What would you list as your top three post-newest-patch tips?

I'm not what I'd call a total noob, but as this is my first Civ game, I'm no veteran...

I felt like I could pretty much dominate the game at noble with Caesar pre-newest-patch, but I've struggled since then to even put together a good game at Warlord since installing the latest patch.

I know chopping has changed, but it doesn't seem like that would add up to quite the tech lag I'm experiencing... and it seems like though i beeline to iron-working that I'm cranking out praetorians at a much lower rate than previously.

heeeeeelp!

bad question?

wrong forum?

stfu noob?


:lol:

build cottages

thanks for the in-depth answer. ;)

seriously, though, I find I'm having serious food/growth issues if I spam cottages... and I'm not really having gold issues - it's more tech research issues, and falling behind in military production.

am I the only one who's found the game post-patch to be significantly more difficult?

and I'm not really having gold issues - it's more tech research issues, and falling behind in military production.
If you have plenty of cash but not enough research, then you need to increase your slider. Also build more libraries and monastaries in cottage cities...

I'm not sure how it's possible to fall behind in early military production as Rome. Praetorians are dirt cheap for their power, which is why I never play Rome. Way too easy...

Could you be more specific?

Chopping right off the bat for a couple settlers and workers is still a good play, in my opinion, but after that you want to limit your chopping until after mathematics, and chopping outside your cultural boundaries is a worthless idea at any time.

I find myself using slavery a lot more than I used to (really I hardly ever used it pre-patch). I think it's now, even more than before, a very good idea to get your food production up before everything else, so you can rush stuff with your whip. "Everything else" includes cottages. Besides, even pre-patch it was proven that growing population before growing cottages was superior to the other way around. Now I think it's a lot more obvious, since you need pop for slavery as well.

The Kremlin just isn't what it was once cracked up to be. Gold rushing is pretty heavily nerfed now, and IMO only worth it if you choose a spiritual leader so you can switch to universal suffrage now and then to rush a building or two. Pre-patch I practically beelined for Kremlin (exaggerating of course), and money rushing was pretty much the best strategy for anything but fast conquest or domination. I find it far less effective now, perhaps as it should be.

I think you didn't get much response because your question was pretty broad, although I'd like to see some serious discussion about this broad question as well, so I'm not criticizing you.

Plus, if anyone chimes in after me, it will probably be to contradict everything I just said. Peoples' strategies and goals are highly varied, so it's hard to talk about these big generalities.

Plus, if anyone chimes in after me, it will probably be to contradict everything I just said.
Actually, that's the only thing I'd contradict. :)

I agree with RemoWilliams. Whenever possible, I'll improve a food resource first, to get city growth boosted. That allows for quicker access to the whip, quicker access to more tiles when you decide to let the city grow and faster worker/settler builds. I still chop early workers/settlers and find that it is actually *more* important to do so post-patch than it was pre-patch (spoken from a Monarch viewpoint -- maybe not so important on Noble and below).

I generally try to deliberately over-expand a little in the beginning. If I don't, the AIs will. REX is key to getting a good base economy, even if science has to suffer early. Enough cottages being worked by enough cities will slowly pull you from last place to first in the tech race. It is surviving those early years that can be tough.

The buildings I prioritize are granaries (to allow more frequent use of the whip) and barracks. Then produce units, units, units, units. Once you're in the middle of the pack on the power graph, then it is safe to start building libraries, monasteries and such. Trying to build infrastructure first and defenders second just means you're building infrastructure for the AI. Building defenders before infrastructure means you get to keep the infrastructure.

As for worker actions, after you have food resources hooked up, you've chopped the initial workers/settlers and you have one mine per city then it should be cottages as fast as your cities can work them.

I have found that in my games (marathon, large balanced map, monarch) that the post-patch increase in barbarians is the factor that is influencing me the most. I have to chop even more than before because I know there will be wave after wave of barbarians attacking after a while.

I have found that in my games (marathon, large balanced map, monarch) that the post-patch increase in barbarians is the factor that is influencing me the most. I have to chop even more than before because I know there will be wave after wave of barbarians attacking after a while.That's the main change for me as well.
At times them barbs remind me of Gauntlet (anyone remember that one?): feels as though there's a barb spawn point right around the corner and all you can do to stay alive is keep chucking axes at them like mad.

Build farms, maximise city growth to current limits of happiness and health, then either switch to more commerce and production based tiles or start whipping!