The First Turn

The first turn (typically T1) is an incredibly important turn for any Longturn game. With any Longturn game, the first turn is always 3 days long (\(3\times24\text{h}\)). There are many reasons for this, but a main one is that the first turn can either set you up for success or doom you to demise. Yes, it is that important.

Note

If you have not played a game in some time or if this is a first time to play, be sure to explore the in-game help from the help menu. There is very important information in there. Refer to it often as you progress through the game. You may also some some additional insight by reading the other tutorials.

Some thoughts on the first Turn:

  • The turn is purposely set for 3 full days. This gives plenty of time for all the players to get in and take a measure of what they want to do. There is often a lot of analysis that occurs this first turn. Getting the placement of your capital is very important, so take the time needed to fully evaluate your options before you plant that first city.

  • Many players will log in and take a screenshot of what they have been assigned by the server when the game was started and use a tool like Inkscape to mark up thoughts on where to potentially place cities, where to move the Explorers and what to do with the Tribal Workers.

    Tip

    Do not move anything right away! Take the time to work out your plans offline. You can move at any time during the turn. You do not get any extra credit for planting your capital with tons of time left on the turn counter.

  • Remember that Explorers gain a large vision radius increase if they are placed on top of a Mountain. A lot of players will actually move from mountain to mountain with their Explorers.

    Tip

    One general good rule of thumb with sending Explorers into the unknown (the area of the map you have not seen yet) is to only go one tile at a time. You can then evaluate what opened up and decide what direction to go — such as to another mountain.

Your First Five Cities

When the game starts, every player will have 5 Settlers, 5 Tribal Workers, and 2 Explorers. These initial units will help to seed your first 5 cities.

Plan your first 5 cities wisely. This is one of the reasons for the extra long first turn. Here are a few tips to get you started:

  • Look for rivers or lakes. Build either on or adjacent to rivers and adjacent to lakes so you can get the Aqueduct+River or Aqueduct+Lake city improvement. This cheap Aqueduct does not require Construction and has no upkeep. You can get your early cities up to size 16 if you put those Workers to work in the right places.

    Tip

    Build cities on river estuaries on the shoreline. If that is not possible then keep your best defenders on or near river mouths and on rivers on your borders. Triremes can be used to transport an early attacker up a river and wipe you out fast, especially if you are not fully defending cities.

    Note

    Building a city on a river tile will give an additional defense bonus in addition to the ability of building the Aqueduct+River improvement.

  • Remember that your first city will be your capital. Do not put it on the coast! To change the capital city from one city to another you have to build the Palace Small Wonder in the new city, which is A) expensive and B) costly in time, so plan accordingly.

  • Look for specials like Wheat, Pheasant, and Silk. Wheat helps to grow a city like wildfire (+4 food with Irrigation and Pyramids or Monarchy). In not too much time you can have a city getting \(+20\) food per turn, which means your city will grow once per turn after size 4 with a Granary.

  • There is an important setting called City Minimum Distance. This setting defines how many tiles must be between city centers. See City Planning section below.

  • Once the first 5 cities are planted, you need to expand as fast as possible with more Settlers! Refer to the Settler Race section below.

City Planning

The How to Play Freeciv21 page has a great section on city placement. That is worth a read at this time.

Some other thoughts related to initial city planning:

  • Using a tool such as Inkscape really helps you plan your cities. Recall that there are a number of factors to consider when it comes to city planning and placement:

    1. Distance from the Capital.

    2. Available specials on tiles around the potential city centers.

    3. Locations of freshwater from rivers and lakes.

    4. No wasted tiles. Force overlap of any kind so that every tile is available.

With everything in Longturn games: it is all about balance.