Pottery or BW?

[Archbob]

So which do you guys research first, pottery or BW? I usually go BW first because chopping is more important than cottages to me the first few turns. Which way do you guys go?

 

[Memphus]

depends on the start

i.e. city location, startings techs

if I have alot of Flood plains, and few forests then probably pottery, but again if I start with mining then this may not be the way to go

both can work and both can win on high difficulties

but once i get one the other is soon after

 

[Tatran]

Bronze Working.Not only to chop,but also to know
if you have copper and if not you'll need iron to
build axemen.

 

[Shoot the Moon]

Bronze working. I would much rather have the ability to chop than build cottages. Also, the effectivness of bronze working is a lot greater earlier than later (chop rushing settlers becomes a lot less important after 5 cities than chop rushing your first settler). That 20 turns you have to wait for cottages won't make as much difference in the long run as those two extra cities you could chop that much sooner.

 

[joasoze]

Bronze working. I really need to know where the bronze is so I can settle my second city by it (with a chopped settler guarded by chopped warriors). I drop archery

 

[Theodorick]

Like Memphus said, city location matters. Getting a few cottages up on floodplains extra early can be a huge help in the long run instead of wasting a tech on bronze working, that of which won't help you if you lack forests. Also pottery is quicker to research than bronze working, so you'll be able to get those cottages down as you research bronze working.

 

[MrCynical]

Bronze working almost all the time. If I decide for some reason to go for a different tech, it won't be Pottery, it'll be religious, fishing, animal husbandry etc, since these will usually be more useful. Cottages are not a high priority at the very start of the game, getting resources improved and connected is. So is chop rushing (and it's very rare to have no forest at all).

 

[sgrig]

Definitely Bronze Working for me. Chopping the first settler is very important to keep up with AI in terms of expansion.

 

[Zombie69]

No contest. Bronze working is so powerful early that civilizations starting without mining are at a disadvantage.

 

[Danghis Khan]

I usually pick pottery, the earlier a cottage is up and running the better. Of course, if my city is sitting in the middle of a forest it's not like I have much choice then.

 

[Shadzy19]

Almost always BW , chopping and knowing if you have copper is just far to important for multiple reasons.

 

[Toshiro126]

Bronze working. I don't like playing too long into the game before knowing where the copper resources are...

 

[JerichoHill]

It depends on your start location.

If you have floodplains, then farming or pottery is great. I like to farm first to grow the city, then lay down cottages.

I can defend reasonably well with archers if need be, and get brozne working when its appropriate.

There is no one set tech to get first, play to your situation

 

[rewster1]

Chopping, popping, copper, and axemen are all really good reasons to get bronze. Pottery gives you granaries and cottages. If chopping weren't so overpowered this would actually be a tough decision.

 

[Boppo]

I'm going to go with BW as well. Your city has to grow before Pottery really gets useful, so you have some time to burn. Time I use getting BW.

 

[J.Rose]

Always BW. Then wheel then pottery.

 

[DangerousMonkey]

I really don't think there's a single situation where you'll want to get Pottery before Bronze Working. Doing so simply wouldn't make sense. You need BW as soon as possible, and Pottery is useless if you don't have a few workers to spare from chopping to drop some cottages.

 

[Artanis]

I really don't think there's a single situation where you'll want to get Pottery before Bronze Working. Doing so simply wouldn't make sense. You need BW as soon as possible, and Pottery is useless if you don't have a few workers to spare from chopping to drop some cottages.

Pottery > BW when your capital is surrounded by Flood Plains, but not many trees. The Flood Plains mean that:
1) The extra food on each tile makes up some of the production you lose from building your Workers/Settlers instead of chopping them
2) You have a LOT of tiles that are perfect for Cottaging.
3) The health bonus and hammer output of what few forests you might have become far more precious.

So when your capital has a ton of Flood Plains but not many forests around it, you can Cottage some FPs and Farm some other FPs, letting you switch between obscenely high commerce income and next-best-thing-to-chopping Settler/Worker build speed. Going Pottery will thus allow you to sacrifice a little bit of early expansion in favor of a LOT of early science while keeping your slightly-less-early production intact.

 

[Memphus]

I really don't think there's a single situation where you'll want to get Pottery before Bronze Working. Doing so simply wouldn't make sense. You need BW as soon as possible, and Pottery is useless if you don't have a few workers to spare from chopping to drop some cottages.

Artanis is definetly correct, if there was only one way to do things, the game wouldn't be very fun now.

To add to this, you starting techs also matter

I.E. Tokugawa, you can get pottery right away, versus have to get mining and then bronze working, by getting pottery first and havign a couple of flood plains around you can actually get bw, roughyl at the same time you would by not getting pottery first, not to mention the benefit from then on.

 

[Stalker0]

Pottery > BW when your capital is surrounded by Flood Plains, but not many trees.

Even if my capital only had 2 trees near it I'd still say bronze working. Even that one settler doubles my production early on and lets me settle in an area where there are trees.