Stonehenge. If you are Industrious don't even bother looking for stone -- you will have the Henge built before your worker completes the road to it. if you play it right, you could have it built around 1000 BC, meaning that in the modern era you should have a +8 culture wonder that's 3000 years old, -- someone do the math for me -- how many culture points per turn is that?
Your capitol should be about a size 4 now, large enough to spit out a settler every 4-5 turns now and to support your new cities.
If you want an early religion, and you aren't Spiritual, go for Financial. After you found your first city, work a coastal or lake tile, or any tile that gives you three pennies. Research Mysticism, then Polytheism. Don't bother with Meditation -- the spiritual AIs always go for it, because it costs less than Polytheism, even though if you have three pennies in your first city square, Polytheism is only 6 turns instead of 5 to discover. For some reason every time I start noble/huge/18 Izzy gets it. Is there some sort of rule that says in the event of a tie, Izzy gets Buddhism?
If someone beats you to Polytheism, then research Masonry and Monotheism right away. You will get Judaism about the same time as your first warrior, and your city will be size two. You can even try for a "religion whore" strategy. If you have Hinduism in your capital, then wait until you are one turn away from Monotheism, and then switch to another tech, and then right after you have your second city, switch back to Monotheism.
After you get your religion(s), you can start on a worker, and you can research farming, mining, camping, sheeping, depending on what resources are in your city radius, and you will have two or three of these techs discovered before the worker is even built.
After you get your worker, and before you build your first settler, change your tiles to maximize production, and if you have stone in your city square go for Stonehenge. If you are Industrious don't even bother looking for stone -- you will have the Henge built before your worker completes the road to it. if you play it right, you could have it built around 1000 BC, meaning that in the modern era you should have a +8 culture wonder that's 3000 years old, -- someone do the math for me -- how many culture points per turn is that?
Your capitol should be about a size 4 now, large enough to spit out a settler every 4-5 turns now and to support your new cities.