You need to explore more, seriously. The fact that you haven't met an AI yet screams this. You should be sending scouts out in every direction until you meet an enemy. Settle everything you can, everywhere you can, then you can teleport everywhere (Hint: it's called Spirit Walk for Empire). Build those merchant shops, the 1 food is nothing, Make a caravan and send it to your capital, and wherever you have the Oasis = food cost covered to spare. This fix did absolutely nothing, I'm usually rolling in food.

Also, if you're getting bored this early, you should be playing on smaller maps.

That does sound like a bit of a rough start, but I agree with Kalin on most of his points:

-Explore, explore, explore.  On most of the "large" maps (there's only 3, maybe 4, "random ones") circular exploration isn't efficient.  I send my sovereign in one direction, Janusk in another, recruit a champion or two as I go and send them in another direction.  Single cheap champions are perfect explorers, they can run away from all battles early on and pick up goodies.  NOTE:  Do not use auto-explore, it is terrible, won't pick up goodies, runs in circles, back-tracks large areas to explore a corner that a human can plainly see is a dead-end, etc...

-Settle cities about 8-10 squares apart even if there's no resources (prioritize resources obviously).  Even small cities provide a caravan (2 as empire) which can boost food production in your farming city.  They also provide influence and covering an area in influence reduces (or stops if complete) monster spawn and caravan slaughter.  I usually have 10+ cities by turn 100, basically every city is always making a pioneer until I run out of room, or need military.

-my experience is that you don't need a defender in every city, just the border cities.  Save up for stronger units.  One strong unit trumps 2+ week units almost every time.

So is it normal to only be able to build one below average team of 3-men Scouts every 18 turns or so? (1 for the whole Empire b/c that is all the materials I'm making)

I didn't realize there was a point in putting cities where there are no resources - I thought this would lead to food issues for minimal resources?

I feel like I have these teeny-tiny armies at turn 150 and cities that have to wait forever to build granaries etc. b/c the materials are in tension with building soldiers (soldiers or buildings but not both most turns).....

I build something every chance I get (army or city improvement) but maybe the key is making a lot more cities - I could have probably 6-8 additional cities.

I am exploring and usually by now I've met an AI opponent .... but that isn't the main point... the main point is the slow pace.

I realize it is TBS (what I usually play) but could someone give me an idea for these categories in # of turns:

Early:

Mid:

Late:

Example:  Early 200 turns  Mid 200-400 Late: 400-600   ...... or are games on a much shorter scale?   What are people experiencing?

J

Personally I think you should have more cities and units by that point in the game.

Scout aggressively to find those resource nodes. I just use peasants until my economy gets going and send them out far and wide to uncover the map. Rush pioneers to any areas with resources ASAP with a peasant escort to get them before the AI and to get them hooked up to your economy as soon as you can. Once you have a second city you can even use your sovereign teleport to get your pioneers and escort part way to their location to speed things up further, although this usually isn't necessary unless you're in an actual race with the AI for a location.

Build caravans early to get more food for more cities. Build influence cities if needed to fill the holes between your resource cities so you have a solid border and push the monster spawn areas out to the hinterlands. Research adventure techs if needed for even more resource nodes. Build the appropriate multiplier buildings to boost those resource nodes, prioritizing whatever resource you don't have enough of first.

Also, I'd recommend turning notable locations and quests back on, especially on a large map. You are denying yourself valuable opportunities to get extra resources (which is sometimes crucial for getting going in the early game), troop experience and items. It also is something fun to do while getting your economy revved up.

Technically there is a point, building cities in that wasteland "revives" the land. You can also specialize those cities for gildar/tech/arcane. You pretty much have to have a lot of cities. I play on a large map, few hundred turns in, been exploring a lot, I know where the other factions are but have not encountered them yet...and almost have a metropolis. I have no issues getting resources..you just need to expand more and research more into adventure tech. If you do everything you need to do, you will have no issues, and it simplifies everything.

Markets are good for specialized gildar cities. Slap on a palace, the world wonder market, the gildar+% from city levels, and a bunch of other things and that 1 gold turns into 4-5ish. Food is very easy to get later on anyway.

I have the same problem starting an army. I've tried many games and have been unable to field a decent sized army or units for city defense. There are not enough ways to produce gilder and tools to create a viable army.

I agree with the others. You have to expand more agressively. Use caravans to ramp up your food income.

But if you're bored.....why have you turned off notable locations/quests. Isn't that asking for a dull game? For me that part of the game is almost funnier than the 4X part

Asmodean

You're doing some wrong then. It shouldn't be hard to get some early troops and pioneers out so you can expand. Peasants are fine until you can afford better. I get the sense some people just aren't prioritizing their builds. Getting the troops you need for defense, exploration and expansion is usually much more important than getting that nice-to-have new building you just researched (except perhaps when that building helps address a critical resource shortage). You have to make plan and make choices, you don't have enough resources to do everything. Rapid expansion is what gets your economy on a solid footing the fastest, so that's my priority for the early game, not more buildings. Go get those resource nodes and everything becomes easier.