What do you build first?

[Capone's Vault]

I'm curious to know the first thing people build. Also, if you'd care to comment on your favorite beginning game strategy, that would be great.

 

[Kylome]

Beginning game strategy-

Research animal husbandry.

Find horse.

Research horseback riding.

Hit 'next turn' until you win.

 

[Asylumer]

I voted Monument but then I remembered that you're probably talking about a vanilla game and with goody huts (which I never turn on because I figure they're too unbalancing).

Probably scout then.

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

I almost always build a Scout > Worker.

From there, it depends on my situation/what my strategy it is. It may be a Settler (in addition to adopting Liberty) or going straight for Stonehenge if I want the culture.

 

[kuukkeli]

With ruins on I always start with scout. Otherwise it depends on many things but usually it's either worker or warrior.

 

[Justicex]

I start with a warrior to wipe ot barbs then a scout for fog removal and goodie huts.

 

[eoc]

I now close ruins.

1)Monument-(when population 2)-settler-warrior-(go on with)monument
2)buy a worker(if you have 320G)-build a second city(start the building order 1) - start a worker-start a setter
3)always buy worker/worrior, building no archers
4)Tech: animal husbandry, mineing, pottery-Tech can build the stoneheng(I forgot), then go directly to horseman.
5) fighting around nearest to you. Ignore any stupid AI diplomacy. Just exploit as much as his cash by selling Lux, incomes per turn, open borders and cities.
6) policy mainly focus on : Liberty + Piety + order

build cities and annex as many as possibly when unhappy under -10.
Lower population except my Capital or another couple of wonderful cities. build or buy monument+liberary+colossem in each city. manage 2 scientists in each city.
Wonders, only one is the most valuable ---- the forbidden city. Or build MachuPichu

ps: settle down the cities directly on the resources will much helpful, since the tile output is so little, I don't need to waste turns to work on it.

 

[Ankh]

I almost always build a Scout > Worker.

From there, it depends on my situation/what my strategy it is. It may be a Settler (in addition to adopting Liberty) or going straight for Stonehenge if I want the culture.

On default settings this is actually a pretty solid start. I use it a lot myself.

 

[kaltorak]

scout-worker-monument-SH

 

[LDiCesare]

Settler can't be built until your city is size 2, so how cna you start with that?

 

[Lord Alderaan]

I often play with Barbs off (I know, lame!).

Worker -> Monument -> (if city is 3) Settler.

Use the initial Warrior to explore and find Horses.
Use the initial Worker for a farm and mine or something.
Then when the settler is done move Worker + Settler to the horse.

Get 2 or 4 Horsemen as quick as possible to (supported by other units) fight off nearby aggressive AIs or take the offensive if surrounded by more passive AIs.

Save the first 500 gold for a Culture CS to get some quick policies before expanding into an as large empire as my happiness can support (for faster teching and more gold for CS). Build a Monument and Colosseum in every city then focus each city on either tech, gold or production (units and happiness) depending on the tiles within reach.

Invest mostly in maritime CSs. Until I have all the CSs I need (basically all the maritime ones and one or two cultured ones) I don't buy units unless in a pinch and only buy tiles if I would lose them otherwise.

Always keep happiness above -10. Don't build new cities unless it is above 3. Build all happiness buildings in production cities.

Raze all the wonderless cities you conquer and rebuild them yourself (often you can build them in a slightly better spot too). Conquered cities are only small (6 pop max) and new cities grow extremely quick with Maritime CSs. The only reason to keep conquered ones is the size of the city in tiles, this is offset by the effort of building a courthouse and the temp unhappiness you get while building it. It isn't until later in the game that I start to keep cities.

I don't like puppets because they often build useless buildings and I cba to control tech to force them to build useful ones. imho puppets are only great if you go for a Cultural victory (which I never do ).

Policies:
Liberty -> Collective Rule -> Republic (-> Citizenship -> Meritocracy)*
Patronage -> Aesthetics -> Philanthrophy (-> Scholasticism -> Educated Elite)*
Order -> Socialism -> Planned Economy -> Communism
(Rationalism branch)*

* non-vital: only do these if you can't do the one on the next line or have done all of the non-parenthesis policies

If you want more/quicker policies ally more Cultured city states Beeline to new eras (there have been games where I had Biology before Bronze Working) to unlock new policy branches.

Usually the only wonders I consider building are Stonehenge (the massive early culture is great to get the vital Liberty and Patronage policies) and The Forbidden Palace.

Tech: Always go Animal Husbandry first. Then it depends on the circumstances (mining/trapping/stonehenge). But try to time the completion of Horseback Riding with the completion of the Horse resource improvement near your second city.

Greece, Siam, China and Russia are great civs for this playstyle.
Rome, Japan, Iroquios and France are also good.
Others not so much (since I often play without barbs and on large landmasses).

In a big empire golden ages are superb, however big empires eat all your happiness so you don't get many natural golden ages, so instead use your great people (except for two GGs) for those. Even a 5 turn golden age means hundreds of coins and hammers. With many city states Educated Elite can really help here.


This playstyle can work towards domination, science, diplo and even score victories. I usually disable diplo and score victory because the former is unbalanced, and the latter is unsatisfying. Because of the GDR (if beelined) a Domination victory often happens before you could finish a space ship. Especially on king difficulty

 

[Mystere]

Am I the only one who does not have a set strategy to begin with every time and does not rush to horsemen? Sure it is efficient and you can win like that but where is the fun peeps. Are you truly playing this game with the mindset of exploiting the best possible start every time or are you playing to have fun? I admit maybe that is fun for you and who am I to judge that but still I wonder...

Killing an opponent early with horsemen is really boring after the first few times. Popping GS for any beeline towards the set few best choices too. I really like to vary stuff and make the game different every time I play. Sometimes I go for archers fast or maybe the next time I use a few scouts, build more cities or use the first few turns to build a worker. Starting near gold then mining will be good, planning to use a navy much then go for sailing and Great Lighthouse. I like piramids as Egypt or even hanging gardens as Babylon. They just feel right. I like to play with flavor in mind. Be creative and play around. That is what a game is right, not putting yourself in the same mindset all the time. It is like playing monopoly with the same dice rolls every game.

Just my two cents, sorry if this came over as a rant.

 

[Lord Alderaan]

I'm playing to have fun

They should really fix the combat AI and give Horsemen (maybe even all mounted units) -50% against cities.

Then Horsemen are no longer omgwtfpwn attack units and are back into their supposed role.

They should be good at offensive defense (defeat incoming armies) and flanking offense (to take out their ranged and harassing their regulars before attacking with your regulars). And to deal with barbs and barb camps (if enabled) popping up everywhere around your empire.

Then they are actually even better suited for my playstyle (which focuses more on expanding through settlers then through conquest, it's just that other empires often get in the way ).



And as I said I use GS for golden ages Not because that is a good strat but because I think that is more fun then slingshotting techs


You are absolutely right about flavor. But for me that works much slower, the first few games I'm exploring a bit, then I slowly develop a certain playstyle (this one) and play around with it for long time. I'm sure in a few months I'll be playing a different playstyle but right now

I'm having fun seeing how my current playstyle works with different civs, map types, map sizes or even minor changes between games like trying less then the recommended civs and CSs.

 

[The Great Apple]

I build a scout first to scout around, find huts, find city states/other civs and find my second city location.

 

[eoc]

Spoiler :

Am I the only one who does not have a set strategy to begin with every time and does not rush to horsemen? Sure it is efficient and you can win like that but where is the fun peeps. Are you truly playing this game with the mindset of exploiting the best possible start every time or are you playing to have fun? I admit maybe that is fun for you and who am I to judge that but still I wonder...

Killing an opponent early with horsemen is really boring after the first few times. Popping GS for any beeline towards the set few best choices too. I really like to vary stuff and make the game different every time I play. Sometimes I go for archers fast or maybe the next time I use a few scouts, build more cities or use the first few turns to build a worker. Starting near gold then mining will be good, planning to use a navy much then go for sailing and Great Lighthouse. I like piramids as Egypt or even hanging gardens as Babylon. They just feel right. I like to play with flavor in mind. Be creative and play around. That is what a game is right, not putting yourself in the same mindset all the time. It is like playing monopoly with the same dice rolls every game.

Just my two cents, sorry if this came over as a rant.

Nope. I rush with horses only at diety level, even though, I can't guarantee each game victory. Of course it is no fun to rush with horses at other levels, besides, Civ5 has no fun except for fighting. I can't bearing keep clicking Next Turn.

 

[Samuil]

Beginning game strategy-

Research animal husbandry.

Find horse.

Research horseback riding.

Hit 'next turn' until you win.

Does not sound like you play for fun, sounds like you play to win (using some exploits I might add

On Topic:
1-Scout
2-Worker
3-Settler
4-warrior/archer/worker - it depends on the circumstances

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Why would anyone build scouts? Warriors also have 2 move and don't get smashed by barbarians.

 

[Samuil]

Why would anyone build scouts? Warriors also have 2 move and don't get smashed by barbarians.

Well, movement penalty for one...
Scouts do not stop when passing through forests or hills, or rivers as I recall... Much faster exploration

 

[Lord Alderaan]

Scouts are great for ruins. Because if they get the weapons upgrade... Archers that can move upon a hill and then still shoot muhahahaha!

Still I usually don't build scouts either because they suck at combat and early on (on higher difficulties) you need all combat units more then a explorative movement bonus.


@Samuil post #16: Following your logic simply playing aggressively is using exploits cos the AI sucks at combat

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Beginning game strategy-

Research animal husbandry.

Find horse.

Research horseback riding.

Hit 'next turn' until you win.

Well, if that's boring to you, you could--oh, I don't know--do something else instead. Yeah, crazy idea idea, I know.

I build a scout because I like finding huts. In certain situations I'll build something else, but scout's kind of the default for me.