What do you normally build first?

[torchic21594]

As the title says, after you settle your first city, what do you normally build early in the game. I normally go Worker -> warrior(s) to size 3 -> settler -> great wall to size 5 -> settler -> gw to size 6 -> settlers, unless there is a water resource.

So is this okay, or could I be doing something better?

(I play Noble, epic speed, any leader)

 

[dankok8]

There is not a single best building order in this game. There is no BEST strategy. Building the Great Wall may be useful in some games, but it may set you back needlessly in others where barbs are not a threat and you don't have much of a use for a Great Spy (isolated?). Waiting for your city to grow to large sizes until you build settlers may bite you if your neighbors settle all the land around you. Finally, I never saw you mention any Workers after that first one, you need at least 1.5 workers per city in the BC years as a general guideline.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

As the title says, after you settle your first city, what do you normally build early in the game. I normally go Worker -> warrior(s) to size 3 -> settler -> great wall to size 5 -> settler -> gw to size 6 -> settlers, unless there is a water resource.

So is this okay, or could I be doing something better?

Worker first is normally very strong.

Size 3 for the settler is an odd choice. If your early tech path includes BronzeWorking -> Slavery, then size 4 would be more usual (allowing you to slave away two population.

If GW is part of your normal progression, you need to get out more, explore the advantages of attacking some other parts of the tech tree first. It's not a bad play, it's just not the only play available. Unless you really find a Great Spy more fun than anything....

 

[brianb1974]

I really like to steal my workers as much as possible rather than build them.

4 General categories of starts.

1) Have fishing and seafood and start with a scout (viking)
--Work your max production tiles to pump out a warrior, then continue working max production to get a boat. Then work the fish and build another boat (if needed) or another warrior while growing.

2)No immediate fishing and start with a scout
--Work max production to pump out a warrior. Then work max food to pump out another warrior while growing.

3)Have fishing and fish and start with a warrior
--Work max production to build a boat first. Then work the fish to grow while building another warrior or boat.

4)No fish and start with a warrior
--Work max food to grow while building a second warrior.

In all cases, I'll switch to worker builds at size 2 if I find I can't steal one for whatever reason. How big I grow before building my first settler depends on how many premium tiles my first city has and how awesome my second city site is (and whether I think whipping that first settler entirely or partly would be optimal).

 

[torchic21594]

Okay, thanks for your guys help. One thing that I probably should mention is that I play Warlords, not BTS, so the Great Wall gives Great Engineer points, not Spy, so to me it appeals to me more. I will try to grow more or chop my settlers, since this seems to be the way to go. Your advice has helped me so far in the game

 

[JammerUno]

My rule of thumb is worker/workboats then warriors until I'm working all the bonustiles within my capitals BFC, then settles/axes/workers as required.

 

[Bleys]

Inland starts are always Worker-Warriors to size 4, Settler.

If coastal with Fishing and Seafood, Workboat, Worker, Workboat, Warrior, Settler at 4.

If coastal without Fishing, but at least 2 Seafood, Warrior, Workboat, Worker, Workboat, Warrior, Settler at 4.

 

[Bostock]

Worker first is normally very strong.

Size 3 for the settler is an odd choice. If your early tech path includes BronzeWorking -> Slavery, then size 4 would be more usual (allowing you to slave away two population.

Shouldn't one's first whip generally be a granary? (Not a rhetorical question.)

(Between the lines: isn't it a bit early to be preparing a granary whip?)

 

[ParadigmShifter]

In the capital I rarely whip a granary until I have a library, otherwise it grows too fast to prevent cumulative whip weariness. I do whip settlers workers and the library before then though.

 

[Loki Strikes]

Bostock ideally yes a granary is first however I (and I am sure others) do a few suboptimal early whips on settlers if a spot is in danger or a 1 pop whip for a monument in a new city. Early game I often whip monument for 1 pop, then build granary and whip that when I can.

@Paradigm When I grow too fast for whip weariness I build a worker or a settler after growing to one away from pop regrowth.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Shouldn't one's first whip generally be a granary?

My guess (and give it no more weight than that) is that if you are holding off on whipping until your granary arrives, you are also starting much more slowly than you might otherwise.

1) Pottery + Bronze Working + Food + Wheel + Mining. Wheel doesn't get you much until you start hitting happy caps, and the cottages usually wait until you've got your workers and Settlers trained. In other words, these are techs that could wait.

2) While whipping with a Granary is more efficient than without, that isn't the problem the game presents to you. Instead, your choice is between whipping and not whipping. In other words, if there is a profit available, you should take it, without worrying too much about how efficient that profit is.

3) Workers and Settlers use food for training, but because at low populations a settler produces more hammers than the food required to regrow it, you can get a slightly better conversion ratio using the whip than you do playing it straight. An of course, the whip gives you the hammers NOW, which is important if you are in a hurry.


Grow to size 2 to whip half the cost of a worker is a fairly common gambit. Under perfect circumstances, you get about 15 hammers of pure profit (usually in the form of a warrior or a scout at the start of turn 10, but it could just as easily be hammers invested in a barracks or Stone Henge).

 

[30+]

Worker, warrior, settler at size 2 in order to beat the AI's 2nd settler out, then SH warriors while growing to size 4 (happy cap), settlers/warriors/workers as needed until I hit my 1000-800 BC target city number of 5 (if I have the room).

 

[UncleJJ]

Whipping without a granary in the early game is still a good strategy - if you have plenty of food. At size 5, 1 food is still worth 1 hammer without the granary, so a clam and a corn are better than plains hills in hammer terms - if you can deal with the unhappiness. The 30 food required to grow from size 5 to size 6 is not hard to find if you have lots of food, an irrigated corn can give 6 food and a clam with lighthouse another 5 so that's +9 food per turn from just 2 tiles. Adding granary (once it is full) means that only 15 food is required to grow to size 6 and that doubles the food-to-hammer efficiency of whipping and you get 2 hammers for 1 food.

Note that building settlers and workers with excess food is equally inefficient to whipping without a granary and turns 1 food to 1 hammer at all sizes, although Expansive and Imperialistic get advantages from whipping.

 

[BarrageQueen]

I almost always build a worker first. The only exceptional exception is when there's few forests AND relatively few improvable land in the capital's bfc (i.e. mostly seafood).

As for the granary in the capital, sometimes it can be quite beneficial not to have one for awhile when the happy cap is low. That way, good tiles can be worked without the population going past the cap.

 

[mirthadir]

Mostly I go worker first.

A few exceptions:
Partial build SH/Rax or a warrior if I don't have good techs for the start (i.e. hunting and myst with nothing for the settler to do till I get BW).

Imp with access to a high start (most often settling on a plains hill while working a wooded plains hill) : settler.

Sea food only: WBS asap.

Inca : quecha in case of close easy expansion.

After the first worker it varies; I will grow to 2 or 3 and then start chopping out a settler. Other times (rushing with Joa to fill a void and block off lots of land): worker -> worker -> worker -> settler (all chops).

Generally nothing gives you the return on improving your best tile by 50%.

 

[PhroX]

Worker, unless:

a - I have seafood and fishing, in which case I will build a workboat

or

b - I only have resources/forests that are two techs away, in which case I will build a warrior (for example, I start with Mysticism and The Wheel, and I have Pigs, Cows forest and seafood in my BFC). This includes going for an early religion (eg, If I started with Mystcism and the Wheel, but had Corn in my BFC. If I wanted to go for the religion, this would put me two techs from farms)

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Worker first, mostly. I play single player, normal speed, standard size random map, random leader, random AI leaders.

 

[Bostock]

Amphibious elephants first.

 

[Twyst]

Amphibious elephants first.

And I thought I was the only one! Let's keep that on the down low.

 

[Daedal]

We need an amphibious elephant smiley.