Early turns: building orders, research, taxes

[Tiberius]

I think it's important to agree on the build orders for our capitol, at least for the early turns.
From my experience it should be something like:

1. Warrior
2. Warrior
3. Warrior
4. Settler
5. Numidian Merc.

The next things to build depend very much on discovered techs, encountered civs, map, etc, but probably the following items:
barracks, merc, settler, temple, merc, settler, ...

Speaking in turns, it will look aproximately like:
t1: founding Legopolis, tax slider to 80% science, worker moves to build the 1st mine
t5: first mine ready
t6: 1st warrior
t7: first road
t10: second warrior
t11: border expansion, 2nd mine
t13: 3rd warrior
t18: Bronze Working
t20: 1st settler; starting building our 1st mercenary
t25: founding our 2nd city

OK, this is already too much. 25 turns means next year

We should agree on this before the game starts!

[Odin]

Research suggestion:


Isolated (on landmass by ourselves):
1. Pottery
2. Ceremonial Burial
3. Bronze Working
4. Writing
5. Map Making
6. Warrior Code
7. Mysticism
8. Mathamatics
9. Currency
10. Liturature

Near other team:
1. Bronze Working
2. Writing
3. Pottery
4. Ceremonial Burial
5. Warrior Code
6. Mysticism
7. Code of Laws
8. Mathamatics
9. Currency
10. Literature

[Kloreep]

Looks good. BW should be the first tech we research regardless; if we know we're on our own continent (or rather, island ) during the first few turns, we're in deep trouble.

Tiberius, I'm curious why you chose 80% science. What's the difference between this and 100%?

[Tiberius]

I don't know

OK, on 80% we have +1 gold. But researching on 100% is OK, as long as we don't want gold in the early turns. (or am I miscalculating something?)
I'm not sure what the difference is in research turns between 80% and 100%. I'll try this at home.

Odin, do you mind copying your Research suggestions in the Tech Tree thread? We're discussing the research strategy there. This thread is for the early turns, which means 2 techs at most.

[Jack_www]

Well in early game I like to slide science down to 20% for a while to get cash into bank, then when I can get a tech in 10 turns or something around there I raise the science rate.

[Kloreep]

Originally posted by Jack_www
Well in early game I like to slide science down to 20% for a while to get cash into bank, then when I can get a tech in 10 turns or something around there I raise the science rate.

This is usually my SP strategy as well. But I doubt anyone's willingly going to trade us the tech for our UU, and we need a rush defense ASAP if we start near someone; thus, I think we should 100% research Bronze Working. We may be able to relax after that, but we need to at least have the capability for Mercs quickly.

[Jack_www]

Well I dont mind putting it high, but 100% might not be necessary, 80 or 70 percent might give it to us in the same time.

[Sharpe]

I agree with adjusting the rates so that we get 1 gold per turn to start with.

I think that we should start building settlers to be completed as soon as our population allows it (size 3 or 4 capital city) as long as we have 1 or 2 scout warriors.

I agree with mining early, except if we are in plains area where we need to irrigate to grow.

Bronze working should be our first tech, as we might need our UU asap, and might need iron working quickly too.

[Tiberius]

I played a few games (just the early turns) with different settings.

Generally, I was able to build my first settler after the 3rd or 4th warrior. In every single testgame I played, I finishing the first settler after the discovery of BW, so a warrior-warrior-warrior-settler-num. merc. order should work.

Putting the science rate on 100% gave me Bronze Working in about 23 turns (IIRC), while on 80% it was 2 or 3 turns more. Te difference in money was 15-20 gold. Should we need that 20 gold and delay BW with 3 turns, we go for 80% science. Otherwise, we should go for 100% (until the discovery of BW, at least).

Since we need BW ASAP, I think that any science rate that would be lower than 80% is out of question.

[vondrack]

The War-War-War-Set-NuM build order is fine with me.

I'd aim for the lowest science rate resulting in a balanced budget (0 gpt net income), which will probably be something like 80%. Let's check the slider every turn then to see if and how it is possible to adjust the time to research BW.

[Odin]

If we are stuck alone on a landmass research will be crucial, otherwise... we might have G of W warships blasting ports.