What is youre favorite opening play?

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by make
rjmatsleepers, I think you are neglecting defence bigtime.
What difficulty is this on?

I love flood plains to, and the first tile I work will also be the one with most food and hopefully some commerce to.

I used to go down the religious arm ASAP to found hinduism and swith to organized religion, but I dont anymore.
I find that its a stronger play to focus on war an development techs.
Founding a religion must be done with care. You dont want to provoke a neighbor that could overrun you if he wished. Better to swith to hes religion, atleast until Free Religion or you can conquer him.

I never had any succes with the slingshots on emperor. I just dont think it fits in my playstyle.

I've used that approach at levels from Noble to Immortal. I've won up to Emperor, but not (yet) at Immortal.

Yes, this approach does neglect defence big time, but in my experience warriors will defend against barbarian archers most of the time - particularly if you've managed a promotion or 2. You also have a problem with your neighbours, although in my experience, the AI tends to wait quite a while before it attacks. I try to spread all my religions to my nearest, most aggressive neighbour and switch religions to avoid taking a hit for falling under the sway of something he doesn't like.

After the sling shot, and particularly after learning alphabet, it is relatively easy to get the missing techs. If you don't have copper or iron - it's happened to me once - you need to dash for gunpowder!

I wouldn't like to try this approach against a human opponent in MP, but it is relatively OK against the AI. If you are going to lose, you lose fairly quickly; if you survive into the mid game, you are in quite a strong position.

RJM at Sleeper's

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Nacht

Where did you get those pyramids? You don't even have the prereq yet.

I don't have the pyramids - philosophy allows me to switch to Pacifism.

RJM at Sleeper's