Protection start (standard boom)

A practical opener for the protection land race. It is not perfect for every civ or strategy, but it is a solid default. Restart freely if the start feels bad — just don’t waste banked turns sitting idle.

Aldric of Ribe (the in-game protection steward) walks the race from the corner with your live numbers and your civilization’s opener. This page is the fuller picture.

General habits

• Skim turns one by one when you can. It costs real time, but you can re-send explorers, trade, and build every month — far more effective than dumping large turn chunks early.
• Max explorers almost every month. After the send: leftover food that could have gone to more explorers means you need town centers; a spent pantry means you need more farms/hunters so next month can send more.
• Early buildings are mostly tool makers, farms or hunters, and town centers. Fill forest/mountains with woodcutters and iron mines as land appears.
• No army during the race. Don’t build a Great Wall unless you have a clear wood/iron surplus.
• Don’t stockpile. Push production into food → explorers. Played well, the first ~100 turns rarely need warehouses — mage towers usually cover storage.
• Aim for roughly 25k score by Jan 1003 on exploring civs (about two game years in). Use it as a health check, not a hard rule.
• Focus on winning the food race from March through September, and keep enough people working every farm/hunter (raise food rationing if jobs sit empty).
• Research that helps explore first. Open the book that matches your people: Food Production for hunter and farm civs (Vikings, Japanese, Zulu, Franks, and most others); Mine Production for gold-mine civs (Byzantines, Mali); Weapons/Tools for Mongols and Koreans; Markets for Venetians. Save heavy attack and fort research for the exit from protection.
• After max explorers, leftover food → town centers. Pantry empty after a max send → more farms/hunters. Mountains usually go to iron mines (Byzantines: gold mines).

Before you start

1. Food rationing — Extremely High if you’re experienced (Franks especially); Very High is fine for new players.
2. Set tool makers to 0% while you seed the queue (raise status once builders should work — many openers use ~30%).
3. Queue 90 tool makers, then woodcutters to fill forest, then a few farms, then iron mines to fill mountains.
4. Explorers — send max when ready. Some players wait until March 1001 so the first winter is easier to manage.
5. Forest explore for the first year or two is a strong favorite start (sell extra wood for gold; funds TCs). Hunter-bonus civs (Vikings, Mongols, Turks, Zulu) often stay on forest most of the race; Franks and Japanese send all land so forest and mountain still show up, and plant cheap / +4-food farms on leftover plains; other farm civs mix in all-land / plains when they need TC land or mines.

First year

• Every month, buy tools so builders never sit idle.
• Make sure you have enough food for winter so you don’t starve. Sell wood for gold if needed.
• Never sell iron early — you need it for town centers.

Always have enough (not too many)

Fill remaining food buildings with hunters if your civ has a hunter bonus (Vikings, Mongols, Turks, Zulu) — otherwise farms. Explore toward the land type you need for the next buildings; otherwise forest for hunter civs, all-land for Franks / Japanese (plant farms on leftover plains), plains / all-land for other farm civs. Switch to plains only when you are short of farm / Town Center land.

Skip early: wineries, stables (until horses), gold mines, towers, forts.

Horses with explorers

Leave horses off while explore food cost is low. A common rule of thumb:

• Most civs: no horses while cost is under ~300 food per explorer
• Turks: under ~150
• Japanese: under ~225

Research and mages

After ~30 turns, build up toward ~10 mage towers and research economy. Raise the count so the next research level stays about 3–4 months away — over 4 months and you fall behind. Only as much as you can afford. At 100 economy RLS, consider army research, or keep pushing explore / food / explore RLS.

Winter (every October)

Open Status and check food for winter. You want enough to survive ~5 winter months, remembering population growth raises food use as winter goes on. If needed: stop new explorers, stop selling food, stop horse production, or lower pop growth so you don’t starve.

After the opener

Once food, army disband, tool makers, first explorers, a one-month turn, tools, and woodcutters are done: keep skimming months, refill explore/build/trade every turn, watch winter, and grow TCs off food. For a full Byzantine wood→gold race, see Strategy guides. More player civ guides will land as races are recorded.