I've seen some questions about this so here is a breakdown of your (well, my) early game
priorities (say the first 30-50 turns).
The BIGGEST LIMIT early game is Materials, period. Managing how you spend your
materials is your primary concern.
Here is your checklist of what you need to accomplish ASAP:
(K) means Kingdom and (E) means Empire
- Get your first city founded
- Start producing Materials
- Build a workshop / labor pit
- Prioritize finding/claiming an Old Growth Forest, Stone Quarry, or Clay
Pit
- If Kingdom, research "Production" and build the "Great Mill" but be
warned, it takes 15 turns to build)
- Get out there and find as many "Unclaimed Crates," "Abandoned Caravans,"
and such as you can. You are hoping for materials.
- Start producing food and housing
- Claim your Fertile Land (will need 25 gold and 2(K) or 5(E) materials)
- optionally if you start with the "Green Thumb" talent, ignore Fertile
Land until other priorities are met.
- Build your first hut/hovel (takes gold/food but not materials); this
is so your population will go over 10 ASAP which pumps your influence
radius out faster.
- Start producing gold
- Janusk the Scribe usually has the "Merchant Master" ability (+1 gold)
- You can start with either/both of "Wealthy" or "Merchant"
- Claim your gold mine (will need 10 materials)
- Build a pioneer (will need 10(K) or 13(E) materials)
- Debate: As soon as I have 10 (or 13) materials I build a pioneer.
However you also need 10 materials to build a gold mine. The exact order
in which you construct your first pioneer, gold mine, and subsequent
buildings is still experimental.
- Start producing Tech
- If you have a Lost Library nearby, awesome. Just be aware they take 10
turns to complete (and 5 materials)
- Otherwise build a study/archievist, but be careful as these have a 1
gold per turn upkeep (and cost 4 precious materials).
- Start producing Arcane
- This is my lowest priority, but one can argue getting flame dart ASAP
has strong merits.
You need to decide between
founding your first city where it touches your Fertile Land and/or Gold Mine,
or one tile away. The advantage of touching them is you can theoretically
start improving them on turn 2 (if you found some materials in a crate). The
downside is when they touch your city they take up your city's production
queue, meaning you can't also be constructing any other building. If you go one
tile away it is going to be about 13 turns before your influence expands to
include them, but then you can improve the tiles without it tying up your
production queue.
At present I would say build right next to your Fertile Land, but leave a
space between your city and your Gold Mine (when possible)
Once the above foundations are in place I worry about caravans and military units.
Just remember: before you do ANYTHING think "how many materials will this cost, and how long until I have enough materials to build my next important thing?"