What do you get at the start?

[Ball Lightning]

Not on higher levels it won't. On very high levels, the only way to get the tech lead against AIs that get huge bonuses is to destroy at least one of them, and take over their land. Cottages won't let you do that, but bronze working (allowing for axemen, and providing the hammers to create them through chopping and whipping) will.

I'm playing an emporer game and the cottage strategy is working for me, I got pottery first then IW then straight for Alphabet. This is usually my strategy, but i sometimes get IW first. Maybe on Immortal its better to get IW first.
Sometimes i get Polytheism, but NEVER meditation. This is because for some reason the computers always get meditation first then Polytheism, this means that getting Polytheism first has the most chance, and you can build monestaries.

 

[theimmortal1]

Poly is better because you need it for Literature.

 

[Stickler]

Playing a few warlord/noble starts, I've found out that what you get depends on your starting location and your victory goals. Pottery helped build commerce which kept me from expanding too fast and going bankrupt. I also got a head start on researching techs.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

I think pottery is very important early, but Bronzeworking has too many advantages that you can leverage immediately.

1. Revealing copper will show you where your second city is going if it is nearby.
2. Slavery civic literally multiplies your early production and helps you compete with the AI long before your cottages and other commerce can get you an equivalent tech advantage.
3. Chopping is weak before mathematics, but with production bonuses like industrial, stone, and marble you can have a good chance at some nice builds like the Oracle slingshot (at least on Monarch Marble can reliably get you there) or that Stonehenge culture boost (with stone). At Prince you can almost always have both if you get both materials to build with.
4. Put 1 and 2 together (sometimes helped by 3) and you have the classic axe rush.

This comes from just one tech, BW. Most of the time, cottages can wait a few turns.

edit- I have found that this game is flexible enough that bronzeworking doesn't absolutely have to go first in every case. It seems to depend on the size, time, number of AI, the specific start, etc. I've been playing through some of the maps besides Terra and Continents. Archipelago can sometimes give you a much better commerce start going for fishing first (not everyone starts with it), but BW is always an earlier rather than later tech...

SR,
Still playing that single player, Mali (Mansa), Monarch, Terra, standard map, standard speed, working for my second big Monarch win. But Cathy (other side of the world) and Huayna, my former buddy, are keeping up with me in the tech race (but I went Cavalry when they went Democracy so Huayna has decided give me their tech by declaring war on me.. he just doesn't know it yet). Muwahahaha! I am the hedgehog! ("Good to Great" reference... excellent book IMHO)

 

[eric_]

I'm a big fan of Pottery myself.

Although I'm also a fan of having my own religion. If I start with Mys, I'll go for Med or Poly off the bat, then Pottery. If I don't have Mys, I'll go Pottery, BW, Mono, or Pottery, Mono, BW.

I typically get Pottery by way of Agri, and I always go for Wheel and AH within my first 5 techs. Hunting>Archery is prioritized next if I have no copper or horses.

Of course, if I get a plains-heavy starting location, but there's wheat/corn or pigs/cows/sheep nearby, Agri or AH, respectively, become priority number one.

But I probably go for pottery first most often.

 

[Ball Lightning]

I get the techs for whats around me, then get pottery, then BW & IW. If i want a religion early then i get Poly then the rest.

 

[Nials]

Bronze Working for the reasons Zombie mentioned.

 

[Ball Lightning]

Bronze Working for the reasons Zombie mentioned.

You also use it to chop rush, but i prefer it becuse of axeman.

 

[Ball Lightning]

Is there a poll about what religion you get?

 

[malekithe]

Is there a poll about what religion you get?

I haven't seen one, but don't bother. Confucianism and Hiduism will be the two most popular, followed by Buddhism and then probably Christianity. It'll be a bit of a toss-up between Judaism and Taoism, but I expect Judaism to be more popular. Almost no one would pick Islam.

 

[Ball Lightning]

I haven't seen one, but don't bother. Confucianism and Hiduism will be the two most popular, followed by Buddhism and then probably Christianity. It'll be a bit of a toss-up between Judaism and Taoism, but I expect Judaism to be more popular. Almost no one would pick Islam.

I don't think this is true. I know many people which don't bother to get the early religions, all the other religions are gone, so they get Islam.

 

[malekithe]

I don't think this is true. I know many people which don't bother to get the early religions, all the other religions are gone, so they get Islam.

If you've played up until Divine Right without religion, why would you bother with founding one at that point?

 

[bob rulz]

If you've played up until Divine Right without religion, why would you bother with founding one at that point?

Exactly. That's why religion needs some sort of overhaul, or at least a change in how it spreads.

Oh, and, I almost always get bronze working first (sometimes pottery).

 

[Ball Lightning]

Exactly. That's why religion needs some sort of overhaul, or at least a change in how it spreads.

I definitly think religion needs a overhaul, but it isn't that hard to discover Islam. I prefer hindu!

 

[carl corey]

I definitly think religion needs a overhaul, but it isn't that hard to discover Islam. I prefer hindu!

It's not wether it's hard or not, it's wether it's worth it or not. Some people get it for Versailles, but most of the time I just skip it altogether, and maybe get it by trade, if I really want.

Oh, and Bronze Working is my first tech most of the time (if I have Mining, of course, but even without, Mining just gets me to BW).

 

[Ball Lightning]

I've got a idea for religions.
What if when you discover a technology you hve a small chance of getting a religion to do with that tech when you discover it first. So you might get a religion based on money if you discover currency first. The first row of techs don't give you a chance and all techs after the industrial age don't either.

 

[Ball Lightning]

There is a poll with religions. These were the statistics:
Hindu 43
Budaism 19
Judaism 28
Confucisism 43
Taoism 11
Christianity 31
Islam 7

 

[malekithe]

There is a poll with religions. These were the statistics:
Hindu 43
Budaism 19
Judaism 28
Confucisism 43
Taoism 11
Christianity 31
Islam 7

Darn, I had Buddhism in the wrong spot...

 

[Ball Lightning]

Darn, I had Buddhism in the wrong spot...

Why is Christianity so popular?

 

[Esox]

Why is Christianity so popular?

Because Theology enables Theocracy.