Some newb questions

[Rosicrucian]

I am having problems figuring out the best way to start. I play warlord. HEre is what I normally do.

1 build city
2 build stuff until it can build settler (where stuff is warrior, spearman, or barracks)
3 build settler
4 goto step 1 with the settler, go to step 2 with the city that built it

And I try to expand ASAP and conduct war later. Is this a good idea or should I be favoring war over expansion.

Also, which techs should I rush to get. Usually I try to rush directly to monarchy, is this a good idea? Most of my middle game is spent in monarchy.

Basically I just need some advice for starts. I usually have the end game figured out but my starts, I think I am doing something wrong here.

 

[Higher Game]

More info please. If you are religious you should be in republic during peace and switch to monarchy during war. Otherwise you should choose your government based on how much war you do.

Rush to get the republic, but bronze working for spearmen is an important tech too. Pottery is needed for graneries, and you need one in your settler making city. You need to make settlers until you cannot expand, then try to make culture buildings to get some culture. Then think about war. I prefer to build up a lot of horsemen and upgrade them all to samurai for a massive middle aged war, as early wars are too much of a gamble. If you are industrious, consider early war because you will have a huge production advantage early in the game. I prefer the Chinese because they get archers from the start as well as cheap barracks. If I want to be a little more peaceful, I play as the Japanese.

 

[Hawkster]

You're basic start is fine I follow a simliar line but once the 2nd and 3rd cities are able to produce settlers in a reasonable time I will set the capital building a wonder or something else.

Techs - it depends on which civ you play as , I usually play Babylonians so get bronze working to start - I usually try and get the following as soon as I can

Iron working- swordsmen
Monarchy- better gov then go republic or wait for democracy
Literature (build great library or trade it to Ai who pay dearly for it)
Map Making - if on an island and nead to get settled elsewhere

If I can the capital will either build pyramids/great library early on.

Don't forget to build a warrior and go explore as much as you can - goody huts can give you a real boost.

War I avoid if I can - I can usually get what I want via trade - I just maintain a strong millitary to keep from being overrun.

 

[Rosicrucian]

Thanks for the tips I will try. Actually I do usually put the cap city on a wodner like the Pyr.

That reminds me, I was 10 turns away from completion of Hanging Gardens in my cap city and the !@#@ Aztecs built them. I had no other wonder I could build and I couldnt build a palace or forbidden palace because it was the cap city so I lost all that production any tips in that situation!!?!?

 

[Rosicrucian]

So let me get this straight, the best strategy is to rush to Republic skipping monarchy altogether? What happens if you are involved in early wars?

 

[mydisease]

It is far cheaper on Warlord to buy tech than research it. Price of tech from other civs is proportional to the cost of researching the tech, which is related to the number of civs that you know that have the tech. Therefore you should emphasise exploration as second in importance to expansion, so that tech is cheaper. In between settlers build warriors(scouts if you are expansionist) to find other civs and explore. Trade your starting techs as soon as you meet other civs to maximise what you get in return. There are two possible ways to go with tech on Warlord:

1. Put your science rate up to 100% and research cheap techs. This way you find more expensive techs in goody huts and you get the early tech lead, which is easy to maintain on Warlord.

2. Put your science rate down so that you are only spending 1 gold on science and you are discovering techs at the minimum rate of 40 turns. Research expensive techs or techs which give large rewards. I usually go for:

Writing - Lets you sell comms
Map Making - Lets you sell maps
Monarchy - Expensive and not required to advance era so the AI normally ignores it.

The AI civs usually go through a set pattern of techs with military techs taking higher priority followed by cheaper non military techs. By researching expensive non military techs you beat the AI to them even at the minimum tech rate. Then you can trade comms, maps and the techs themselves for the techs that the AI has been researching.

The advantage of the first method is that you get an increasing tech lead and wars are quick and easy because your units are several steps ahead of the AI's.

The advantage of the second method is that you can spend more time in the ancient era so your military becomes obsolete less quickly. Also you can end up with around 3000 gold by the start of the middle ages which can be used to upgrade your masses of obsolete units.