How to Play the Early Game

[PrivateXTC]

I'm very rusty on Civ, played Civ 5 a lot back in the day and knew the game inside and out but that was a long time ago so after getting this I realised I forgot how best to play the early game.

Things like how many new cities should you rush to build early on and what the general build order is the most optimal early?

Asking about early as from what I remember that's the most crucial thing to get right.

[colostmy4]

This game is a little different than Civ 5. How you play really depends on your personal strategy, map size and type, level, and number of opponents. I usually play on a huge with a large number of opponents and generally try to build 3 cities right away, but because of the occasional tendency to get swarmed by barbarians, you need to have develop some military units as well. I play with mod that allows me to hire some barbarians and use those to grow my early military to that I can start my first 3 cities. I play on Prince level so you may have to try a different strategy for higher levels. I also try to make my first site a religious district so I can get a religion and the benefits that come with it, but some others say the find little use in founding a religion. Just try different things until you find what works for you.

[robert.steven.marshall]

Originally posted by PrivateXTC:

I'm very rusty on Civ, played Civ 5 a lot back in the day and knew the game inside and out but that was a long time ago so after getting this I realised I forgot how best to play the early game.

Things like how many new cities should you rush to build early on and what the general build order is the most optimal early?

Asking about early as from what I remember that's the most crucial thing to get right.

I kind of echo what the other guy said. My strategy varies massively depending on who I'm playing with. I play on Deity and a lot of my plays are about extremes such as rushing a particular wonder/early religion/early war or very cautious openings so I don't get destroyed early on. But that is in part because you usually start with an idea of your win condition in mind.

I recommend getting the map tacks mod so that you can plan out your first city/later city positioning (also the trade mod but that's not relevant to this question). You might find you naturally have a district or wonder that stands out.

Otherwise you probably won't go too wrong with an early scout (to find out what's around you, get early envoys with city states and get tribal villages) or slinger (slight exploration + defence + fire the eureka for archery making for cheap upgrade). If you've kind of scouted around your city in a circle then you will at that point have a bit of a better idea of what's near you (and the map type you chose should inform you too because on archipeligo you are going to have less to explore than on a huge pangea/continents map). Depending on the land/civs around you will heavily inform next decisions. You might naturally feel hemmed in/under threat or have a very clear place to settle an epic city that you could lose out on if you wait or have no one around you so you can take your time. I think most people open by building a couple of units.

Early monument can be useful (culture tends to outweigh early science), I tend to wait on a builder until I have the tech I need to use all three charges and sometimes just buy it once the right tech is fired.

I usually think about:
-Early religious district (early pantheon/faith is good) V No religion (late religion is not much use)
-Early settlers V Government plaza + Magnus settler promotion (don't lose pop) + Ancestral Hall (50% increase settler production + free builder when building a city) V Pumping out military units for an early war (If I've chosen a Civ with good early units)
-Is there an absolutely game-changing wonder I want to rush? (generally if you're not sure about wonders then I'd concentrate on cities and districts because getting pipped to it can screw you over)

Otherwise I'd just bear in mind that any cities you do build will probably require units to defend them from Civs and Barbs pillaging. It's quite easy to get overstretched and pay the price if your cities outnumber your units.

[grognardgary]

This is the first civ game I have ever played in which your strategy is so utterly dependent on your early game starting situation. Are you stuck in the middle of a bunch of other civs? That requires one strategy do you have a lot of thing that speed pop growth How bout production? Explore explore explore. Build troops for at least the first three Builds,

[PrivateXTC]

Thanks for the replies. I've been rushing 2 cities early so far but gonna change that to 3 as a base line and focus on a few more military units early.

Interesting thing mentioned about monuments and how culture outweighs science. Being new I've been looking into all the science stuff for my strategy not because I always want to but I assumed it was like Civ 5 where science basically means everything. This is certainly feeling a lot different from 5 in good ways so far.

[ayrtep]

Everything depends on everything. Different leaders and civs have complete different objects and play styles. Plus the map is also very important, whet techs do you need to improve near by luxuries how close are the other civs. Do you have lots of forests for chopping or not? Are you on an island?

So a guide on how to play? Be flexible.

culture vs science -> very dependant on the civ and leader.

But if your not sure on what to do I would say you can't go wrong with beelining writing, either before or after getting your closets luxuries improved.