New to Civ IV & need some basic advice

[Seedle]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
Your starting plot will always have at least 3 resources in its fat cross, except some may be hidden (like copper or horses, which are invaluable), unless again you're playing a special kind of map/map script.

Not so. From a normal ol' pangaea map:

And I didn't farm the pigs. It was advanced start that I had already played and I just hit begin on the 4000 b.c. save to take the pic.

That being said, I agree that moving more than one tile generally isn't worthwhile, you are very, very unlikely to find a better city site than you capital, especially nearby. For instance, in this start pictured here, the nearest site that is better (and that's debatable, because of all the wood to chop in the current start) is a good 5 turns away.

[Gagnonator]

Some of these tips worked really well. I just completed a random pangeae map against 6 other civs (I played Peter) and I won a diplomatic victory (with Elizabeth voting for me against Kublai Kahn)! I built libraries as soon as possible, I slaved whenever I felt I could and built more farms than cottages. Also, I kept my civilization small (5 cities) while the others kept expanding, and then when I'd blown past my neighbors with technology I destroyed them!! That was fun.

Thanks everyone for the great advice!