Hey guys. I've recently tried (over and over) to get a win with Washington. My usual settings: Hemispheres/Monarch/Standard/Epic.

On paper, he looks great. Expansive and Charismatic should equate to (a) big cities that grow fast thanks to cheap granaries and workers and (b) the ability to field a high-quality army due to cheap promotions. Agriculture and Fishing mean having good growth opportunity from turn 1.

The problem? My Washington games tend to fall into one of a few trends:

1) After a successful axe rush, my economy / research collapses.
2) If I try for early wonders (Stonehenge and Pyramids, in particular), I am able to maintain research from city size and specialists, but lose the land grab to the AI.
3) If I try to REX, my economy / research collapses.

After trying to ramrod a particular Washington strategy and failing, I have opted on trying to "play the map" and remaining flexible. This typically translates into a mini-REX/builder mentality and I end up getting out-techhed or invaded by a warmonger in the Medieval period.

What should I do? Take it down a notch to Prince? Do I need to focus on strategies that line up with Washington's strengths, and if so, what are those? I normally do fairly well on Monarch but am hitting the brick wall here. Thanks in advance for your replies.

Welcome back Bear, missed your advice and posts.

The maps sounds right for him.

His advantages are fast population explosion with a high happy cap and 2 good food resources. He is great at an early rush if that's an option. He is a good whipper because of the pop and fast graneries.

Once he establishes an economy, he is pretty stronge as he just get's better. Just be patient and tech Currency and CoL fairly early. Establishing courthosues/markets before going to war is preferable unless there is an ealry rush opponent.

Also, not sure if your choice of early wonder are optimal. If he is coatal, try sailing as the first tech, then the AH/mining/BW route. Once you get the first settler built, emphasize the Great Lighthouse and possible Colossus (maybe oracle). Stonehenge is fine as long as it doesn't hinder early developement.

My attempt to play was washington 2 mins ago. I'm going to try again and post some advice if I can, I'm playing the same settings.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/Holy_bomb/Civ4ScreenShot0017.jpg

just go conquering while utilizing a CE. charismatic is a really good trait for both of them.

LOL Beatrix ... you been hacking into my savegame files?

That random event is the mind-killer.

You have to learn to expect economic crashes from a good expansion/conquest. The trick is to learn to recover. You have to aim for an economic tech, usually monarchy if you're CE or code of laws if you're SE. After an early rush, you'll probably have to cottage, pillage liberally, conquer a lot, trade techs for gold, trade resources for GPT, get some trade routes, or fail to build a wonder to garner enough money to get there.

Washington isn't a bad leader. He shouldn't be more difficult to play than any other nonfinancial leader.

Just expand peacefully at first unless you're right next to someone else, then axe rush them. Once you get a decent amount of land just turtle, run a cottage economy, and tech your way to refrigeration and industrialism. Make sure to build the kremlin. Once you hit industrialism, refrigeration, flight, and combustion turn off research, rush buy a stack of carriers, load them with fighters, rushbuy a stack of transports, load them with seals, and just take over the entire world, taking about 1 city every turn.

Target whoever built the late game luxury resource wonders and the eiffel tower first if you didn't build them yourself.

I see Washington as a "focus on the basics" kind of guy. Focus on workers, some early vertical growth, and claiming new cities at a moderate pace. Most of your early (large) cities should be hybrid cities (a good dose of early cottaging). Pottery should likely be prioritized (cheap granaries as well). Currency is probably more attractive than CoL, as large commerce heavy cities get a large bonus from markets (assuming the gold slider is low enough -- it should be ;) ).

If you have some breathing room a catapult war would probably be my first military goal. Largely ignore wonders.

Stonehence with Charismatic leaders is fantastic though.

oops, my bad

Monarch happy cap is 5 with charismatic, 4 without.

Monarch happy cap is 5.

Only in your capital; it's 4 in other cities.

I meant with charismatic bonus, but it was unclear, fixed

All 3 of your scenarios seem to have a common thread: You are neglecting focus on your economy! You need to secure col/currency and depending on your economy you need to lay down cottages and/or be working sufficient numbers of specialists. Unless you have stone and/or marble I wouldn't chase wonders and even if you had the appropriate resource I wouldn't spam them the way an industrious leader might.

If you axe-rush only keep capitals, holy cities, and cities that can pay for themselves. Don't axe-rush if the AI is too far away, the maintenance will kill you. Be patient in these situations. When rexing, currency and col are high priorities and it is important to have enough cottages/commerce tiles to pay the bills. Also don't rex far and wide until after currency/col are in place.

Land is certainly power and if you secure enough land you can eventually recover from economic collapse to win (assuming you don't get invaded and wiped out); however, sustaining your economy while securing the necessary land is key for a comfortable/efficient victory.