Quick Early Expansion?

[Elek]

Whats best for early expanding?

Expansionist & Industrious both looked like they would do well together.

I tried America and the expansionist didnt seem to pay off...sure i explored more, but i could do the same with a warrior(although it would slow down settler prodution by some turns) and get all the area around me pretty much explored by the time the settlers are ready to settle.

i had barbarians on sedentary and didnt notice any better results from the huts(did i just get bad luck??) and also when the barbs arent on sedentary do they really treat expansionist much better?

i think i might not be using expansionist the way it should be and if i am someone please direct to to a guide or something

expansionist only helps early game... if i instead took religious or scientific i would benefit throughout the whole game.

am i using it wrong or would i be better off using persia or egypt?

 

[Bamspeedy]

Barbarian level does not affect hut probabilities. Difficulty level does affect goody hut outcomes, though (better results on lower levels), and so does being expansionists. Just don't have barb level set to 'none', as you won't get any huts at all.

scouts can move twice as far as warriors (except for jags), so if you stay out of large clumps of forests, hills, jungle, etc., you can uncover twice as much of the map, doubling the odds of finding good city sites, other civs, and goody huts. Plus, you get at least a 5-turn jump start on the exploration, since you start with a free scout.

Expansionists is most powerful on largish, pangea maps where you have lots of land to explore and goody huts to find. They can be most helpful on other maps, but it would require a very special situation (finding civs very soon and be trading back and forth between them before they find each other).

Most of the time (not really true on island maps), to get a more powerful effect of expansionists, you should build at least 1 EXTRA scout, besides the one you start with.

On regent level, I once popped a settler from a hut at 3950 BC, had both cities then pumping out scouts and then popped enough goody huts to get out of the ancient era by 2600 BC or something. (using America on a huge map with minimal civs, so I was industrious to quickly mined all bonus grassland, so I built up scouts very quickly).

Persia and Egypt are very, very good civs also. Many think Egypt is the best civ. Like I said, expansionists rely greatly on map conditions, and luck. I'd rather get a free settler at 3950 BC, than be scientific. Doubling your empire that early is game-breaking, but it is a gamble, as you might not get anything from the huts.

 

[Elek]

oh you can get settlers from huts? interesting that would definitely be better than scientific, just riskier.

i see why it would have been better on a larger map.

i might try america out some more . maybe egypt too. but persia has been the best to me so far.

 

[tomart109]

Bamspeedy explained it very well, but here's 2 more cents..

I love the Expansionist-Industrious combination on larger Pangeas. I build 2 or 3 (more) Scouts and they explore vast tracts of land, get lots of techs, (and when you get a free Settler early on, oh what a feeling!) Usually when i'm non-expansionist, all i get is grief from the "goodie" hits (3 angry killers...) They definitely treat expansionists better.

After playing Industrious civs for several months (real time I went back to non-industrious and was disgusted how long it took these slow workers to do anything! Especially captured ("guest") workers - four times slower!!!!

 

[WickedWombat]

I love the expansionist trait in the early game.

Usually after I build my first city, I will send my scout to all the goody huts in the vicinity and reload until I get a settler. The boost of 2 cities in the beginning can make your life much easier.

I know that some consider reloading cheating but I need the advantage on the higher levels. Right now I'm on emperor.