Newbie Startup hints

LHudson73

Chieftain
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
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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.
 
So your "hint" is ... found an early religion?

As you move up in level, religions become less and less valuable. And at any level, it's almost always better to acquire a religion from a neighbor, either peacefully or through war. Conquered holy cities are a great source of income, and having the same religion as one or more neighbors gives you many more options diplomatically.

Don't get me wrong, religion is often valuable. But it's the last thing I would advise newbies to focus on.
 
Yeah I was going to comment about not getting into bad habits early, but the point of the game is to have fun in my opinion, and wonders and religion founding are fun :) .
When you want to move up a level then you have to make sacrifices.
 
Capturing shrines does seem like more fun... let your opponent do all the hard work, then you reap the benefits!
 
Okay, I forgot about Fishing. Duh. It works for Victoria (EXP/FIN).

Okay so if Religion is the last thing you would advise newbies to focus on, then what would be the first thing?
 
Okay so if Religion is the last thing you would advise newbies to focus on, then what would be the first thing?

Worker techs. Tile improvements. Whip Axemen. Conquer an AI. Code of Laws/Currency. Courthouses. Whip Axemen. Conquer some Barbarian Cities or weak AI Cities. Construction. Whip Catapults. Whip Axemen/Swordsmen. Whip Catapults. Whip Axemen/Swordsmen. Conquer an AI.

After that you'll be in a strong position. Try to get macemen next, then rinse and repeat :)
 
Early religions can often be as much of a liability as a benefit, as they give your neighbours a reason to dislike you.

I do like to pick up a mid-game religion (Taoism/Confucianism) so that I can temple up my cities to boost production with priest specialists, but earlier on–when temples just require too much investment–you probably won't miss the +1 happiness.

Picking up multiple holy cities through conquest (to capture the early religion shrines) and research (to get the late-game ones for yourself) can have huge benefits if you've managed to get Pyramids+Angkor Wat, though–you can't always aim for a 'Priest Economy,' but if you suddenly find yourself able to do one, Priests (of which you can have at least one per religion) trump Engineers (of which you can only get one of per Forge, in the early game.)
 
Worker techs. Tile improvements. Whip Axemen. Conquer an AI. Code of Laws/Currency. Courthouses. Whip Axemen. Conquer some Barbarian Cities or weak AI Cities. Construction. Whip Catapults. Whip Axemen/Swordsmen. Whip Catapults. Whip Axemen/Swordsmen. Conquer an AI.

After that you'll be in a strong position. Try to get macemen next, then rinse and repeat :)

Love your style frob :)

Or, you could go religion crazy, build 6 (or 9) cities and shoot for a cultural win...
Or, you could war early and then cruise peacefully toward a late space win...
Or, you could sweet-talk yourself in a diplo-win by the endgame without warring once.
Or, you could try the 'unreal' wonderhog/no cottage/no lightbub late (but impressive) space win...
Or, you could try out this SE everyone talks about (yeah, I should try it sometime)...

Great game, don't you think ?
 
give a man a fish and he can eat. Teach a man to fish and He'll sit on his ass all day drinking beer in a boat... :)
 
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