Ok, heres my plan...

[D4everman]

I'm going to try this during my lunch break from work to see if it pans out for me. Start a new game at noble level, I usually like huge maps so it'll be huge and epic length. I'm in no rush.

So heres the scenario. I'll go with 1st city-warrior-settler-worker plan, and hope to God no barbarians or animals eat my guys early in the game. Using the worker I'll try to get cottages up and roads and beeline for hinduism. When other covs come a knocking I'll agree to open borders and use missionaries when they become available to spread my religion. Hopefully this will make opponents easier to deal with.

I don't know how this will work, but I'm hoping to have 3 to 4 good viable cities by 0 AD. (more if the cost can be burdened). I'd like to be set up in a way that allows me to spread out and expand while working on science and religion for gold. It was easier in Civ III because all I really had to do was expand. I just don't know what the desired amount of cities in the early game is.

[alva]

I'm going to try this during my lunch break from work to see if it pans out for me. Start a new game at noble level, I usually like huge maps so it'll be huge and epic length.

I'll go with 1st city-warrior-settler-worker plan

Go with the worker before the settler (depending on what tech you've got).
worker-->warrior-->???-->settler

Using the worker I'll try to get cottages up and roads and beeline for hinduism.

I fear you're a little over optimistic, if you want one of the early religion, you need to go for them right away, commit to them one 100%.
You don't need one of course, going quickly for cottages is good way to go about.

[JereL]

From what I've played I've noticed that the animals never ever come inside cultural borders so workers are safe. And barbs start appearing a little later on so I've always gone with worker-warrior. By the time I have my second city up the barb warriors start appearing. I place a warrior or two in woods near my borders in the directions the barbs seem to be coming from as magnets, they seem to get attacked every time rather than the barb marching on to my improvements or cities. If a barb comes from an unexpected direction I'll detach a city defender to go camp in some favorable defensive terrain along the path the barb will take.

[alva]

From what I've played I've noticed that the animals never ever come inside cultural borders so workers are safe.

Indeed, they can't. (though I'm not a 100% certain, they can't attack a unit inside a border from the outside, though I don'"t think so.)

[Amarsir]

Ah, consider this. When you build a settler or a worker, your food goes into growing them instead of growing your city. So you start with a city, population one. Let's presume using some basic #s that the city itself makes 2F 1H (and 1 G). Also you have a population to work a squre, and among the undeveloped squares around you are at least a couple with 2F 1H.

A worker on Epic costs 67.

If you start the worker while your town is size 1, you're putting 4 (2 extra food, 2 hammers) toward him and you'll get there in 67/4 = 17 turns. However, if you grow to size 2 and work another square before starting him, now you're putting out 5 (2 extra food, 3 hammers) and can finish him in 14 turns. At size 3, 12 turns (11 if you had one carryover). And that's only with some basic squares. If have squares that yield better than 2F 1H, the sooner you can work them the more true this is.

Now if you're thinking "sure, but the warrior you'd build in it's place will take longer early on too." True. But while you're building a warrior your city is growing, while building a settler/worker, it's not. I'd rather minimize the non-growth turns. So I really wouldn't want to burden a city with a worker and a settler very early. A worker fast is fine, especially if you want to chop forests to speed boost yourself. But where possible, I prefer warriors earlier and making up the expansion on the back end. Plus you're safer in the meantime and worst-case can explore a little with them.

Just something to think about.

[D4everman]

Thanks for the tips. I didn't think it through about the worker/settler food thing.

[Rook]

I have had 4 or five cities by 0 AD. I usually make a beeline for Bronze or Iron and then use axemen and sword men to wipe out the two closest civs. I keep some of their cities and burn the rest. Sometimes the money gets out of control, but I have the land and I am able to recover. of course, this doesn't work too well when you end up alone on an island.

[Urban Ranger]

Yeah, there are two schools of thought on when should you build your first settler. One maintains that you should build one right away, after creating a worker, so you can use chop rush (even though you can't chop until you get bronze working) for the settler. The other one holds that you should grow your city a bit first, so you get to do everything else faster later.

[samspock]

I have tried it both warrior first and worker first. I find I do better over all with worker first. Build the worker while researching bronze. They will come out at about the same time. Move the worker to do something you can do (mine a gold hill is my favorite) while you let the city grow to size 2. Chop the settler from your size two city. This gives you a city that has a worker and is working a high commerce hill. should make the next few things you research come faster.

My latest game I started on a river with three gems to my north, one on a hill and two on grassland! I had to get the worker on them asap!

[Willem]

Originally posted by D4everman
Thanks for the tips. I didn't think it through about the worker/settler food thing.

It's not a good idea to build them back to back. Stick something in between to give your city a chance to grow. And build a Warrior or two before you build your first Worker. As mentioned, you're better off having your city at size 2 for your first Worker, size 3 for your first Settler.

[Willem]

Originally posted by samspock
Build the worker while researching bronze. They will come out at about the same time.

Provided you start out with Mining.

[LordShiva]

Don't chop rush the settler. That's cheating

[JereL]

Originally posted by Amarsir

If you start the worker while your town is size 1, you're putting 4 (2 extra food, 2 hammers) toward him and you'll get there in 67/4 = 17 turns. However, if you grow to size 2 and work another square before starting him, now you're putting out 5 (2 extra food, 3 hammers) and can finish him in 14 turns. At size 3, 12 turns (11 if you had one carryover). And that's only with some basic squares. If have squares that yield better than 2F 1H, the sooner you can work them the more true this is.

This all true, though from what I've experienced, the growing of the city from 1 to 2 is often times somewhere around 20 rounds on marathon. That's why my queue is usually worker, a few warriors and after that I consider settler.

[BigFree]

I like to grow my cities to size 3 before I build my first worker unless I have very little to work with in terms of "nice" terrain. Later on I still revere growth. I'll first build farms to get a population up and then later switch my workforce to cottage tiles to support further expansion.

[gdijedi7]

Originally posted by LordShiva
Don't chop rush the settler. That's cheating

I just wish I could still plant forrests to chop rush more conveniently

I generally wait for my city to grow, but then again, I usually only get to build about five cities during the whole game. These last two games have been exceptions.

Since I can't build many cities, I take them instead but this leads to centuries of rebuilding in the, um, annexed territories. If Hitler would have had to deal with Civ4 style maintenance, he wouldn't have bothered attacking France or Poland, or Czechoslovokia, or the Soviets, or, well, anybody.