Just wanted to start up a discussion with other people who can consistently
win on Monarch, but are struggling with Emperor.

After trying five or six times, I just had a fairly successful game, and
want to share my experience for others to discuss. Feel free to do the same.
I'd like to keep the discussion centered on things that work on Emperor
level, though, since lots of the strategies that work well on lower levels,
don't.

First, Civ choice: I'm actually using Ghandi, though I may switch to Asoka
in the future, as I didn't get as much use out of Industrious on Emperor as
I did on Monarch, though the cheap forges are still useful. I think the
AI gets a sizable production bonus on Emperor, because as an Industrious
civ I routinely built nearly every wonder on Monarch, but on Emperor I've
been struggling to get just a handful.

Anyway, the choice of the Indians is due to a new strategy of mine which
relies on the fact that they are the only civ with Mining and Mysticism.
I used to agonize about whether to found a religion or beeline for chop-
rushing. On Monarch, you can do both, but with the barbarians turning
aggressive 250 years earlier on Emperor, it's substantially tougher, since
you need to research archery and whip out defensive units too, all in a
shorter time frame.

However, with Mysticism and Mining for free, it's still doable, and there
is an additional benefit of having Mysticism at the start: you can put
shields into Stonehenge from the start, instead of having to chose
between building something less useful, or building a worker and hoping
your starting location and your other free tech (Aggriculture, Hunting, etc)
actually allow him to do something useful.

The Fast Worker is also a bit of a bonus. The other UUs commit you to
fighting a war at a crucial time in the game, or forgoing their usefulness.
And it's hard to know in advance when you will want to fight. But the
Fast Worker is always useful, even if the boost to speed is slight (roughly
10% or so, saving on average one turn moving per ten turns building).

So I found my city, start building stonehenge, and researching Polytheism.
Delhi founds Hinduism, starts researching Bronze Working, and switches to
producing a Fast Worker at size 3, which makes the Fast Worker appear
two turns after Bronze Working is discovered. How convenient!

I chop rush a Settler, and another Fast Worker to develop my capital city
while the other worker moves to the new city. I research Archery, then
techs for the resources in range (Aggriculture, Fishing, Animal Husbandry,
etc) while Delhi finishes Stonehenge, then whips out three Archers as
barbarians will be an issue soon.

While this is going on, my second city chop rushes a Settler and two Fast
Worker, giving me an extra one to concentrate on roads linking cities and
resources.

I build additional cities by chain chop rushing: the first thing any city builds
is a chop-rushed Settler and a Fast Worker, using the Fast Worker produced
by the last city. That worker then sticks around and develops the city
afterwards. I find this "one Settler at a time" chop rush strategy allows older
cities to develop well, and produces an expansion speed that is just about
right for Emperor. (On Monarch and lower levels, I'd produce two Settlers
in my second city, and maintain a "two Settler at a time" chop rush strategy,
but maintenance appears to be more expensive on Emperor too)

I try both Pyramids and the Oracle, but get narrowly beaten to both, despite
chopping the remaining trees to help.

I'm lucky that I'm in a good location, on a continent with two competitors,
both far enough away that I can build the inner ring cities in their direction
without interference, then concentrate on the inner ring on the far side from
them at my leisure. There's also room for two more distant cities on the
far side, and Catherine in nice enough to raze the Barbarian city there,
making room for me to settle.

Another thing that went my way is that Isabella grabbed Buddhism and
Judaism, so the Russians and Americans on my continent were religion free.

Maintenance is a bit of a problem, with my science rate dropping as low as
30% due to the large number of cities I've staked off. But I know that's
temporary and spam missionaries to the Russians and Americans, making
them both quite friendly, and also solving all my financial problems once
the Great Prophet from Stonehenge appears.

I have a nice sized, well developed, 80% researching empire now, and am
sitting pretty about third place in the score. I start working on my
somewhat neglected army. Washington founds Confucianism and switches,
marking himself as my next target. Catherine also gets a bit upset with
him, and declares war. After letting her decimate his standing armies,
I declare war several turns later when she asks, despite not having nearly
the number of troops I like to have for a war.

I manage to take New York, and am knocking on the door of Atlanta, when
Catherine suddenly makes peace, and a small counterattack by the Americans
convinces me that my meagre force outside Atlanta probably won't be able
to hold out long enough to take it, so I make peace too.

I continue developing and building my army; I should discuss my development
strategy a bit. I have lots of health resources, and like to get Guilds
fairly early, and build granaries and aqueducts when necessary, so health
is generally not a problem. On Emperor, I've become a big fan of Hereditary
Rule while at peace, using the army that you need anyway to deter attacks to
make my cities superhappy. This allows cities all across my empire to grow
quite large, as opposed to Representation which only helps 5 cities, and not
as much. I tend to switch to Representation when my army is out in the field
fighting, to keep my 5 best cities happy, so they can produce reinforcements.

Once I have a reasonably sized army, I let the Americans have it, quickly
rolling through Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Washington, and then having enough
left to manage to split my forces and take Chicago and Boston, wiping out the
Americans. I'll note I like taking the capital ASAP when possible, despite
the fact that it is twice as heavily defended. First, it has the maximum
possible effect on reducing both the enemy's production, and also eliminates
the largest source of culture, pushing the borders back noticeably and
allowing a quick advance towards secondary cities, while wimpy cities can
easily be mopped up later (after a period of peace, if necessary). The key
to wars in Civ 4 seems to be to keep them quick.

Anyway, elsewhere in the world, Napolean, Caesar, and Gengis Khan are getting
restless. Napoleon notices my slightly overextended state, and takes Boston,
but I'm able to retake it with not too much effort. The AI is really bad at
putting enough troops on a continent to actually establish much of a beachhead,
and Napoleon gives up on the war 15 or so turns later, after not even attempting
a second landing.

Factories are discovered soon, so I become peaceful for a while as I build them
and other improvements; I've moved to first place now with my sizable land base
and am now running State Property. After the factories are in place, I start
building tanks and artillery.

I'm about to declare war on Catherine, when Napoleon declares war AGAIN, but
doesn't land any troops. I pay the Malinese, who are on the same continent
with him, 800 gold to declare war on him, then wait a few turns to make sure
he is too busy too attack me. When no fleets come my way, I move onward with
my war against Catherine.

I'm using a few Modern Armor with collateral damage upgrades, maybe 15 normal
Tanks, a handful of artillery, and 15 catapults I still have around, but thinks
still go fast. After using the cats to get rid of the defense bonus and one or
two artillery to soften up the Mechanized Infantry, two cities fall almost
immediately, and Moscow falls shortly after the two armies converge on it.
The rest of Catherine's cities, with the exception of two remote islands I
didn't bother with, are now mine.

That leaves me in a strong position in the late 1890s, with a continent to myself.
Now thinking about how to end the game ... (space race is off). But anyway, I'm
happy with my first Emporer game where I didn't get by butt handed to me by the
AI.

It might be better if you restricted yourself to only a handful of workers rather than mass workers. Usually it only takes 1 fast worker per 3 cities to keep enough up on improvements, although you might not have an improvement *exactly* as you need it, saving on less units and less forests consumed to make those workers is very helpful in the long run.

Space Race being off = not a real challenge IMHO. Otherwise you would be facing a launch in the 1920's perhaps on Emperor. You've basically given yourself an extra 150 turns to win the game.

Hi hollebeek I'm in exactly the same place as you (assuming you playing against 6 or more civs?), winning Monarchy but trying strategies on emperor. Just tried the Cathy spam now but got my butt kicked by no less than 50 knights by 2 neighboring civs, just at the point where I was going to start improving my military. I tried 1 Praetorian rush game as well, but just couldn't get my economy right after the praets got obsolete. The only game I got into a winning position was one like yours, with Qin Shi no less, and you are right the industrious helps a lot, and an early hookup to marble and stone saw me competing for wonders - missed oracle though. Qin Shi is financial too so I made sure my capital and one other city had plenty cottages and this helps a lot to recover midgame. I fear the knight rush on emperor, the AI seems obsessed with asking you for gifts, and dare you refuse, they rush you with all they got. Luckily I had a castle city on the border with plenty defence, and after they exhausted their forces, they made peace with me and gave me gold! With all the excess gold I moved to cavalry, upgraded all my knights, and killed off 2 civs. Napoleon was a pain though! Then 3 civs left (killed a weak one early). Aborted the game in the modern era, close to a domination win. But really there was a bit of luck in this game, I would also like to know how to consistently win on emperor.

Hi all, I've your same problem :)
No game at all on monarch, a$$ kicked on Emperor.
Skilled warmonger on lower level, punching ball on higher!
All the peaceful strategies tested on monarch (just to skip on emperor, the war gives me more fun, I like military strategies, manage the best path for my forces and so on...) seem to be useless and I don't really realize the "core" reasons. Ok... AI different behaviour, tech trading harder, slower research and growing manteneance costs, but it shold be more that I miss...
I won only one game with Elizabeth with SS, tried also with romans (financial crack!) quechua ( technological overwhelming), Catherine (unlucky spawn? always between aggressive...a clear welcome to pillaging)

My problem is at the start couse I ate over expansion, so I limit my cities to five till anno domini (0) :)
This allow me to keep science on 70% with a positive cash flow and the half of my land as a cottage carpet.
Maybe is a mistake couse low population means low research, even if you have an high percentage slider.
The free land goes to barbarians that double the dangers and to the closer civs.
I make stonhenge and Oracle and the shrine of confucianism. If my closer nations switch to my founded religion I'll adopt it too, if not I sacrifice the happiness to a peaceful status.
But the problem is most of the times LAND....LAND!! I play on pangea and small maps and the opponents seem to fill every single tile, even if is simply ice.
My strategy is quite similar to cottage spam and sometimes if I find a very good place I chop rush pyramids.
Anyway I find that's to hard to be at the same scientific level of the AI even if with a double gold income......
I was second or third in developement since 1200, first to discover paper, education and tipography, all useless. It taked too long to build universities, better watch my back with military units.
And if you are lucky to be first in land and in score like the last game the AI will attack you ( GG Asoka). They went in 1500 with grenadiers versus a good stack of fortified 3 longbow, 2 pikemen, 2 crossbow, and two macemen in the border cities.
I had only a thing to do:
quit and say it's a game :)

What can I do?
If you want I can attach something.
Good night, here in Italy is 1 am....and sorry again for this pizza high school english...yawn

It might be better if you restricted yourself to only a handful of workers rather than mass workers. Usually it only takes 1 fast worker per 3 cities to keep enough up on improvements, although you might not have an improvement *exactly* as you need it, saving on less units and less forests consumed to make those workers is very helpful in the long run.

Well, 1 per 3 cities might be enough to keep up on improvements in the long term, but it certainly isn't enough to make all the necessary improvements to squares being worked and hook up cities and resources "in real time". In fact, even with 1 per city, I find myself somewhat behind. Maybe it is best to use a bit fewer workers, though; this is definitely part of my game I'm still tuning. Thanks for the comment.

Hi hollebeek I'm in exactly the same place as you (assuming you playing against 6 or more civs?), winning Monarchy but trying strategies on emperor.

Yeah, I'm playing epic + normal (6 civs) with continents. The reason space race is off is because (a) I don't like winning that way much, and (b) I haven't bothered to patch yet :)

The only reason I'm still using Industrial is because Asoka is Organized, and
that's worse. But I'm not real fond of Industrial on Emperor, even though I
loved it on Monarch (Bismarck = Expansive + Industrious is underrated.
Those extra sized cities with extra production are wonder and production
powerhouses).

My next Emperor game will probably be trying out the Praet rush strategy just
for fun. But after that, I want to use Expansive + Hereditary Rule to offset
the extra unhealth and unhappyness of Emperor, plus either Aggressive
to help ward off attacks, or Financial. I guess that makes me England II
(Victoria or Elizabeth; my chart doesn't have which is which, or Mongolian.
Tried the Mongols and didn't like them much on Monarch; maybe I will like
them more on Emperor.

Oh, I remember my beef with the Mongols. Hunting + Wheel are not great starting techs. At least the English have Mining.

Or maybe Incan. Quecha saves the trouble of researching Archery, and
they start with Aggriculture (good for plains and wheat etc with lucky
start), and Mysticism!

You know ever since civ1, emperor has always been tough, I don't think there is any foolproof strategy to always beat this level or higher. You have to have a decent starting position with some luck with resources, some luck with barbarians (we all take a chance or 2), and some really almost faultless play. There will be games that even the best players will lose. I remember following a GOTM deity win on civ3 on a large map and even that guy reloaded until he found a decent starting position. The best thing to do I think in civ4 is "survive" up to midgame then try to turn it around abusing some of the stupid AI moves, but it's not easy to always play all the right moves.

(space race is off). But anyway, I'm
happy with my first Emporer game where I didn't get by butt handed to me by the
AI.

Grrr, at first I thought you had a valid strategy here, until I read you turned space race off. Not exactly the same thing now is it? Try to win this without tweaking things into your favour so much, and then you've got something there.

Space Race being off = not a real challenge IMHO. Otherwise you would be facing a launch in the 1920's perhaps on Emperor. You've basically given yourself an extra 150 turns to win the game.

If he's got modern armour in 1800s then he might have been able to compete in a space race. Maybe he just doesn't like that victory condition.

Hi all, I've your same problem :)
[...]All the peaceful strategies tested on monarch (just to skip on emperor, the war gives me more fun, I like military strategies, manage the best path for my forces and so on...) seem to be useless and I don't really realize the "core" reasons. Ok... AI different behaviour, tech trading harder, slower research and growing manteneance costs, but it should be more that I miss...


Yeah, that's exactly the way I feel. I want to understand what the "core"
reasons are for the difficulty in emperor, and strategies for combatting them.
(civ or situation specific ideas are fine; I'd be totally ok with an if this then
that, and if this then that strategy, rather than a one size fits all one)

Here's some of the "core" things I've noticed about emperor:

(1) building wonders requires either a tech advantage, luck, or aggressive
chop rushing. And you're guaranteed not to have a tech advantage early.
(partial counter: aggressively prioritizing wonders with prereqs, like great
lighthouse, great library, and hanging gardens works well. I can often get
those)

(2) the financial crunch is worse, for reasons I don't entirely understand.
Number of cities maintenance seems to be the prime cause, though. You
REALLY have to be watching your finances before expanding. Blocking the
AI when possible is key, though being on your own continent is worse due
to the lack of trade routes and trading opportunities.

(3) The AI and Barbarians are less likely to give you time to expand
peacefully. Barbarians start moving towards cities at 1250 BC instead of
1500 BC on Monarch, which is a bigger problem that it sounds, since that's
the period when you're trying to found city 3 or 4. And the AI will declare
war in the BC turns if you're undefended on Emperor, where even Caesar
and Montezuma will often wait until 0-500 AD on Monarch. And the
Emperor level assaults are aggressive enough to ruin your game. Basically,
you want an army credible enough that the aggressive civs pick on someone
else.

Any other ideas?

If he's got modern armour in 1800s then he might have been able to compete in a space race. Maybe he just doesn't like that victory condition.

Well given that that's the only victory condition the AI knows how to win he's basically guaranteeing himself a victory. Given enough time to build units it's ALWAYS possibly to defeat the AI tactically. Even if the AIs are way ahead in techs most of the game once you both reach Composites the playing field is leveled. And even on Emperor it should be possible to reach Composites at the latest in the late 1800s if you semi-beeline. Then all you need to do to win is assure yourself the high score before 2050. Simple if you've managed to survive into the Modern Age with at least 5-6 cities.

Well, I don't know how to put this, but I don't really like the Space Race victory condition either right now. It feels very anticlimatic, and not very rewarding. With it enabled the modern era seems just seems rushed and a waste of the last 25% of the timeline, compared to the excitement of the previous eras.

It's nothing like the Ascent to Transcendence, which was a cumulation of an entire storyline into two awe-inspiring projects (the second of which anyone had a chance at) and felt like a true, exciting finale to a the game! SMAC also had Economic victory, and a more interesting Supreme Leader victory, since factions could actually surrender to you and were forced to agree to everything you said :king:

I havn't even completed 9 out of 10 games I've played in CivIV; I enjoy playing the game through every era (including the modern age) more than the completion options. The victory conditions just don't feel as rewarding right now.

Whether or not you like the current victory conditions is personal preference, so just don't critisize someone who likes going without the options currently available. Offer some strategies on the rest of the game instead :king:

Well, I explained why I had space race off, but it's worth mentioning again:

In the game, as shipped, it was horribly unbalanced. You had to configure
for space race victory in the early modern age, or before. It made the entire
modern age pointless. For a variety of other intangible reasons, it really
didn't provide any substantial "satisfaction". So I turned it off until I bothered
to patch.

Having played a few patched games, I have to say the increased costs help,
but still ... there still is some balancing needed. Not because the person
farthest ahead will win (that would be fine), but if the person farthest ahead
is distracted by ANYTHING, even the slightest nuisance, the unbothered
person on the other side of the world will win.

This whole thing is related to the fact that the AI still can't win substantial
(i.e. game changing) wars of conquest against other AIs. Until that gets
fixed, it's all about using your middle ages position to secure a base just
barely big enough to win by space race, knowing that the relative positions
of the AI won't change .... how boring.

(1) building wonders requires either a tech advantage, luck, or aggressive
chop rushing. And you're guaranteed not to have a tech advantage early.
(partial counter: aggressively prioritizing wonders with prereqs, like great
lighthouse, great library, and hanging gardens works well. I can often get
those)


First thx for you comment :)

About this point, an example on how totally rethinking wonders strategy on emperor.
I was planning to build oracle an pyramids last night (Catherine, large continents)
My opponents did:
Stonhenge in 2000 (!!!) BC
Oracle in about 1360 BC (quite normal, you can manage to do it in 1600 BC)
When I was three turns from Pyramids I read "Pyramids build in a far land....... (censored)
It was 875 BC!! And I had stone and chopped all except 2 tiles.
So I "lame reloaded" from 1200, chopped another tile and the wonder went in 975 BC....terrific...
On monarch You can do it usually near 400/300 BC...

And the effect that you pay is really heavy, you have only three cities, one for military and the last for improuvements...

Ok, I think, now I'm in a good position...
No! Frenchs attacked me in 750 BC (LOL) with one axemen and one Pikemen in my weakest far city ( we had same religion too and open borders)
I had walls and ONLY two warriors strenght promoted and I was VERY lucky, my odds were very low :)
In the next turn the city was well defended by another two graduated archers, I took the nearest french city with two archers, made peace, found a new city.
It was about anno domini and my economy was collapsed.... 0 science, 0/ 1 gold income.....faaaaaaar from writing :)
That *di0t Luis attacked me again, even if I was clearly superior! Another city picked..........And I discovered writing in 400 AD :D :D :D
My other neighbourn had already feudalism, I thinked he was first in tech... no.....
After a few turns The game show the "top list" of the science: Bismarck was .....
FORGOTTEN


QUIT
:D

P.S.
It was the first time that I had a great engineer totally useless, he sleeped like a baby in Moscow waiting to biuld something of interesting.....what a shaaaaaame.... :(

A very good lesson

Ok, I have another suggestion for the wonder problem. I addition to
aggressive chopping, how about slavery? Philo + Caste System is tough
to run on Emperor, because of the difficulty getting the pyramids ...
it's certainly valuable enough in that case that taking a 2-3 pop hit to
get it would be worth it ...

The problems with the wonders on Emperor is why I initially developed the strategy for cultural wins that didn't rely on wonders or founding religions. I've softened my stance on wonders, but am very clear about my goal from the start - I ask myself, based on this starting location, what single wonder should I prioritize? I go for that, expect that I still might get beat to it, and don't completely mortgage the future on techs I otherwise wouldn't research early.

Just playing another game with Qin Shi and something about the industrial/commerce combo seems to work for me. Still behind in tech approaching modern era but ahead in points, as I have wiped out one civ and stolen cities along the way and made peace. Even with financial I struggle to keep up to tech with emperor civs - anyone know how to keep up? I seem to lose my way around the "currency" level just after the initial war killing off the neighbor with swords. The AI also did a pretty clever move this game - I was about to attack a city near a coast - next thing he loaded all his 9 units in that city into 3 galleons - and made a run for it towards my poorly defended captured areas! Boy was it fun to track back to defend that one!

Once again luck was a factor - the 3 neighbors on my continent share the same religion as me, in fact they spread it to me. Not sure if I could have handled a "heathen attack" from the incas while I was wiping out the egyptians. Egyptians took me all the way close to 1000AD to kill and as a result my science suffered while my cities were churning out swords. Now how to maintain science in emperor while wiping out your neighbor?

Maybe it depends by the size of your empire, if you can effort to put at least three cities to build military units.
At the time I'm not able to wage a long war (more than ten turns) but often I can well defend the cities till 800/1100 AD.
Another thing I've noticed today: AI seems to attack you despite of their chanches, and they do it very early, in the last game in 400 BC (greeks). And they declare war without any reason: I had NO religion, I was trading with all, and they had ALL different religions.
After 1500 years I decided to attack the russians, I took out one city far away from the russians empire to obtain horses. I kept high defenses in all the empire, with walls in all the cities (8). One turn after Alexander declared war again, followed (in the same turn...) by Bismark, far away from me.
And after another turn Mansa joined the party!
Result: one third of land pillaged, economy under my shoes, science slider 0%. I defended all the cities (my longbow pikemen and spear vs similar, macemen, catapults, horse archer, and crossbowmen) and I'm still in war with Mansa. That's very exciting but I've just lost the game in the long run. I need at least fifty turns to recover my economy. Even if I had a beautiful start with pyramids in 2040 BC (shanghai of Qin founded on stone), strong economy, good army, two techs behind the betters till 600 AD.

Just playing another game with Qin Shi and something about the industrial/commerce combo seems to work for me. Still behind in tech approaching modern era but ahead in points, as I have wiped out one civ and stolen cities along the way and made peace.

Qin Shi gets good starting techs (Aggr/Min) and a good UU, too. Financial
+ good starting techs + good UU seems to be more important than what
the second trait is.

I agree that choosing the wonders you NEED, and focusing on those is important.

BTW, I tried using Slavery on Emperor today, and it was VERY useful.
You don't want to abuse it, but it DOES allow you to win those crucial
wonder races (finishing about ~10 turns earlier than otherwise), and is
also good for making up for the lack of production in high food cities.
Any city by flood plains should have a granary, and make extensive use
of slavery.

BTW, I tried using Slavery on Emperor today, and it was VERY useful.
You don't want to abuse it, but it DOES allow you to win those crucial
wonder races (finishing about ~10 turns earlier than otherwise), and is
also good for making up for the lack of production in high food cities.
Any city by flood plains should have a granary, and make extensive use
of slavery.

Thanks for this tip I must try it in my next game. I wonder if you can have a midgame city with globe theatre, and slavery this city to shreds? :lol:

Another question to you all.
Have you ever used a great engineer to build heroic hepic?
In the last three games I had three engineer in a row, choosing to build the second and third wonder in a different place from pyramids. The guy sleeped so long in the capital and at the end he wasn't able to build anithing, crashed by the opponents.
Maybe it's a good way to track when you need early a good military factory...

I once had a game with 6+ GE's before the middle ages; I dropped the spare ones in one of my cities to boost production for the rest of the game. I figured the overall benifit was more useful than the 50 turns of doing nothing until a wonder came along.

Even with financial I struggle to keep up to tech with emperor civs - anyone know how to keep up?

At some point in the early medieval period I beeline for Paper and Education before all the other military/cultural/economic techs, and build Universities in all my major cities. Oxford U + University + Bureaucracy in your capital provides a huge tech boost, and the AI doesn’t seem to prioritize Paper if someone else has already researched it and traded maps.

Indeed, but fighting with longbow vs grenadier isn't nice :)
that's the reason with AIs don't prioritize it.
BTW I do your same thing.

Yeah, I beeline to Printing Press and Education very early too.

Space Race just makes me angry on Emperor, continents. I always lose to Space Race. I just don't see how you can keep up with techs, and get it done first, when the AI has such a huge research advantage.

So maybe some of these "Space Race off doesn't count" critics can post some tips here instead of just discounting the topic. I'm inclined to think you're just another Settler-playing armchair Emperor, otherwise.

I've just lost a SS :)
I had only six cities but it was fantastic survive till 1898 AD with the smallest amry ever had, 323.000 units! Archer vs mech infantry and modern armor, all the game in peace friendly or statisfied with all, always only two techs behind all till 1750. Ghandi completed his apollo program in 1860, I had a super capital with seven wonders, I've bet on cottage/kremlin strategy.
I made UN but I had only 73 votes (LOL)
That's a pity :)
I'll try again searching to grabbing more land.
This map was winnable, with a bit of lucky, and it isn't a bad starting point too.
If someone want to try...

I started a random Emperor last night, and wound up on a sizable island continent with Qin.

I chopped out stonehenge, had stone and built pyramids. Oracle wasn't done yet, so I figured what the heck, I'm Qin I can do it! I luckily finished that too -> Code of Laws and founded Confusionism.

Then I settled out my island *very* quickly with one city building axes and my capital (limited by health max anyway) only building settlers, while researching caste system. Most of the cities then just got some farms and one or two science specialists (representation + caste system). The best 4-5 had all cottages. I was down to about 20% science at one point. I had only a single axemen or warrior defending, up until the other civs started showing up in caravels.

I first got a great prophet -> shrine. Then two engineers. I used the first engineer on the great library. Then I figured, what the heck, I'll bee-line for Islam too, since that hadn't been founded. It was something like 18 turns at 20% research + specialists, but Bamn! Second religion + Spiral Minaret. Great Scientist comes out of my GP factory->academy in captial (great library there). Then, by a nice stroke of luck, my fourth great person is another prophet -> Islamic shrine. Both shrines are in the same city, so I've got some sweet income coming in there.

At this point, every city has all religious buildings for both religions (first time I've built Spiral Minaret and it's working out great). Nobody has rifling. I have 3-4 production-focused cities building some grenadiers, 1 great person factory that's on hold to build some things first, and 7-8 cities with cottages and some towns.

Looking pretty good at the moment, as I don't think I'm too far behind in techs and my infrastructure has a solid income. I do have some techs that most don't. The only problem is, the whole world hates me. Best I can get for them is a couple hundred gold, so I'm keeping them, thank you very much. Without the benefit of long-time peace and trading partners, I'm mostly at "+1 Peace" with "-4 Traded with my worst enemy." Plus a couple "-2 You failed to give us tribute." from Monty (Furious now) and Napolean.

Napolean was like, "Hi nice to meet you, give me all your gold!"

Motezuma says, "Howdy, I demand your Ivory!" Then, "Give me wheat!"

I probably should have given them up, but I told them where to shove it instead.

The only one who will trade techs with me is Gandhi, but the Incans are probably going to wipe him out soon, so that's no help. Plus, everyone else hate him too and that's (most likely) where all the "-4 enemy trades" came from. I do, however, have most of them giving me gold per turn for resources, and a couple straight resource trades. Hopefully, some of these will get me liked enough for open borders and eventually tech trading. Not sure who I want to stick with yet for trading, but I'm obviously going to have to pick a couple and cancel the rest.

I'll finish this game up tonight, but I'm betting the Incans still win the space race, regardless of what seems like a fantastic start for an island start. Usually I'd be way behind on techs, but Qin + Wonders seems to have worked out well.

I'm finally getting it right with Qin Shi. Only one behind the tech lead (Ghandi) in the renaissance era now, and new techs are coming along at 2 to 3 turns each.

Reasons why this is happening:
- first captured the enemy capital and they gave up the aggro (amazing siege too, it was my swords (no ivory for me)+cats vs their elephants+longbowmen but cats won the day, as usual was behind in tech at this point) - I also think they gave it up cos they lost ivory which was in the capital
- went all out for university, oxford, observatory (ignored banks etc)
- and hear this - got a great merchant - sent him on a worldwide cruise on a galleon to the civ #1's capital - and got 2300 gold for my efforts - in like 1100 AD or something - and then with all this gold set my science slider to max not minding the huge loss per turn)
- scoped EARLY (2800BC) for marble (could not find stone) and settled next to a civ's capital just to snatch marble from them - got me a chopped stonehenge and FINALLY the oracle probably stolen from under Ghandi's fingertips as I went early for priesthood

Notes - Ghandi has chocloaded his continent with towns - even on plains - so I guess in emperor this somehow does not slow civ growth rate down that much - would love to know what that cheat is exactly.

I hardly ever go for the oracle. Half the time you go for it you don't make it. And when you do get that risk to pay off, all you get is one silly tech? Grrrr.... Couldn't those axes be used for something a little more usefull?

Yesterday's experience. (continent)
Gandhi, Perfect start position. flood plain for 2 cities,so many forest. capital for GP farm, second(Bombay) for wealth.,capital have stone resource. found hindism, stonehenge -> pyramid ->representation. I had two engineer so great library & colossus ( because my 3-6 cities were coastal, I hadn't enough land), oracle was chopped at bombay, I chopped hanging garden at capital. very good start, huh? I almost got every wonders, my tech is leading, income was fine.

Monza invaded with hordes of UU & carriot. all I got were warriors.
after reload, pump some horse archer & carriot. but couldn't survive.

Yeah. I was too greedy at wonder. my third city was too late, monza take good position for my third.

balance is key factor , right? I'll try at same world again tonight from begining

I've got the same problem as the rest of you: Monarch is a joke, but I'm having trouble on Emperor (standard map, normal speed, continents, everything else standard). I've played about 5 or so games on Emperor so far and lost them all, but I'm getting closer to victory with each one. The last game I played I lost the Space Race to Roosevelt by 1 turn! Probably could have won if I micromanaged my production at the end better, and used my spies.

Here's what I've learned if you're going for semi-peaceful space race victories:
1. Obviously if you don't plan on conquering the world you have to be friends with your neighbors. If neighbor civs are cautious or worse with you, then there is a high chance that they will declare war on you at some point in the game. This is bad if you don't have a large army so you can focus on science/growth, and this can end the game pretty quick. One thing that can make a lot of enemies is religion. DON'T choose a state religion unless you are alone on a continent, or if you want to be good buddies with a single powerful civ.
2. Don't expand too quickly. Start with about 3-4 cities, build those up, get your cottages built up, then think about expansion. If there is space, build settlers. If there isn't, build Axemen and take on the weakest civ closest to you.
3. Build 1-2 wonders at the beginning. This can be done with relative ease on Emperor with any civ, whether or not you have marble/stone or if you have an industrious civ. The deadline for the Oracle is about 1200BC, and the deadline for the Pyramids is about 800BC, although sometimes the AI won't build it until as late as 300BC. If you're thinking about starting to build one, check the date to make sure you have enough time to make it otherwise you are wasting your time.
4. Found as many religions as possible. In the last game I played the Incans and went for Meditation first (start with Mysticism) founded Buddhism, then later on got Code of Laws with the Oracle and founded Confucianism. Frederick beat me to Christianity by 1 turn. The shrines for these religions is what you want because you can haul in some huge cash with each one. If you got Stonehenge and/or Oracle in the early game, they will reward you with Great Prophets to make the shrines for you.
5. Starting the game with gold or silver or gems is HUGE. They give you something like 6-8 commerce from 1 square which essentially doubles your research in the early game, allowing you to maintain techs with the AI. The happiness is a bonus secondary effect.

My next goal is to find some way to be a more effective warmonger on Emporer. I'll keep trying...

I hardly ever go for the oracle. Half the time you go for it you don't make it. And when you do get that risk to pay off, all you get is one silly tech? Grrrr.... Couldn't those axes be used for something a little more usefull?

It's not just the one, silly tech. It's the great prophet that comes out as a result of having the oracle, who then builds a shrine for the religion that came with that silly tech. :goodjob:

Update on my Qin-island game here (I should be posting in the stories forum, but oh well)...

I started on the grenadiers a bit too late. Napoleon declared war, dropping 3 galleons of grenadiers, catapults and knights right next to my 2-religion holy city, defended by only 2 grenadiers. I start moving every grenadier (about 1 per city, as well as upgrading some of my axes, toward my holy city, but there's no way to keep from losing it. I lose the city, retake it, and lose the city again...

Then...Japan (I thought this was Montezuma with the last post, but it's actually Japan) declares war and does the same thing on the other side (where I just moved my grenadiers from, leaving only a single longbow for defense).

3rd turn of war, I retake my holy city from France, finishing off france there, but there's nothing left except 2 shrines and an academy. This will be prove devastating to my lead. The Incas now hold the #1 spot.

Meanwhile, Japan captures my *best* military city on the west side. This one had pretty much all the happiness/health upgrades and was about to build Heroic Epic. Razed. Bastard. My troops are moving towards Japan's and start killing them off the next turn...

...which was the turn 2 more frigates from Napolean drop by and retake my holy city. :cry:

After a few more turns, I get everything under control, but this leaves me in 4th place. I had spent a few no-research turns to afford upgrading axes, plus switched to police state/theocracy. Heck, even Gandhi passed me on techs. Perhaps I should have caved in to Napolean's and Tokugawa's demands when we met? :p

OK, now things are looking up again and I'm starting to rebuild (still at war, so more are coming) and garrisoned every town with grenadiers. I've also got some more frigates, researched Cavalry with one horse coming and rifles in 2 turns, but what's this?! :eek:

Three frigates from Napolean coming toward my holy city, filled with rifles, grenadiers and catapults!

But wait! There more!

Japan is coming from the south with three frigates, as well. :cry:

They both land on the same turn. Napolean takes my holy city again 2-3 times, Japan razed another city (one of my better commerce cities too)

This is where I'm at now. My domain is currently safe, but theres no peace in sight. They both want my holy city for peace. :mad: I'm in 3rd place again and researching railroads, not looking too bad and gaining ground again, but this tag-team war really cost me. I wont lose any more towns after I get rails hooked up, with artillary coming soon after. Incas are definitely still my favorite for space race victory in this game. He's busy killing off Gandhi and when he's done there, my guess is he'll jump way ahead of the rest. My "friends" are India and Persia and they are trading techs, but I had to cut everyone else off just to make them happy. Also had to go free religion. Everyone else who is not at war with me yet, likely will be soon.

I hardly ever go for the oracle. Half the time you go for it you don't make it. And when you do get that risk to pay off, all you get is one silly tech? Grrrr.... Couldn't those axes be used for something a little more usefull?

It's not only the benefit of great people, it's really not a silly tech. At this point of the game you are looking for Iron Working, Metal Casting or Code of Laws, and all of these take many turns to get as you move into the next era. If playing aggro Iron is obvious, or if you have the courthouse benefit then CoL, otherwise metal casting is great as forges really do pump up all facets of your cities. The other hidden benefit of going for oracle is that you have all these religion techs to spread religion in your lands, it's not just religion civics, but the added science/culture that the buildings give you. I played one game without state religion and 2 friendly cultures attacked me nevertheless, a harsh lesson, and I will always go for religion from now on.

This whole thing is related to the fact that the AI still can't win substantial
(i.e. game changing) wars of conquest against other AIs. Until that gets
fixed, it's all about using your middle ages position to secure a base just
barely big enough to win by space race, knowing that the relative positions
of the AI won't change .... how boring.

I've seen it on Prince. I was playing continents and drew a starting continent by myself with an island nearby (could reach with Sailing). Everyone else was on another continent with another island near them. I was ahead by like 2,000-3,000 points and getting bored so I made some ships and attacked their island. In the meantime, Kubli Kahn eliminated the British. The cost incurred by waging an overseas war combined with Kubli Kahn's empire doubling led to him surpassing me in score. I gave up on the game because it became apparent when I was just getting marines and everyone else already had jet fighters that I was going to lose.

I think what contributed to Kahn attacking Britain was that everyone else on their continent was Buddhist, but Britain was Confucian. I was Jewish so by default Britain and I were friends, and we both pissed off the Buddhist nations and they refused to trade with us. Britain was also the last in score while Kahn was #2. Capturing that island only got me some spices and increased maintainence costs. It was a poorly-planned war.

As for religion, I try to avoid it like the plague. Seems every time I change to one religioin or another,I just get a war on my hands as the AI thinks it's a good excuse to start one.

Just because you are behind in techs does not mean you will lose the space race. In my only emperor win, i won by space race which i didnt even think i had a chance at. although most civs had a tech lead and about 3 had all available techs for completing a space ship, only one civ (India - Asoka) was focused on completing the SS. i guess the other civs were involved in wars or prefered building military units like stealth bombers/modern armors while they could've built SS parts. i guess this is one good instance of having aggressive civs as your opponents, as they are more military focused.

anyways, i managed to pump out quite a large sum of gold per turn towards the end, buying and trading techs to build SS parts and meanwhile, after noticing India was completing lots of SS parts, i tried to have other civs attack india so that he'd stop SS building, but no civ wanted to declare war on him (Asoka had good relationship with others i suppose). So i shipped off some spies to Delhi where to my surprise India was just 5 turns away from their last SS part. I luckily had enough gold to start the sabotaging. The good thing is that even if your spy mission fails, you dont get declared war upon (at least in my case). I kept 2 spies in Delhi to sabotage and 1 spy I sent to Athens, the second place civ capitol just in case and realized they were just building stealth bombers/armors/gunships. Once you get your spies set in place, then its just a matter of having enough gold to sabotage. Since these missions' cost rises everytime, i had to wait a few turns in between to save enough money to sabotage again.

By the time i researched the tech for the last SS part, I was actually ahead in the SS race, needing 6 turns for the last part where india needed 7 turns. It was a great satisfaction winning the race, something I assumed i had no chance because by the time other civs started the SS with casings, I was still a few techs away from building apollo wonder.

I think the lesson is, dont give up just because you see other civs starting SS before you have the tech to start the apollo wonder. Another thing is somehow having your rivals focus on military. whether that is bribing a civ to wage a war against another, or luckily having several aggressive civs around. i think i was very lucky to win because if another civ was close to completing the SS, i probably couldnt afford to sabotage 2 spaceships. it cost about 2000 gold towards the end to sabotage.

also, i also found out why greece was building all these units while spaceships were being built. alexander was getting ready to declare war on me with a sneak attack! Just before SS completion, i think india was #1, greece #2, and me #3. as soon as i was almost done with my last spaceship part, alexander rolled in with what seemed like 100 unit force of modern armors, gunships, and with stealth bombers conquered/razed 3 of my cities. but by that time, i was done with my last SS part and I won. if i needed 8 more turns or so, i wouldve been rolled over completely by alexander.

in the end, i think i was very fortunate to have several factors working in my favor. if alexander sneak attacked me earlier, or if another civ was heavily SS focused, i probably would've lost. i should practice more on emperor, but getting cocky with my emperor win, i am now trying immortal and getting my ass whipped. time to go back to emperor i guess...

That's exactly why I hate the space race. You cross you fingers and hope somehow that AI overseas will go to war, instead of just building the ship.

If you spend hammers on military to try and stop them, someone else will build it first.

If you send spies to sabotage, you can't afford to research the late techs to finish yours. Meanwhile, another civ is building his.

It seems like the end of every one of my Emperor games is mostly just run turns and pray.

Then, when I try conquest/domination there's just not enough time to wipe them out. You have to start early enough, but then I fall behind in techs and can't finish the job. Then they build the spaceship.

The game ends the same, every time. When I start a new Emperor game, I already know it's going to be another "The Other Continent Wins Space Race" ending. Getting to the end is completely different every time, so it's loads of fun, but the end is always the same.

Since I only wanted to have a little fun, not challenges, I only played Prince & Monarch levels before and just started on Emperor for two games just to check out how difficult it is.

My first Emperor game was a breeze, absolutely no sweat at all so I was a little taken aback since I expected it to be hard from all that I heard (I learned why the first game was easy when playing my second game). In both games I took whatever the map generator gave me. I just happened to have a great position in the first game, with a gold mine by a river and three food resources !! Not only the gold mine helped the early techs greatly, it also removed the crippling happiness cap at Emperor level, making my game almost Monarch-like.

Anyway, I used the same strategy I used in Monarch, but since the starting position was so blessed with resources, I decided to skip Bronze Working and went straight for Alphabet (via the Animal Husbandry route to take advantage of the Pig and Cow resources) before trading for all the lower techs, including Bronze Working. I used Qin SHi Huang in both games, BTW.

I was in the eastern side of the pangae, surrounded by Mali in the North, Mongol in the West, and India in the South. One big decision came when I got a Great Artist after Music. At that time, I got hemmed in on the West side by both Mali and Mongol since I expanded to the North (and choked Mali to a total of 3 cities before running out of land) and South. I had a hard time deciding where to use my culture bomb without triggering an immediate war. In the end, I used it right in my capitol instead of in a border city. It turned out to be a good decision since both the Malinese and the Mongolian cities on the West side flipped to me. Since Mali only had two cities left, it had little choices other than building up an army and attacked me. It took a while but I got his capital before granting him some peace.

The rest of the game was just routine cleanup. I founded Confucianism and Taonism (I got significant tech lead even by that time). and eventually wiped out the Mali, the Mongol (leaving one island city), and the Greek (what a huge army it had. Even my tanks and armoured Infantry had problem with his riflemen). At the end, I took just enough cities from India (who was pleased with me but always voted for Cyprus) to vote for my diplomatic win at the UN in the 19th centure. I still had one spare GP and three spare GEs at the end of the game without finding anything useful for them to do since I had already built all the late game wonders. It was no match and I could have built two SSs with my huge production before the AI coud even start on one.

My second game was a different story. I got stuck on a peninsula in a pangea map. It's mostly jungle, low on trees, the only copper resource was 4 square away from the Greek capitol, no gold, no silver, no marble, no stones. Militarilistic Rome and Greek blocked my exit from the penninsula.

I figured the only way I could survive would be to wrench the copper mine from under the nose of Greek so I did just that and tried to fill in the gap in between (barely). The maintenance cost brought my research rate down to 10% and I was toasted tech-wise in the early years (after finishing Writing, I switched to Alphabet and it was supposed to take 58 turns to research !!). The GS from the library helped a little but I was forced to trade away Alphabet shortly after getting it to close the tech gap somewhat (I made a rule never trade Alphabet away before). After getting the GL, things improved and I got to Liberalism first (with 100% research, using the gold obtained by trading my higher-cost techs for the cheaper techs plus gold). The AIs don't seem to care too much about gold, BTW, only on the tech research cost (and how rare/common it is) so it is a good strategy to sell the same tech to different civs which have money.

At this point, around 800AD, I think I'm a little ahead of the AIs in tech but there's no military force worth speaking of. I survived by giving the AI civs whatever they demanded, especially my neighbors Rome and Greek. Greek is pleased with me after I joined him (verbally anyway without sending any troops) in a war against India. Rome could be more treacherous but, hopefully if I give him what he wants then I can buy time to develop my infrastructure before building up the military for defence. I see if I can play a peaceful game and win with the SS this time. Still playing ... :).

Biggest hurdle I found at Emperor level is the crippling happiness limit of 4 in the capitol and 3 in other cities. With a good starting location and good resources, it's not too bad otherwise with limited number of cities (due to maintenance cost) and limited number of citizens as well, it would be hard to compete with the AI's advantage. If all the happiness resources available require Calendar, as in my second game, it might be quite a task just to survive until getting Calendar without being completely out of the tech-trading loop and if you're out of the tech-trading loop then you might as well give up since you can never wipe out 6 remaining civs fast enough while being behind in tech no matter how big military build up you have.

Since I only wanted to have a little fun, not challenges, I only played Prince & Monarch levels before and just started on Emperor for two games just to check out how difficult it is.

My first Emperor game was a breeze, absolutely no sweat at all so I was a little taken aback since I expected it to be hard from all that I heard (I learned why the first game was easy when playing my second game). In both games I took whatever the map generator gave me. I just happened to have a great position in the first game, with a gold mine by a river and three food resources !! Not only the gold mine helped the early techs greatly, it also removed the crippling happiness cap at Emperor level, making my game almost Monarch-like.

Anyway, I used the same strategy I used in Monarch, but since the starting position was so blessed with resources, I decided to skip Bronze Working and went straight for Alphabet (via the Animal Husbandry route to take advantage of the Pig and Cow resources) before trading for all the lower techs, including Bronze Working. I used Qin SHi Huang in both games, BTW.

I was in the eastern side of the pangae, surrounded by Mali in the North, Mongol in the West, and India in the South. One big decision came when I got a Great Artist after Music. At that time, I got hemmed in on the West side by both Mali and Mongol since I expanded to the North (and choked Mali to a total of 3 cities before running out of land) and South. I had a hard time deciding where to use my culture bomb without triggering an immediate war. In the end, I used it right in my capitol instead of in a border city. It turned out to be a good decision since both the Malinese and the Mongolian cities on the West side flipped to me. Since Mali only had two cities left, it had little choices other than building up an army and attacked me. It took a while but I got his capital before granting him some peace.

The rest of the game was just routine cleanup. I founded Confucianism and Taonism (I got significant tech lead even by that time). and eventually wiped out the Mali, the Mongol (leaving one island city), and the Greek (what a huge army it had. Even my tanks and armoured Infantry had problem with his riflemen). At the end, I took just enough cities from India (who was pleased with me but always voted for Cyprus) to vote for my diplomatic win at the UN in the 19th centure. I still had one spare GP and three spare GEs at the end of the game without finding anything useful for them to do since I had already built all the late game wonders. It was no match and I could have built two SSs with my huge production before the AI coud even start on one.

My second game was a different story. I got stuck on a peninsula in a pangea map. It's mostly jungle, low on trees, the only copper resource was 4 square away from the Greek capitol, no gold, no silver, no marble, no stones. Militarilistic Rome and Greek blocked my exit from the penninsula.

I figured the only way I could survive would be to wrench the copper mine from under the nose of Greek so I did just that and tried to fill in the gap in between (barely). The maintenance cost brought my research rate down to 10% and I was toasted tech-wise in the early years (after finishing Writing, I switched to Alphabet and it was supposed to take 58 turns to research !!). The GS from the library helped a little but I was forced to trade away Alphabet shortly after getting it to close the tech gap somewhat (I made a rule never trade Alphabet away before). After getting the GL, things improved and I got to Liberalism first (with 100% research, using the gold obtained by trading my higher-cost techs for the cheaper techs plus gold). The AIs don't seem to care too much about gold, BTW, only on the tech research cost (and how rare/common it is) so it is a good strategy to sell the same tech to different civs which have money.

At this point, around 800AD, I think I'm a little ahead of the AIs in tech but there's no military force worth speaking of. I survived by giving the AI civs whatever they demanded, especially my neighbors Rome and Greek. Greek is pleased with me after I joined him (verbally anyway without sending any troops) in a war against India. Rome could be more treacherous but, hopefully if I give him what he wants then I can buy time to develop my infrastructure before building up the military for defence. I see if I can play a peaceful game and win with the SS this time. Still playing ... :).

Biggest hurdle I found at Emperor level is the crippling happiness limit of 4 in the capitol and 3 in other cities. With a good starting location and good resources, it's not too bad otherwise with limited number of cities (due to maintenance cost) and limited number of citizens as well, it would be hard to compete with the AI's advantage. If all the happiness resources available require Calendar, as in my second game, it might be quite a task just to survive until getting Calendar without being completely out of the tech-trading loop and if you're out of the tech-trading loop then you might as well give up since you can never wipe out 6 remaining civs fast enough while being behind in tech no matter how big military build up you have.

Oops, sorry for the double posting. The first post claimed to have error so I thought it failed %-|.

BTW, forgot to mention that my second game has no access to Iron, Horse, or Ivory either so the best units I have are melee troops until I can get gunpowder.

Biggest hurdle I found at Emperor level is the crippling happiness limit of 4 in the capitol and 3 in other cities.

Yes, I go for Caste System very early on Emperor because of that. My problem is always lack of health resources, rather than happiness. I don't recall ever actually researching Monarchy on Monarch, favoring the top of the tree (Calendar,Construction,Currency etc). I'm pretty sure I always just traded something for Monarchy, but on Emperor, I research it early just to allow growth.

I was in the eastern side of the pangae

By the way, I consider a Pangea map to be effectively the same as turning off Space Race. It's not a "proper" game unless it's continents with space race, although I would never fault anyone for playing either way, because it's the continent-space race combo that makes me :crazyeye:. By no means am I saying your win didn't count, though.

I hardly ever go for the oracle. Half the time you go for it you don't make it. And when you do get that risk to pay off, all you get is one silly tech? Grrrr.... Couldn't those axes be used for something a little more usefull?

One silly mega-expensive tech. With some of the early techs costing so
more than others, this can be a 30 turn research advantage.

In the meantime, Kubli Kahn eliminated the British. The cost incurred by waging an overseas war combined with Kubli Kahn's empire doubling led to him surpassing me in score. I gave up on the game because it became apparent when I was just getting marines and everyone else already had jet fighters that I was going to lose.

Khan is an exception. The Khan AI is the only one that really stands much
of a chance of eliminating an AI neighbor.

As for religion, I try to avoid it like the plague. Seems every time I change to one religioin or another,I just get a war on my hands as the AI thinks it's a good excuse to start one.

Founding a religion is a HUGE commerce boost, especially if you built
stonehenge (and you should).

A subtle point that many miss is that you do not have to keep a religion
just because you founded it. For example, if I found Hinduism, and Isabella
spreads Buddhism to one of my cities, I may choose to convert and spread
Buddhism to all my cities, while continuing to spread Hinduism for the
shrine benefits. Yes, it's a bit more work to make the 5 Buddhist missionaries
to convert my cities which already were all Hindu, but in return I get Izzy
and the other border civ she converted, as a friend for life. And isn't that
what we all want? :)

I am somewhat supicious when someone can get a city to flip on Emperor level? I have never been able to see a city flip to me on these high levels.

Lol yer getting a city to flip on Emperor is real tough, though my motto is if you can't flip it, conquer it.
Just bring plenty of reinforcements, and vary your troop type, and you should be fine on emperor.

I have read information (from Sirian I believe) to the effect that the AI never gets production bonuses on any difficulty level. Thus, it is an effective strategy even on Immortal and Deity to build wonders with Industrious civs (especially if access to the vital resource is available).

I have read information (from Sirian I believe) to the effect that the AI never gets production bonuses on any difficulty level. Thus, it is an effective strategy even on Immortal and Deity to build wonders with Industrious civs (especially if access to the vital resource is available).

The civ manual states that the AI gets "discounts" so this to me would mean, like in previous civs, if it takes you 100 hammers to build something, the AI would be discounted to less hammers.

I have read information (from Sirian I believe) to the effect that the AI never gets production bonuses on any difficulty level. Thus, it is an effective strategy even on Immortal and Deity to build wonders with Industrious civs (especially if access to the vital resource is available).

Have you actually tried it?

The AI may not get production bonuses, but whatever bonuses it gets
certainly are enough that at Emperor level it's best city out produces your
best (try it and see!)

Have you actually tried it?

The AI may not get production bonuses, but whatever bonuses it gets
certainly are enough that at Emperor level it's best city out produces your
best (try it and see!)
He probably meant that AI doesn't get production bonuses when building a wonder. That may be true. But they build everything else on 1 tile islands just fine :)