I have just won my first game on Prince level yay!

For those of you who, like me, are struggling to move up from Noble level, I think the trick to jump from Noble to Prince is to concentrate more on warfare earlier. Do everything pretty much what you did on Noble but go to war earlier to subdue your neighbours and to obtain more land (one of the expert player on this board - cant think of his name now - has in his sig "Land is power" - that is very true!).

The essentials of my strategy is to get Stonehenge for the Great Prohets it creates and the quicker border expansion of your 2nd and 3rd cities. Settle all the GPs in your capital (which is always my main production city). Go for the Oracle and research Writing earlyish so that you can take Alphabet as the free tech to start trading. Go Literature immediately and build the Great Library in your capital for the 2 free scientists which helps a lot on research. Chop liberally to get the GL (I usually play Frederick for the extra health, which I need later from all the chopping, and, of course the Great People points).

Bulb Philosophy with your first Great Scientist that you will get from your capital (GL). Research COL, Beaurocracy, Civil Service, Paper, Education Liberalism, all the while trading aggressively. Take Nationalism as the free tech and research Gunpowder and then Mil Tradition. By then you should have completely wiped out (or close to it) your closest neighbour with catapults/axemen/swordsmen/spearmen and you should start to mass Cavalry for your next big war. From there, well for me, it gets really hard. If I can survive the next couple of hundred years with my neighbours having masses of inferior military units but being very close to getting riflemen, I should be ok...

It's all about the axe rush baby :crazyeye:

(one of the expert player on this board - cant think of his name now - has in his sig "Land is power" - that is very true!).
He is futurehermit, and his sig is very true.

That strategy is certainly a nice one, though you do need to be wary about following the same cookie-cutter recipe in every single game, because what is best for one game is not necessarily best for another game.

So much depends on the start you get, what leader you are playing, who the other civs are, what the map type is, and what victory condition you are going for. It is certainly possible to still win on this level without lifting a single military finger, so don't get locked into the idea that early war is the answer to everything.

But well done on making the step to Prince level. Have fun trying out a few different approaches on this level and then give Monarch a go! :thumb:

That strategy is certainly a nice one, though you do need to be wary about following the same cookie-cutter recipe in every single game, because what is best for one game is not necessarily best for another game.

So much depends on the start you get, what leader you are playing, who the other civs are, what the map type is, and what victory condition you are going for. It is certainly possible to still win on this level without lifting a single military finger, so don't get locked into the idea that early war is the answer to everything.

But well done on making the step to Prince level. Have fun trying out a few different approaches on this level and then give Monarch a go! :thumb:


Yeah, I know I shouldnt get into a formula rut. Funny thing is, last night, I won my second Prince game: Fractal map (two continents) with Rameses and an isolated start. I got to Liberalism first, as usual and then beelined for Astronomy and started trading as soon as I met the others. Was ahead in tech very soon and won a space race without having fought a single war, except for taking over one barbarian city on my continent.

This time I employed what I consider to be an absolutely formidable move that I learned from ABCFan in his replay of Obsolete's game: research Pottery yourself early (I always used to trade for it) and build the Oracle - chop if you have to. If you get it, you can select Metal Casting as the free tech and build forges in your cities. The early sharp increase in production makes a huge difference. Although I did not do it last night, being isolated, the biggest advantage of forges would be getting military units out faster early on for axe rush or whatever. Thanks for that, ABCFan.

Anyway, maybe I'll play one or two more games on Prince and then give Monarch a go.

Cheers

A.