Jan 17th 2011, 19:30:03
I'm not sure if it's any good but my H cash start is super simple:
Save up 360+ turns
Set tax rate to 35-36% depending on food prices
Build 1 turn ent/res in approx 10:9 ratio (e.g. if BPT is 7, build 4 ent, 3 res)
Build CS one at a time until BPT increases by one (it's usually 2-3 CS with H so I actually build 2 CS and then 1 more if needed)
If more land needed to build, explore 1-2 turns
After reaching 2-3k acres in this fashion, activate exploration bonus and batch explore max acres (using explore bonus at this point might not be ideal if you're playing all-x)
(You can build to your desired BPT either before or after the batch explore. I'm not sure which is better.)
Use level 3 reduced construction cost bonus (-40%) to batch build on all the acres you just explored
If you're quick enough, you can do all of this in Express with zero or near zero military since the scores only update once per 15 minutes.