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It depends on the starting techs and strategy, whether one tries to found a religion, whether one starts with fishing and can build a boat to harvest a sea resource.
My preferred path is the mining, bronze working path for the chop. I focus on building my capital up to 12 as soon as possible, so when I hit CS and bureaucracy, I'm a powerhouse. I don't like limiting my capital's growth by growing more than one worker and one settler for this reason.
So, if I have mining to start, I'll build one warrior and then one worker after that, so that he's ready by the time I reach BW. Then switch to settler, and chop him in, you get a few warriors with the left over wood. These are necessary to garrison your capital as your first two warriors are already out in the field marking where your new city is going. They move slowly, so it's important to have them already out there half way. The barbs may or may not have started being restless, so you can't take a chance with an unescorted settler, and since warriors are weak, you need two usually, in case an archer arrives. If he does, hold off until he passes, heading for the safety of the woods or hills if he doesn't go away.
If you have copper, great! That's probably where your second city should go, unless it's an ugly spot, but usually you can work around shortcomings for the benefits of copper. Let the second city build a worker and settler, daisy chaining the process. Also, don't chop all your capital's trees down, because there are more critical buildings like the library to fuel research and promote cultural border expansion.
If there is no copper, then a beeline to archery is required to protect against barbs, or Alex as the case may be. OTOH, if you're Romans, you might go for iron working to try your luck at finding iron to build Praetorians (I would). If you have Praetorians, no more cities need to be built beyond three, as you can take any that look nice from the AI.
Pottery is necessary to get the cottages down early, especially in the capital to pay for research and expenses. No good to have a large empire if you can't support it.
After Pottery, Writing usually, for libraries and culture. Alphabet, Monarchy for happiness to keep your soon to be size 12 capital happy, and on to Code of Law and Civil Service. Of course the order changes from game to game, depending on leader techs, the terrain, strategy, but these are some of the key techs and the order I place on discovering them. Always a warrior first, unless you can build scouts. Scouts are the best for popping goodie huts, warriors sometimes get unpleasant surprises.
A word about libraries and city placement. A typical problem is that optimal city placement is usually a knight's move from resources. I like to see three resources in a city's fat cross, settling for two usually, but sometimes getting four. Unless you're creative, you have no early culture, except for the capital. So you have a choice, you can build one square away from a key resource like copper and have immediate access to it, or you can wait until writing to chop in a library, or you can build an obelisk, which I think is a waste of time, unless I have mysticism already, otherwise I wait for library. If you really need the copper and can't wait for the border expansion, build the new city one square away. It's a trade-off, but one you have to live with for the rest of the game, possibly a stunted second city. But that stunted city might also win you the game. The early choices are the most important, and the most fun.
My preferred path is the mining, bronze working path for the chop. I focus on building my capital up to 12 as soon as possible, so when I hit CS and bureaucracy, I'm a powerhouse. I don't like limiting my capital's growth by growing more than one worker and one settler for this reason.
So, if I have mining to start, I'll build one warrior and then one worker after that, so that he's ready by the time I reach BW. Then switch to settler, and chop him in, you get a few warriors with the left over wood. These are necessary to garrison your capital as your first two warriors are already out in the field marking where your new city is going. They move slowly, so it's important to have them already out there half way. The barbs may or may not have started being restless, so you can't take a chance with an unescorted settler, and since warriors are weak, you need two usually, in case an archer arrives. If he does, hold off until he passes, heading for the safety of the woods or hills if he doesn't go away.
If you have copper, great! That's probably where your second city should go, unless it's an ugly spot, but usually you can work around shortcomings for the benefits of copper. Let the second city build a worker and settler, daisy chaining the process. Also, don't chop all your capital's trees down, because there are more critical buildings like the library to fuel research and promote cultural border expansion.
If there is no copper, then a beeline to archery is required to protect against barbs, or Alex as the case may be. OTOH, if you're Romans, you might go for iron working to try your luck at finding iron to build Praetorians (I would). If you have Praetorians, no more cities need to be built beyond three, as you can take any that look nice from the AI.
Pottery is necessary to get the cottages down early, especially in the capital to pay for research and expenses. No good to have a large empire if you can't support it.
After Pottery, Writing usually, for libraries and culture. Alphabet, Monarchy for happiness to keep your soon to be size 12 capital happy, and on to Code of Law and Civil Service. Of course the order changes from game to game, depending on leader techs, the terrain, strategy, but these are some of the key techs and the order I place on discovering them. Always a warrior first, unless you can build scouts. Scouts are the best for popping goodie huts, warriors sometimes get unpleasant surprises.
A word about libraries and city placement. A typical problem is that optimal city placement is usually a knight's move from resources. I like to see three resources in a city's fat cross, settling for two usually, but sometimes getting four. Unless you're creative, you have no early culture, except for the capital. So you have a choice, you can build one square away from a key resource like copper and have immediate access to it, or you can wait until writing to chop in a library, or you can build an obelisk, which I think is a waste of time, unless I have mysticism already, otherwise I wait for library. If you really need the copper and can't wait for the border expansion, build the new city one square away. It's a trade-off, but one you have to live with for the rest of the game, possibly a stunted second city. But that stunted city might also win you the game. The early choices are the most important, and the most fun.
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