The two-settler start presents the best chance to get quick expansion. If you are not adverse to saving the game at 4000 b.c.
and then experimenting with the second settler, you can get some amazing results.
Also, if you think it's o.k. to re-try each
hut you encounter until you get the best
result, you can really get a jump on the AI.
Because my management of the economy has been
substandard, I have resorted to fanatical
tactics at the start of the game. Once I learn how to manage my cities properly, I can
scrap some of these tactics. They are:
1-Recycle the start of the game until you meet these minimum requirements-two settlers
on decent productive land near both a seacoast AND a hut PLUS at least three civ
advances. Sometimes the AI will give you up
to SIX advances to start with, but at the
cost of having an enemy very near-by. Less
than five advances at the start lessens the
possibility of enemies near-by. You may have
to restart the game many times to get this
setup, but it is worth it.
2-Establish your first city immediately with
whichever settler is on the best ground ( ideally on the coast ), unless only that settler can reach the hut on it's initial move. You want to get a mobile unit from that first hut like a horseman or chariot so you can go looking for huts. The first city
begins by building a settler, then a phalanx. This is insurance against falling
behind in getting your core of cities built
in time, and allows your second original settler, which costs nothing, to come back and build up your first city.
3-To increase efficiency, I save the game right after getting my first mobile unit,
and then conduct 'pattern searches' with it;
going three turns in one direction, reloading
at the save point, and going three turns in
another direction, until I've determined where the next hut is. Then I go straight for it on the next reload. I then conduct further 'pattern searches'.
The whole point of this drudgery is to reach
a goal of five cities by 3500 b.c. This gives
me flexibility to use three cities to begin
working on Great Wall, Pyramids and Great Library, while the fourth builds a trireme,
and the fifth continues the expansion by building settlers. You want to get a diplomat into that trireme and go coastal hut-hunting by no later than 3000 b.c., which
is also the latest date you can begin your three initial Wonders projects without serious competition for them from the AI civs. Note: I always play the big map.
Now I've got to go back and re-read every page of the manual so that I can get an economic jump as well....
Originally posted by MrSparkle:
I was wondering if, when you start with 2 settlers, that you build a city with one and use the other to increase the population straight away.
When you start next to a whale ans some silk, the extra pop might be worth it.
