Building Early Improvements

[Theseus]

Granaries for pumps.

Barracks for military camps and cities.

Walls where needed.

I love temples, but unless religious I'd rather depend on luxuries early (Remember the 1337 challenge? 3-tile spacing and two nearby luxuries made for a Roman powerhouse).

That's it for the early game, except maybe the Colossus if I've got a great site. My next priorities will be markets everywhere possible, aquaducts for high food production cities not on rivers, and libraries if scientific.

[cumi]

Originally posted by skizzed
I build only settlers in all my cities until I reach another civ. I find defenders are unnecessary as the AI isn't too aggressive early on.

I would prefer to use at least worriors for explorig or eliminating the destructive barbarians.

I build archers in my last game instead of worriors or spearmen. I used them for archer-rush later, that was quite succesful (eliminating India).

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Konquest02


This strategy is mostly useful if you are playing an expansionnist civilization. Since you pass most of your time building a granary, you quickly fall behind the average number of cities of all the civilizations, a prerequisite for getting settlers from a hut. By making one of your first builds a granary, you maximise your chances to get a settler from a goody hut. Those chances are even higher if you use and exp. civ.

I did this in one of my games with the Arabs and got 2 settlers from huts, before building my first settler in my capital. With that kind of a boost, I managed to pull ahead easily, even in the ancient age.

--Kon--

Well, yeah, 2 free settlers will do that for ya.

I typically go with 3-4 warriors, then the granary. If I'm non-industrious, I might build a 2nd worker first (depending on the food situation... if I have a lot, I will build the extra worker). The warriors run around popping huts & meeting other civs while I build my granary. I find that getting a settler from a hut is not really all that uncommon if - like you said - I fall behind the average # of cities per civ. And then, if my explorers can manage to bop an AI settler, I'm off to the races.

-Arrian