Immediately attack their initial cities

[ljw1004]

When we start the game, we usually leave our initial city undefended while we explore with our warrior. I do this, and the AI does it too.

So I destroy the neighbouring civilization immediately! This works about 50% of the time. If it had pop-2 then I get a second city centuries before I'd have time to build a settler! Otherwise the city-ruins are usually in a perfect city site.


(but I feel dirty for doing this because I'm using a tactic that the AI eschews...)

[Merzbow]

Just don't try this on higher difficulty levels where the AI starts with more than one unit (I believe).