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Placement of your first settler, i.e. location of your capital:
I do not advocate walking around, it is waste of turns and risky. However, a 1 tile movement may be helpful as that will not lose you any turns (you still settle in 4000BC). Try getting more sea or 3 forests, or fish if you see it. An important point to keep in mind: unlike other civs, you do NOT need to rely on grass tiles to grow, so you may sacrifice that to gain more sea or more tree tiles. But make sure you keep at least 2 trees available. Another reason to move if your starting location is below a hill, which provides bonus attack for anybody wanting to take your cap. In that case either try to move up onto the hill or away from it, as long as you can find a spot with 2+ trees and 3+ water.
Spend the first 5 turns to build 2 warriors and send them out to collect gold and explore.
3500-2500BC: cap research 2 techs BW + Alphabet while growing to 3pop. Rush an archer if needed, e.g. if there are rusher civs or Spain (who tend to galleon-drop into empty caps).
Once you got your 100g settler, rush another from cap after it banked >=8 food to grow back to 2pop. For getting that 8+ food after reaching pop3, there are 2 ways: a) 1 turn on 2 grass+1sea (5 food), then 1 turn on 3 sea, but then after rush you have to spend 1 turn on grass again to get back to 2, option b) work 3 sea for 3 turns getting you 9 food and 18 beakers+2 in next turn on sea while growing back. So option a) lets you rush the settler after 2 turns, but you only get 8 beakers in 3 turns, while option b) gets you the settler 1 turn later but you also got 20 beakers in the same time (half of the Writing tech). Settle 2nd and 3rd city with fish if possible -- your warriors have explored so you see the opportunities. Other resources to look out for: ox, cattle, dye. You should build or rush at least 1 archer per city, more if you see enemy coming up.
The 3 cities work on sea research Writing + COL, 12 beakers minimum, so it takes 4+5 turns to get them at worst case, possibly less if fish made some city grow faster. You should get COL around 1500BC taking you to Medieval era (CB+BW+Abc+Writing+COL). Push out 3 settlers (1 from each city), all cities should have ~20 food banked, so they all grow back instantly. This will take about 5 turns unless you have a lot of gold and can rush it faster. If you do not have 2 trees at some of the cities, then work on sea collecting gold so you can rush. You can also put workers in city or on hill, that would get 1 hammer.
Next 3 city placement:
- 1 production focus 3+ trees and/or oak, hills (iron),
- at least 1 settler pump (cap can act as another): cow, double fish, grass+ox+tree
- the last one focus on sea with fish/dye
That brings you to 6 cities around 1000BC, next 10 turns push out 2-4 more (from 1/2 settler pumps), reaching 8-10 by 0AD. During those 10 turns research Monarchy + Feudalism, at start of this period you get about 20 beakers/turn, at the end about 40 (with the new 3pop cities set on sea and research and the use of dye), average ~30, the 2 techs cost 120+160=280, so it should finish about 0AD. Do not switch to Monarchy when you get it, stay in Republic. Production city starts building baracks ASAP (after 1 archer for defence), should be ready just before Feud is completed, if not rush it the turn before so free knight appears there and it is veteran. Then start building knights in 3 cities (main production + 2 others with at least 2 trees), may switch some cities to gold to help rushing.
Use of Great People: you will probably get 1 explorer from normal culture, then either a scientist or builder as a free GP for Monarchy (unless there is English in the game). Use the explorer for 100g, save the scientist, use the builder for Samurai castle.
If you have oak or a city beside multiple hills, then research Construction after Feud. It should be available straight, because you already backfilled pottery and have enough beakers to tech-jump over masonry. After that go for Religion (should be 3-4 turns) while building your knight armies and moving them towards the enemy. You should complete Religion and switch to Fundamentalism just before attacking the first enemy cities. You may have to kill some units on the way at choke-points, which should not be a problem for your vet samurai knights and they may gain an upgrade even before hitting the first city.
While you are attacking with your knights, continue building more in the 3 construction cities, while your settler pumps continue to make new cities and the rest continue to grow and research using sea tiles. The research path from here:
Engineering (+1 production per city)
Invention (another GP)
Steam Power -> start making cruisers and cruiser fleets to support your knights
Math (if not back-filled yet)
Navigation (for the whales, you already have cruisers)
You will also most likely back-fill Iron Working, so you can build cheap legions for counter attacking if you are pressed. Of course, the above scenario assumed that you are not being rushed by other civs. If you are, then you should switch gears and counter the rush.
In some circumstances it is also worth to start with HBR and send out some horses to get more barbs and possibly horse-rush some AI cities. You are typically too slow to horse rush human players, so I do not recommend that. However, in SP games and also in H2H you can get some AI caps, which makes the detour worthwhile.
A variation that I often do when I see Chinese in the game (ffa): you can skip researching Writing: for this you need to get the 3 cities up before you finish Alphabet. You will need to switch to use grass for a turn or two with your cap, then push out a settler before finishing research of Abc. Then if you finish Abc with 3 cities (12 beakers), then you will get the option to go straight for COL (it costs 90 beakers that way, so you need to make at least 9 beakers/turn to get the option). It only saves you 10 beakers compared to the standard path, so 1 turn and you waste that much by pushing the settler out early (before you banked enough food from sea), so that's not the point. The point is to get COL while still in ancient, thus it is cheaper to rush settlers. This is the case that I mixed up originally, in this case you have the 2gold=1hammer case so good to use sea instead of 1hammer worker placement. Now, it is important, that once you made your 2 settlers from the 3 cities, you set them back to research and get another tech before making the new cities, so that they start with 3pop. You choose the cheapest tech at that point, e.g. Pottery can be had in 2 turns while your settlers reach their location. You can also finish Abc in 2500BC as per original strategy, but then cancel choosing the next tech until you get the 3 cities up. You will see if this is feasible at around 2600BC depending on how close you are to the 100g (or have it already). E.g. if you have 90g and do not see another barb or potential naming spot but want to pursue the skipping anyways, then you could sell a warrior. having a Chinese opponent is an incentive fort this, because you will not get a free spy from Writing anyway and you can backfill the tech later once you reach 41 beakers (should be about when you get Monarchy).
A few words about spies: if you do get a free spy fro Writing or get some from barb/hut, then look out for flags in enemy cities indicating settled great people. If you see any, go try to steal it. You should move your spy at the end of the turn when you get close to the city. If you step close in the last seconds of the turn and quickly move again at the beginning of the next turn to enter the city, then your opponent has little to no chance to capture your spy. Another good use of spies is to destroy buildings. Prime targets are: cathedral of Paris, courthouse of Athens, a wall in any city, a library in Thebes.
Island settling: Japanese do not need whale or fish to live on islands, any spot will do making them much more feasible -- of course it is still better to have those resources so if you have the option without wasting much time than chose the spot to have access to those goodies, but do not waste time hunting for them. In the above strategy, your first 5 cities will probably be on the main land (initial 3 + settler farm + production center), but later ones can be and often preferable to be on islands. Of course, the map dictates everything, so if you have plenty of room on main land, use it. If you are in a tight spot close to enemies, then settle islands instead (but you still should have at least 3 cities with reasonable production capabilities on the main land, one of them being your cap).
I do not advocate walking around, it is waste of turns and risky. However, a 1 tile movement may be helpful as that will not lose you any turns (you still settle in 4000BC). Try getting more sea or 3 forests, or fish if you see it. An important point to keep in mind: unlike other civs, you do NOT need to rely on grass tiles to grow, so you may sacrifice that to gain more sea or more tree tiles. But make sure you keep at least 2 trees available. Another reason to move if your starting location is below a hill, which provides bonus attack for anybody wanting to take your cap. In that case either try to move up onto the hill or away from it, as long as you can find a spot with 2+ trees and 3+ water.
Spend the first 5 turns to build 2 warriors and send them out to collect gold and explore.
3500-2500BC: cap research 2 techs BW + Alphabet while growing to 3pop. Rush an archer if needed, e.g. if there are rusher civs or Spain (who tend to galleon-drop into empty caps).
Once you got your 100g settler, rush another from cap after it banked >=8 food to grow back to 2pop. For getting that 8+ food after reaching pop3, there are 2 ways: a) 1 turn on 2 grass+1sea (5 food), then 1 turn on 3 sea, but then after rush you have to spend 1 turn on grass again to get back to 2, option b) work 3 sea for 3 turns getting you 9 food and 18 beakers+2 in next turn on sea while growing back. So option a) lets you rush the settler after 2 turns, but you only get 8 beakers in 3 turns, while option b) gets you the settler 1 turn later but you also got 20 beakers in the same time (half of the Writing tech). Settle 2nd and 3rd city with fish if possible -- your warriors have explored so you see the opportunities. Other resources to look out for: ox, cattle, dye. You should build or rush at least 1 archer per city, more if you see enemy coming up.
The 3 cities work on sea research Writing + COL, 12 beakers minimum, so it takes 4+5 turns to get them at worst case, possibly less if fish made some city grow faster. You should get COL around 1500BC taking you to Medieval era (CB+BW+Abc+Writing+COL). Push out 3 settlers (1 from each city), all cities should have ~20 food banked, so they all grow back instantly. This will take about 5 turns unless you have a lot of gold and can rush it faster. If you do not have 2 trees at some of the cities, then work on sea collecting gold so you can rush. You can also put workers in city or on hill, that would get 1 hammer.
Next 3 city placement:
- 1 production focus 3+ trees and/or oak, hills (iron),
- at least 1 settler pump (cap can act as another): cow, double fish, grass+ox+tree
- the last one focus on sea with fish/dye
That brings you to 6 cities around 1000BC, next 10 turns push out 2-4 more (from 1/2 settler pumps), reaching 8-10 by 0AD. During those 10 turns research Monarchy + Feudalism, at start of this period you get about 20 beakers/turn, at the end about 40 (with the new 3pop cities set on sea and research and the use of dye), average ~30, the 2 techs cost 120+160=280, so it should finish about 0AD. Do not switch to Monarchy when you get it, stay in Republic. Production city starts building baracks ASAP (after 1 archer for defence), should be ready just before Feud is completed, if not rush it the turn before so free knight appears there and it is veteran. Then start building knights in 3 cities (main production + 2 others with at least 2 trees), may switch some cities to gold to help rushing.
Use of Great People: you will probably get 1 explorer from normal culture, then either a scientist or builder as a free GP for Monarchy (unless there is English in the game). Use the explorer for 100g, save the scientist, use the builder for Samurai castle.
If you have oak or a city beside multiple hills, then research Construction after Feud. It should be available straight, because you already backfilled pottery and have enough beakers to tech-jump over masonry. After that go for Religion (should be 3-4 turns) while building your knight armies and moving them towards the enemy. You should complete Religion and switch to Fundamentalism just before attacking the first enemy cities. You may have to kill some units on the way at choke-points, which should not be a problem for your vet samurai knights and they may gain an upgrade even before hitting the first city.
While you are attacking with your knights, continue building more in the 3 construction cities, while your settler pumps continue to make new cities and the rest continue to grow and research using sea tiles. The research path from here:
Engineering (+1 production per city)
Invention (another GP)
Steam Power -> start making cruisers and cruiser fleets to support your knights
Math (if not back-filled yet)
Navigation (for the whales, you already have cruisers)
You will also most likely back-fill Iron Working, so you can build cheap legions for counter attacking if you are pressed. Of course, the above scenario assumed that you are not being rushed by other civs. If you are, then you should switch gears and counter the rush.
In some circumstances it is also worth to start with HBR and send out some horses to get more barbs and possibly horse-rush some AI cities. You are typically too slow to horse rush human players, so I do not recommend that. However, in SP games and also in H2H you can get some AI caps, which makes the detour worthwhile.
A variation that I often do when I see Chinese in the game (ffa): you can skip researching Writing: for this you need to get the 3 cities up before you finish Alphabet. You will need to switch to use grass for a turn or two with your cap, then push out a settler before finishing research of Abc. Then if you finish Abc with 3 cities (12 beakers), then you will get the option to go straight for COL (it costs 90 beakers that way, so you need to make at least 9 beakers/turn to get the option). It only saves you 10 beakers compared to the standard path, so 1 turn and you waste that much by pushing the settler out early (before you banked enough food from sea), so that's not the point. The point is to get COL while still in ancient, thus it is cheaper to rush settlers. This is the case that I mixed up originally, in this case you have the 2gold=1hammer case so good to use sea instead of 1hammer worker placement. Now, it is important, that once you made your 2 settlers from the 3 cities, you set them back to research and get another tech before making the new cities, so that they start with 3pop. You choose the cheapest tech at that point, e.g. Pottery can be had in 2 turns while your settlers reach their location. You can also finish Abc in 2500BC as per original strategy, but then cancel choosing the next tech until you get the 3 cities up. You will see if this is feasible at around 2600BC depending on how close you are to the 100g (or have it already). E.g. if you have 90g and do not see another barb or potential naming spot but want to pursue the skipping anyways, then you could sell a warrior. having a Chinese opponent is an incentive fort this, because you will not get a free spy from Writing anyway and you can backfill the tech later once you reach 41 beakers (should be about when you get Monarchy).
A few words about spies: if you do get a free spy fro Writing or get some from barb/hut, then look out for flags in enemy cities indicating settled great people. If you see any, go try to steal it. You should move your spy at the end of the turn when you get close to the city. If you step close in the last seconds of the turn and quickly move again at the beginning of the next turn to enter the city, then your opponent has little to no chance to capture your spy. Another good use of spies is to destroy buildings. Prime targets are: cathedral of Paris, courthouse of Athens, a wall in any city, a library in Thebes.
Island settling: Japanese do not need whale or fish to live on islands, any spot will do making them much more feasible -- of course it is still better to have those resources so if you have the option without wasting much time than chose the spot to have access to those goodies, but do not waste time hunting for them. In the above strategy, your first 5 cities will probably be on the main land (initial 3 + settler farm + production center), but later ones can be and often preferable to be on islands. Of course, the map dictates everything, so if you have plenty of room on main land, use it. If you are in a tight spot close to enemies, then settle islands instead (but you still should have at least 3 cities with reasonable production capabilities on the main land, one of them being your cap).
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