Early vs. Late first city placement

[Alexander's Horse]

One thing I hate is when you establish your first city on turn 1 and then find a special one space away - I really hate that, especially if its a whale.

[Lars-E]

geofelt, sometimes it pays to skip monarchy and go for republic/library before (monarchy)/colossus. This can give you 43% more science.

If you start off with CB it might be better to choose the monarchy-path. I suppose this also depends on the circumstances your in, in combination with your strategy: bloodlust or AC.

[geofelt]

At deity, I find monarchy is better. I like to build many wonders, and the biggest problem is shield production, not science. The three unit free support is big early on. Also, my first wonder is Hanging gardens. This gives me republic level science without luxuries up to size six in my capitol. Eventually, I switch to democracy when I get SOL.

[Marquis de Sodaq]

As a general rule, I will settle immediately if the city radius is green. Too much desert, plains, or mountains, and I will wander for a few turns. That said, I will always tip a hut in my view before settling unless I'm standing in the middle of a 3 or 4 special spot.

As it is not optimal to have the capitol be the SSC (at least for those like me who don't want to micromanage too intensely), I don't mind finding a prime site for my 2nd, 3rd, or 4th city. Let the units explore while the capitol city pumps out settlers.

[rah]

A corruption free capital is usually benificial for a SSC.
My second city is usually the settler spitting city. Depending on the game circumstances, my capital will only spit out 1-3 settlers.

And unless I start on a coast, it's more likely that my capital will be surrounded by my cities making it less likely to be taken, and be a more central location for delivering caravans.

RAH

[Lars-E]

At deity, I find monarchy is better. I like to build many wonders, and the biggest problem is shield production, not science. The three unit free support is big early on. Also, my first wonder is Hanging gardens. This gives me republic level science without luxuries up to size six in my capitol. Eventually, I switch to democracy when I get SOL.

I always play deity, but mostly OCC where science plays an essential part..

In a lot of games played by Ribannah and the likes you'll find they use the republic/library-strategy.

http://members.home.nl/paulvdb/occ.htm#downloads

http://members.home.nl/paulvdb/occ.htm#fortnight

Click the comparison tables.

Haven't played much civ2 the last 1/2 year. And no civ3 isn't my game. I'm more into half-life sp mods these days..

[ramses II.]

A good city site is one key for winning the game. Some early NONE-units for exploring can be the second key. Nobody can take away the benefits from the huts you've already opened.
When you found your first city, the NONE-units will continue exploring your continent. With that army in my back, other civs will become allies or pay tribute much easier.

In one of my lower-level-games I've had a site with two coal, one banana and one fish, and i was able to build nearly all wonders in that city.
In another game I had a site with 4 wine ... guess what that city became in my game.

[Campo]

I tend to settle early but not immediately. It's so nice to tip a few huts and get a couple NON units for exploring that I almost always have my settlers look for huts the first few turns. The exception is when I start in a 3 or 4 special area, then I settle right away.

A variation on this issue is timing the founding of the SCC (if you use one). In my current game I settled early but couldn't find a good spot for my SSC. I had about 5 cities down when a horseman located a 4-special city location -- whale, gems, pheasant, and wheat (eventually to be silk). The city spot was swampland, so I started a settler irrigating, with another on the way. Then barbs appeared and I had to evacuate my settlers and send a defender. By the time the barbs were dead, my settlers back in place, the square irrigated, and the city founded, it was the latest I ever started a science city. (Sorry, I can't remember the exact game year.) I built HG in the science city with caravans from other cities, set up 3 trade routes, am building caravans for Colossus (surprised the AI hasn't gone after it yet) and am researching mathematics. However I'm wondering if it's too late for the SCC to be worthwhile. An AI civ just beat me to Philosphy, which hasn't happened in a long time.

Should I carry on with the SCC strategy, or should I give it up and resort to libraries, universities, etc. in all my cities?

[Marquis de Sodaq]

Campo, if you can get Copernicus' Observatory and then SIN's College, it's very much worth it. Even tho you've lost 50 turns of SSC production, it will still serve you for many more turns to come. It can speed your research for the rest of the game. One benefit of building it late is that you already know what its trade demands are, and can maybe meet them with your own cities. Have your other cities build caravans to meet the demands while you build the SSC.

[Shaka Naldur]

if i ask yes i´m saying that...

the poll is a little confusing