Starting techs.

[daddy]

Howdy folks, first time poster.
Been reading quite a lot tho =p

I have a simple question that may prove to not be so simple.
I was wondering about starting techs...
I apologize in advance if there is a detailed thread already about this, but I did some searching and was unable to uncover anything.

My strategy, though it works somewhat well, may not be the best.

I like to rush for Republic, so that my cities will grow quick.
I usually will get around 4 to 5 warriors out, looking for goodie huts, and I can usually get most of my techs that way.
Along the way to Republic it is easy to get The Great Library, so that usually helps me get caught up.

Also, when I get Republic, the benefits of irrigation and the roads I have built usually help me amass a large sum of gold, so I can splurge and get myself the techs I was missing.

Is this the right way to go? I am still working on my starting strats, as at times I am losing and at others winning.

Thanks in advance.

 

[LaRo]

I do like you do. I go for republic asap.
But I am a pacific so I don't do early conquest. I usually go for culture, spaceship ou diplomatic.
But I think if you want an early conquest, you should go for iron work asap and try to control all the iron ressources on the maps.

 

[BillChin]

If you want to increase your win percentage build the first cities much closer to the capital (one to three squares away depending on terrain). This works on every difficulty level and every type of terrain. The worse the terrain, and the closer the enemy the better the dense build strategy works. If you desire a clean area for the capital, trim these close in suburbs to pop 1 or 3 by the end of the first age and you can have your cake and eat it too. I use the dense build on Emperor difficulty with great success.

If you have a close enemy, Horse Riding and Iron Working are the techs to use to smash them. If not then rush for Literature and the Great Library. So people play without any research at all and just concentrate on buying them with gold (only for Monarch and above).