What to build first?

[elmurcis]

Going for scout on settler difficulty is not a bad idea. You pop settlers and workers from huts like mad on that level. I play that level from time to time to have some stupid fun. Best start was with 3 workers, 2 settlers and 2-3 techs easily.

settler level is for fun.. with barbs off you can afford to scout also with starting settler for some 2000 yrs and only than settle... other side of landmass... and still win

 

[MoarTriangle]

Especially as a beginner, worker first, always.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

I ought to try that...scout with initial settler on settler difficulty till 1 AD and then try to win the game...Probably do-able.

 

[Bellringer]

Why build a worker a Pop 2? A city stops growing when you build workers and settlers. So I just keep producing warriors until the population grows to the limit of happiness constraints, after which growing further will only produce citizens who don't work. I then build a worker and then a settler. Once workers start building improvements and roads, they need to be protected from barbarians, so the warriors then come into action and meanwhile they have explored a fair bit of the territory. Sometimes the villagers give me a free scout, otherwise I never build one.

 

[damerell]

Why build a worker a Pop 2? A city stops growing when you build workers and settlers. So I just keep producing warriors until the population grows to the limit of happiness constraints

... which will take a while, with no way of improving your starting food!

 

[a0161613]

Why build a worker a Pop 2? A city stops growing when you build workers and settlers. So I just keep producing warriors until the population grows to the limit of happiness constraints, after which growing further will only produce citizens who don't work. I then build a worker and then a settler. Once workers start building improvements and roads, they need to be protected from barbarians, so the warriors then come into action and meanwhile they have explored a fair bit of the territory. Sometimes the villagers give me a free scout, otherwise I never build one.

At the proper levels, noble upwards, this is a terrible idea.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

Not mentionned here but very often (50% of the games or more), it is preferable to build a 2nd worker before the first settler.

Common cases include:
- Rich land to improve in capital (especially in case of early Pottery + floodplains combo);
- Knowledge of Bronze Working and forests to chop;
- Far away 2nd city and knowledge of The Wheel.



@: Why not grow before building a worker?
Growing takes a lot of time, around 10 turns.
Then it gives you the abitlity to work a 3 yield tile.
Out of these 3 yield, 2 are required as food to support the extra citizen.
--> The net gain of growing and working an unimproved tile is either 1 food or 1 hammer.

On the other hand, improving a tile with a worker will result in a yield ranging from 4 (mine) to 6.
A yield of 6 at size 1 offers a net gain of 4 food/hammers. From paragraph above, the gain is equivalent to that we'd get from growing to size 4 on unimproved tiles, which would take around 50 turns.

Worker is the single essential unit in Civ. Then comes the settler.