What should be our first unit?

[classical_hero]

We will need something that will be done quickly, so that happiness is dealt with, that is of course we can get connected to a lux quite early.

I would say that we should build a warrior as our first unit.

 

[ybbor]

I'm really tempted to say curragh, I think it should be our 2nd unit if we're a coastal city

 

[fe3333au]

As our greatest need is to explore, find/hatch goody huts and spy the land ... I agree with the both of you

 

[Spud Boy]

I say warrior.

 

[azzaman333]

Warrior, then curragh.

 

[Fallensmith]

Warrior --> Curragh ---> Settler? With all the Floodplainyness and Cows we're going to get amazing growth.

 

[GenMarshall]

Warriors should be used for exploration and garrison units (Pre-spearmen)

 

[Meleager]

warrior -> explore

Use lux slider if need be to keep people happy. What is inportant is to get those goddies FAST.

 

[classical_hero]

Warriors should be used for exploration and garrison units (Pre-spearmen)

What are spearmen? we wont be building them.

We might not need to go with a warrior first, because we have instant acces to a luxury. The first thing we must do is get connected to the luxury. The capital is a very settler factory. We have access to both cows and wheat. This is a gold mine that we are sitting on, both figuratively and literally. I still cannot believe we have this starting position.

 

[Kentharu]

warrior for exploring then settler to get the the explored place right?

 

[Fallensmith]

With all this food I'd say Warrior --> Settler --> Curragh --> Settler (?)

 

[fe3333au]

I'm thinkin like you're thinkin Fallensmith

 

[classical_hero]

That is what I was thinking too.

 

[GenMarshall]

What are spearmen? we wont be building them.

Its better to be safe than sorry. The image of CFC's Iron city being razed by the GCA is still imprinted in my memory. I do not wish to see the same faite to happen to one of our cities.

 

[ybbor]

Its better to be safe than sorry. The image of CFC's Iron city being razed by the GCA is still imprinted in my memory. I do not wish to see the same faite to happen to one of our cities.

do you know what civ we're playing as? or our UU?

 

[fe3333au]

I would think that our Hoplites should not be churned out until a barracks has been built ...

 

[peter grimes]

In my games I never build defensive units until I have a barracks, and I never build a barracks until I have 3 or 4 cities, depending on barbarian activity (random always). This may not be the best overall technique, but I don't think we have to worry about ingame threats for quite a while.

Even if there are a couple barabrians, they worst they'll do is take some gold. Unless they chase down a settler. I hate it when that happens.

 

[Chamnix]

I did an analysis of a few sample starts on a spreadsheet (I’ll try to figure out how to post it later if anyone wants to look at it) – I compared:

1. Warrior, settler, curragh, settler
2. Warrior, curragh, settler, settler
3. Warrior, warrior, settler, settler
4. Warrior, curragh, worker, settler

I thought #4 might be good because there are a lot of tiles we want to improve, but it turned out that was not very impressive.

In comparing #1 and #2: in #1 we get the first settler 3 turns earlier, but in #2 we get the second settler 3 turns earlier and we have more food in the bin so each additional settler will be 3 (or more!) turns earlier. #3 gives us the second settler 1 turn earlier than #1, but delays the second settler too much.

The main problem with #1 and #3 is that the first settler knocks us back down to pop 1. When we are at pop 2, we can work both the cow and the wheat and grow quickly. If we let ourselves go down to pop 1, then it takes an extra turn or 2 to get back to pop 2.

My conclusion from this is that we should build warrior, curragh, settler, settler, then probably worker, worker. Our initial worker should irrigate and road the cow (after roading the ivory), then irrigate and road the wheat before moving to BGs.

 

[fe3333au]

Damn thanks for joining the team Chamnix ... brilliant and succinct report ... this will help a lot

Your analysis make sense ...

EDIT - could you possibly e-mail the excel doc to me ... (I'd love to look over what you've done ... Excel is a fantastic tool and I've created numerous multi-linked variable spreadsheets which calculated - audience box office income projections to bizzare stuff like the price of sand required vs time vs number of cones needed to create a projection curtain ... experimental opera )

 

[Chamnix]

You give me too much credit – my spreadsheet is no more sophisticated than pencil and paper, but I will be happy to email it to you (not least so you can correct any mistakes before I get blamed for suggesting a terrible path!).

Incidentally, I think I found a couple improvements. Here are the new results summarized for the first 3 approaches (subject to future revisions if I keep looking at it):

Approach 1:

Turn 4 – warrior
Turn 12 – settler
Turn 17 – curragh
Turn 24 – settler (end at pop 2, 14 food in the bin)

Approach 2:

Turn 4 – warrior
Turn 8 – curragh
Turn 15 – settler
Turn 22 – settler (pop 2, 7 food in the bin)

Approach 3:

Turn 4 – warrior
Turn 7 – warrior
Turn 14 – settler
Turn 21 – settler (pop 2, 0 food in the bin)

It is really not obvious which is the best, but I would lean toward approach 2 or 3 – I still think building a settler second is not ideal.