Starting Solo

[daveloff]

What are some good strategies when starting solo on a continents map?

I just finished a game where I was the US and I guess I over built because my economy just died when I moved into the Industrial Era.

 

[doctorfork]

I always look for techs that reveal resources first. By the time I'm ready to place city #3 or #4, I like already have Animal Husbandry, Iron Working and a good sized chunk of land explored. From there, you should have an idea of where you want to build some cities and then determine your tech tree path from there.

 

[Strategist83]

One of the main effects of being isolated and having no contact to other civilizations is you won't be able to engage in research agreements. This in turn means gold is much less interesting than normally - research agreements normally eat a lot of your treasury. So, there is incitement to focus on food and production while skipping commerce - you want farms and mines, not trading posts. Another main effect is you can forsake developing a strong military. A third effect is there is no rush to grab the best lands, so you can develop as you see fit.

Consequently, a strong play in this situation is to emphasize science buildings. The production you would normally have to insert into military production you will now insert into science. Aim to get the National College up very early, then follow up with Universities. This helps offset the fact you have to conduct all research yourself.

As always with Civ, it is situationally dependent. If you have a lot of excess luxury resources, you'll want your third goal to be breaking your isolation as soon as possible so you can start trading. The greater your empire's potential for trade, the more important meeting other civilizations becomes. That means teching towards Caravels early, which handily are on the same branch as your Universities (Education).

 

[ColinTH]

As always with Civ, it is situationally dependent. If you have a lot of excess luxury resources, you'll want your third goal to be breaking your isolation as soon as possible so you can start trading. The greater your empire's potential for trade, the more important meeting other civilizations becomes. That means teching towards Caravels early, which handily are on the same branch as your Universities (Education).

Yeah - excess luxuries and no civs to trade with (what a waste), as stated in the above post, you need caravels ASAP. Start trading for luxuries or gold (only you will know which you need most) and RAs, the harder the level you play at, the more imperative you explore!

 

[LostInTime]

Focus on growth, infrastructure and key wonders. Going for the Great Library and getting Civil Service from it is a good move when isolated. (depending on your difficulty level this may be viable or not, I think you can get away with it on Emperor at least)

Skipping bottom tech path is also a good move. You will need workshops up somewhat soon (I do it after getting Education, I want those Great Scientists asap), so don't postpone metal working for too long though. (Ironworks is also awesome if you have 4-5ish cities)

After Metal Working/Machinery for Ironworks, get Astronomy and go find the others if they haven't found you already. From there it's a normal game, and you can invade, keep teching etc. whatever your game plan is.