Whats your starting strategy?

[Exsanguination]

I can't seem to do anything right... I've tried everything (trading, roading, jacking up science, working commercial squares, building scientific improvements, expanding... all of it), and I can't get anywhere scientifically.
Well, actually I can, but it's very boring. I usually play as the Americans, and I get through the Ancient Era fast with the aid of goody huts. But once I get to the Republic (the last Ancient Era advance), 40 TURNS is a long time to wait. Sitting there expanding, building... all that is VERY boring and I usually get there bored and just leave. I'll then start a new game the next day... same thing.
I'm guessing not everyone faces the problem I am. I think the reason for my problem is the new patch (40 turns now the max per advance, hint hint). Before the patch, I did fine. By the 1800s I was actually in the Industrial Ages. Now, its the 1000s and I'm just beginning to research Theology or Invention.

If anyone can try to give some tips, or even better post their starting strategy, I would be grateful. I haven't gotten past the Industrial Ages yet, and its even been awhile since I've had a city past size 12...

 

[Dralix]

The land you start out with plays a huge role in the way things end up, and for me anyway, the enjoyment of the game. Right now I am still getting used to the differences from CivII, so if I don't like the land, I'll restart. Having said that ...

I cannot stress enough the impact of building your first city on a river. I think the absolute best spot for your first city is a grassland with river and cattle or wheat. Assuming good support from the other squares of course. Your city will grow fast, generate good commerce, and won't need an aquedect.

After that, I build warrior, settler, temple, settler, growth permitting. Then I normally start on a wonder - Colossus if this will be a good centre of commerce (and if possible), or Pyramids or Oracle.

The warrior explores a site for second city, then third city. If possible, the two settlers will expand in opposite directions from the capital. Each new city builds warrior, settler, worker/settler (based on growth), temple. I expand as quickly as possible, while workers build roads to resources and connect cities. Warriors scout new city sites then head back to garisson.

Of course making contact with other civs will change this, depending on the mood I'm in ...

 

[Allemand]

The 40-turn cap can slow you down to a crawl. Need to build lots of libraries, then universities as soon as possible.

An alternative, if you're really bored, is to go into the editor and change the research cap back to 32 turns (or less). But you'll probably not like 32, either, so libraries are the best answer. It's great to finally see a dramatic improvement in research times, after getting the libraries built.

 

[Exsanguination]

dralix - i find my strategy to be exactly the same yours... EXACTLY

and i guess i should rebrief what i said: how to get fast science on a large/huge map. I have had recent success on a small map. It's the big, fun ones that suck.

 

[Anglophile]

One of the editable fields in the editor is the science multiplier. The larger the map, the larger the multiplier. This is a 'negative' multiplier in the sense that it multiplies the beakers required to get an advance. Of course, the easiest way to speed science advances would be to dial this value down. This isn't a cheat because the AI gets the same multiplier plus whatever the AI multipler for difficulty level is. I also play on huge maps, or even maxed out maps (256x256 vs 180x180 for standard huge). My 'cheat' is to dial up the number of cities before corruption becomes a problem. The unedited value for this field is much smaller than the relative surface areas of the different maps. As the only really satisfying way to generate a fast science rate is a large, prosperous civilization, IMHO, making it easier to manage such a civ by increasing the max city level and adding anti-corruption benefits to a number of buildings (temple, library, market place) is my preferred approach.

As has been said, fast expansion is an absolute requirement and the larger the map the more critical this is and the longer it needs to continue. Finding an early settler to join one's civilization also greatly helps - one of the huts near your starting point will provide that settler if you are patient enough to get it. The huts are 'redetermined' each turn, so save, try and reload/retry next turn if you don't get the settler. I only retry once but always get a settler from one of the first three huts I encounter using this cheat.

Using these techniques/mods/cheats, I normally have 40+ cities by 10AD, usually no more than two by conquest and most often none. I am in the Middle Ages and my science turnover rate is 5-6 turns; keep pushing the expansion and you will hit the science turnover wall of 4 turns, as well as the Industrial Age by 500 AD - but so will at least some of the AIs , even on Monarch where I play. Nevertheless, I normally have a small science lead and a big culture lead at this point.

As has been stated, to get that fast science rate, one needs a lot of cities with a lot of improvements. With the standard settings in the game, this is very difficult to acheive on a huge map, even after the patch which did help, because corruption/waste will kill the productivity of many of those cities. One of the many things I like about Civ3 is the ability to use the editor to tweak the game to maximize one's enjoyment in playing a certain style. For me, that is large central empires with strategic colonies spotted about the map. To allow this, I haven't disabled corruption but provided tools to manage it.

 

[Tibrogargan]

One thing I've been doing that doesn't seem to hurt is at the start of the game set research rate to as low as possible (10 or 20%) but still not zero.
Because it's going to take about 40 turns no matter what, I don't see any point throwing away all the income I would otherwise generate for that first technology.
After 40 turns, I generally have about 250 or so (200 - 300) coins and I set my technology rate to 100% and leave it there for many turns. Goody huts and Judicious trading makes sure you don't fall too far behind.

(Technology at the start costs 200 "coins". To take less than 40 turns, you must spend the 200 in less than 40 turns. If you leave it at 1 per turn, you get the technology at the bargain basement cost of 40 coins).