Early on, try to find city-states (30 Gold if you meet them first, and 15 Gold if you don't). Then try to sell your embassies to the AI for 1 Gold per turn. Remember though that this gives the AI knowledge of the location of your capital city, which could result in them coveting your lands. Think twice about giving embassies to warmongering civilizations (the Zulus, Mongols, Huns, etc.), especially on higher difficulties. Starting to trade with civilizations early on makes them friendlier and more likely to give you a Declaration of Friendship. Early alliances also allow you to sell your luxuries for 240 Gold instead of just 7 Gold per turn, which equals only 210 Gold (though this differs on slower or faster game speeds). Always start your game by building at least 1-2 Scouts on big continental maps and fewer on island maps to explore for new city locations, ancient ruins and meeting more city-states.
Civ 5 Early Game Strategyl
In the early game it's most important for your city to grow. Set your city on production focus and lock "growth" tiles (tiles with 3 or more Food, so named because each citizen consumes 2 Food). When a city grows, the new citizen will automatically work the highest production tile and you will get the benefit on the very same turn, because food is first consumed on a food tile on the following turn.
Your expansion should be located next to luxuries you don't have or settling a claim on an extremely good strategic position for further conquest or turtling. You should always aim at least for another luxury, because settling each city consumes 4 Happiness. It is often advisable to settle directly on luxuries that require a Camp (such as Furs and Truffles) or a Plantation (such as Cocoa, Citrus, Wine, and Cotton). Settling on a luxury delays the need for a Worker early on, since the city automatically works it with the appropriate tech; however, it denies your city the tile yields of the improved luxury. Camps and Plantations only yield additional Gold when improved whereas Mines and Quarries yield additional Production (a much more important resource); thus the opportunity cost of settling on a resource that requires a Mine or a Quarry is much higher.
The primary purpose of Workers early on is to increase the yield of tiles worked. Something very important to consider early on is that tile improvements can be changed later in the game. Your first focus should be around improving luxury resources you may have that you have the appropriate tech for. Improving tiles that can become Farms is equally important as this will significantly boost food. Improve tiles that do not require preliminary work, such as clearing a forest or a jungle, first so as to have the quickest yield from tiles. If you pursue the Liberty policy tree, be sure to unlock the policy that grants an additional Worker and 25% faster tile improvement speed, as this will help throughout the game.
Especially on higher difficulties, Workers are prohibitively expensive to produce. Do not be afraid to steal Workers from city-states or AI opponents early in the game. Doing so early often does not result in any meaningful diplomatic penalty later in the game while yielding you "free" Workers and potentially seriously setting the AIs back.
Religion is not a win condition, but it helps you achieve cultural victory because tourism has a greater effect on civilizations sharing your religion. If you want to have a strong religion game, you need to pick a civilization that has a religious theme (such as the Celts or Ethiopia) or have a city with a lot of workable desert tiles (especially oases and hills) while rushing the pantheon Desert Folklore (which makes each desert tile produce 1 Faith).
Great early game faith generation allows you to found the first religion, granting you access to all religious beliefs available. Generally, you want to fit the religious beliefs to your playstyle but the best are Tithe (for gold generation), Pagodas (buildings purchasable with faith that grant happiness), Religious Texts (faster spread of your religion) and Jesuit Education (can purchase scholarly buildings with faith). If you can't pick those, get some that fit with your overall plan.
This guide describes how to pull off conquest assisted victories on higher difficulties (and Pangaea/Continents maps), and lists four good units to do so with: the Composite Bowman (Classical Era), Crossbowman (Medieval Era), Cannon (Renaissance Era), and Artillery (Industrial Era). It also has more information describing how best to start (build order; Tradition, Liberty, Honour; 3 city early National College; rush Oracle; etc.) Finally, it also drops hints on how to manipulate city-states in your favour during wartime. This guide is massively helpful in bridging the gap to a higher difficulty.
This guide describes how to pull off a completely peaceful diplomatic victory using Piety to spread a religion all over the world, despite being behind in Demographics for a large part of the game and on Deity. Despite any bad start (with Greece, no rivers, spawning next to the Zulus), the guide demonstrates how it can still be pulled off on a Standard sized map. This strategy can likely be refitted for other map sizes and victories too. Because of the culture from a dominant religion, all the friendships and city-state alliances, you can take Rationalism easily, have multiple Research Agreements, and gain city-state science through Scholasticism, gaining a scientific victory. Cultural victory may be slightly harder with only 3 cities, but a "Sacred Sites" religious approach may work.
Every win condition requires you to have a good science game. More science gives you more advanced units, better cultural buildings, a better chance at more advanced wonders, and the opportunity to find important strategic resources before your opponents do.
The first tech to research is Pottery, as it gives you access to two very important buildings: the Shrine, which allows you to found a Pantheon and eventually a Religion; and the Granary, which aids your city's growth and leads to greater science output. Next comes Animal Husbandry, which allows you to see Horses on the map (aiding your expansion placements) and allowing you to build a Caravan. Sending Caravans between your own cities causes them to grow faster. If your cities are coastal, Sailing may be a better choice as a second technology as sea trade routes are always better than land ones. Next, research the appropriate technologies to improve the luxuries in your capital and expansions (e.g. Calendar, Trapping, Mining, or Masonry). Next, go for Writing to allow you to build a Library, increasing your science output. Build a Library in all of your cities so that you can build the ever-important National College upon researching Philosophy. If you neighbor a warmongering civilization, you may want to research Construction prior to Philosophy to allow you to build Composite Bowmen. To further increase your science output, research Education. Build Universities in all of your cities as quickly as possible, but hold off on building Oxford University. Then, head into Metal Casting and optionally Machinery. Metal Casting allows you to build the Workshop, an essential building that increases the production of your cities while Machinery allows you to build the Ironworks National Wonder that further increases production (allowing you to complete important buildings and wonders more quickly). If any of your high science output cities are located adjacent to mountains, research Astronomy and build an Observatory wherever possible. The next important technology is Scientific Theory, which allows you to build Public Schools. Next research Electricity. While you are doing that, begin building Oxford University. Leave it with one turn left until you finish researching Electricity, then complete it and use the free technology it gives you to unlock Radio. This will push you into the Modern Era very early in the game, usually giving you first pick of Ideology. Industrialization should be next, allowing you to build Factories to further increase production. Plastics is another very important technology because it gives you access to both Research Labs and Infantry, an important science building and powerful military unit respectively. From this point on, begin focusing on technologies relevant to your chosen victory.
After you complete Public Schools, or maybe a bit sooner, start saving Great Scientists. After you complete Research Labs in most cities, increase your science production to the max for 8 turns (employ all specialists, set cities to Science production). After those 8 turns are up, bulb all your available Scientists for free technology advancement. You get more science this way because bulbing Scientists adds an average science production of the last 8 turns (though this differs depending on the game speed).
The early game is the most important part of Civilization V, because if you fail early, you won't ever be able to win. The following are tested openers at least on Immortal difficulty (unless stated otherwise). They should all work on difficulties below that where they will be even more efficient. Click the expand button to open a strategy.
More than a complete strategy, because as always there are more possible ways how to play and win a game in Civilization V, there are some very useful tips to play on very small maps. Best if you have a lot of AI enemies, like 7 or more. (You have to add them in the advanced settings when creating a single player game.)
You have to play a map with a lot of water for lots of coastal city locations. Get the Messenger of the Gods (+2 Science from City Connections) pantheon, fill out Liberty and the first few policies in Exploration, only found coastal cities, go Order. Each city will start with 4 Production, 3 Science, and 1 Gold, which is huge in the mid-game. Each city only costs 2 Happiness to found, due to the immediate 1 Happiness from Harbors and 1 Happiness from the city connection. Also, every city will immediately get the 20% Production from railroads as soon as you research the technology, as well as an additional +3 Production and +1 Culture, Food, Gold, and Science if you adopt the Five-Year Plan and Party Leadership tenets. 2ff7e9595c
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