The one true way

[dalamb]

There's lots of good and interesting advice (not necessarily the same thing!) about various different strategies for winning Civ -- but the advice for starting almost always includes something like the following:

1. Get BW very quickly (sometimes first) for chopping forests and slavery/whipping, to produce valuable stuff quickly.
2. If it looks like you'll have time for it, get pottery and granaries before whipping so the cites grow back quickly.
3. Get the techs for your first city's resources early, either immediately or just after BW.
4. Very seriously consider beelining for the techs for your UU and/or UB, especially if you need the techs to make visible appropriate resources so you can settle an early city in the right place.

I don't mean to leave out all the other great advice I've read in dozens of threads (such as deciding overall strategy early), but it seems to me that the above turns up over and over again with different opinions about the order and how to adapt to specific starting positions.

So, is this so nearly universal as I think? Are there any useful but completely different starting arrangements?

And if this really is the One True Way -- is it boring? Ought there to be some other things in the game that make for more variation at the start?

 

[axident]

There's lots of good and interesting advice (not necessarily the same thing!) about various different strategies for winning Civ -- but the advice for starting almost always includes something like the following:

1. Get BW very quickly (sometimes first) for chopping forests and slavery/whipping, to produce valuable stuff quickly.
2. If it looks like you'll have time for it, get pottery and granaries before whipping so the cites grow back quickly.
3. Get the techs for your first city's resources early, either immediately or just after BW.
4. Very seriously consider beelining for the techs for your UU and/or UB, especially if you need the techs to make visible appropriate resources so you can settle an early city in the right place.

I don't mean to leave out all the other great advice I've read in dozens of threads (such as deciding overall strategy early), but it seems to me that the above turns up over and over again with different opinions about the order and how to adapt to specific starting positions.

So, is this so nearly universal as I think? Are there any useful but completely different starting arrangements?

And if this really is the One True Way -- is it boring? Ought there to be some other things in the game that make for more variation at the start?

Nah. See my Immortal Dutch Domination thread for just one of many feasible alternatives. I don't typically switch to slavery until I can double it up with something else (usually Org Religion) to save a turn of anarchy; that comes fairly deep into the game. Still, BW is very useful for eventual whipping and especially useful for early chop-a-settler/chop-a-worker/chop-a-wonder situations. I would place BW as a no. 2 or no. 3 priority tech. No. 1 priority is usually hunting->AH, or AH directly. Many UUs/UBs don't come that early, and even if they do, some just plain suck. (For instance, try beelining Dikes. You can't really do that at 4000 BC. It's a good UB but it comes so deep into the tech tree that you can't even think about beelining it early. Or how about Citadels? Good luck trying to get much use out of those before they become obsolete.) I'd rather beeline something huge, like a Mausoleum-powered Golden Age from Music.

 

[dalamb]

(For instance, try beelining Dikes. You can't really do that at 4000 BC. It's a good UB but it comes so deep into the tech tree that you can't even think about beelining it early.

That was the sort of thing I had in mind with the "very seriously consider". Thought about saying "for ancient/classical UU/UB" (since people sometimes say beeline IW if Rome).

I'll look for your thread once I finish my current batch of strategy article readings!

 

[sveint]

It's entirely possible to play on immortal and win and not go for bronze working first. Depends on map/situation. I'm not a big fan of whipping either until I need courthouses etc in low-production cities.

 

[Airefuego]

Hmmm... good question!

I think that the "one true way" that you outlined is solid advice, but is actually pretty generalized, and I don't know if I'd call it a "way". It's not a "strategy" - it's more a good set of tips for a strong start in many situations.

Even if you follow the starting tips you outlined, you can go ANYWHERE - cultural, conquest, peaceful REX, or crazy variant... CE, SE, hybrid (or the under-appreciated pillage-based economy )

Whether you choose your path before you even generate the map, or you choose your strat based on your surroundings and your leader, you still have endless possibilities.

 

[Airefuego]

Also, like others have said, I don't think these are universal tips, even though they are solid.

- For example -getting your necessary worker techs early - yep, usually a good plan - but still, there are plenty of reasons to do something else too - say you want an early religion, or you want a settler first, or your starting resources need calendar, or you want to see horses, or... etc!

- An getting BW is smart because it unlocks the chop, the axe and the slave. Or you might be alone on an small grassy island so you're gonna keep your one forest tile, and you might not slave because you have low food - or...

- Granary, yes, often good - or you might have two corns on a river, so why bother with a granary at all early on? Or you might have Monty seven squares away rushing jaguars, meaning a granary would simply become a glorified mass grave for your plump but short-lived population...

so there are other ways. Trying them is fun!

 

[xanadux]

I get BW first for the chop. There is no better early game production than chopping forests. A war academy article showed that chopping forest is worth 10 hammers per turn. If you have abundant forests in your starting location, assuming you start with mining, there is no better start than worker, chop worker, both workers chop settler.

 

[ShunNakamura]

If bronze working didn't enable forest chopping it would be anywhere near as popular of a early choice.

Personally I pick up BW just so that I can chop the forests that are in the way of other improvements.

 

[tempuraki]

the one true way (OTW) you described is more or less heuristics to follow to get to a good position to win. following the OTW usually helps you win most efficiently/easily. Like in chess, controlling the middle is a good rule of thumb, but you don't have to do that to win. In your example of the Romans, you don't have to beeline to IW, you can play peacefully and cottage spam and win culturally. but that's like handicapping yourself by not utilizing the UU.

And if this really is the One True Way -- is it boring? Ought there to be some other things in the game that make for more variation at the start?

and acutally has a lot of variations in OTW and is far from boring. For example, what if you are not playing Rome and are playing as, say, Inca? OTW would suggest that you are probably better off taking over an AI's capitol right away with the quechas. I think that's pretty different from the IW beeline.