Ok, so one of my major flaws in play is usually my slow expansion rate - I'll stick with leaders I like, turtle, and not expand enough to be able to grab any good land. Sometimes it works, more often I just end up struggling, even on Noble.

So this time I did something different - I started a Noble game with a random leader, Standard map, Tectonics. I got Willem, settled on a nice strong coastal start (lacking seafood, but grabbing corn, cows and (by luck) horses), and explored.

It was a while, but eventually I found out I was on the tail end of a peninsula - and on the other side was Lincoln of America. Normally at this point I'd bottle up, sink a city or two close to home and start planning to overrun him (a failed effort if I didn't sink enough cities). Instead, I tried something new - I sent a settler and warrior up right snug against him.

Here's the result:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e302/MessrFirewind/Quicklockoff.jpg


He only has one route to get into my land, and I have an eye on that. Soon I'll be covering that as well when Utrecht's border pops once more.

Now, to decide how to get best use out of my land...

(In semi-related news, any idea how to turn grids on? I don't like them much up-close, but far away like this they really help plan things out...)

any idea how to turn grids on? Ctrl-T

Now you have space for a decent number of cities . Use it wisely ;)

So I think Lincoln -might- be gearing up for war. I've spotted a couple of catapults being ferried to a (new) border city right next to me... which is under heavy fire from my culture ;) I'm building lots of Sentry Chariots for fogbusting right now, and after that I'm going to start gearing up and smash my way through him.

I captured a barbarian city a little south of Utrecht, southeast of the wheat there - I decided to keep it since it seemed a decent enough city location. Not planted any others yet - been focused on locking him out and keeping barbs out of my land. Lost the Pyramids, but I'm grabbing Zeus in Utrecht to put more pressure on Pennsylvania - with any luck I might be able to flip it.

If you try to block an AI like that it will create a SOD.

;7028529']If you try to block an AI like that it will create a SOD.

Well I've played through from that turn (researching alphabet at 675BC) to where I am right now (researching Chemistry at 1858AD) without having a single battle yet. I'm gearing up to sweep clean through the American lands, and possibly roll through to Mongolia as well if luck is with me. The Americans have longbows, I have rifles - and I have a spy sweep planned to stop them from making an upgrade rush on attack.

I wouldn't even bother attacking if it weren't for the fact they have the Apostolic Palace - I really don't want to run the risk of Lincoln voting himself into a diplo victory from out of nowhere.

Also, I managed to get nine cities in place, all told - I was quite proud of myself, I think each is positioned pretty damn well. I'm beelining the National Park for one of my cities, right now - once built, it'll get a good 10+ free specialists.

How can you only be researching chemistry at 1858 AD? Similary how can you have just 2 cities in 675 BC??

Congrats, you found a map that doesn't punish slow expansion as much as normal.

But you really need 3 cities by 1000BC and 6 cities by 1AD.

Even on Noble? Bearing in mind that I'm mostly playing for the fun of it more than to get perfect games? :/

I -was- feeling pretty good about myself, especially about how well I juggled the cities to work the way they do, but sheesh...

Even on Noble you can be outproduced and look a tempting target if you don't have a credible sized empire. Better safe than sorry, right? ;)

Well, Lincoln was my only neighbour with access to me for a long time - Genghis was blocked off by a convinient mountain plot, and everyone else was overseas. So locking Lincoln off gave me plenty of time to expand and grow to be a strong producer before anybody else could come knocking. Heck, nobody's attacked me at all yet - I'm gearing up to sweep through America right now, so I have a large stockpile of troops which is probably inflating my power rating a bit.

Wow I just found out DMW is exactly 10 years older than I :lol:

This means I'm older than Dave... :old:

This means I'm older than Dave... :old:

:old: Thou shall not use World builder.

Wow I just found out DMW is exactly 10 years older than I :lol:

He's got about 3 years on me.

On topic:

I have to agree...noble or not, you should get more cities by then. When I started to win on monarch I'd build about 4 and mass up military to take more, so I'd have less than 6 by 1 AD sometimes but far more shortly thereafter. I've learned to play a bit more optimally since, and what Dave says is good advice in general - you may wind up with more cities via an early rush but 6 by 1 AD is a pretty standard/decent number at most levels.

Whether or not you're playing the game "for fun" (and most of us are, even most MP games are "for fun), I'd imagine you'd still like to win consistently, and making enough cities early isn't something that is overtly micro intensive or difficult. You can try it yourself and see. I get the feeling like after a try or two you'll have it down and be pleasantly surprised.

Allow me to also agree that you should have more cities sooner. I have a tendency to build up my cities before trying to expand, and that's bad. When I successfully break that tendency, I tend to do better.

By having a few more cities early, THEN you can let one or two build itself up while the others continue to fuel the expansion or provide the necessary military and exploration units to gain strategic knowledge about your position.

If, at 1800-something you have rifles and everyone else has longbows, then you are doing something right; not all maps are conducive to rapid teching, and a lead like that it excellent; now build up, put it to use, and kick butt!

If, at 1800-something you have rifles and everyone else has longbows, then you are doing something right; not all maps are conducive to rapid teching, and a lead like that it excellent; now build up, put it to use, and kick butt!

Well, I just wiped out America. It turned into rifles on rifles, but my horde of spies wiped out defenses - I took one city with just one cavalry, and patient use of Airships.

I also learnt an incredibly useful application of Airships + Forts - early warning system. Thanks to regular recon of my western seas, I realized the French and their two Vassals were gearing up to attack me a turn before they waged war, meaning I could get a quick defense up to blunt their strike.

Ironclads are surprisingly useful mid-range defenders, if you can claim the 'circumnavigation' speed bonus.