What to build first?

[alexandergreat]

In your first city what do you like to aquire first.

Barracks, worker, miltary unit, explorer, etc.

 

[DigitalBoy]

I usually go warrior, warrior, settler, worker, warrior, warrior, settler in my first city. I work the tiles so that the city is size three by the time the second warrior is complete and size four after the fourth warrior is complete.

 

[lilnev]

Worker-warrior-settler, unless there's a specific reason to do otherwise. Get your best tiles developed.

 

[oyzar]

thats an awfull lot of warriors. I either go Warrior worker whip 1 pop warrior setler or something like fishboat setler worker warrior. Or just plain start with a worker warrior then setler.

 

[Evanesce]

With many improvable tiles: Worker-Warrior-Settler

With few improvable tiles: Warrior-Worker-Settler

With sea resources: Work Boat-Warrior-Worker-Settler or Work Boat-Worker-Warrior-Settler

All these are subject to change, but that's the basic idea. Sometimes I hold off on the settler a bit longer and allow for a bit more capital growth; it depends.

 

[LostCrumb]

With many improvable tiles: Worker-Warrior-Settler

With few improvable tiles: Warrior-Worker-Settler

With sea resources: Work Boat-Warrior-Worker-Settler or Work Boat-Worker-Warrior-Settler

Could you explain a bit more about the Work Boat first start? I have always the feeling, I'm starting slower with it. I understand, your capital has time to grow while building the work boat, which should be a good thing. But when it finished the work boat, the city might be size 2 or 3, so it works 1 or 2 unimproved tiles. How do you take advantage of a "work boat first" start?

LC

 

[LucyDuke]

Could you explain a bit more about the Work Boat first start? I have always the feeling, I'm starting slower with it. I understand, your capital has time to grow while building the work boat, which should be a good thing. But when it finished the work boat, the city might be size 2 or 3, so it works 1 or 2 unimproved tiles. How do you take advantage of a "work boat first" start?

LC

First build is either a worker or a work boat. If you start with a work boat, yes, your capital grows while you build the work boat. So it's true that you're working some unimproved tiles, but if the worker is your second build, that seafood tile is going to be a tremendous help to get that worker built. If you built a worker first, you're going to be working an unimproved tile through the build anyway. I like to get the seafood hooked up ASAP to speed up the worker.

I build worker, worker, warrior, settler, unless I have nothing for the worker to do. If there's nothing for the worker to do, I'll build a warrior while I'm waiting on some tech. If there's a seafood resource, a workboat comes first. There's an article in the war academy about starting with workers and chopping settlers, it's a good one and I'd recommend it, especially for a newcomer.

 

[Captain Pugwash]

Scout if available, otherwise warrior. In either case I send that unit out to find any goody huts and take a look at the terrain nearby where I can build the next cities. He can explore while I build worker and settler.

 

[Leifmk]

First build is either a worker or a work boat.

Building a worker first only makes sense if you can put the worker to do useful things right away and keep him usefully employed, which depends on what technologies and resources you have access to at the start. The hammers (and food) spent is a major investment which needs to be justified. I usually steal my first worker or two from neighbouring civs instead, this can often be done sooner than I could have built one on my own.

 

[cabert]

My "usual" building orders look like:
- warrior, worker (whip?), warrior (or anything I can build while growing), settler

or if sea food (and fishing is known)
- work boat (whip?), worker (yes I build the worker at size 1 then, but size 1 working seafood + overflow hammers!), warrior, settler(whip?)

 

[LostCrumb]

or if sea food (and fishing is known)
- work boat (whip?), worker (yes I build the worker at size 1 then, but size 1 working seafood + overflow hammers!), warrior, settler(whip?)

That sounds like a good idea for leaders like Augustus, who start with fishing and mining.

If there's a seafood resource, a workboat comes first. There's an article in the war academy about starting with workers and chopping settlers, it's a good one and I'd recommend it, especially for a newcomer.

Thanks, I'll search it

 

[Polycrates]

Building a worker first only makes sense if you can put the worker to do useful things right away and keep him usefully employed, which depends on what technologies and resources you have access to at the start. The hammers (and food) spent is a major investment which needs to be justified.

I would argue that the benefits of working as early as possible are so great that there is pretty much nothing that can justify not making absolutely sure that there is something for an initial worker to do. If you have an animal resource or a crop special by freshwater (and chances are that you do), working it will double that square's productivity and thus almost double your entire empire's productivity from the turn the work is completed. Subsequent work provides similarly large boosts, and even for non-specials that only add one bonus factor of production, the gain is still massively significant. And because it's not a one-time bonus, if you build a worker ten turns earlier than someone else, every square that is worked is going to be worked ten turns earlier than for your opponent, and provide that much production benefit that contributes to your future production of all the other things your initial cities need to produce. Even building roads to increase future efficiency of worker/unit movement provides a massive (but less quantifiable) benefit.
The turn advantage gained from worker first is really quite massive (can you tell I had my eyes opened by Velociryx's amazing SMAC guide?). The only time I wouldn't build worker first would be with fishing as a starting tech and a good seafood resource. Maybe warrior first if I had a starting scout and I found Shaka right next to me (with BetterAI and Aggressive AIs). Or multiplayer, of course.

So yeah, if keeping workers occupied means researching agriculture (or even AnHus as well) before heading off to mining/BW, so be it (though treechops are still a massive priority in themselves, of course).

 

[Dirk1302]

First build is either a worker or a work boat. If you start with a work boat, yes, your capital grows while you build the work boat. So it's true that you're working some unimproved tiles, but if the worker is your second build, that seafood tile is going to be a tremendous help to get that worker built. If you built a worker first, you're going to be working an unimproved tile through the build anyway. I like to get the seafood hooked up ASAP to speed up the worker.

I build worker, worker, warrior, settler, unless I have nothing for the worker to do. If there's nothing for the worker to do, I'll build a warrior while I'm waiting on some tech. If there's a seafood resource, a workboat comes first. There's an article in the war academy about starting with workers and chopping settlers, it's a good one and I'd recommend it, especially for a newcomer.

I agree, i'd like to add that the commerce from the seafood tiles is very important too. 2 Seafood tiles means you have +/- 1.4 times research (and even better when financial) compared to working landtiles without rivers so you catch up with researching mining/bronzeworking faster and then whipping worker/settler in your size 4+ capital.

 

[LucyDuke]

Building a worker first only makes sense if you can put the worker to do useful things right away and keep him usefully employed, which depends on what technologies and resources you have access to at the start. The hammers (and food) spent is a major investment which needs to be justified. I usually steal my first worker or two from neighbouring civs instead, this can often be done sooner than I could have built one on my own.

I did make that caveat in my second paragraph. If the starting techs offer absolutely nothing for the worker to do, and the first tech is going to take long enough, it does make sense to let the city accumulate a bit of growth at first, if possible, building a warrior or something.

The "build worker first" opening play also requires that you research worker tech first. If you've got cows, go for AH, lots of forest, BW, and so on. Early chop-rushing is amazingly powerful. If you can't keep your worker usefully employed, you're researching the wrong tech.

It's great if you can get your first workers for free, but I (and probably a lot of others) like to avoid wars that early.

 

[BCLG100]

recently ive been going

rax- worker-warrior-maybe another-settler

rax generally takes the time for the city to grow. but also means automatically get promoted units.

 

[Lord Parkin]

You will hardly ever go wrong with a Worker first, unless it's seriously competitive multiplayer in which case some Warriors first might be a better bet. In single player, in almost every situation it's always Worker first for me.

 

[LucyDuke]

rax generally takes the time for the city to grow. but also means automatically get promoted units.

It also means you forgo a ton of hammers, food, and commerce, depending on the types of improvements you'd be making.

Here's the article I was referring to earlier. It's kind of dense, but the basic points are clear. You'll never put off workers again.

 

[popejubal]

Mine depends entirely on what techs I start with and what land I start with.

If I start with seafood and with Fishing, the opening move is obvious. You're not going to do much better than a Work Boat.

If I start with Mining and I intend to research Bronze Working either first or second, I will often start with a warrior/scout. Since I can use that population I grew during the warrrior/scout to pop rush the worker, any delay that comes from missing hammers is made up for with the whipped population point and I get a "free" warrior or scout.

If I don't start in a position where I intend to get Bronze Working relatively soon, then I'll often start with a Worker or I'll start with a Warrior just exactly long enough to let my city grow to size 2.

I haven't started Settler first in as long as I can remember.

Stonehenge first is only good below Prince.

 

[30+]

I made 3 different custom games about 2 months ago (?) and my goal was to come up with the best initial b/o. The goal in each scenario played was to at some point grow my capital to max population (4-emperor) with a barracks and warrior and settle TWO additional cities grown to max population (3-emperor) with a barracks and warrior. In each scenario another goal was to have 3 total workers. Anyways, the bottom line was to see which b/o could found the cities fastest and meet the above requirements.

I started with Frederick and had hunting and mining as starting techs. I made one city have no available hills to be mined (they were all tree covered or had no hills at all) but did have an AH resource only nearby. The other scenario had an AGR resource nearby only. The 3rd scenario had 1 hill immediately available to mine and also had an AGR resource.

Anyways, I found the best b/o for all three to actually be the same. Even if this meant having an idle worker for several turns, I still met the above conditions best with the following b/o:

worker/warrior/settle/worker/warrior/settler/worker/barracks

So, it may seem a bit unorthodox, or even stupid to use the same exact B/O for any given starting position, no matter what the resource layout is, BUT, after rediculous amount of testing and re-testing, for me there is no doubt which works best.

I hate coastal starts as they slow down my bottom line requirements for the above. Growing city is advantageous while getting that boat, something you can't do with a worker, however, not having that initial worker slows down the rest of the progress too much. I will regenerate if I get a coastal start, lol... Unless I am specifically trying to improve my coastal starts (which I plan to eventually!)!

 

[Lord Parkin]

I made 3 different custom games about 2 months ago (?) and my goal was to come up with the best initial b/o. The goal in each scenario played was to at some point grow my capital to max population (4-emperor) with a barracks and warrior and settle TWO additional cities grown to max population (3-emperor) with a barracks and warrior. In each scenario another goal was to have 3 total workers. Anyways, the bottom line was to see which b/o could found the cities fastest and meet the above requirements.

I started with Frederick and had hunting and mining as starting techs. I made one city have no available hills to be mined (they were all tree covered or had no hills at all) but did have an AH resource only nearby. The other scenario had an AGR resource nearby only. The 3rd scenario had 1 hill immediately available to mine and also had an AGR resource.

Anyways, I found the best b/o for all three to actually be the same. Even if this meant having an idle worker for several turns, I still met the above conditions best with the following b/o:

worker/warrior/settle/worker/warrior/settler/worker/barracks

So, it may seem a bit unorthodox, or even stupid to use the same exact B/O for any given starting position, no matter what the resource layout is, BUT, after rediculous amount of testing and re-testing, for me there is no doubt which works best.

I hate coastal starts as they slow down my bottom line requirements for the above. Growing city is advantageous while getting that boat, something you can't do with a worker, however, not having that initial worker slows down the rest of the progress too much. I will regenerate if I get a coastal start, lol... Unless I am specifically trying to improve my coastal starts (which I plan to eventually!)!

One thing that you have not considered though is the opening you play in a multiplayer environment. Humans act considerably differently to AI, and will have no qualms declaring war on you in 3200 BC to take your capital with a couple of warriors.

But yes, in general that sounds like a fairly good plan for a single player game, although I find it's not good to get into a habit of always doing this or that... do what feels best for the situation, I say.