Just started

[Nomes586]

Started 2 games first was just to learn and watch a u tub video. Learned some but not much.
What are the best units to start producing Combatants, Settlers, or what would be the best way to go at start?
And do I keep combatants in all my cities?

[grognardgary]

You need combatants to begin with at least 3 to begin with plus the one you start with. other wise the barbs will get you.

[Exemplar]

i generally start warrior, but whether my second production is more military depends on need. sometimes it's scout, sometimes it's builder, or if i can reasonably tell i'm isolated and i have 2 pop second might be settler.

whether you keep early military in cities would also depend on need, but generally "not usually". barbarians need to be aggressively sought and killed. warriors can soak a lot on hills or in jungle/forest, particularly if you can time their promotion well. if you can be sure no barbarian are spawning within 8 or 9 tiles you're good to make a scout to go out further, but don't run your warriors out 12+ tiles unless you're making more at home.

[jmsand1]

My first 3 builds were usually Slingers. Helps me get a kill by a Slinger, which gives me a tech boost for Archery. As soon as I get the Archery tech I bump up those three Slingers to Archers, which give me a tech boost for... something... I can't remember off hand... Machinery maybe? After the Slingers are built, I build a Builder unless one was acquired from a Village, then should have enough population to build a Settler.
Having a unit garrison a city is a good idea when other Civs start building near you.

[Evrach]

I depends on many factors like map size, type, difficulty and game speed, but you won't need fighters so early on ; it's better to wait for Agoge to build your first ones.
Scouts are your priority. Scouts are knowledge, map revealing to know where to put your second city and they're you first golden age condition. So 1 or 2 scouts should almost always be your first production. Then you'll need settlers to expand fast.
Usual competitive BO is scout -> scout -> settler -> settler. But it can change a lot according to what happen in the game. It's a game about adaptation. Adaptation to your land, adaptation to your enemies and to the situation.

[❌️▶️👱]

I started playing 4 Feb on Deity. I have 9 started games, 7 of which the AI rushed me but beat all except the one by Eleanor. I have completed one game winning by domination. I have also added Cheat Menu as a last resort to acquire badly needed resources if the civs nearest me have access to strategic resource that I don't have. So far I have not used it yet in actual game but used it on experimental games.

Despite being the target of AI rushes. I now tend to add slinger (and look for barb to kill to get the archery boost), scout, slinger, worker. I go for settler the moment I have 2 population (replacing what is already being built). Continue to add some more units and settler again the moment the pop had reached 2. For my third settler I usually wait until I could promote Magnus to have the Provision so building settler will not reduce the population.

Build enough defenses and expect for the worse, which depends on many factors including luck.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3173469313
Kristina declared war on me despite her inferior force.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3173469451
Pedro joined the war.

Anyway, I was able to raze Pedros's Salavador da Bahia and captured a settler. I was aiming for Sau Paulo when I noticed Kristina's warrior showed up on the radar near my weak second city so I have to peace out immediately with Pedro. As expected, Kristina surprised-war me again but my reinforcement reached my city on time.

[colostmy4]

If your not starting at a high level such as deity, then I would suggest building a scout first, then maybe a builder or settler. I focus mainly on getting 2 more cities made with settlers from the capitol before I build any districts or wonders in the capitol. I usually play with barbarian mod that allows to recruit from barbarian camps, and get my units from there while I build my first couple cities, but if not playing with that mod then I usually build a slinger before I build a settler. It really all depends on various factors such as map size, level of play, number of other civs, your own style of play, and numerous other factors.

[Nomes586]

Thanks for the info. There seems to be a lot more to this game than I thought there would be when I first thought about to play it.
A lot to learn and a lot to manage and a lot to keep track of while playing.
Thanks for the help.

[Nomes586]

I have 2 computers that were hooked to Steam and while I was playing I wnated to look up some info about it on Steam while I was playing on the other one. A little time later I had a crash on the computer I was playing VI on. Kinda irritated me, shut my VI computer off ond restarted it. lost the game and started a new game with VI decided to quit an hr. later looked at the other computer that I wasn't playing the game on and it had the orignial game on it, I think from the point my first game crashed. It seemed to have loaded on the other computer I was looking for info on Steam.
The VI computer is the one I play games on the other is a laptop that I look up things on while playing on the other, I hope this is worded so it is understandable.
I just thought it was strange that the other computer had the game on it with out me starting the game with it just on Steam with it.

[Robo]

I dont play on Deity because its annoying - but I play on one level below.

90% of time I start with scout - exploring is super important for trading partners, finding settling spots and wonders.

Then I follow with at least 1 slinger and then it varies based on barbarians, your neighbors, etc.

There is not an infinite answer to opener - you can check for guides on youtube.

And regarding army size - when I expect early war 3 slingers -> archers + 1 warrior (and 1 scout) are usually enough to defend and counterattack to get some cities or even wipe the AI.

On the other hand for example the game I am now playing I had to forward settle an AI (only 2 sources of horses) and knew it will come. What I underestimate was that the AI will have citystate ally and they will throw at my city 8 warriors and 3 archers.

At this point every small thing matters - settling the city on hill and having only 1 direction to attack the city which was not over river made the difference. And of course having a worker which I used to chop more warriors to be able to protect the city from Siege.

What I am trying to say - there is not a definite answer. You have to adapt and also the correct decision often needs you to have the experience to know how AI works for example.

[grognardgary]

Suffice it to say that the game is very different on Marathon and fast time add huge map to that and tactics and strategies change completely. I always play marathon and huge map my first three builds are slinger best available melee and slinger I explore actively with them and kill barbs as I come across them note among the things you are more likely to get from goody huts are builders and scouts so I don't usually build them early. Fourth build is a settler and then having some what clarified the map and finished my attack force I start my conquest regime while building slingers to defend my cities Note about the only things to build on marathon for the 1st hundred turns or so are troops and the monument.

[Nomes586]

I figured if you are fighting AI then even if you started 2 games with the same ticks both would be different. I use to have a chess game that was AI and same thing there. I guess that is what I will like about this.
It just seems like there so much to learn on different thing in the game it will take time to learn,

[gdshore]

I have 11000 hours in game, unless your play is at Chieftan or Prince level you need to build defence first. That means combat units, of late i build two slingers then a builder, then a holy site and then a scout. While a scout explores faster than a warrior (base melee unit) it can not defend itself let alone take out a Barbarian camp. I explore mostly with warriors and archers, units that can defend and attack.

[Evrach]

You can have 20000 hours and still be a terrible player though

[Robo]

Originally posted by grognardgary:

I always play marathon

I found marathon only fun when I wanna play full warmonger domination map - if you go for science or culture its just pressing End round to no avail trying to not fall asleep :) But everyone likes different things.

For similar reason Normal speed feels too fast - units get obsolete before you get them to frontline and researches take 1 or 2 turns. Epic feels best to me, even tho with big empire the research still goes insanely fast towards the end (if you focus science which you kinda have to).