I've been playing this game for quite a while now and I can't find any way to do good on a tiny island. I always get out produced, out researched and out money made. I can't seem to bring in enough $. Any tips?

Financial, of course. And maybe Spiritual.

on a tiny islands Map there is a very low hammers SO DO NOT CHOP YOUR FOREST. There is a large supply of Food, excess amounts of seafood so to make up for the lack of hammers use the whip and later on in the game drafting regularly. Wonders to get are collosus And great lighthouse. There's lots of commerce on a tiny islands maps so research isn't a problem, maintenace cost high so try and get those courthouses and forbidden palace in place ASAP. The two best Traits for this Map is Financial for extra commerce and Organised for low mantainance and cheap courthouses and lighthouses so your best bet would be to use Washington.

I haven't played islands in a while, but when I did I liked Washington. You start with Fishing, which gives you work boats right away and a head start on Sailing for lighthouses. The Financial trait works great when you are working all those coastal tiles. Try to get the Great lighthouse and/or the Colossus. You'll be rolling in cash.

Washington is the king of the tiny islands.

Financial is huge on water maps.

You start with fishing so can build a workboat right off the bat.

Organized also means cheap lighthouses and courthouses so you can expand quickly.

If the game goes long, then use your Navy SEALs. Almost every city will be on the coast on that type of map.

I've been playing this game for quite a while now and I can't find any way to do good on a tiny island. I always get out produced, out researched and out money made. I can't seem to bring in enough $. Any tips?

RB Epic 2 was Tiny Islands. Review the reports (http://realmsbeyond.net/civ/c4tourney/epic2results.html) to get some ideas, bearing in mind the variant rules constrain some normal play.

Throw me the idol, I throw you the whip - VoiceOfUnreason's mnemonic for TI production: lean hard on those food bonuses, spread religions like peanut butter, build the Angkor Wat.

I recently played a tiny islands with germany. I just founded all but hinduism then spread them with missionaries on caravels. The amount of money I had rolling in was more than enough to make up for my civ and location's shortcomings. BTW, even the English who founded hinduism were devout converts to Islam by the time I finished my conversion missions.

as already mentionned,
washington rules on islands
every fishing village is worthwhile with him

slavery is almost the single way to build things, and early war is out of reach, most of the time
You'll have to build your own workers (if you need any) ;)

Try Tokugawa, you most often won't need any navy seals. :)

Build three or four cities, aiming at Copper and (especially) Iron.

To start an early rush 4 Axes and 2 Galleys is usually enough, then add some more while keep conquering.

Slavery and the whip is your best friend.

Samurais are super-cool unit. You can conquer most of the world with a stack of 8 Samurais and 4-6 cats.

After sending your stack to a war, you can switch to Org. Religion and build a few improvements in your core cities. Markets are a priority, especially in high-food cities. You'll want to run quite a few Merchants for income.

The production cities keep building cats, of course.

On tiny island map the AI cities are poorly defended, and you should not expect any retalitation. After capturing, leave the city empty until the resistance is over and you can whip a garrison.

Don't forget to have a Medic + March Samurai in your stack. Promote it to Medic II once you get a chance, you'll be losing a lot less time on healing.

tokugawa is good (starts with fishing) but without science (financial = +50% on islands), it's going to be spears against tank

You don't need too much science to get BW and Sailing.

You don't need too many techs in the rest of the game either. BW->IW->Construction->CS->Machinery, that's all you need in most games. If you can pull out the CS slingshot, the rest is like a cheating. :)

You do need a good military unit, since you cannot afford to lose many of them. Agressive is a nice trait, especially in the cases where you need Medic + March or Combat II + Amphibious. Well, Combat I + CR-II is not bad either. :)

After you capture the most advanced civs (with those cool world wonders like the Pyramids or GL), you'll find that you're ok with the science. The rest of the world can be 20+ techs ahead of you, it is useless to them until they get Rifling. Then you just stop for a while to get Rifling yourself, by that time you should control about half of the world with enough science even if you science bar is at 20%.

Also, plan your conquest properly. You don't need those recently founded cities, you need ther capitals first, and the rest of the cities can wait until properly improved.

If you capture them now, you have to raze them, then the other AI just settles there (and gets some improved land for free), sometimes on the next turn. :)

One more thing. Do not assume Financial is +50%. That is, do not rely on water tiles for commerce, build cottages from the beginning. Get Pottery as your first tech most of the time (Toku starts with the Wheel, so you can research Pottery as your very first tech.)

If you have a cluster of Calendar resources, build cottages on most of them, leave 1 for happiness, and maybe another one for trading, but not more. Unless, of course, you need extra food from, say, Sugar plantations.

Colossus is a nice wonder, but it is doomed to become obsolete very early, since after Machinery you'll want to beeline to Astronomy. It is not nice to transport your troops on Galleys when the AI already has (or close to) Galleons.

Well, generally, you don't build wonders, you capture them. :)

thanks for the tips. i think i'm gonna go with washington and use all of your help.

Colossus is a nice wonder, but it is doomed to become obsolete very early, since after Machinery you'll want to beeline to Astronomy. It is not nice to transport your troops on Galleys when the AI already has (or close to) Galleons.



Of course... But often beelining towards astronomy means winning the "liberalism-race"... and especially on a tiny islands-map with little land; the Colossus will help you do that.

An alternative to Washington could be Qin, depending on how many cities you want and how many land-tiles there are.
Financial+"early" forges and help with whatever wonders you plan to build regardless of resources... that and collateral x-bows to ship around the islands, makes for lots of fun... even if some beelining will be vital.

Get metal casting early... If possible with the oracle. Then build forges and get a great engineer, use it for machinery (you'll need it for optics anyway)
Then fill your galleys with cho-ko-nus while the ai's top-unit is an axeman or even an archer.

Of course... But often beelining towards astronomy means winning the "liberalism-race"... and especially on a tiny islands-map with little land; the Colossus will help you do that.
Yes, I frequently do that. With or without Colossus.

Me too, and seriously:
I wouldn't defend the Colossus as much if we were talking about anything else then a tiny island-map... but since we're not; -It's huge.

Well, at least it is very cheap to build. Or even more easy to capture. :)

Well, at least it is very cheap to build. Or even more easy to capture. :)

you need to have access to the city where it is built!
it's not sure
it's even very unlikely, most of the time

you need to have access to the city where it is built!
it's not sure
it's even very unlikely, most of the time
Well, I did it many times. :) To get access, capture all the cities that may culturally impact. It's Tiny Islands, 2 cities per island max, more likely just one. They are typically poorly defended and no reinforcements.

Land a few Axes(Maces)/Cats, the city is yours. No retalitation. Have Medic+March, just go immediately after another city. Do it fast, you'll get along fine.

There are plenty of other wonders, btw. Great Lighthouse an example, it lasts longer. Or the Pyramids. A holy city of a widespread religion is also nice.

What I especially like about those maps, is loads of Calendar resources, so you don't have to worry about happiness. Grow your cities big, work more cottages, you won't need that Colossus so badly. :)