What are priorities in one city early game?

[planetfall]

New situation and looking to find a good game plan for a one city play in early game. Normally I get 2+ cities and everything just rolls along smoothly,
however ran across a new map and need help rethinking.

Currently playing earth, my city is in Sudan and Aussies are in roughly South Africa. Few production files and lots of rainforest, so start is slow.
Playing at immortal level thinking it would be easier. Aussies have 2 cities and by turn 30 they have 3 warriors and 1 slinger by my capital. I have 3 warriors
as have been just working on military (except for 1 builder, which may be a mistake). I would like to have at least a few archers and then it's easy
but don't know if I have time to get any out. I don't think just pumping warriors will work. I did place all 3 warriors in city boundaries and few defensive bonues.

My current plan is:
-- build warrior
-- if not dead, build archer
-- hunker down, more military
-- first break, get out settler fast. I'll probably have to buy one.

Africa is always a hard start for me as resources seem limited in early game.

So, what am I missing?

 

[planetfall]

One of most annoying gameplay issues with civ6 is when a new warrior is created and 2 are in the capital, selecting one of them, but instead of moving one tile towards enemy, the wrong one is selected and it gives you a long go around route and since it has moved off capital, can't move the other unit or will lose city.

Just fussing...

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Regardless of what you meet, you should open up with a military unit.
A lot of people like scout openings, but personally I am not a fan because the AI might be hostile if he's a neighbour.
In that case having higher army value from a warrior can postpone their attack, and if you decide to go to early war (which I do a lot), having an extra warrior/slinger is worth it.

My usual opener is military unit into fast settler, just because the fast settler hits at a time where if the AI decides to attack you while building it, you would be sort of boned anyway (on deity at least) in that you either lose or you are put far behind for the rest of the game since you need to defend.
So might as well get that settler out fast.

After that I like to have one military unit in between my neighbour and my closest city to them, to see if they are sending military units.
2 or more military units is a dead give away that they are gonna attack, but usually the AI will try to gather up his forces outside your city before declaring a surprise war, hence having a "scouting warrior" towards them can buy you a lot of extra time.
If you see those units marching, immediately switch out for a warrior unless you are like 2 turns away from finishing your settler, in that case then obviously finish that if you think you can afford it.

Apart from that, beating the AI is not particularly hard if you know your tactical game well.
Make sure they can't siege the city with key tiles, fortify on ideally woody hills or across a river, and always have a warrior in the city to get the combat strength above 20.
If you do that and the AI can't attack with too many warriors into your city on one turn, you will eventually outheal the damage and they will lose their army, at which point you can decide to counterattack if you didnt lose units and he isnt close to getting higher tech units/walls.
The problem arises mostly when he is allowed to siege your city and attack with 3 units or more per turn, in that case you will lose your city (and the game) pretty fast.
So don't let that happen, you want him to take bad trades against you while you outheal him.


Edit: Builders are generally not worth it unless you need to chop out something critically fast or you know that you will be safe for a while.
In your case you have a neighbour close by that looks aggressive, hence you dont wanna get anything other than a settler and military units for the time being.
But dont overdo the military units, you are also further behind the AI if you over-produce warriors.
You generally want to produce "just enough" to defend, or "just enough" to win a counter attack against his cities.

 

[planetfall]

What is a "fast settler"? A rushed settler?

Thanks for ideas, I'll try delaying builder and see what that feels like. I managed to salvage this game by rushing an archer. I don't even dream of offensive, it's not worth it. I've found if I can survive the early attacks and get up 3 to 5 cities, then it's an easy game. Just was caught off guard this time and forgot that sometimes you need to rush. Policy changes come so late, i.e., conscription, if I try more cities too soon killed by lack of funds.

In terms of military, I was being attacked by 3 units/turn. With the one archer I could keep that down to 2 attacking, and when got second archer, I no longer worry and focus on building empire rather than saving city. Really appreciate the advice.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

What is a "fast settler"? A rushed settler?

Thanks for ideas, I'll try delaying builder and see what that feels like. I managed to salvage this game by rushing an archer. I don't even dream of offensive, it's not worth it. I've found if I can survive the early attacks and get up 3 to 5 cities, then it's an easy game. Just was caught off guard this time and forgot that sometimes you need to rush. Policy changes come so late, i.e., conscription, if I try more cities too soon killed by lack of funds.

In terms of military, I was being attacked by 3 units/turn. With the one archer I could keep that down to 2 attacking, and when got second archer, I no longer worry and focus on building empire rather than saving city. Really appreciate the advice.

Yes, most people seem to build 2 "items" before they go for the settler, sometimes even 3 (any combination of units, monument or builder).
I advocate getting the settler out right as your first unit finishes and you hit population 2 (it lines up perfectly if you work a 2f2p tile with your first population), because you are setting your snowball up faster to produce more stuff in the long term, and the early game is all about producing.
With that I mean cities, setting up infrastructure, so that you can hit a high number of cities by the mid game to catapult you to victory.
A lot of people below deity go for way too few cities, and what really sets a player apart is how he can hit the key timings to explode in terms of having a huge number of networked cities by the middle game, that have all the production they need to pursue your wincon.

 

[planetfall]

I was in the build 2 items first group, unless closest civs were peaceful. I'm going to have to try games with settler at build 2. Maybe the builders need to come out later and the production and food boosts aren't as important as growing civ span. As you know this play style was called ICS, infinite city sprawl, and the game designers try to make this difficult. Mostly I think because it is too much work to create an effect AI counter strategy.

 

[planetfall]

Just for fun trying same game from save after plant 1st city. There were no 2f2p tiles within 3 moves of start position so city is on 2f1p grass by river.

First game key points:
turn 30 aussie attack
turn 57 city 2

Test game:
gold/turn til turn 19, is 8
after turn 19, gold is 9. No good hut builder and need 320 gold to buy settler, so it's just building a settler via production.

Turn 25 build settler
turn 28 plant settler
turn 42 aussie attack city number 2.

So very strange, the AI traveled further to city 2 (Niger area) instead of closer capital in Sudan.
Going to play it out to about turn 100 to see if any other changes.

 

[planetfall]

Other changes. Aussie sued for peace turn 80. Aussie out turn 92, in first game it was turn 93.

Cities at that point: game one=7, game two=4, but had full iron resource, x2, versus 1 in game one.

Conclusion: getting settler out asap is a good plan for play as it gives more options.