I'm new to the game, but have played the previous Civ versions. I'd like ideas on how to win the space race. I generate at least 60% science throughout the game, and by the 1300's I'm building research in almost every city. But I can't even get close to researching all of the techs by the time the game ends. What am I doing wrong? :confused:

Input is greatly appreciated!

Here's my game file...

JMB,

Game file not attached.

New to the game? You could do worse than reading Sisiutil's Strategy Guide for Beginners (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=165632) if you've yet to do so, although city specialisation is probably the key.

I'm new to the game, but have played the previous Civ versions. I'd like ideas on how to win the space race. I generate at least 60% science throughout the game, and by the 1300's I'm building research in almost every city. But I can't even get close to researching all of the techs by the time the game ends. What am I doing wrong? :confused:

Input is greatly appreciated!

The AI in the game is programmed to go for Space Race Victory. :(

In a game I played not long ago {I was leading in score} - I was at war with the Civ leading the Space Race, I had captured all but two cities, one being the Capitol. Eventualy I captured the Capitol City, all that was left was one more city. I needed time to heal my troops, I forgot to bring a spy.

I assumed the last City would build a defensive unit - (I would) but it kept building the last SpaceShip part it needed. Remember I failed to have a Spy there.

I eventually moved my now healed troops up to the City, ready to attack --- and WOW end of turn :::: my opponent WINS == Space Race Victory. :mad:

I'm new to the game, but have played the previous Civ versions. I'd like ideas on how to win the space race. I generate at least 60% science throughout the game, and by the 1300's I'm building research in almost every city. But I can't even get close to researching all of the techs by the time the game ends. What am I doing wrong? :confused:

Input is greatly appreciated!

Some suggestions...

1) Be financial. I'd suggest Washington (Fin/Org) up to Prince, and the Incan whose name I can't spell (Fin/Agg) on Monarch.

2) Focus on cottages. Build them early and work them, don't focus so much on production. You'll need all those developed cottages later. Cottage on every self-sufficient (2f or more) tile, flood plains are excellent.

3) Use cottage friendly civics. Beeline to Liberalism and then Democracy once you get into the medieval period and can use decent units for the era (maces/longbows)

4) Once you have your cottage-friendly civics, back off on the research slider 10 or 20%. Use all that extra gold to rush research and gold improvements, they'll pay back tenfold.

5) If you think you can build the Kremlin, the half-price hurries are more than worth beelining to Communism. With the Kremlin, one gold equals roughly one hammer, and with your civics and mass cottage spam you build a lot more gold than hammers at this point.

6) Don't build research unless your cities have nothing productive to do. Once a city has all the research/gold/production improvements it can get any decent use out of, build happiness things you may have neglected (forge in low production cities, religious buildings, etc). The last thing you need in your mad tech rush is angry citizens showing up out of nowhere when your former best friend suddenly declares on you and kills a bunch of trades.

7) Keep an eye on the power graph. If you're at the bottom someone will eventually declare on you so be prepared. Being declared on is actually a good thing most of the time though because...

8) If you get declared on, get everyone you can to declare on them. Fight back the first wave of troops and laugh as the AI civs fight amongst themselves, letting you get a bigger tech lead.

9) When fighting a larger force, use collateral damage units. Build bombers as soon as you can, even obsolete stuff like muskets and rifles can handle unit stacks that are at 10% strength after getting the daylights bombed out of them, and unlike artillery they don't normally die.

10) If you're alone on an island or small continent, build a decent navy and blockade yourself. If you see 3 transports full of tanks headed toward your territory it's rather obvious what's up. Take them out.

..

anyway, that's how I do it. If I go for Space Race I can usually push it out at about 1800 on Monarch and be in Future Tech.

since i didn't see it mentionned, i add this :
trade techs like crazy!
If the AI trades techs and you don't, it's like they tech 6 to 17 times as fast as you do. No way to be competitive, even with more land, even on a low level, even with cottage spam.

5) If you think you can build the Kremlin, the half-price hurries are more than worth beelining to Communism. With the Kremlin, one gold equals roughly one hammer, and with your civics and mass cottage spam you build a lot more gold than hammers at this point.


The Kremlin is now 33% off instead of 50%, in 1.61.

Don't forget war. (What?) I mean early in the game, not while you're building the space ship. Nothing ensures a space ship victory like having an empire that's 3 times larger than any of your opponents'.

State Property is, IMHO, the most critical civic for space race. The cottage friendly civics are also very important, but nothing helps a space race like a nice grassland city full of workshops that cranks out 60+ hammers per turn plus forge, factory, power plant, and Ironworks. That city alone can build most of the late game wonders plus all the expensive space ship parts. As long as you have 2 or 3 other cities with not terrible production and a factory, you can put them on the casings and thrusters, and that should take care of all your production needs.

Edit: Also read the thread on spies (the subject is something about the cold war).

In addition to the above, be ready to defend yourself. This is long, but I like telling Civ stories.

I finally won a space race at Prince. Winning space race on levels Nobel and below were cake walks. At Prince, it got competitive.

I was only able to enter the race by spending the entire game courting Roosevelt, who lived on the other side of the world. I was stuck on a continent with Alex and Frederick, both of whom resisted kicking my ass because I founded and spread Hinduism. The three of us shared Hinduism throughout the game, but Alex was rejecting my requests for Defense Pacts.

In order to curry favor with Roosy, I changed civics to match his (including free religion). BIG MISTAKE. Alex and Fred both declared on me. I lost two cities to Alex, but was able to gain a city from Fred. (The continent was set up as a circle with a large inland sea in the center. I was at the north of the sea, with a mountain range nine tiles long stretching north, partially dividing my area. As such, my borders with Alex and Fred were separate; Alex to the SW and Fred to the SE, though they shared a porous border south of the sea.) I changed back to state religion as part of declaring peace, and we went back to "cautious" relations due to the positive effect of shared religion.

Finally got a PA with Roosy. By this time my economy had become crippled, I had no coal access. All but one of my production cities had been lost, and I had to give up my major commerce/research city to Roosy to provide a layer of protection against Alex and Fred. The second the PA went into effect, all deals with Alex were off. No trades, no open borders ... nothing. He hated me. All civs except for Fred were now in the Space Race, and one had just finished the Manhattan Project (and all civs had access to uranium -- it was a scary world). Roosy and I got closer and closer to a space victory. I was leaving the building up to him, since his cities were producing upwards of 100 hammers, while my only prod city was doing 50 (no coal = no power, and my uranium supply was constantly under attack from spies, making it a very unstable resource). Unfortunatly, Roosy took the world violence as a clue to stop building spaceship parts. I had to take over.

That's when EVERYONE delcared on me. I had Alex from the south, Saladin, Mansa, Ghandi, Kahn (not Ghengis, the other one), Monte ... all sending battleships, stealth bombers, modern armor, mech inf, artillery ... and Roosy was busy fighting on his own continent. I couldn't build anything very quickly, since I knew my only chance at winning was the space race. One part left to build. 16 turns to build it. I just had to stay alive and hope my production wasn't sabotaged by a spy. Luckily I didn't need to research (Roosy was doing that for me), so I was making enough money to promote all my units until I had enough mech inf and gunships to beat back invaders. Sure, my improvements were being pillaged, but my spaceship construction kept going.

Then I won. Ahh ... right as two stacks of death were at my capital (and only city at the time) door.

Thanks, all! I'll take a look at this more closely when I get a free moment.

About the cottages... I have never had the ability to build them, despite having the req techs. Are those civ-specific?

Also, is it better in general to build more cities (10+) or fewer, more powerful ones?

Here's another attempt to upload my game file....

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/100767/Jason_II_AD-1866.Civ4SavedGame

Ideas are welcomed!

About the cottages... I have never had the ability to build them, despite having the req techs. Are those civ-specific?

Cottages become available with Pottery.

Your Workers can't build them on some squares (such as Oasis tiles) but you can build them on most. They can only be built by your Workers on tiles inside your own cultural borders.

It's the image of a small house in your worker options, and if you're on a grassland river square, it's probably flashing. A citizen must 'work' a cottage for it to grow into a hamlet, village, and then a town. At each growth phase it yields extra commerce. Check the Civilopedia or the manual for more on this.

Also, is it better in general to build more cities (10+) or fewer, more powerful ones?

It depends upon your strategy and at what point you are at in the game (among other things such as leader traits). 'Generally', prior to securing the technologies necessary to sustain a large empire (such as Currency {extra trade route, Marketplaces}, Code of Laws {Caste System, Courthouses}) it is best not to over-expand, or else your treasury becomes too committed to city maintenance, and you can't direct commerce into science to maintain your competitive edge. A 'rule of thumb' is that if you need to go below 60% science in order to 'break even' financially, then you've possibly over-extended. This is debatable and case-specific. Certainly later in the game 'generally' you would want more than 10 cities (self-built or conquered) if you are to compete in a space race.

Thanks for the advice... can't wait to start a new game with all of these new tips!