My game is going really like no other game I have ever seen...I have started on an island that had place for 3 cities. surrounded by ocean. so I first beelined to caravel. then discovered that 4 civs with bigger island were all close and were tech trading. they were all under isabella's religion which didnt reach my borders . I tried to beeline to astronomy which was an astronomical 120 turns at some point! Nonetheless I managed to take all the small islands then sold the tech but couldnt get much because i'm alone with my religion and Isabella converted everyone. So i thought I could do well by conquest. So I killed Eli and Cyrus who were also on isolated island like me but now my empire cost me so much (archipelagos and spread around the world) that my science rate is at 30 % and I still lose money. how can I get out of this ? or how could I have done better? I only have 3 good cities on my first island. corruption ruins the others. Should I stop teching ? (I tried) everybody hates me except togu (he converted to my religion) but he wont trade anything even at please...not even open borders...

there was no way I could win in my head with only 3 cities when other civs had 9 to 10. I was like 15 techs behind. The island I started was the second worst spot. Still, I lead in score but I dont see how i'll win except declaring war to everyone, I cross my fingers so people dont have enough tech lead to build the spaceship before 2050 and win at the score.

I play Frederick on noble standard archipelagos and Marathon

i dont play mush arcepelico, but if you have a civilization spread out alot , get COL and start building those courthouses

You have to focus on your economy if you plan to expand that much... Code of Laws is just the start. You need Currency, education, etc. I say education since, if you can score an awesome science city site and maybe even score the Great Library (with Literature) and Oxford University at that location, the rest of your empire doesn't have to focus on science as much (making it easier for you to afford more cities...)

Most AI leaders build science wonders late. It's nice. Science and commerce work together, you know. One prophet for the shrine and great scientists for the rest of the game would help.

i dont play mush arcepelico, but if you have a civilization spread out alot , get COL and start building those courthouses

me neither I just selected shuffle aka random map. I dont really like the game but it feels like a challenge as I might lose my first game at noble...all I,m wondering is how to catch up in science...

you need state property pretty badly here

sure but I'm really far from it...courthouses are not enough...

IMHO you're screwed :lol:

Other than a strong push towards culture, you had no chance to begin with!

A nice tactic with archipelagos is to get those work boats out and exploring as early as possible. You should aim to explore everywhere that is navigable and find any neighbours. With that info, you should be able to identify some very good choke points to prevent their expansion - send a settler and a defender out to build cities that, with borders closed, will prevent the other civs from expanding pre-Navigation. You can then back-fill the islands with cities at your leisure (try to keep up a strong pace of expansion). If you do this right you can often block some of them off before they get to meet other civs, limiting their trading other than through you. Keeping closed borders is fine, as the trading bonuses will often keep you off their backs. You should have built up a healthy lead by the time navigation is researched.

Aim to build the Colossus as a priority (and the Great Lighthouse, if you can). This can really help expansion, especially as many of your cities will contain a large number of coastal squares.

Aggressive, strategic expansion of this type can really help on these maps. I consider it to have equal or greater benefit to an early axe rush on other map types. The extra early expansion costs (distance maintenance) are paid for pretty quickly. Keep your defensive numbers up in your border cities (give them some naval units too), other cities only really need barb fighters/fog busters.

Later on, I've found a switch to Nationhood after the discovery of Rifles can be very, very useful on this map to quickly draft a couple of Riflemen into each of your cities. This can give a healthy boost to power, can dissuade opportunistic attacks on weakly defended cities and a saves a lot of hassle ferrying troops. This allows your production centres to focus on building your offensive armada.

Depending on the power/tech/diplomatic situation, it can be best to leave the switch until you actually go to war, then staying in HR/Nationhood/Slavery as you take enemy cities can allow you to whip unhappy population for a barracks and then draft a Rifle to defend (for just a temporary net -1 happiness which later becomes +3 happiness, and is usefull for war weariness). Again, drafting saves having to ferry more troops to those captured cities and speeds up the progress of war.

I play alot of island maps (standard, monarch and marathon). I would try the following:

- Gift useles (no ressource) citys on small islands away if they dont produce enough comerce/money. Maybe gift citys one of the new conquered island to diff. civs. Maybe you can provocate wars to slow them down.

- Dou you have enough courthouses to built the FP on one of the conquered islands? Choose the island with most comerce/money. Focus on comerce and food in the citys and wipe the buildings (slavery), but not too much.

- Disband old units. Dispand your navy, just keep transport ships when needed. Destroyed workboats are cheaper to replace than frigates...

- Trade all not needed ressources and worldmap away for cash.

- If possibel, focus on comerce and grow in every city, forget production for a while. When money comes in, start slowly with production in your citys.

As I wrote: I would try ... no idea if it helps in your situation. Or if it would help at all :crazyeye:
Good luck!

I succeeded to get back on the tech race but had to stop arming myself. So I got attacked by Isabella. she took me one city on a far away island but I pillaged every single square of her island. when I destroyed a city, Napoleon declared war on me and kill my entire army (on isabella Island, which they share) in a single turn...I think I can now win the game if I can sign a peace treaty soon with Napoleon and prevent him from a beach-head.

I think I whipped too much at a certain moment...

as for exploring...I just couldnt. I started on an isolated island far from the other while they were on island only separated by shore tiles so they could exchange for a good thousand years before I made my first contact...it was already too late

Beeline for State Property civic?

This doesn't solve your problem, but in general on island maps being first to circumnavigation gives a very useful edge. Send boats as far as you can both east and west...every time you get a tech that can take you to deeper water, send another after them. Make it a serious goal - the extra MP can give big advantages in later game.