Rank the Starting Techs and Why

[Sarge85]

I'm not sure I've seen a thread on this-- I'm curious what everyone thinks:

From best to worst:

Mining: is probably my favorite starting tech,... just that much closer to an Axe rush with bronze working- Doesn't require a resource to be useful

Ag- Wheat/Rice/Corn, even some of the "Plantation" resources do well with a farm, until you get Plantation. Doesn't require a resource to be useful

Wheel - To hook up Bronze and other resources... also needed for pottery along with Ag or Fish, move troops, connect cities

Hunting - Scout good when you have one for huts and intel, can improve tiles, also good for some UUs and needed for Archery

Fishing - Low because I have to be coastal and have specific tiles to get the most bang for the buck. Not all cities will benefit from it. However, great when you have two food resources... Coastal cities with good food and a few mines can be MONSTER cities

Mysticism - Generally I don't try and found religions or go down that tech path until absolutely necessary. (Trade for it) Definitely need it to help pop borders later, but I think there are a number of other priorities first.

Sarge

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Mining - needed for BW, unlocks a good improvement all around
AG - Typical food resource tech, expensive otherwise, leads to pottery
Fishing - Leads to pottery, another typical food resource tech
Hunting - Less valuable on slower speeds, UNLESS you need archers, where it is a leg up
Wheel - It's nice to have, but it's far from the first improvement I'd want to build. Early pottery is nice sometimes though.
Mysticism - I'll pass on the early religions MOST of the time, although you still need it if not CRE for border pops. Also better than nothing but I'd rather start with the ability to improve tiles and expand.

 

[UWHabs]

After mining and Ag, I'll take the other depending on the civ or map. If I have a coastal start, I'll take fishing next. If I'm non-creative, and especially with a monument UB, then mysticism isn't that bad.

Wheel is one of those techs early game that I want, but I don't really want to research. When I need it, I never have it.

 

[Iranon]

Mining - hills tend to be plentiful, chopping keeps workers busy if there's nothing else to do

Fishing - sometimes workboat first is the best opening, nice option.

Agriculture - useful tech on most maps.

The Wheel - Keeps workers busy, expensive... but never important to have right away.

Mysticism - Going for a religion first isn't attractive often enough, cheap.

Hunting - No ultra-early worker stealing. No dirt-cheap garrison warriors that can upgrade into offensive units when needed while having bronze hooked up. Often enough, I wish my civ would just forget how to stick pointy things into furry things.

 

[dragodon64]

Mysticism- founding a religion, especially useful when I also start with or quickly pop Fishing so I can work those coastal tiles and be more likely to get the tech with more commerce from coastal tiles

Fishing- very useful to totally useless, but more often the prior; I usually play sea-heavy maps, so seafood is quite central

Mining- leads to bronze working and necessary for early strong industry, usually will have at least 1 mineable resource nearby

Wheel- will always be needed fairly quickly

Agriculture- Usually enough food from fish at beginning to put this off for a little bit

Hunting- obsoletes warrior after you have BW, only necessary for camps

 

[MkLh]

1. Agriculture - Crops are the most common food resources, leads to AH.
2. Mining - BW researched quickly
3. Fishing - Coastal starts are quite common
4. Mysticism - I never try to found an early religion, good that you can you can work with Stonehenge though
5. The Wheel - Not really needed early, but atleast workers always have something to do.
6. Hunting - in most cases useless, I always have the huts turned off

 

[AfterShafter]

Agriculture and mining are my top tier. Fairly obvious - they're always useful, high yield techs for necessary early components. Not to mention revealing copper.

Fishing and the wheel are my mid tier. Fishing is spectacular when you need it, utterly useless when you don't... And the wheel - getting that road network set up early is more valuable than one might think - it's always useful, but other than connecting vital early military resources, isn't game breaking.

Bottom tier... Hunting and mysticism. Scouts are handy, but not necessary... Hunting lets you work some spiffy resources. Mysticism is snazzy when you need early culture, have a shot at a religion (see: pretty much never on immortal +). Both are quite useful, but quite situational.

So, final verdict... 1) agriculture, 2) mining, 3) the wheel, 4) fishing, 5) hunting, 6) mysticism.

 

[ranger101]

For my settings (Epic/Monarch with Raging Barbs), hunting is underrated. I think that for me, the ideal starting techs are hunting/mining. This way I am one tech away from any food tech and any weapon tech. Usually, I can't get Bronze or Horses hooked up before the barbs show up so I usually go for one or the other and then grab archery. Without BW and Animal Husbandry, I won't know which direction to go. Wheel doesn't help much unless you know where to build the road. Fishing and even Agriculture might not be needed, and fishing is cheap to research. Mysticism can wait.

With Mysticism/Wheel (Saladin/Byzantium), I go for a food tech and then head over to archery. With those techs, Agriculture-Mining-Bronze takes way too long since that leaves you 2 techs away from archery.

 

[Tephros]

1. Agriculture 2. Mining. 3. fishing. 4. hunting. 5. the wheel 6. mysticism

Agriculture is above mining because you need to hook up a food source first, generally, and farming is the most common way to do this unless you're on the most water-heavy maps. It also makes it viable to hook up cow, pigs, sheep, and horses early.

Mining because after you have food you need production (or commerce if you were lucky enough to get gold). And bronze working is one of the first non-starter techs you need.

Fishing and agriculture would be switched on water-heavy maps, as your early food is going to come from the ocean more often than farms.

Hunting shines when you have ivory or deer. Fur too, though it isn't a great resource to have in your 1st city, as the yields are generally horsehockey compared to other resources. It's also nice in that it leads to AH like farming, and leads to archery if you have no copper/horses.

The wheel gives your workers something to do, and is especially nice if there are few rivers and you're not on a coastal start. What you need right away is yields to get started though, not roads until you discover a strategic resource or establish your 2nd city.

Mysticism kind of sucks unless: 1. You have corn, rice, wheat, or flood plains, in which case it's okay with agriculture. 2. You have fish, clam, or crabs and you have fishing. 3. You have deer and you have hunting. Mysticism is more useful on isolated or semi-isolated starts, or starts with few/no luxuries. On a pangea map you're almost always going to get religion spread from a neighbor who founded a religion, and then you just take the holy city by force later. You're usually going to have to wait longer on archipelago.

Otherwise your first worker (or work boat) cannot build anything to contribute to early growth if you go for an early religion. On higher levels and larger maps going for an early religion is more of a crap shoot. Plus you won't need monuments for your capital and it varies whether your 2nd city wants it immediately.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Adjust according to map size/type/starting location

 

[r_rolo1]

In a rough widly general outline:

Ag/Fishing - In early game, food is power

Mining - Access to BW and Masonry, mine building ( you need to have some production after all )

Mysticism - Access to masonry and to the religious branch. Sometimes Stonehenge at opening is a good move too.

Hunting - The resources that need camps are problematic in terms of food. Scouts can get good results from huts, but you don't play always with them ,and then not having a warrior maybe problematic. Opens archery and AH, though....

Wheel - roads are good in it self, but they don't give higher yields in any type of tile. And the worst possible thing to do in Civ IV is working unimproved-yield tiles.....

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Okay, I'll do a rough generalization:

Coastal Start (with seafood)
Fishing, Mining, Hunting, Wheel, Agriculture, Mysticism

Egyptian Start
Mysticism, Agriculture, Mining, Wheel, Hunting, Fishing

Stone Nearby Start
Mining, Mysticism, Wheel, Agriculture, Hunting, Fishing

General none-of-the-above-stated starts
Agriculture, Mining, Wheel, Hunting, Fishing, Mysticism

 

[GoodGame]

Mining>Agriculture>Hunting>Mysticism>Fishing>wheel

EDIT: Wheel is so low since it's rare that you need resources hooked up early in the game to make a difference, and quite often there's a free river route anyways. It is the path to pottery, but
cottages aren't an early option unless you have a couple of flood plains, but if you have that then research and population aren't too much of a problem anyways.

Fishing is low since workboats are so expensive to build relative to workers, but it's situational that Fishing/workboats are the only development option.

Mysticism is a must if you want an early religion, but early religion is overrated. Monuments are important if you're REXing and don't have the Creative trait.

Hunting is good for scouts (better than warriors in the beginning game), and it also makes an archery rush easier. Same for researching Animal Husbandry for food and horses.

Agriculture is obvious---makes workers better than workboats if you have plant food, and sometimes green farms are your best food stuff. Food = power.

Mining because it makes REXing with Bronze Working quicker. Also because food resources usually give the benefit of a free farm initially, but no tile reaches 3+ without a mine.
Very important in the early game to have -rich tiles because you start short on manpower. Speeds up the early work queue. Mining > Agriculture, because in some
situations, without Bronze Working, workers can't do anything of value.

 

[DaveMurray]

Mining - first as it leads to BW which means chops and slavery. Bronze working would be the second tech I research unless there's only a trees and lots of other resources which need improvements from many different techs.

Agriculture second for food which then leads to AH if you have pasture resources or you want to do a rush with chariot UUs.

Wheel - third as it allows you to hook up vital resources early and it leads to pottery for cottages. The earlier the cottage, the quicker you get the town. Not really sure why people rate hunting above the wheel. Resources are good yields but the whole point of resources is to give your empire some kind of benefit. In order to get that benefit, you need roads. Roads also give you trade routes between cities which in effect is a higher yield.

Mysticism - fourth as it allows you to push your BFC also opens up a great wonder if you have the forests to chop for it and can jack a worker from a peaceful civ. Never jack workers from the warmongers though. Also opens the route for Oracle/MC which can be nice if you can pull off.

Hunting - fifth since it doesn't allow for very many tile improvements and it doesn't allow you to build warriors for cheap garrisons. Would be a lot higher in priority though if copper is far away as it leads to archery. Would research it if after Agriculture if there was no realistic way of obtaining copper. Would also research it if there was deer or ivory in the BFC. Either before or after Agriculture depending on the presence of grain. Should be noted that AH can also be teched from hunting so you can get those pasture yields as well.

Fishing - oddball since its priority depends largely on the presence of seafood. If I had some nice clams in my capitol's BFC, I would research it right after BW.

 

[Tephros]

Hunting - The resources that need camps are problematic in terms of food. Scouts can get good results from huts, but you don't play always with them ,and then not having a warrior maybe problematic. Opens archery and AH, though....

I don't know if that's always true. Deer can yield the same as cows if it's on a forested tile. Plus the forest it's on gives an extra .5. It's just they're often on unforested tundra, but you're more likely to get it on a better tile in your first city.

Of course this isn't nearly as good as agriculture mostly because you're going to have more tiles you can farm than deer camps most of the time.

 

[sydhe]

I'm quite happy to have any two of Agriculture, Mining and the Wheel. Fishing is situational. Mysticism can wait a bit, especially if you're creative. Hunting is definitely at the bottom. I usually don't even bother researching it early unless (1) I really need archers or (2) There are elephants nearby.

 

[Zeiter]

Hunting shines when you have ivory or deer. Fur too, though it isn't a great resource to have in your 1st city, as the yields are generally horsehockey compared to other resources.

If you have fur in your 1st city, then that's a baaaaad sign for a whole host of reasons...it means you got spawned in the tundra....which = baaaaaad.

 

[AfterShafter]

I like fur. It's like budget gold, and often comes in clusters. But, the lot of you are right.. It's *usually* a bad sign - though, I have had a few spectacular fur oriented cities in my time. Those tundra border empires can really rock too

 

[javidbing]

Mining => Ag => Hunting => Wheel => Fish/Mysticism (depending on location/tactics)

 

[PhroX]

1) Mining - Needed for BW, and unlocks a useful improvement
2) Agriculture - Food is power. And it leads to AH (more food) and Pottery (cottages)
3) Fish - On coastal starts it's the best by far, on inland starts it's useless. So, somewhere in the middle.
4) Wheel - Roads keep bored workers occupied, and it leads to Pottery
5) Hunting - Scouts die too easily - doesn't take that long to get a W2 warrior, which is nearly as good at scouting and a lot tougher - plus it prevents warrior spam for HR. Good if you get Deer, Beavers or Elephants in your capitals BFC, but that's not that common. Leads to AH though, which is good.
6) Mysticism - Good if you want a starting religion. Well, I say good, but on the higher difficulties, you quite often don't get one even if you start with Mysticism and go Poly first, so it's a bit of a waste really. Plenty of time to research it before you need monuments.