Civilisation choice for beginner

[Rasputin]

For the first 20 turns or so the only "barbs" are of the animal variety, and they won't enter culture boarders, so your workers are safe.

Keep in mind, I didn't say ignore an early military. The key is to either hook up copper early for axemen, or get archery before building units. The main reason behind this is that warriors are practically obsolete by the time you build one.

You really don't want to spend those critical first turns building obsolete units. The only time a scout useful IMO is if your civ starts with one. Again, by the time you build a scout it's usefulness has diminished (most huts will have been popped by others).

Just as a side note... learn to embrace the barbs! When I see barbs I think of easy unit promotions. Try to lure them into your borders (for the GG points), then simply place a counter-unit on a terrain bonus. The dumb barb will either attack at a disadvantage, or move into a square with no advantage for the barb.

Uprisings and raging can be a problem. One good stratagy for dealing with that is to city garrison some archers, let them fortify, and let the barbs bang their head off your multiple defense bonus defenders. They tend to B-line for cities, which spares you excessive pillaging which can occur with a good human invader.

in the BtP game, i had warroir invaders before i had the tech for archery...

I built a worker first only to discover i diditn have any techs that allwoed him to do anything. simple mistake for a beginer, no roads no chopping no farms nothing.


once i got archers the barbs would leave the citys alone but then attacked my improvments, mainly targeting my copper supply.

so now i had to build more defenders to send there.

this alll limited my improvments of city or chance to build more settlers.

Now the barbs were deveopliong faster than i was. my archers were attacked by axemen .

i dont think truly there is any strategy that can be used by a newbie in these type of encoutners with barbs.

[Black Knight 427]

I wonder how many players had been crippled early because of that trick.

[St Jon]

That is a really evil Rah type trick!

Why didn't I ever see that?

[rah]

Since I rarely build the GW sometimes you have to be creative to deal with the barbs when you get unlucky with early metal and horses. Since I know I'm going to have to detour to research ironwork earlier than I normally would, I hate to waste any tech turns so I'll sometimes cheat and not research archery. As a result, you're awfully vulnerable to barbs. I'll build a few spare workers and post them at my borders. When barbs show, I'll move the workers out to bait the barbs. Once they've aquired the scent, I'll lead them to my neighbors.

[OzzyKP]

Just as a side note... learn to embrace the barbs! When I see barbs I think of easy unit promotions. Try to lure them into your borders (for the GG points), then simply place a counter-unit on a terrain bonus. The dumb barb will either attack at a disadvantage, or move into a square with no advantage for the barb.

The only way your borders make a difference for GG points is if you have the Great Wall (which doubles GG points inside your borders). (Imperialistic doubles GG points everywhere).

But not only, as Rah pointed out, do you not get GG points for barbs in the first place, but luring them into your borders is impossible if you have the great wall.

[rah]

Try to lure them into your borders (for the GG points),

You don't get GG points fighting barbs do you?

Biggest beginner early move mistake - building warriors and scouts as your first units

In SP, I agree, but in MP, I love finding someone's cap that went worker first. Game over for them and a great advantage for me.
Depending on who's in the game or my starting position, I will usually put a few turns in towards a warrior so if someone shows up I can switch back and finish it before they can reach my cap.

[Pinchak]

For the first 20 turns or so the only "barbs" are of the animal variety, and they won't enter culture boarders, so your workers are safe.

Keep in mind, I didn't say ignore an early military. The key is to either hook up copper early for axemen, or get archery before building units. The main reason behind this is that warriors are practically obsolete by the time you build one.

You really don't want to spend those critical first turns building obsolete units. The only time a scout useful IMO is if your civ starts with one. Again, by the time you build a scout it's usefulness has diminished (most huts will have been popped by others).

Just as a side note... learn to embrace the barbs! When I see barbs I think of easy unit promotions. Try to lure them into your borders (for the GG points), then simply place a counter-unit on a terrain bonus. The dumb barb will either attack at a disadvantage, or move into a square with no advantage for the barb.

Uprisings and raging can be a problem. One good stratagy for dealing with that is to city garrison some archers, let them fortify, and let the barbs bang their head off your multiple defense bonus defenders. They tend to B-line for cities, which spares you excessive pillaging which can occur with a good human invader.

[Rasputin]

Biggest beginner early move mistake - building warriors and scouts as your first units.

What if barbarians are an issue in local area?

Surely making an undefended worker is not good.


In BtP I lost my opening unit "a scout" very early and was inundated with Barbarians for thousands of years.

I had started following the type of start you describe but once the first barb warrior entered the city radius of my capital i had to rush build warriors instead,

So each opening moves is different dependant on where you located.

Usualy i build work boat if on caost and capable or a worker if not.

but is a big risk leaving yourself unprotected.

[Black Knight 427]

Don't forget the importance of cottages.

[Pinchak]

it opens up the ability to play a "settler first", a simple and reasonably effective opening move of the terrain is right.

Sort of risky for a beginner. Coming back from losing a settler to a stray wolf is hard enough for seasoned players...

This reminds me I think the biggest pitfall for newbies are the starting moves.

Great point. The biggest mistake I see some players make is waiting too long to build a worker, and then not building enough of them. Another golden piece of advice regarding early moves is slave and chop your workers and settlers whenever you can. This reduces the no city size growth downtime of building these units. The optimal time to do it is the first turn in which it only costs 2 population.

If you start with fishing, and have a coastal capital, you almost must go workboat first. Try to time it so that when the workboat is finished, your capital has just reached population 2 or 3. This allows for that critical early worker to come even earlier.

Biggest beginner early move mistake - building warriors and scouts as your first units.

The importance of the first 50 turns cannot be overemphasized. A well thought out opening can cascade into a game long lead.

[St Jon]

I'm not a beginner - only at MP - and Inca are a huge No.1. SP, India under Gandhi are a peach with the Fast Workers and a pretty much guaranteed religion.

For a beginner I reckon Dutch have a lot going for them, even SP, but Portugal has Caracks. I still reckon UU's are worthwhile and Zulus are not to be ignored.

America and Russia are the 2 worst of the lot as you need UU's and UB's very early. I have never played a game where a Research Lab was built or a SEAL had any meaningful impact.

[Heraclitus]

This reminds me I think the biggest pitfall for newbies are the starting moves. There is no room there to employ non-game skills to ameliorate poor game skills, its also the part where it is hardest to make optimum decisions.

[Heraclitus]

Korea, Maya, Victoria of England, Catherine of Russia* and Darius of Persia seem ok on paper too.



*Imperialistic may be a problem for new players in other MP games, but I think in diplo overexpansion is harder to do. Also it opens up the ability to play a "settler first", a simple and reasonably effective opening move of the terrain is right.

[Heraclitus]

So we agree that Holland is no.1...

My ideas for beginner civs (please discus):

Ethiopia: Zara Yaqob - Creative, Organized

Stella - replacement for Monument adds a 25% culture bonus
Their UU is also ok.

Khmer: Suryavarman - Creative, Expansive

Sumeria: Gilgamesh - Creative, Protective

Their UB is pretty awesome (a cheap and early courthouse). Also their UU is good.

[OzzyKP]

The Inca are generally understood to be the most powerful civ. But if IND is understood to be a non-beginner trait... I dunno.