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After reading all the complaints on how the AI spreads like lice on a feral cat, I wondered why I never had that problem. It was only after reading some of the "favoured start strategies" that I realised why. I did my start COMPLETELY differently.
City 1:
- Make sure there is at least ONE super food square.
- Irrigate the super food square (you can mine it later if you want). You want QUICK growth at the start. Quick settlers on the ground mean exponential growth later.
- Expansionists build queue (remember you get a scout): worker, scout, warrior, settler, settler.
- Non-expansion build queue: scout, worker, scout, warrior, settler, settler.
GOLDEN GOAL NUMBER 1!
With the two scouts find super food squares ready to settle.
GOLDEN GOAL NUMBER 2!
Workers build roads to that area for quick deployment. After roads to those two areas move workers back for more irrigation.
City 2+:
- After founding you want quick growth.
- Build queue: worker, worker, warrior, settler, settler.
- Remember, you have a super food square so it keeps up. Irrigate it quickly.
All cities
After getting through the initial build queues to two settlers, each city does the following:
- Build queue: Temple, Granary. We want culture to grow as well as a granary for quick growth.
By the time the granary is finished in the first three cities, you should have the next few cities producing the two initial settlers. Split the granary cities into quick growth cities, and slow growth cities.
- Quick grow cities build queue: settler, settler, settler (back to size 1/2).
- Slow grow cities build queue: worker, worker, worker (back to size 1).
Once those cities are back to size 1 I build the following (defense needed by now): defender, attacker, wonder. (Pyramids is a good one first up for the granarys).
All cities other than the first 3:
After building the settlers/workers back to size 1/2, I set the city to build: defender, attacker, improv, improv.
Once the two improvs are complete, build settlers/workers back to size 1/2.
ETC!
By following this method, by the year 0, I've had twice as many cities as the next AI. My first three cities all super-food squares.
Notes about this method:
- You WILL need to build courthouses to stem corruption, though it's not all that bad since the cities are kept down to sizes 1-8.
- You keep your culture growing for the all important filling in of gaps.
- Your army grows with the size of your empire.
- You end up with HEAPS of workers. You can spread roads/irrigation/mines around like maggots on rotten meat.
- You can get twice as many cities than the next best AI.
Good luck, hope this is usefull.
City 1:
- Make sure there is at least ONE super food square.
- Irrigate the super food square (you can mine it later if you want). You want QUICK growth at the start. Quick settlers on the ground mean exponential growth later.
- Expansionists build queue (remember you get a scout): worker, scout, warrior, settler, settler.
- Non-expansion build queue: scout, worker, scout, warrior, settler, settler.
GOLDEN GOAL NUMBER 1!
With the two scouts find super food squares ready to settle.
GOLDEN GOAL NUMBER 2!
Workers build roads to that area for quick deployment. After roads to those two areas move workers back for more irrigation.
City 2+:
- After founding you want quick growth.
- Build queue: worker, worker, warrior, settler, settler.
- Remember, you have a super food square so it keeps up. Irrigate it quickly.
All cities
After getting through the initial build queues to two settlers, each city does the following:
- Build queue: Temple, Granary. We want culture to grow as well as a granary for quick growth.
By the time the granary is finished in the first three cities, you should have the next few cities producing the two initial settlers. Split the granary cities into quick growth cities, and slow growth cities.
- Quick grow cities build queue: settler, settler, settler (back to size 1/2).
- Slow grow cities build queue: worker, worker, worker (back to size 1).
Once those cities are back to size 1 I build the following (defense needed by now): defender, attacker, wonder. (Pyramids is a good one first up for the granarys).
All cities other than the first 3:
After building the settlers/workers back to size 1/2, I set the city to build: defender, attacker, improv, improv.
Once the two improvs are complete, build settlers/workers back to size 1/2.
ETC!
By following this method, by the year 0, I've had twice as many cities as the next AI. My first three cities all super-food squares.
Notes about this method:
- You WILL need to build courthouses to stem corruption, though it's not all that bad since the cities are kept down to sizes 1-8.
- You keep your culture growing for the all important filling in of gaps.
- Your army grows with the size of your empire.
- You end up with HEAPS of workers. You can spread roads/irrigation/mines around like maggots on rotten meat.
- You can get twice as many cities than the next best AI.
Good luck, hope this is usefull.
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