My question is, from the start of the game, what is your favorite build order when you start a new city?

Lately I've been playing MedMod 4 and going this route:

Settler
Slaver
Warrior/Phalanx x2 or 3
Stockade (if available)

When the first Warrior/Phalanx is ready I send it and the Slaver out looking for barbarians and ruins. I usually do this with the first couple of cities, then backfill the slaver and warrior to take care of marauding barbarians.

Reading the board about everyone's fast gains, this doesn't seem to be the optimum strategy.

warrior
settler
warrior (or phalanx if i have it by now)
settler
granary (or i build this first if the gold is there to use.)
mounted archer
city walls if needed or
market place
phalanx or slaver
temple and or wonder
if not wonder troops until the next city improvement is ready ie: academy

I have found i can take it up to deity this way

Hope that helps

settler- phalanx- city wall -granary

or

phalanx-settler-city wall-granary

depending on how close the enemies are.

I hate using warriors, and I have yet to use slavers, although I will try to in my next game.

Has we know, two cities with one pop each is more profitable than one city of two pop. Then, I litterally floodfill the map with cities. At this time, cities are near each other : 2 or 3 squares. This has the big advantage that your borders are always impassable for foes. To do this I need Bronze to create phalanx. This is my first search. Then all cities are optimized for Gold (better science that is very important at game start).

Build queue :

- (only for capital : Phalanx, used to protect town)
- Phalanx (when build send to next city place and fortify there)
- Settler (Goes build city at the place reserved by last Phalanx
- Phalanx
- Settler

At this time I have to make a choice : is this city a potential big one ?

If yes it will grow as a big valuable town:
- Granary
- City Walls
- Aquaduc (this word in english ?)
- Temple
- choose apropriate buildings with your goals but don't build all because of costs !

If No it will stay as a village:
- optimise this city for Science
- don't let it goes out from 2 Pop (if it happen, build a Settler to lower it and use it to build another town or add it to a growing town.
- !! Never build any buildings in thoses villages

After Tyrany (limited to 10 Towns) I always chose Theocraty (limited to 40 towns). When I reach this limit : I disband a village in the center of my empire and build a new city at the border with de Settler produced by this action.

I repeat this process until I have no more village.
A this time I have the possibility to change to a very advanced gov.

Note : Produce Piquemens instead of Phalanx when you could do it. And add 1 Piquemen and 2 'Canons' to protect each town.

You seem to use a rather passive play-style, Renaud. (You concentrate on defense instead of offense.) I find that I get much better results if I take a more aggressive stance against the AI -- keep attacking until you win.

I tend to crank out Warriors first, and use them for exploration (their vision radius and cheap build cost make them great for this in the first part of the game). I build Phalanxes for defense (1 per city), and expand almost as fast as I can (cities 3 squares apart wherever possible).

I usually put 20% PW once I get about 6 cities; and I go Theocratic about the same time. I put up roads first, to connect my cities, and then nets, and then farms where appropriate (not too many), and then a few mines.

Theocracy's growth penalty is both a blessing and a curse. In the early game you don't want your cities to be too big, because you can't control the unhappiness. But once you've got some buildings (temple, theatre, and especially academy) you want bigger cities. This means you've got to get Ocean Faring and fisheries (500 PW apiece -- expensive, but worth it). This in turn means you need some Longships to defend the fisheries.

Once I've got my defenses up (city walls, phalanxes) I build slaving parties -- 2 Mounted Archers, 2 Samurai, 1 Slaver. I usually have 2 or 3 of these parties moving around at any time, and replace the Samurai as they die. I enslave the AI's wandering units at every opportunity. Slaves are the key to phenomenal growth in the early stages of CTP games; they're free population points that don't ever become unhappy, don't need to be paid, and eat only half rations. A city with 3 or more slaves is poised for greatness.

After I've got my defenses and slaving parties out, I usually concentrate on buildings -- Aqueducts as soon as they're available, Temples (they're usually in place before Aqueducts are available), and Granaries. I build a Marketplace in any city with 15 or more gold output, and an Academy (when available) in any city of size 4 or more. I'll build Courthouses when the city runs out of other things to build from the above list. When Mills are available, I build one in any city with production output of 100 or more.

I generally do not build Universities or Publishing Houses, except in cities which are devoted to science. A science centers is any sufficiently large city (population is the key) -- maximize for science (creating scientist specialists), and build all the science buildings (rush buy them if you can). Such a city can easily contribute 200 or more science points per turn. The trick is to know when to convert the city to science output (which will essentially stop its growth and dramatically decrease its production) and when to let it grow some more. I'll generally let a science center city grow until it has both the Academy and Publishing House, then maximize for science and build the University (rush buying when its price is low enough).

In an empire of about 25 cities, I like to have about 3 science centers.

In addition to all this, when Gunpowder is available, I build war parties. This means I crank out a few Musketeers, and then as many Cannons as I can once the Cannons are available (usually a few turns after Gunpowder). When I have enough Musketeers and Cannons to be able to take an AI city (it doesn't take many), I start crushing the AI. Pikemen and Cannons will also work, if I had Pikemen long enough before Gunpowder to have built many of them. When the AI cities start to fall before me, I'm pretty much on a roll. I try to pick up Explosives ASAP, and work my way up toward Fascism and Robotics.

- disbanding villages in center of empire : because my cities are near each other, the one I consider to grow as a large town actually share his 20 sqares territory with other cities. At the time workers went to want more space I usualy have reached the 40 cities limit for Theocracy. Then, to avoid penalty, to make place for my big's town and to continue my expansion, I disband those villages to create new cities on my borders.

- passive play-style : no, I don't think so. Just, this forum is about Build Order strategy and not about military one. To explain my position, first remember that in Divinity mode, other nations are more powerfull at the start of game. Then, you waste time in producing big army of overaged units to kill brillant knights, is'nt it ? I start offensive when I can create mixte army of musqueters and canon. Because of my science rush, I get them near 800AC. At this time, I was first in science and my armies are the best in world. Then I conquer greatest nations first. Bigest city first.

For Theocracy, I experience that you can change for an alternative gov only AFTER Democracy.