Can someone please simplify this process? I just can't seem to get this Cottage Spam to work like everyone else. There's got to be something simple that I'm missing...

A typical game:

CIV: Russia as Catherine
LEVEL: Prince
MAP: Standard, Balanced, Continents, Temperate, Low sea-level

1. Send out Scout
2. Found capital city
3. Build worker
4. Research a ‘food tech’ based on your surrounding land (Pottery!)
5. Scout good city spots
6. After building worker, build settler
7. Worker improves resources near capital
8. Grow capital to size using all resources to help build more settlers
9. Found second city - build warrior, then a worker
10. Warrior escorts the 2nd Settler
11. Build warriors to send with later settlers (rinse and repeat)
12. Get one city building warriors/archers and send them to other cities for protection
13. Capital should build Settlers until there is no more space
14. Chop Settlers as applicable
15. Pause to chop Library
16. When science slider drops to 50%, build barracks in capital and start churning out Archer/Spear/Axe combinations for border cities.
17. Capital will be mostly focused on production during this time
18. After building 4 – 5 cities, find good production zone and keep pumping out units for the rest of the game.
19. Keep settling cities until down to about 50% Science.
20. The new city construction queue usually looks like this:
- Workers until terrain is improved
- Library (chop 3x forest)
- Courthouse (chop 3x forest)
- Barracks
- Units for defense

Tech Tree Aim
1. Food Tech/Pottery
2. Bronze Working
3. Wheel
4. Writing (Library in capital ASAP)
5. Iron Working
6. Masonry
7. Alphabet
8. Literature (Great Library ASAP in capital)
9. Music (Free Great Artist = Drama)
10. Code of Laws (build Courthouses)
11. Civil Service (switch to Bureaucracy)
12. Currency or Calendar (money or happiness)
13. Paper (maps)
14. Education (Universities)
15. If ahead – Metal Casting & Machinery, otherwise…
16. Liberalism for Nationalism (Printing Press if you have #15)
17. Nationalism?
18. Printing Press (+1 Gold in Village/Town)?
19. Military Tradition (Cossacks!)
20. Democracy
21. Before Communism, slow tech and concentrate on money in the bank.
22. Communism (RUSH Kremlin)

When I play Catherine I usually go for BW first - this allows me to have my worker 'chop' out a few settlers and a 2nd worker (provided I have the trees to do it). I also research Archery fast (archers are much better defenders vs barbs) - I usually start researching tile improvement techs while im chopping out settlers/workers. BW also helps if I decide on trying a axe / sword rush in early game (pre 1AD). I find that due to randsomness in game and ai actions you will seldomn ever follow the "cottage spam" guide to the letter .. you must be flexible to your situation. If you dont have a good army - the AI will dogpile you into the dust, hence the BW first with axe rush option if I find I need to 'cleanse the continent' before doing a proper cottage spam.

One thing I found to be usefull if you find yourself pressed for land and your capital is the only thing with cottages .. research COL, chop / pop-rush Oracle and take CS - switch to Beauracracy, +50% hammers +50%$$ in capital.

1) I would get your production city up sooner. Your 3-4th city would be best.

2) Get the multiplier buildings up faster. I only build settlers as long as I have trees to chop them. Pass the settler building along to the newer cities. Once you have deforested your capital, set it to build libraries, monestaries, markets, banks, universities, etc. That way a) your capital grows faster to work the cottages faster and b) you get the multiplier buildings up faster, increasing their value.

3) SLOW DOWN. I rarely run at less than 80% science when cottage spamming. It seems to me that if you are running less than that for long periods, you are expanding too fast. If I have done right, by the middle ages, I never run in the red, and still pull in a tech every 3-4 turns for the rest of the game. Some people would disagree, but if you need to run at 50% science just to stay in the green, then you have not built enough multipliers or cottages.

3) SLOW DOWN. I rarely run at less than 80% science when cottage spamming. It seems to me that if you are running less than that for long periods, you are expanding too fast. If I have done right, by the middle ages, I never run in the red, and still pull in a tech every 3-4 turns for the rest of the game. Some people would disagree, but if you need to run at 50% science just to stay in the green, then you have not built enough multipliers or cottages.
If you're able to expand to the point where you're in the red in the very early stages of the game you should do it. If you're going for full on cottage spamming you should be heading for courthouses/marketplaces on the tech tree. Its better to have lots of land (as long as its not worthless tundra or lacks water) and run low science for a period than it is to run 80-90% the whole game.

When it comes to cottage spamming land = power. The key is you have to get code of laws, so you can't expand to the point where you have absolutely no science though.

You can take a look at my guide:

http://synex.clan-hosts.net/sites/walkthru/walkthru.htm

or the Catherine Cottage Spam thread here on CivFanatics:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=147012

Hope that helps,

Synex

Only thing I can really emphasize is if you're going cottage spam, the only improvements I'd build before getting 2-3 cottages up are gold/silver mines. Nothing helps quite so much in the early game as having a few early towns, it helps tourniquet the wound while you're waiting for those new cities to get courthouses up.

I also prioritise CoL a bit more than you do, and theres no underestimating the help of getting Mathematics early to chop those courthouses in. I think a big part of this strategy is realizing you are sacrificing the early game to run away with it when you get Communism. You shouldn't be worrying about anything other than getting as many beakers piling in and warding off invaders. If you have to fight any wars early-mid keep them short and sweet. Improvements should be highly specialized, though to leverage true cottage spam, you'll want all the science and money buildings. GL helps but its far from essential, and its arguable if prioritizing things like Masonry and Literature really offset churning through the tree and accruing gold. The only "detour" I prioritize is Liberalism for the free tech, but you need that for Democracy etc anyway.

You can take a look at my guide:

http://synex.clan-hosts.net/sites/walkthru/walkthru.htm

or the Catherine Cottage Spam thread here on CivFanatics:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=147012

Hope that helps,

Synex

It's your original Catherine Cottage Spam thread that has driven me to this madness! :crazyeye: I can never get it to work like you do, but I won't give up...