Your first "buildings"?

[Leifmk]

It depends on the situation. What resources are immediately available? What technologies do I start with? How much room do I think I have for expansion?

I do not generally favor beginning with a settler or worker, since these stop my capital from growing to size 2, which hurts. Maybe if there's not enough really good tiles to work in the city radius, then the relative loss of production and income won't be so high. Maybe a settler if my capital is only good for food production and there are more diverse lands nearby. Maybe a worker if the local terrain is predominantly forest and I can get bronze working in time to start chopping.

If I'm on the coast and there's seafood available and my civilization starts with Fishing, it's a workboat every time. In fact if I have seafood I'll even research Fishing as my first tech (certainly if there's multiple seafood tiles around); enhanced seafood tiles taste good due to the combination of lots of food (which helps in pumping out workers and settlers) and commerce (which speeds up research). Playing Washington on Prince level I've managed to snag Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism for myself while simultaneously expanding at a quite respectable pace, all thanks to a couple of seafood tiles and the Financial trait.

[Ixthod]

Here's some food for thought:

Settler: 100 food/hammer
Worker: 60 food/hammer
Warrior/Scout: 15 hammer

Since I am pretty sure that no unimproved tile will ever provide more than 3 food/hammers, the following numbers should be accurate. Let's also assume that when you build your warrior, you are able to time it so your city grows to size 2 during the warrior's production.

Settler, Warrior, Worker
Settler on turn 25, Warrior on turn 35, Worker on turn 47

Settler, Worker, Warrior
Settler on turn 25, Worker on turn 40, Warrior on turn 50

Warrior, Settler, Worker
Warrior on turn 10, Settler on turn 30, Worker on turn 42

Warrior, Worker, Settler
Warrior on turn 10, Worker on turn 22, Settler on turn 42

Worker, Settler, Warrior
Worker on turn 15, Settler on turn 40, Warrior on turn 50

Worker, Warrior, Settler
Worker on turn 15, Warrior on turn 25, Settler on turn 45

If you want to include the ability to chop out that Settler, you have to have Bronze Working, and if you don't start with Mining, that is roughly 22 turns of research. (This varies based on difficulty level). Since you want the worker out before the Settler, that leaves:

Warrior, Worker, Settler
Warrior on turn 10, Worker on turn 22, Settler on turn 30 (2 chops), 36 (1 chop)

Worker, Settler, Warrior
Worker on turn 15, Settler on turn 26 (2 chops), 33 (1 chop)

Worker, Warrior, Settler
Worker on turn 15, Warrior on turn 25, Settler on turn 32 ( 2 chops), 38 (1 chop)

It is pretty clear that letting your capital grow to size 2 helps a lot. I personally prefer going the Warrior, Worker, Settler route. Usually I only chop one forest for the settler as there is another tile that needs improvement. However if I am on a coast with a fishing resource that is a different story. Workboats trump all...

[Aginor]

Originally posted by Ixthod
Workboats trump all...

Particularly with a financial civ...had a China game recently where I caught clams and a couple of inland freshwater tiles in the capital and pulled off an obscenely early CS Slingshot as a consequence.

The ability to grow to size 2 and pull in massive coinage at the same time is hard to beat...though I have been known to build the worker, chop the boat(s) and then chop the settler.

[Stageon]

I build all "Warrions"

[Broken Hawk]

What do you build first after you capture a rival city?

I usually build a Barracks if by military conquest or a Theatre if a border city revolts and switches sides.

[joncnunn]

Maybe I'm still too much on Civ III mode, but I never start construction of either a worker or settler until my capital reaches size 3 and also has a granery.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by joncnunn
Maybe I'm still too much on Civ III mode, but I never start construction of either a worker or settler until my capital reaches size 3 and also has a granery.

You might want to skip that granary there, jon. As the workers and settlers don't reduce pop any more, there's no need for recovery, so granary before W & S is the worst time to build it. Now if you'd said you didn't usually start a settler before the capital was size 3 and with two improved specials piling the food & hammers into settler production, I'd probably agree with you.

Granaries are good for pop-rushing, where recovery-growth is needed.

[Odin]

Usually warrior, worker, scout, settler. Warior, worker, warrior settler if I start with a scout. Worker, warrior, scout, settler if I feel lucky that barbs won't come after me.