How do I improve my early game?

[ColaBB]

Even on third difficulty I get my ♥♥♥♥ pushed in so hard by the other civs and I can't see how they do it. I always end up having to come way from behind and use war to keep the other civs down not being able to build any wonders.

[tempest.of.emptiness]

What I usually do is build worker, slinger, settler. My starting warrior explores my area looking for a spot to settle my first city (and, ideally, trigger the inspiration for Foreign Trade and the eureka for Astrology). The first worker improves three resources to trigger the inspiration for Craftsmanship. Once the slinger is out, it and my warrior converge on a barbarian camp to get the inspiration for Military Tradition and the eureka for Archery (and progress toward the eureka for Bronze Working). Once the settler is out I found a second city (which helps get the inspiration for Early Empire sooner).

What happens next depends on circumstances. If I have a close neighbor then I build an army for defense/offense, and start looking for opportunities to capture settlers. If I am beset by barbarians then I get walls and archers and crush them. If religion is a priority then I build holy sites in my cities. If I have room to expand without competition then I start pushing out settlers. And so on.

This is on King difficulty, so while it may not be good enough advice for higher difficulties it should be sufficient for you for now. If there are any particular points you are struggling with then if you explain your situation in more detail someone can probably give you more specific advice.

[Darakin]

I'd recommend starting with a scout. Tribal villages and being the first to contact a city state give large early game boosts.

[ColaBB]

I think my main issue is getting beat out on wonders on almost every one I try and I don't get where they get the resources so fast to just spam wonders in their low level cities. It's like I see opponents have 6 farms, a distract and a wonder when they have like two cities at best after like 10 turns. Obviously that's over reacting but it seems they are double as productive as me.

[cerberusiv]

Don't worry about wonders, you don't need them and very few are actually worth building - unlike previous civ games.

Prince is a level playing field, above that the AI starting bonuses - techs, extra settlers and units, reduced production requirements - get bigger with every difficulty level. Best to concentrate on getting 3-5 good location cities out, develop them then take what you need from the AI civs.

[taylormarian9]

What level are you playing on? If it's Emperor, I'd suggest dropping down to King or even Prince. As for wonders, I wouldn't even try for Stonehenge; the AI always picks that up.

[ColaBB]

I guess I need to consider where I put down cities? I always put down my first settler where he stands as I'm afraid I'll get behind even more if I wander around with my settler.

[gimmethegepgun]

A couple of turns won't kill you. If your starting spot doesn't look fantastic try taking a bit of a look around.
If there's terrain in the way try to stand on a hill so you can see with that excellent 3 vision range that the Settler has.

Also, not only are most wonders not worth building, but it's immensely punishing if you fail to complete it, as you get nothing whatsoever for the time you spent on it. Unless you're China you shouldn't even bother with most of them.

[Paulytnz]

If you just want to build wonders for the funsies of it, don't think of it as a race to build them. Kill your oppnts, raze their cities and then you can build those wonders again that were in that city.

You wont be able to raze capital cities tho unless you play around with the game files.

[ColaBB]

I guess it is mostly for the funsies I guess, so many wonders I haven't gotten around to building because I either get beat or don't risk it because I know I'll get beat.

[Awen]

I would start at least one scout, two if your uninproved tile production for the city is high and the barbarian situation allows.

Don't sweat not being able to build wonders, the AI gets crazy bonuses to all yields the hire the difficulty setting.

[Paulytnz]

You could always lower the amount of civs in the game too. The less civs = less competition building those wonders. Some should sneak through, then later on you can wipe out their cities and rebuild the rest.

[IDerpedYourMom]

You can build wonders or military units. Let the AI build the wonders and capture them with your military units. Or you can build the wonders and let the AI slow down the game with their military units. Your choice.

[Twelvefield]

引用自 gimmethegepgun：

A couple of turns won't kill you.

There's a lot of discussion on this, but it's old. Someone did a statistical analysis of hundreds of starts and found that you're better off staying put... mostly.

OP, if you're getting destroyed in early wars, it's because you are fighting early wars. Try to avoid war unless a) you can win in a handful of turns and/or b) you have a civ that specializes in early war. Otherwise you will fall behind the non-warring civilizations quickly.

I also prefer scout-warrior-settler-worker as my staring order.

[The Yeen Queen]

引用自 Twelvefield：

引用自 gimmethegepgun：

A couple of turns won't kill you.

There's a lot of discussion on this, but it's old. Someone did a statistical analysis of hundreds of starts and found that you're better off staying put... mostly.

Yeah, I'd say unless a better tile is only 1 turn away so you can settle on turn 2, plop down where you are.

[tempest.of.emptiness]

I would say that if you are falling behind then losing extra turns moving your settler to what you hope will turn out to be a better location is probably not going to help your situation. If your starting location (or a neighboring tile that you can get to and settle on the first turn) is not good enough then you should just restart. Leave delaying your first city to players who want more of a challenge.