Please post all strategies and tips for ViSa here.

Reserved for future.

Reserved for future

Ok strategists, who here is a builder and who here are war mongers. I personally am a war monger.!!!

*looks around*

*nervously stands up*

I.... I'm

I'm a BUILDER!!!!


;)

hey thats ok TAfirehawk is a builder also. I dont mind you guys building the wonders, because i will take you cities,:crazyeye: :goodjob: Hey thanks for the info on your computer. Its encouraging that some people do not get the DREADED MAF. I guess I just got to build it better and faster.

I'm builder. When I'm attacking I have built big army :) But after wars there is a peace & my empire grows :D

The "Builder"/"warmonger" strategies are not as simple as you would like to think for Civ4 and general and thsu by extension Visa. Visa makes a blending strategy of the two far more far more realistic then vanilla Ci4 before it.

I Play on Marathon FX and I tell you the pacing is excellent technologically, I actually feel like I have time to play around with my units, although I wish riflemen and infantry could be pushed a few techs later.

What I will do is describe the encounter to the best of my memory, of a game of Civilization IV - Visa at a lan party between three people.

Radek - Casimir of Poland
Me - Stalin of the Soviet Union (renamed)
Dano - Cherokee

I name thee, the Tale of the Land Rat and the Water Rat.

we played the game on standard/terra.

As such Radek, me and Daniel turned out to be right next to each other true not next next just geographically close.

At first me and Daniel argued about our borders I wanted at leats 1 city to the East of Moscow to act as a buffer and so did he, with cities having 3 radios rather then 2 made this tricky.

Eventually we came up with a compromise I'ld build a city a little to th south on the coast and he would build north a little ways above his side of a river. And agreed that the last remaining habitual land would be left as a no-mans land.

Radek did his little thing to my northwest, I eventually build novgorod VERY closer to one of his cities which I had not realized lacking proper maps. (ignoring the fact that this being a lan party I had infact seen his map when i looked at his screen)

This annoyed him but Novgorod turned out to be an awesome producing city later on as it had a tonne of hills.

With St. Petersburg and Moscow sharing a river with floot plains My economy did better then normal allowing me to build cities further west, building and yet failing to build (sometimes purposely) wonders gave me the cash infusion needed to keep my economy running.

As I expanded I found that the English founded a city in an inlet, this annoyed me because I needed that inlet to build ships o the northern part of the continent so I made an agreement with Radek (who was at war with both French and English AIs) whereupon I gained the city of Coventy which I renamed Vladvistok or however its actually spelt.

Upon peacing them, I found that despite sealing off this area of the continent to me, Radek and Dano there were 3 German settlements in my "Siberian" backdoor so I gathered my troops and took all three German cities with ease renaming them proper Russian named.

Now with some 8-12 cities on the continent with Dano only having 4, itwas obvious how the Balance of Power was going to swing.

So Dano having the sea far more easily accessible had rushed ocean going ships and found the new world first and with an army began exterminating the Barbarian civilizations there making his armies super experianced.

Soon Dano made a new city in the no-mans land against our previous agreement. So with this obviously hostile act I built up a line of forts along our common border and soon was manning it as well.

Our scores would no contiuously compete throughout the entire game, we also had an arms race which made both our economies suffer, mine probly hurt more as I made far less money.

There were enough times where I felt I had enough of a Numorical suporiority to attack but the size of his navy and the risk of him attacking my smaller cities prevented me from readily attacking at these times.

This is part one part 2 i'll provide soonish.

man thats good stuff chairman mao, what level are you guys playing on noble?

Hey, all. I love the Visa modpack, haven't ever actually played vanilla Warlords. Anyhow, I'm not that great of a player, so I was hoping for a few hints or suggestions on how to improve gameplay.

I can win fairly consistently on lower levels, but Noble level is a real challenge. I won my first game on that level yesterday, a space-race victory. What I did was use a tactic suggested to me by vanilla Civ4, just building a couple of workers first and not worrying about combat units until a little later in the game. Then I beelined to Bronze Working and timber-rushed a few early wonders.

The main sticking point in most of my games is money. It hit me in the latest game too, I was actually running at a deficit after knocking out a few of the barbarian cities on my borders. (I can't seem to raze cities, even though I don't have the 'No Razing' option checked; is that normal for Visa?) Doing any type of major expansion or conquest before I get Currency is a major headache, even if I try the cottage spamming route. Any suggestions for that problem? :confused:

I have noticed a way to "build" gold before Currency ... if you start a Wonder that you're pretty certain some other Civ is going to get, then when they get it you get a gold reimbursement for your shields. I'm not sure how that actually compares to actually building gold though.

Another problem I have is that before I research Writing or Currency or Drama (I think those are the techs), I can't build anything but units or buildings. Yeah, duh, I know that's the point, but the more units/buildings I build, the higher a drain on my economy, and I just feel like I'm wasting time if I build units and then just delete them. Any suggestions for early game play in this respect? :confused:

Anyhow, I'm off to play another Noble game ... any suggestions or comments would be appreciated! :cool:

-- WC

Hey, all. I love the Visa modpack, haven't ever actually played vanilla Warlords. Anyhow, I'm not that great of a player, so I was hoping for a few hints or suggestions on how to improve gameplay.

I can win fairly consistently on lower levels, but Noble level is a real challenge. I won my first game on that level yesterday, a space-race victory. What I did was use a tactic suggested to me by vanilla Civ4, just building a couple of workers first and not worrying about combat units until a little later in the game. Then I beelined to Bronze Working and timber-rushed a few early wonders.

The main sticking point in most of my games is money. It hit me in the latest game too, I was actually running at a deficit after knocking out a few of the barbarian cities on my borders. (I can't seem to raze cities, even though I don't have the 'No Razing' option checked; is that normal for Visa?) Doing any type of major expansion or conquest before I get Currency is a major headache, even if I try the cottage spamming route. Any suggestions for that problem? :confused:

I have noticed a way to "build" gold before Currency ... if you start a Wonder that you're pretty certain some other Civ is going to get, then when they get it you get a gold reimbursement for your shields. I'm not sure how that actually compares to actually building gold though.

Another problem I have is that before I research Writing or Currency or Drama (I think those are the techs), I can't build anything but units or buildings. Yeah, duh, I know that's the point, but the more units/buildings I build, the higher a drain on my economy, and I just feel like I'm wasting time if I build units and then just delete them. Any suggestions for early game play in this respect? :confused:

Anyhow, I'm off to play another Noble game ... any suggestions or comments would be appreciated! :cool:

-- WC

Well you need to make your focus money, both in what you build and what you don't build....it took me awhile but I turn city priority to money at various times to keep a positive cash flow. It is harder now with the v2.08 AI, but keeping the number of cities down is a big help too.

The raze city was fixed in Patch v2.1

> Well you need to make your focus money, both in what you build and what
> you don't build....it took me awhile but I turn city priority to money at various
> times to keep a positive cash flow. It is harder now with the v2.08 AI, but
> keeping the number of cities down is a big help too.

Yeah, I'm realizing that. Do you find the AI city governor to work pretty well? I'm used to micromanaging everything from CivIII.

Keeping the number of cities down is a decent idea. I'm trying the city specialization thing, but having a difficult time not building barracks everywhere; there are times I just need a lot of units really fast!! I'm not a warmonger ... really, I'm not ... I just like to make sure I win combats.

I was going crazy earlier today; I had several cataphracts attacking a barb city with only a few archers in it and they LOST almost every round, including the ones where the odds were something like 96.4% in their favor! Not to mention that one of my cats defected to their side. I came back several rounds later with a half dozen cats and ground troops and took the city with no problem. But I think my neighbors thought I was going crazy.

Anyhow, that's related to the other problem I mentioned; if I have enough units for the moment, and really don't want to build anything else in the city to add to the upkeep, is there a way to tell it not to build anything at all for a while? Or do you have to build units and then immediately delete them?

> The raze city was fixed in Patch v2.1

THAT will help. I noticed that I wasn't running the latest version but figured I'd wait 'til tomorrow to upgrade it. The razing thing has been a little annoying, especially when the barbarian cities are in places where you really don't want them to be. I got used to it though.

BTW, one trick I thought of using (though I haven't had time to yet) was to find a barbarian city and put a unit outside that's stronger than what they have (say, a cataphract when they're building archers). It seems that the barbs aren't too bright, and they'll build a unit every five or six rounds or so and send him out alone to fight. If your unit can beat him handily one-on-one outside the city, he could theoretically rack up the promotions (and great general points) over time without a problem. Anybody ever try anything like that? Or is that pretty much a waste of time?

-- WC

Anyhow, that's related to the other problem I mentioned; if I have enough units for the moment, and really don't want to build anything else in the city to add to the upkeep, is there a way to tell it not to build anything at all for a while? Or do you have to build units and then immediately delete them?

Reduce the number of shields a city produces, that will slow it way down...but you can't just stop building unless you have access to culture/money

BTW, one trick I thought of using (though I haven't had time to yet) was to find a barbarian city and put a unit outside that's stronger than what they have (say, a cataphract when they're building archers). It seems that the barbs aren't too bright, and they'll build a unit every five or six rounds or so and send him out alone to fight. If your unit can beat him handily one-on-one outside the city, he could theoretically rack up the promotions (and great general points) over time without a problem. Anybody ever try anything like that? Or is that pretty much a waste of time?

-- WC

Not sure that would work very fast because points are awarded on difficulty....so easy won battles don't help alot.

Reduce the number of shields a city produces, that will slow it way down...but you can't just stop building unless you have access to culture/money

Gotcha, yeah. I started playing around with the city governor buttons today (the 'emphasize whatever' buttons); they can really come in handy. Sometimes they automatically reallocate when I change the emphasis and sometimes they don't, though; is there a trick to it?

I've noticed too that once in a while a city will actually start starving, even though there are plenty of unworked food tiles around. If I pull up the city screen and click the center tile once, it rearranges things and everything's good again. What's up with that? Is the AI not bright enough to do that by itself? Is there an 'avoid starvation' button you have to click?? :crazyeye:

Not sure that would work very fast because points are awarded on difficulty....so easy won battles don't help alot.

OK, good to have confirmation of that. I noticed something like that happening but never paid enough attention to experience points to be able to tell for sure.

-- WC

Another problem I have is that before I research Writing or Currency or Drama (I think those are the techs), I can't build anything but units or buildings. Yeah, duh, I know that's the point, but the more units/buildings I build, the higher a drain on my economy, and I just feel like I'm wasting time if I build units and then just delete them. Any suggestions for early game play in this respect? :confused:

Now I'm confused. Maybe I missed something somewhere, or just never realized it...but it costs your empire gold for each building you have in a city?
I know in Civ III it did, and it displayed that in the City Screen of the maintenance costs the buildings were putting on your economy. But I thought in Civ4 that when you make a building, it doesn't cost you anything. Am I wrong about this?

And if it costs your for making a building, is there some list somewhere that shows this, or anything like that?

okay i am an uber civ noob.
but i love the ViSa modpack and looking forward to v3.0
but i have one big question what is the bar whit the green and red plus and all the other litte buttons or something like that. i really dont have any idea and its quiet iritating that i dont know its use!
please help me :)

...i have one big question what is the bar whit the green and red plus and all the other litte buttons or something like that. i really dont have any idea and its quiet iritating that i dont know its use!
please help me :)I was in the same boat. But have now learned that those buttons will save us much irritation! They provide various ways to display unit stacks. Which I found to be a superb interface improvement. This stack management tool saves ALOT of time and frustration!!

The first four buttons change how the stacks are viewed. The other buttons control which units in the stack will be displayed. For example you can set it to not display Air and Naval units. Or to not display Wounded units etc etc

First you 'click' one of the first four buttons to select how you will view this stack. Then you select one or more of the other buttons to control which units will see displayed. Very effecient for large stack management!


By default this first option is choosen (first button on the left).
It shows only a single line of units. Have to scroll to find units. Can only see 9 units at a time.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/WhiteElk/ScrollStack.jpg



The button second from the left will show everything in the stack.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/WhiteElk/EverythingStack.jpg



After selecting the 'Everything Stack'. I then selected two buttons from the group to the right of the Red and Green :health:. One of these buttons looks like an Aircraft and the other looks like the bow of a Boat. These buttons remove these units from the stack display. And so they have a red border whereas other buttons have a green border.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/WhiteElk/NoAirNoNavalStack.jpg


I can now quickly stack up my Amphibious units into groups that I will load into transports. Then I will click the Car and Plane buttons and unclick the Boat. Then I will see just my Navy (and units in transports). Then I position Navy for amphibious assault and barrage the cities defenses. Then I go back to city and click the Car and Boat and unclick the Plane. Then I will only see my air units and I can effeciently order their missions. This interface improvement saves me alot of time. I think its brilliant!

.

Now I'm confused. Maybe I missed something somewhere, or just never realized it...but it costs your empire gold for each building you have in a city?
I know in Civ III it did, and it displayed that in the City Screen of the maintenance costs the buildings were putting on your economy. But I thought in Civ4 that when you make a building, it doesn't cost you anything. Am I wrong about this?

And if it costs your for making a building, is there some list somewhere that shows this, or anything like that?

Each building doesn't cost like in Civ 3 but it contributes to the overall cost of your empire, just check the Advisor :)

okay i am an uber civ noob.
but i love the ViSa modpack and looking forward to v3.0
but i have one big question what is the bar whit the green and red plus and all the other litte buttons or something like that. i really dont have any idea and its quiet iritating that i dont know its use!
please help me :)

All the modcomps we have used (well almost all) are linked to the original thread so everybody can see what everything does....this is in the Feature thread.

Personal Strategy question:

Which Victory condition do you prefer or play the most? and why?


Time
Conquest
Domination
Cultural
Space Race
Diplomatic
Religious (Available with certain mods only)
Total Victory (soon to be added to ViSa...but if you've used it before with another mod)



As for myself, I prefer either Conquest or Diplomatic...mainly because they are the ones you have to work the hardest at obtaining...

That being said, I cannot wait until the Total Victory condition is available...it is exactly what I have hoped Firaxis would have added when Civ4 originally came out...but unfortunately as usual, it takes people who aren't on the payroll and who really care about the game to come up with something as awesome as that.

It depends on how you do your Diplomatic Victory - if you use "backdoor diplomacy" i.e. have an extremely large population so that you can vote yourself in, then Diplomacy is the easiest victory.

On higher levels, Spaceship is nearly impossible unless, ironically, you are in a position to do one of the more aggressive victories.

If you play Culturally without using the culture slider, it is a very interesting game for sure.

Personally, most of the time I don't play to win - I play to play! :D I tend to win however the dice fall (if I get involved in lots of wars then I go Dom/Conq... if I have good science cities then I will go for Spaceship etc) .... and if it looks like an AI will win, then my game becomes one of stopping them.

Personally, I just like to play for special situations: In my first ViSa game here, I have a city with 130 food..... I am now trying to grow it all the way up to its max population - that's my idea of fun! :D

I actually like the religious victory, I just wish there was a video for it.

Finally, once Total Mastery is included, I'll always have that as the only victory available.

Personal Strategy question:

Which Victory condition do you prefer or play the most? and why?


Well, I know that the one I like LEAST is the Space Race victory, although it's how I usually end up winning. I'm usually in the middle of preparing for another type of victory (e.g. Conquest) and all of a sudden somebody looks like they're going to make the spaceship and I have to hurry up and beat them to it.

I like Domination best because ... well, because it's FUN. Also Conquest, though that's a little harder. I prefer the idea of keeping them alive so that they can worship my awesome grandeur. :lol:

Diplomatic, I usually can't win that way unless I get enough people and vassal states to force a vote through. I've not actively tried the Religious victory yet, but it looks like it could be interesting. Same with Cultural. Time is kinda the 'default' victory, I can usually win that way almost every time.

-- WC

This might be more of a general civ question, but, I'm using visa, so, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask here.

I'm playing on prince level, I'm firmly in 3rd place score-wise. India, the Civ in 1st is around 3-4 techs ahead of me at all times. Alexander of Greece is in 2nd place, though I'm more advanced then him...

It's the 1700s, so, it's that period where technologies are starting to make the difference between having a destroyer, vs a caravel.

Just wondering if anyone had any good tips for what to do when down like this?
Is it possible to come back and catch up?

The Tech Leak will help you catch up a little. Not sure if you have to
have open borders. And you can capture opponent cities for techs.

This might be more of a general civ question, but, I'm using visa, so, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask here.

I'm playing on prince level, I'm firmly in 3rd place score-wise. India, the Civ in 1st is around 3-4 techs ahead of me at all times. Alexander of Greece is in 2nd place, though I'm more advanced then him...

It's the 1700s, so, it's that period where technologies are starting to make the difference between having a destroyer, vs a caravel.

Just wondering if anyone had any good tips for what to do when down like this?
Is it possible to come back and catch up?

Be absolutely certain to be the first to build the Internet project...you'll steal all of India's & Greece's techs.

Be absolutely certain to be the first to build the Internet project...you'll steal all of India's & Greece's techs.

I concur. And as one other person said, conquering cities gives the conqueror some tech points toward one of the defeated civ's techs. That won't work against Greece unless they have techs that you need.

That's a problem, to be sure. If they have more advanced techs, they probably have more advanced weapons. Tactics change. Play the barbarian at the gates of Rome: take LOTS of units. LOTS. Keep some in reserve for when your first wave spends itself, then move those in quickly and keep attacking.

I've had some luck NOT using the infamous Stack of Doom but attacking in smaller stacks spread out around the perimiter of the city. That forces the defender to split his attacks so that not as many units are damaged at the same time. If you destroy the roads outside the city, not only can it be cut off from quick reinforcements AND the resources to build, but slow-moving units won't be able to get back inside the city if they win a combat against a single unit. That leaves them outside and injured - possibly easy pickin'.

That only works sometimes, though. Not really enough to rely on as a regular tactic. What you've got to do is take them down with overwhelming numbers. Waves of overwhelming numbers, attacking from enough different directions that bombard attacks only affect a smaller number of your units. Barbarians at the gate and all that.

My play lately has been on Noble level, so things may be different on Prince, I don't know.

-- WC

Again, maybe a general question, but I have Visa installed so figured it made sense to ask here.

I have not built the UN, but, am getting prompted to vote on several issues. One of them passed Pacifism as the global civic and now my budget is getting hammered.

Is their anyway to raise a resolution of my own so I can counter this?

Again, maybe a general question, but I have Visa installed so figured it made sense to ask here.

I have not built the UN, but, am getting prompted to vote on several issues. One of them passed Pacifism as the global civic and now my budget is getting hammered.

Is their anyway to raise a resolution of my own so I can counter this?

From the sound of it one of your competitors built the UN before you did...what you have to do now is wait until the next Secretary General elections and hope that you win.

Once that is done, you will have the ability to choose which resolutions you want voted on.

I'm a early-mid game builder and late game warmonger. I just go for all the techs that either give a boon to research and commercial ones so I can bribe people in to wars to keep them distacted and to put more money into scientific research. In the begining, I try to found Buddhism and then avoid founding other religions cause it messes up my late game tech-whore strategy with secularlism. I never have open borders except when necessary to aquire a resource and then only with the police state civic to prevent tech-leak. By the time I've discovered all he techs that have any moderatley imporatant effect whatsoever, I just mass huge numbers of nukes, tanks, sattelites, and stealth bombers and crush my enemies who have late 1800's are units.

From the sound of it one of your competitors built the UN before you did...what you have to do now is wait until the next Secretary General elections and hope that you win.

Once that is done, you will have the ability to choose which resolutions you want voted on.

Is there a way to cancel previous resolutions? I haven't noticed that being an option ... meaning, if Pacifism was voted in as a universal civic, is there a way to cancel that without making another universal civic?

-- WC

Is there a way to cancel previous resolutions? I haven't noticed that being an option ... meaning, if Pacifism was voted in as a universal civic, is there a way to cancel that without making another universal civic?

-- WC

I beleive if the same resolution is voted again, and this time not passed, then it is canceled. In your example, have another vote for Pacifism and if NO wins, I think there will be free choice for everyone.
I haven't tested though so I might be wrong.

no your right on that.. i repealed a no nukes resolution with that tactic ;)

Hey guys

I'm a ViSa noob, so I'm still trying to get to grips with modern era doctrine.

What kind of units in what ratios do you guys have in your stacks? Obviously a medic is essential, and plenty of guns, so Arty is a must. But considering a transport hauls 5 units, what kind of stacks do you guys deploy as an invading force?

Eg, Transport fits 5... so 1 SAM, 1 Arty, 1 Medic, 1 Inf, 1 Armour?

Or do you guys mix it up? (Support type units such as SAM, Med and Arty in one or two transports, with any other "lift" units crammed with combat fodder?)

Try a couple of Military Freighters - they haul 10 units - a total of 20 units is a fairly formidable force to take a beachhead -- the fact that no refueling is required for your helicoper force makes it easy to hang off shore with a few choppers loaded with IFV's or Marines.

For an Invasion Force, I do the following -- 2 Battleships, 4 Destroyers, 1 Carrier with 3 Jets, 1 Sub with 10 Cruise Missles, 2 Military Freighters and 2 Transports -- I usually attack with no less than 10 Howitzers - 2 Advances Mobil Sam's - 1 Medic in the flotila on a transport - 8 Sturmgeschutz (tanks for those not playing as Austria ) Mobile Infantry - Bazooka - and whoever else is available make up the rest of the landing force.

The above assumes I'm out of Bomber range and have to soften up the AI without my Air Force. If that isn't the case then everything changes and I pound them as hard as I can with the airforce while moving the land forces into position -- still with Artillery being the largest single component of my attacking force -- Howitzers, to me, are the esential ellement of all my attacks - and protecting them is vital. I love to pound a city and then send in one lone Infantry Unit to accept their surrender :) -- Immediately reenforcing that unit is wise though - or the AI will just take it right back.

Oh - by the way - I usually don't consider any unit as "combat fodder" though -- I've seen a heavily injured common Infantry Unit belonging to the AI defend against my Advanced APC - with my combat odds showing about 98% - and I still lost the APC -- Although it doesn't take long to build APC's, getting them into position where they can do some good is hard at times -- so -- no -- I do my best to loose no one -- I'm Greedy that way :)

Try a couple of Military Freighters - they haul 10 units - a total of 20 units is a fairly formidable force to take a beachhead -- the fact that no refueling is required for your helicoper force makes it easy to hang off shore with a few choppers loaded with IFV's or Marines.

For an Invasion Force, I do the following -- 2 Battleships, 4 Destroyers, 1 Carrier with 3 Jets, 1 Sub with 10 Cruise Missles, 2 Military Freighters and 2 Transports -- I usually attack with no less than 10 Howitzers - 2 Advances Mobil Sam's - 1 Medic in the flotila on a transport - 8 Sturmgeschutz (tanks for those not playing as Austria ) Mobile Infantry - Bazooka - and whoever else is available make up the rest of the landing force.

The above assumes I'm out of Bomber range and have to soften up the AI without my Air Force. If that isn't the case then everything changes and I pound them as hard as I can with the airforce while moving the land forces into position -- still with Artillery being the largest single component of my attacking force -- Howitzers, to me, are the esential ellement of all my attacks - and protecting them is vital. I love to pound a city and then send in one lone Infantry Unit to accept their surrender :) -- Immediately reenforcing that unit is wise though - or the AI will just take it right back.

Oh - by the way - I usually don't consider any unit as "combat fodder" though -- I've seen a heavily injured common Infantry Unit belonging to the AI defend against my Advanced APC - with my combat odds showing about 98% - and I still lost the APC -- Although it doesn't take long to build APC's, getting them into position where they can do some good is hard at times -- so -- no -- I do my best to loose no one -- I'm Greedy that way :)

Good advice. Thanks. :)

Nobody has any more strategy advice???

Nobody has any more strategy advice???

Unfortunately, shortly after Kaiser posted, I was deprived of my machine, so I haven't had a chance to road-test yet... I'm gonna try a 3-1 mix with Fighters to Fighter-Bomber promo'd air units when I get back... if anything I try falls either side of mediocre I'll post it. :)

After getting to the point where Noble was too easy, I decided to try a Prince game. WOW, the difference is incredible. After trying well over a dozen starts and getting totally bogged down, I finally played a Prince game where I'm winning (on points, at least) after 1AD. It's not over yet, so I can't claim victory yet, but it's looking pretty good. Here's some details; anyone, please feel free to make comments or suggestions for future play (either different games or the future of this one).

1. Egyptian civilization, Ramses II leader. I chose this for a few reasons. First, the Spiritual and Industrial trait combo will (a) eliminate anarchy when changing Civics, which saves time, and (b) let me crank out wonders. Second, the UU's are pretty good and EARLY. My main complaint with them is that they are too dependent on Horses. Fortunately, I had Horses right next to my capitol so that wasn't a problem. If I had to play without those wonderful beasts of burden, I think I'd have a serious problem. BTW, my opposing civs are the Chinese, Iriquois, Romans, Tibet, and Magyar

2. Small map, Pangea, Extended game play, No Barbs. Small map because my computer doesn't have enough RAM to handle anything bigger. Pangea because the one Prince game I played before this that started out reasonably well ended up with me eliminating the only other civ on my continent and then not being able to get to Optics before the rest of world was discovering gunpowder. And the Extended game play (not really sure what it's really called, just the game a little bit longer than Normal) gives me a bit of a chance to use some of the units before the opposing civs find new ones. No barbs because it's easier that way and I'm just starting Prince.

3. Techs. First aim was Archery then Bronze Working, chop trees and figure out where the second city will be built. After that, I went for Horseback Riding and then War Art. I might have been better going for War Art first, but I figured that getting Stables from Horseback Riding would help get stronger War Chariots. After that was Iron Working to find the Iron, then Pottery, then Priesthood (to build the Oracle and get Metal Working free).

4. Units. I start out with a Warrior, so he goes wandering off to find the other civs. I build a Warrior right off to protect the Homeland, then some barracks. By the time the barracks are done, I have researched Archery and can build the Egyptian Archer. I build two of those and a Settler, since my Bronze Working research has revealed some Bronze not so far away from my capitol. I have time to build a Hypaspist or two before I finish Horseback Riding and can start on the Stables, then crank out some Imhotep Horse Archers and War Chariots.

I do not build any workers yet. I have my warrior steal a worker from the civ that will be my primary target first off, the Tibetan empire. I choose them because they are the closest and, from past experience, likely to be the weakest early on. China is to the west of me and everybody else is to the east; they're next, since if I eliminate them then I have only one border to defend (at least until naval power becomes an issue).

5. City tiles. I got lucky, the capitol had two gold tiles. These gave me shields and gold. I wasn't aiming on having a fast-growing capitol; grow too big too fast and bad things happen (IME). So, keep it small, but lotsa shields coming in meant that I could build things faster and lotsa gold coming in meant that my research was going along at a decent pace. After I captured that Tibetan worker, I had him develop and then hook up the gold first thing, even before the bronze. I'm not sure if that was the best choice, but it didn't affect me too negatively in any case.

6. Game progression. As I mentioned earlier, my first targets were the Tibetans. I went in with a few Hypaspists and an Egyptian Archer or two, they didn't even put up a decent struggle. Eliminated them with no trouble at all. I got another worker out of the deal.

Then for the Chinese, I loaded up three Imhotep Horse Archers, three War Chariots, and a few Hypaspists and Egyptian Archers, and took China by storm. I had to stop and regroup once or twice, then China actually declared war on me which gave me a few moments of despair before I wiped them from the face of the Earth. Not bad. Two civs down, three remaining.

Then the Romans attacked. Fortunately, they were only able to come at me from one direction, through Lhasa. They were being led by Augustus Caesar who, while not the worst general in Civ, is far from having the strategic instincts of Julius. I was (barely) able to weather the attacks and get some walls up around the city. Finally, I turned the tide, pillaged some of his countryside (including his iron mine), and got some peace.

Meanwhile the Magyar had inexplicably declared war and sent in one lone unit which I destroyed. I retaliated by taking two of their cities. The Iriquois attacked before the Magyar had surrendered, drawing off a large portion of my forces since they were several hundred points ahead of me and had that damned Iriquois Scalper or whatever you call it. By the grace of whatever gods may be, I was able to fend them off long enough to declare peace with the Magyar and turn all of my forces to successfully beating them off.

7. Current Status. The capitol of Egypt, Thebes, is a production powerhouse; it can turn out a new War Chariot in two turns. It's gotten several of the Wonders, including the Oracle, the Parthenon and the Roman Roads. I also have Stonehenge in Beijing, having stolen that from the Chinese.

So at this point I am a few hundred points AHEAD of the top AI player, the Iriquois, though I suspect that I'm behind in tech. Their capitol city is ahead of my capitol in culture, but I've got #2, #3 and #4 neatly sewn up. Money is a problem, though I've just gotten Currency and so Markets are being built as we speak. I never bothered founding a religion, I just stole the city where Buddhism was founded and built the shrine there when I got a chance.

So ... any suggestions on how to maintain this precarious lead, or what I might have done better? It's the best I've done on Prince so far. I know that this level may seem pretty basic to most here, but c'mon, help a guy out here! :-D

(Note that I'm at work and my computer is at home, so a few of the details may be a bit fuzzy -- but it's accurate as far as I can remember.)

-- WC

I like to play Sumerians on pangaea and marathon with raging barbs. The vulture is quite kick ass early city killer. I build one or two warriors and send them scouting the vicinity. After Researching tools, set research to 0 and get money for upgrades. In the mean time I should have picked up two or three city raider promotions (hardly ever with one unit). Then I go for the nearest neighbor, because the cities drain your economy soon. After upgrading switch research to pottery! Pottery gives granary: more growth > more people > more money. (And a useful build besides units and barrack that doesnt drain your economy). And almost forgot you can build cottages ;-).

Pottery is a must unless you conquer a religion. Then you can also go Meditation, priesthood. Useful buildings monastery and missionary to spread. Temple for happiness and a GProphet for economy. Combine with Stonhenge, since you should have enough production to kill.

Creative and organized come in handy. You can use the fat cross of the other Capitals soon. Organized reduces upkeep.

I usually capture 4 cities on noble and start spamming wonders, while slowly expanding by conquest and settling in space. Only take the best locations and cottage spam a lot. There are some nogo's (or even better go first) in the beginning which can only be taken with battering ram support as soon as they have archery. Persia, Pakistan and Protective nations.

Note that Immortals of the Persians are rendered almost useless for conquest since spearman their contemporary counter is default defensive unit. Same goes for War Chariots (My bit of suggestion to whimpyciv ;-)