In what order do you build

bball768 · June 13, 2002, 23:16

By now you all probably think of me as some dumb ass newbie so what the heck
What do build first and continuing in what order also when do you stop and go to culture or stop settling
I ussually build spearman and archers while waiting for the pop to get up for a settler and then attack when my neighbor gets close. What you all think and what do you all do?

sugar daddy · June 14, 2002, 03:12

I build two warriors first (one for scouting and one for keeping the peace in the city(I play on emperor)), then I crank out a settler and maybe a worker, before I build a temple ( I nearly always play religious). I build settlers until there is no more land to settle and then build an army to expand further on the expense of my neighbouring civs, throwing in some temples and barracks on the way.

Early temples are good for getting a strong culture, which helps in keeping captured cities and gaining a few free ones, while a strong army will help in getting respect from the rest of the nations and of course destroying them after youve gained their respect.

Here is what I propose

1. Play the game and develop your own building order accordng to your own playing-style.

2. Read the strategy tips and threads (i.e. Cult of War) posted here before you post every thought that comes into your head.

I've played the game since civ 1 and I'm still learning and changing my tactics, so dont give up easily and you'll be rewarded.

Purple · June 14, 2002, 15:07

The following is a general guide, subject to modification depending on the Civ you are playing and the productivity of the terrain supporting your first city. I usually play builder style in the early game, gradually shifting to conquest-type strategy later on, so if you are a warmonger from the outset, this may not suit your style.

My capital city builds a couple of scouting units (warriors or their UU substitute), then a worker or even a settler if pop has reached size 3. After that it alternates defensive units, workers, and settlers.

The other cities build temples as soon as possible, i.e., when they are available, a temple is the first build in a new city. Defensive units come from already established cities. Once temples have been erected, these cities can shift to an sequence similar to the capital city's.

When you have several cities churning out settlers and defensive units, you can drop in an occasional improvement. Concentrate on those that produce culture. They add cultural points every turn, so the early ones contribute the most to your growing total. And at some point the contribution doubles.

I'm a little hazy on how this doubling works--I think it happens on the 1000th anniversary of construction. Since early game turns cover many years, this makes early improvements double their cultural output sooner in terms of game turns. (Can someone confirm or correct this?)

Rapid cultural growth is extremely important to cities that border a rival civ, since it determines the radius of your city borders and is a factor in determining whether a neighboring rival city will flip to your side.

Since I usually play a builder strategy, my military units are mostly defensive until the land grab phase of the game ends. At that point I begin to amass an offensive force, and I try to have a couple of extra settlers available to fill in gaps created by my destruction of enemy cities.

I don't usually try to build the early Great Wonders, but I may start one to have the production going in case a really valuable one becomes available.

Jawa Jocky · June 14, 2002, 16:36

Your only really trying to build settlers and warriors at first. Temples and barrack can be thrown in too, while you towns are too small. There are to many other factors (distance to next civs, size of continent, quality of land, etc.) to make a list you can stick with. Here is a sample that I losely follow.

w,w,s,w,w,s,t,s,w,w,b

build settlers and inbetween you can do 2 warriors, a temple, or barracks. After you have barrack you can change your 2 warrios to a single more powerful unit.

Tim_Hobbit · June 14, 2002, 16:50

Since population is important at the begining I tend to try to build a granary in the cities 1-4 as soon as possible, usually after the 1st settler.

Dr. Stiby · June 14, 2002, 18:04

Quote:

Originally posted by Tim_Hobbit
Since population is important at the begining I tend to try to build a granary in the cities 1-4 as soon as possible, usually after the 1st settler.

I personally don't care about the granaries. Your cities will soon turn size six anywy and stay there for years. I rather build a temple, I like to be a civ high in culture, and to prevent unhappiness.
Also I'll build barracks in a couple of cities preety soon. I want my horsemen to be vets!

SofaKing · June 14, 2002, 19:16

When you begin a game you don't have that may options. Your first goal is to scout the area, so you should build your fastest unit (scout, jaguar, or warrior). I don't think you should worry too much about defense early on because you have little to lose. However, after the you have two cities and have scouted the immediate vicinity, the build order depends on the terrain.

High food production / average-low shield - Breeder city: Build improvements that increase population growth (granaries/harbors). Try to time settler production to coincide with growth to pop 3. If time permits a temple or a library work well as culture generators. Don't bother with any other improvements until your done expanding.

High shield production / High shield - Wonder city: Build a temple to control happiness.

High-average shield / low food - Military city: Build a barracks and churn out garrisons for the other cities.

low shield / low food - Drone hive: Pump out workers.

This works for the intial expansion. Once complete, the Breeder city is easy to convert to a science and commercial center. Once you have all the workers you want, the drone city should get a barracks and produce defensive units (they tend to be cheaper), while the military city can concentrate on the more expensive attack units.

Coracle · June 14, 2002, 19:52

It varies according to the situation and your style, but I have always found not building temples quickly causes Happiness trouble later, esp. if I then get granaries or the Pyramids (granaries for all).

Blitzer · June 15, 2002, 20:20

Spearman > Temple > Library > Aqueduct > Cathedral > Marketplace > University > Bank

Capt Dizle · June 16, 2002, 00:42

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rinse repeat such is the sum total of the best effort of Sid Meier after 12 years of work on the civ series................

DeepO · June 16, 2002, 09:17

jt, You have a point. If you have a tech lead (or are even slightly behind) there is no need to use combined arms, just rushing works best. If you are far behind it's another story, or you must have tons of connan fodder laying around.

However, in what way is CivIII different? CivII was also a build howitzer > build howitzer > ... thing. And in Smac the same: you make that all-round, best defense, best offence unit and build it in hordes.

Back to the original question (which was about early building, I believe): build warriors until you can savely build a settler (spending one or two turns waiting for the pop to grow is possible), build temple, settler, and warriors+settler again. After that the situation changes what you want to build: if going for war, a barracks, if going for science a library, if going for culture anything with culture... and when you have the time, or cities that refuse to grow, build all the workers you can.

Cultural spearheads (cities surrounded by enemy territory) get their garrison from elsewhere, and spend everything on culture and workers or troops.

DeepO

seraphin · June 17, 2002, 01:22

i tend to play monarch or emperor with the standard-GL-tactic:
so i biuld:
cap:w,w,s,t,s,sp,sp,GL,b,l,X
2nd:w,s,t,s,sp,kol.,b,l,X
all others:w,worker/settler,t,worker,b,l, X

X=damn lots of knights

i normaly use a religious civ(egypt/japan)

Radiation Zero · June 17, 2002, 10:50

I find I rartely have problems with unhappiness, and cultureflipping doesn't really become a problem untill space runs low.

I like Granaries, I find they make a tremendous difference when you need to expand quickly, wich makes the Pyramids very important to my play style.

Blitzer · June 17, 2002, 17:35

Quote:

rinse repeat such is the sum total of the best effort of Sid Meier after 12 years of work on the civ series................

Any jackass can build 4 cities and then 600 mounted warriors on a small pangea... or even a large one. I'd like to see you try it on a huge map, or even a continents game.