Priorities: TIME -> INFORMATION -> SPACE -> MILITARY -> HAPPINESS -> FOOD -> PRODUCTION -> GREAT SCIENTIST ->
SCIENCE -> CULTURE (fall after mid-game) -> GRT ARTIST -> GRT WRITER -> FAITH (diminishing return) -> GOLD -> GRT ENGINEER ->
STRATEGIC RESOURCES -> VOTES/CITY STATES (CULTURE, FOOD, HAPPINESS, MILITARY) -> GR GENERAL -> TOURISM -> GR MUSIC -> GRT MERCHANT
The truth about Civ is, if you get the early game right, you can go from King to Deity difficulty
just like that. I’ve got 6 tips to show you how
I’m PC J Law, from twitch.tv/pc_j_law (link in the description below), and in this video we’re
learning how to beat the early game, and set you up for success. We’ll also discuss my “top tip
that nobody tells you” that’s one of my secrets to bossing it.
Let’s go…
I’m going to break this down into a few phases:
1. The Starting Phase: What to do before building settlers and how long to wait before
building them
2. The Settling Phase: How to guide settlers into place and what to build first in your
expansions
3. The Post-Settle Phase: What to build in the capital to kickstart your empire
4. Staying On Track: How to maximise your early game time
5. How To Explode Your Growth: This is the secret to Deity
6. My Top Tip That Nobody Tells You
1) The Starting Phase
1
2) The Settling Phase
2
3) The Post-Settle Phase
3
Mid CTA -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4
4) Staying On Track
4
5) How To Explode Your Growth
4
6) My Top Tip That Nobody Tells You
5
Ending
5
1) The Starting Phase
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Start by settling your city and working the highest food tile you can. You at least want to
be working a 2+ food tile, and if you have to, it can be a 2 food 0 production tile. If you
don’t have any, you moved your capital and made a bad choice - start again.
When you grow to pop 2, again, put your citizen on a 2+ food tile, and grow to pop 3
Next is simple. It starts with your capital’s build order.
Scout, Scout, Shrine (for Tradition)
○ Scout, Scout, Monument for Liberty
Bad/Situational Bulding
Caravansary
East India Company
Hospital/Medical Labs
Windmills*
Opera House/Museum
Forge
Seaports*
Stables*
Mints*
Hydro Plants*
Garden (useful if built in all cities)
Heroic Epic (useful for frigates)
Military Academy
Aqueducts
Nuclear/Solar Power Plants
National Epic
Musician Guild
Grand Temple
Tourism Building
Cathedral/Monasteries
*useful if
improving >= 2
tiles
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Only 1 Scout if you’re playing Large Islands or Archipelago, replace that with a
Monument or Worker. Liberty is not recommended on Islands or Archipelago
unless you’re Polynesia
I’m not going to discuss Liberty from this point onwards. Contrary to popular belief,
Liberty is not bad. However, Liberty is a “high risk, high reward” play. On the right land,
which is about 5% of the time, Liberty is hands down the best tree
○ But 95% of the time it is much worse than Tradition
○ Tradition ALWAYS results in an empire that can beat Deity, Liberty only
sometimes will. So I recommend, pick Tradition, please, until you’re experienced
enough
Now, if there is no good pantheon that you want, I recommend subbing out the Shrine for
a Worker
So, let’s make a small change:
Scout, Scout
○ And then we have
○ 1. Shrine (if you have a decent pantheon), 2. Worker, 3. Granary (2+ granary
tiles), 4. Monument
○ Work down the list from top to bottom asking yourself if they will be useful. If no,
don’t build it, and go to the next one down
Once you’re at pop 3, you want to enter the Settling Phase. Unless you got a pop ruin, or
your reasoning took you to a Granary, growing to pop 4 is detrimental because it makes
you wait too long
The reason we needed those two scouts, is to get all the ancient runs and to discover
city spots for the settling phase. Please try not to get them killed
○ If you can, after a few turns of scouting, camp one of your scouts/warrior next to
a city state, waiting to steal their worker
2) The Settling Phase
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You should have discovered how many unique luxuries you have. On Deity, each unique
luxury means 1 Tradition city. If I can get up to 4 total, I’m building 4 cities. You’re aiming
for 4-5 as Tradition. 3 is usually not quite enough unless each of those cities can blast to
25 population
Once you’ve finished your Scout, Scout, Thing, queue up all your Settlers. Don’t stop
until you’ve built them all. No gaps unless it’s for a worker or you ran out of military units!
○ If you want to know how to maximise settler production, I’ll link another of my
guide videos in the description
○ If you want to know how to settle good cities, I’ll link that video too
The next trick is, how do I get all these expands down without losing them to barbarians?
That’s where the Scouts and the Warrior come in. This is why it’s so crucial to build 2
Scouts
○ You need to make sure you have a fully healed unit ready at your capital for
when the Settler is finished. Guide the settler underneath the unit, to it’s spot and
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plant. If you’re expecting heavy barb trouble, use the Warrior. If you’re not, the
Scout will do
■ The trick is NEVER TO ATTACK a unit. Only take hits, don’t deal them
out. Your unit will last more turns if you don’t attack, and it’s the turn count
that determines if your settler gets in place or not. If you can’t go through,
go around!
■ As we say in England: “there’s only one way to beat them - get round the
back!”
Finally, what to build first in your expansions. As Tradition, the Monument (which is
usually the top priority) is free. Always start with Granary, unless you have a tonne of
good bonus resources, when you can start with a worker
○ Expand build order is: Granary, (Worker/Trade Route), Library (timed with your
slowest Library for National College). Libraries only need to be built in time for
National College. If another city is being slow, take the opportunity to squeeze in
a Worker/Trade route before the Library
Now some people may suggest Worker first, but I respectfully disagree. If your city has
barely any bonus resources, which is a very common occurrence on base BNW maps,
the Granary is the only thing that starts making your city “not terrible”. You can build a
worker for it in the capital, you can’t build a Granary for it in the capital. If you’ve got a
bunch of good bonus resources, now your city won’t be garbage without a Granary.
That’s when you can afford a Worker first. But default to a Granary, especially because
Granaries can send trade routes too!
3) The Post-Settle Phase
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We need to know what to build in the capital after the settlers, and it’s actually fairly
straightforward:
Worker, Worker, Granary, Worker, Trade Route
○ On production focus until you’ve built the Granary
○ Workers, because each new city needs one ASAP, that’s the MOST important
thing. If you’ve stolen one worker, we’ve just built these 3 in the capital. That’s 4
for 4 cities. You can usually back one of your expands to build a worker too. That
gets you 5, which is enough, for now. (Hint to the 6th tip that nobody tells you)
○ Granary, meanwhile, kickstarts your capital’s growth
■ There’s a reason you don’t build the Granary sooner, though. Simply put,
your growth rate is not going to be good enough, until you have 2 out of 3
of: Granary, +2 food Tradition policy, and food trade route sent to the
capital
■ If your growth rate is bad, there’s no point growing, just production focus
■ So we can actually DELAY the Granary, because it’ll take a few turns
before you can get one of the remaining two up and running
Mid CTA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------While we’re here, if you’re enjoying the content please do leave a like. It greatly helps the video
and lets me know what to keep making for you. Much appreciated.
Now for the final 3...
Mid CTA -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Staying On Track
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You’ve got to stay happy. That’s why getting those Workers is so important. If you have
no happiness you can’t grow, so you can never go wrong by improving all your luxuries
first. Start with the uniques, then hook up duplicates for trade
○ If you need a guide to stay happy, I’ve got a guide for that in the description
below, too
You’ll need to have properly planned your tech path, which could be something like:
○ Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Mining, Luxury techs, Bronze Working, Archery,
Sailing
The sweet spot for your expands is pop 3. That’s when they stop being bad and start
being good, so you need to get the happiness room to grow all your cities fast to pop 3,
and beyond.
After that, your workers improve bonus resources first, before then improving farms on
your non-bonus resource tiles.
Doing it like this should enable your cities to grow to the crucial 3rd population, and then
be actually useful. The Granary will let them grow, and once you’ve started getting farms
online they can start exploding in growth
5) How To Explode Your Growth
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It’s all about them 3+ food tiles, and internal food trade routes. We’ll assume you’ve
already built the Granary.
○ By the way, I’ve got a separate, detailed guide to growth in the description below!
NEVER use a trade route for gold. ALWAYS use them for food. If you’ve seen advice
about sending them for gold and science, it’s fine to ignore it. In most games, food will be
the best choice. And in those games where it isn’t the best choice, it’s close enough to
not care, save yourself some brain power.
Apart from the opening phases and build orders we’ve discussed, build every trade route
ASAP, and tech especially for them. Animal Husbandry, Sailing (even when landlocked),
Engineering, Compass (yes, even when landlocked), Banking.
○ Your first goes to the capital
○ Your second either goes to the capital or a food-desperate expa
○ Your third goes to whichever you didn’t choose for your second
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4th and 5th, you can send anywhere you want, as long as it’s for food. Err on the
side of the capital if you can’t decide
And now we can briefly discuss why 3+ food tiles are so important
You grow by accumulating enough excess food. Each additional population point
requires more excess food than the last.
Each population point costs 2 food. So, if you grow a population, and make it work a 2
food tile, your excess food per turn stays equal. Because each additional point needs
more excess food, working a 2 food tile reduces your growth rate
○ Working a 3+ food tile increases it
That’s why 3+ food tiles are so important. Work a 3 food tile and you’ll grow faster, work
a 2 food tile and you won’t. Focus on working every available 3+ food tile, your growth
will thank you for it. That’s why Civil Service is so useful, by the way!
6) My Top Tip That Nobody Tells You
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It’s about how many workers you need!
One worker per city is wrong!
1.5 workers per city is wrong!
What you want is:
○ Number of workers required = (2 * Number of cities) - 1
○ 3 cities: 5 workers
○ 4 cities: 7 workers
○ 5 cities: 9 workers
Definitely if you’re fully inland. If you’ve got a lot of coast, you can get away with one
fewer worker
The reason is because “working all improved tiles makes a MASSIVE difference to the
quality of your city”. The difference is UNREAL. (yes, I did just quote myself, it’s that
important)
You won’t be able to get all of them before you have to build your Libraries before NC,
but get the remainder you need ASAP afterwards. It makes so much of a difference, and
it’s truly one of my biggest secrets
If you’re worried it’s going to be too many, don’t be! Even with this many workers, you’ll
still be making improvements with every single one of them well past T100 quick speed
(or T150 standard speed)
You can thank me later (wink)
Ending
And that’s it! The Deity player’s lowdown on How To Beat The Early Game
What do you think? And what did you not know before that you are glad you do now? You can
let me know in the comments section below.
If you enjoyed this video do leave a like, it greatly helps the video and the channel. If you want
to hear more from me, do subscribe.
I’m PC J Law, from twitch.tv/pc_j_law, and I’ll see you next time.
Tech Tree:
----- Ancient Era ----1.always start with POTTERY unless you can amass faith without pottery or do not need pantheon
2.consider revealing Horse or Iron to improe settler production
3.get luxury improvement, in this strength order: MINING, CALENDAR/SAILING/TRAPPING, MASONRY/BRONZE WORKING. Mined Luxuries are best, while Marsh/Junlge-Calendar are the worst
4.build Mausoleum if you want (AI bug, wont build)
5.get food-boosting tech: SAILING (trade route), THE WHEEL (water mill), OPTICS (lighthouse)
6.continue with WRITING but not to aim great library (around turn 50 - 60)
7.build your Worker -> Granary -> Library; you can prioritize Granary
----- Classical Era ----1.always start with PHILOSOPHY to boost science gain using National College (turn 70 - 90)
2.build Oracle (AI bug, wont build); possibly before National College
3.usually you only can build 1 Wonder per era
4.if hi-food, lo-production (coastal/grassland cities): beeline METAL CASTING (MATHEMATHICS -> ENGINEERING);
5.if lo-food, hi-production (hill/plains cities): beeline CIVIL SERVICES (HORSEBACK RIDING -> CURRENCY -> DRAMA & POETRY)
6.consider getting CONSTRUCTION to defend against early attack
----- Medieval Era ----1.make sure you obtain both METAL CASTING & CIVIL SERVICES
2.get EDUCATION
3.get relevant wonders
4.if you get so much science, try beeline PRINTING PRESS (GUILDS -> CHIVALRY/MACHINERY/PHYISICS)
----- Renaissance Era ----1.start with ACCOUSTICS
2.if your cities are close to mountains, get ASTRONOMY to build Observatories
3.if you already get so much science, get PRINTING PRESS to obtain Leaning Tower
4.get COMPASS (especially if you have coastal cities)
----- Industrial Era ----1.start with INDUSTRIALIZATION to reveal Coal
2.get SCIENTIFIC THEORY
3.if no coal, beeline for RADIO to obtain Ideologies
4.if you get some coal, get ELECTRICITY
----- Modern Era ----1.start with PLASTICS (if Freedom or Order ideologies)
2.get FLIGHT to obtain Prora (if Authocracy) then
3.get CHEMISTRY -> FERTILIZER -> OIL
4.consider MILITARY SCIENCE to get Bradenburg
5.get FLIGHT or RAILROAD
----- Atomic Era ----1.start with RADAR
2.if you got Aluminium, get STEALTH
3.if no Alumininium, get ADVANCED BALLISTICS -> NANOTECHNOLOGY
4.choose your win condition, get remaining Satellite Parts if going Science Victory