I was not $ 80 , 000 worth of entertained . I mean other than the wood which would not be super hard to get there is nothing 1930 ' s about it . <| sep |> I ' ve been going with something like S c o u t B uilderScoutSlingerSettler . Extra Slingers 12 before Settler if gettings rushed by Barbs early , otherwise after before using that easy early gold income for their upgrade to Archers . Skip Archers completely or replace some of them if you have a strong early game unique unit . Also I don ' t think an early Monument is ever worth it , MAYBE in some desperate situation where you have no luxury tiles with Culture , no Culture Pantheon and didn ' t even manage to get an envoy to a Cultural CityState . After that I like to briefly build infrastructure and ensure my army can defends vs . both barbs and nearby civs , and then to a quick burst of expanding from 2 to 45 cities with the 50 % Settlers card you get from Early Empire . Seems to work alright for me on Emperor , sure there ' s better players with better starts out there though .