I always found a good base starting strategy (dependent on your starting location of course) was to build a barracks right off. By the time it is done, you’ll have a few techs finished as well as a city population of around 3. Then build a settler, followed by a worker. Get that 2nd city going and a road between them for a boost in trade income. Don’t build a 2nd worker until your 2nd city is at a population of 3, then build another settler for a 3rd city.
I usually do this until I have around 8 cities, covering most of the continent. There is the chance you’ll get attacked and slaughtered fairly early in the game with this strategy however. If you succeed you’ll be a powerhouse by around the medieval age. If you fail, by that point you won’t be very far in so restarting isn’t too painful.
Seriously, though, I’d say about 90% of the time I start with a worker. The exceptions would be when:
I start with Fishing and seafood is nearby (initial build = work boat)
I start with Mysticism (and no food techs) and want to go for an early religion (initial build = warrior or scout)
I feel like playing an ultra-aggressive start (initial build = warrior spam, or even better, Quechua spam)
Of course, I don’t play MP, so that certainly changes things. I usually play at Prince level / Epic speed. I could play at a higher level if I wanted to, but that means a lot more micro-management, and that’s not a lot of fun when you’ve got a good buzz on…
The unhappiness due to being crowded is basically the game’s way of making you have to decide at what point population is really hindering your city rather than helping it. Instead of the optimal strategy being to get as many people as you can, you have to think if that extra guy + one more unhappiness is really worth it.
To prevent city growth, select a city on the world map. On the bottom console slightly to the right there are several icons that let you select what your city will focus on (like food, production, technology, etc). One of these icons will make the city focus on not gaining population.
I play on Monarch which gives me about a 50/50 chance of surviving the game and about a 10% chance of winning. It is only fun if it is a challenge.
Thanks for all the help and comments everybody.
I typically time my first settler to be in sync with developing bronze working and thus discovering sources of copper. My second city is a mining town that way. On my current game though I rushed to masonry and forest chopped the Great Wall wonder. Wow, that is a bonus. It almost seems unfair. No barbarian attacks on the continent for the entire game? That is a big game changer. I’m waiting to see how it plays out. After all, come 1000 BC my entire focus is holding off the first big barbarian invasion.
I finished my first game btw. I made it to 1980, hanging around the middle of the pack, took out two other civs in the Ancient Era. But I got totally wiped out by the leading civ who attacked out of the blue in 1975. I was woefully underprepared at the time. I held out for as long as possible. It was fun. I’m finding it harder to make money in BTS. Or rather I find it is easier to get stretched thin rather quickly. Any tips?
I’m undecided on whether or not I like the spy stuff. Toward the end of the last game I was spending considerable time managing the spy business. It seemed a bit much. I also don’t like how one can build Scotland Yard in the Ancient Era.
The Fall from Heaven mod sounds cool. How hard is it on the system? If I run the game at anything above medium quality I start to have serious lag late in the game.
One thing about Civ3 that drove me batty was cleaning pollution. I was quite happy that they took this tedium away in Civ4 with the introduction of the health system.
But then the expansions came along, and with them the espionage system… and basically the tedium was put back into the game, in a different form. I quickly got tired of the AI’s stupid spies tearing up my improvements and destroying buildings every turn, so I modded spies out of the game altogether. Much less of a headache that way.
I recently played a game of BtS over the holidays, so I’ll add my 2 cents. I usually play at the level that is supposed to put the AI and the player on equal footing. (I can’t remember what its called right now)
As others have said I don’t build a worker or settler off he bat, because the city won’t grow while they are being built. I’ll build a scout (if I have the tech “Hunting”) or a warrior. If I can found one of the starting religions I’l go for it, if not I try to get masonry ASAP so I can build the great wall, while trying to balance my economy and expansion.
The GW actually handed me my last game. Shortly after it was built, a barb uprising occured. (I was playing India). I had a decent sized continent shared only with Ramses. The barbs took his capitol! Ramses had only 2 cities. I was curious so I sent my wandering warrior to see what was happening. (he was nearby when the barbs attacked, but out of LoS of the city). When I got there thebes was in revolt, owned by barbarians but with no defenders! So I took it. That left Ramses at the early game with one small city and no workers. It was easy then to colonize the entire continent leaving the crappy parts for Ramses, who vassalized himself to me as soon as he could. By the time I had made contact with other civs I had a large advantage. They were all on two other continents but warring with each other. I had my continent and no one to huinder my growth. Ramses was so far behind me tech wise it would have been instant death for him to unvassalise himself.