Question About Build Order (Start of Game)

[Divaythsarmour]

Industrious does NOT help you build wonders faster. Industrious allows your workers to work faster, and gives certain cities a shield bonus... I believe it's at size 13 if I recall correctly, but I'm not sure here.

I often get things confused between Civ 3 and 4. Faster workers would be handy in a Rex strategy especially building roads to send the settlers along more quickly. Maybe I'll try that..

I stand corrected.

 

[Tasonne]

5 fpt means "five food per turn"

A warrior or two for exploring may make sense. Sometimes I don't do this from the capital though, and have the second city put out warriors for exploring. One can see enough to place the second city from the cultural expansion of the capital. That said, using the capital for getting a warrior or two for scouting also can work well. To me, it's a tossup as to which usually works out better.

At Emperor and above your capital does NOT need any warriors. One can just raise the luxury slider instead. You can put more cities out this way faster, which after a certain point usually implies more units, shields, and food for growth.

MPs, that is "military police" do have their uses, and they can help keep science high. However, if one has a choice between warriors as MPs and warriors as scouts, in the early game warriors as scouts works better. Also, if it comes down to earlier cities vs. MPs, earlier cities usually work out better also. If you delay getting out a settler by a turn or two, maybe MPs work out better (maybe not, this seems kind of close actually). But, if you lose 5 turns on training a warrior or two, I'd take the earlier settler anyday of the week for just about all map types and raise the luxury slider instead.

Okay so I've tested a game out, and I've got some screenshots.
I'll explain, then dump the pictures and you can comment

Basically what I did was simple: I started a game with a reasonably decent and simple start, some grassland and some forests.
I played it once with the order of

warrior>warrior>granary>settler,
then warrior>granary>settler>warrior>settler,
then granary>settler>settler>settler

the results were that: all three orders, surprisingly, finished their first settler at the exact same time: 2800BC
Now, the results for the second settler were not that different
The third settler, however, is where the difference can be seen
The first start: 1950 BC
The second: 2110 BC
The third : 2150 BC

So, as you can see building the order (granary>settler>settler>settler) is the best one

so the first few pictures i show are going to show what i do at the beginning

the next few will show the different build orders and when the settlers are built

 

[scratchthepitch]

So, as you can see building the order (granary>settler>settler>settler) is the best one

But what happens when a barb or an opportunistic AI pass by one of those cities that don't have any unit defending them? That's usually my luck.

 

[RFHolloway]

Paperbeetle had a spreadsheet that would analyse the options. (including growth, worker actions)

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Expansive can give you a couple of free towns on demigod. it's completely nerfed on Sid, of course - you don't get much useful and the 20+ free AI units pop all the huts anyway.

I almost always go warrior->warrior->granary - 1 warrior is an MP, the other scouts. On very low levels, I may just build a scouting warrior.

 

[Spoonwood]

But what happens when a barb or an opportunistic AI pass by one of those cities that don't have any unit defending them? That's usually my luck.

Why play with barbarians? (I mean roaming barbs or anything higher)

 

[AutomatedTeller]

But what happens when a barb or an opportunistic AI pass by one of those cities that don't have any unit defending them? That's usually my luck.

In III, it's annoying, not disastrous. Just make sure you aren't running a deficit, and you'll be fine.

 

[scratchthepitch]

Why play with barbarians? (I mean roaming barbs or anything higher)

Useful experience for units (and in the mod I use, they produce an occasional worker when killed). Adds a little variety, also.

In III, it's annoying, not disastrous. Just make sure you aren't running a deficit, and you'll be fine.

I rarely have much money at the beginning. The AI will sometimes take the undefended cities, though.

 

[Tasonne]

I rarely have much money at the beginning. The AI will sometimes take the undefended cities, though.

this is emperor here and there was plenty of time for the second city to get a few warriors before the ai posed any kind of threat. i usually go w>w>g>s>w>s~ and can win most games.

I def want to try the granary first thing a few times to see how it goes. The last several games i've played, since i started this post, i didn't use an initial explorer, and i seem to be finding reasonably good sites for the few cities i get up before i get one out. I'm finding this to be a useful technique. Now i'm going to practice the granary first, luxury slider technique. After the first two settlers, you kind of have to start alternating warriors in because the city may not grow quite fast enough, so it doesn't take too long to get your army situated. I can understand this is not the best thing to do against human opponents but plaing against the ai you have nothing to worry about

 

[dominatr]

fo the start of game, i usually make a pair of warriors, first is explore for other cives, other is defense, then make first settler to expand faster than the AI. If barbs are on, get warrior code and produce archers. If no barbs, i either go for BW to get spearmen and prepare to invade the enemy, or go for philo slingshot and pull ahead in tech.

I dont usually raise my sliders yet, i would rathr rack some gold up to make early trades.

 

[Raliuven]

Given the start, I would have gone Granary first. With two luxuries close by to control happiness, Granary first should deliver the fastest REX, a comparable treasury and the strongest fpt/spt growth. The only place that granary first would fall down is in the creation of warriors for scouting. But if there are no barbarians or GH to find, then I am much less agressive with my scouts/defenses anyway.

My building would have been something like Granary, Settler, Worker, Warrior. I am not sure if that would work without doing the math. If population was too low, then I would place the warrior into the mix as necessary, but the above would be my priority.

I would also go easy on the warriors because you have some thin strips of land. Easy enough to throw up a road block across that passage then to protect each town, at least until ships come into circulation.