Hey everyone

I'm really enjoying the game but at the moment I am at the point of despair. It seems that it doesn't matter what I do, the AI always has an obscene amount of military units compared to me.

I have tried a couple of ways to make up the difference such as having one city just produce military units but then I end up having to build things like Aquaducts and stuff anyway because the city is a shithole. I have also tried to curb expansion with settlers so I'm not wasting turns, but the rate at which the AI produces new cities really pressures me through fear of getting blocked in.

It especially doesn't help that i always seem to start hundreds of miles away from an Iron or Copper deposit!

I suppose I'm wondering if there is an ideal or optimum method of expanding in the early game, as I am sure this is where I am being punished the most. It always feels like im 25 or so turns behind.

Don't build wonders.
Don't build wealth or research.

Soon you'll be swimming in units!

start slaving

What level do you play at ?
I think 5-6 well specialised cities are enough.

One thing that surprised me when I was first learning this game is just how many units are "enough." It is more than you might think, especially in the latter eras. Multiple 30+ unit stacks is often the norm for later wars.

Suggestions:

1) Designate production cities to produce units non-stop. Granary, barracks and health/happy buildings as necessary are all the buildings you really need--and production buildings as they become available. The rest of the time they produce units. Your best such city should get the heroic epic to further speed up the military production process.

2) Slavery. Any city with sufficient surplus food can whip out an axeman for 2 pop or a catapult for 3 pop. Whip each city a couple of times and, across a 10-city empire, you can have 20 units in 3 turns (whip-produce/whip-produce). Then you can regrow the pop and do it again.

3) Drafting. The key to late-game large-scale warfare. Get the globe theatre set up and draft a unit in that city every turn. Additionally draft 2 more units per turn scattered over the rest of you empire to spread out the :mad: 3 units per turn adds up to 60 units in 20 turns. Combine this with 1) and 2) above for a very large army produced in only 20 turns.

I don't even find that you need big armies against the AI. I'm always fighting against guys with more men than me. What's important is tech, and what you do with the soldiers you have.

In terms of tech, try to be the first to each of the new siege weapons. Be the first to catapults, trebuchets, cannons (this is the most important) and artillery. Advanced siege will give you a huge advantage against your foes.

Secondly, before invading anybody, figure out the easiest and shortest route through their best cities. The longer you march through enemy territory, the longer the enemy have to draft/whip defence and to ambush you. You can advance on this by putting all your EPs on one AI and then inspecting their cities to see which ones have the best production facilities. Invade those first, and then get the rest.

Thirdly, if you aren't talking about attacking other civs and just defending, be sure to whip or build walls and castles in border cities that you fear may come under invasion.

Lastly, check the power graph. You get here by going into the graphs section of the info screen, then selecting power from the choices in the top left hand corner.

Assuming you have even a tiny amount of EPs against the AIs, you will be able to see where they stand on this graph. If a neighbour is much higher than you and doesn't like you, it's time to get your border cities defended.

Thanks for the advice! I should have said before, I am still new to the game so I only play on Chieftain.

Is avoiding Wonders really such a good idea? It seems like you are then handing the AI Civs an uncontested advantage.

My worry with slavery and drafting, especially early on, is the unhappiness penalty. A lot of the time my unhappiness is balanced on a knife edge because of the seemingly low availability of happiness enhancers early on in the game.

It sounds awfully noobish, but it hadn't actually occured to me that AIs will also whip/draft, which might explain a lot.

The advantage from wonders is marginal, compared to what you give up to attain them (assuming that you're playing at your true difficulty level, that is. Playing something too easy makes it easy to get most of the wonders, although "too easy" varies by player.)

But what do most of the wonders do? Enough to merit not building extra city or two in a good spot? Usually not.

Or, to put it another way, I win on immortal while barely building any wonders (exception: national wonders in specialized cities)...

Or, to put it another way, I win on immortal while barely building any wonders (exception: national wonders in specialized cities)...

Shuts me up :D

I win on immortal but I find myself wonderspamming anyway. :lol: I just can't resist the shinies.

Just make sure you ballance it and only do what your empire can afford, make sure the wonders will actually help you and not at the cost of vital expansion or military. Having the appropiate resource to speed it up helps a lot. The pyramids (with stone/industrious only!) are great because then you can get GEs for more wonders, such as rushing the Parthenon to get more GEs.

They certainly aren't required though, and I've won building very few wonders. I find grabbing the right wonders though can certainly make things easier.

I win on immortal but I find myself wonderspamming anyway. :lol: I just can't resist the shinies.

Just make sure you ballance it and only do what your empire can afford, make sure the wonders will actually help you and not at the cost of vital expansion or military. Having the appropiate resource to speed it up helps a lot. The pyramids (with stone/industrious only!) are great because then you can get GEs for more wonders, such as rushing the Parthenon to get more GEs.

They certainly aren't required though, and I've won building very few wonders. I find grabbing the right wonders though can certainly make things easier.

I agree, some wonders in the right situation can be very helpful. For example, the great lighthouse giving you more cities because you can afford them and have room to expand, or the pyramids with stone allowing a fast increase in early tech rate. Or the great wall on slower speeds when you have a lot of room to expand. Very few wonders don't have a lot of potential in the RIGHT CONTEXT (maybe I'd avoid chichen itza and the space elevator consistently)

The point is that he shouldn't assume wonders are fundamentally a good choice or beneficial, but rather to weigh what building one will give him against alternatives. What's a wonder in the face of 10-15 axes when the two civs spawn next to each other? What are 10-15 axes when you're isolated (other than expensive HR fodder)?

There are lots of players who out-micro/empire manage me on here, but most of them will tell you the same thing - evaluate the best choice without assumptions, and tailor it to what you're trying to do in that game.

Is avoiding Wonders really such a good idea? It seems like you are then handing the AI Civs an uncontested advantage.

Avoiding wonders is not a good idea; but if you are having trouble with military aspects of the game anyway, you should probably think in terms of capturing wonders, rather than constructing them.

This should be a considered a temporary constraint you put on your play, to expedite the learning process.

My worry with slavery and drafting, especially early on, is the unhappiness penalty. A lot of the time my unhappiness is balanced on a knife edge because of the seemingly low availability of happiness enhancers early on in the game.

What an interesting coincidence - it turns out that Hereditary Rule gives you happy for each military unit stationed in a city.

What an interesting coincidence - it turns out that Hereditary Rule gives you happy for each military unit stationed in a city.


:lol:

Also, post-drama leaning on the culture slider a little bit is ok if you use the dip in your tech pace to capture a larger empire which you can then use to accelerate your tech pace later...

Is avoiding Wonders really such a good idea? It seems like you are then handing the AI Civs an uncontested advantage.

On a contrary. It's like hiring somebody else to build wonders for you.

If you could post your save, perhaps people would be able to give more specific suggestions. Actually chief level is pretty easy and you can build both wonders and units and whatever else you feel like building and still win (meaning "own") over AI's.

Whip more. You really only want to be working terrain with resources bonusses early on. Throw some riverside cottages grassland/floodplains in there in a couple of cities and you're good to go.
Some wonders will give great bonusses, some won't. It will always depend on the terrain. Only build the ones that will pay dividends, which usually limits your choices to the ones you get a resource discount on. The GL is great to have, not so great if you don't have marble or you're not IND. Some wonders will give the cities on thesame landmass bonusses (notre dame, SoL, GW) and they will get better when you have more cities on that landmass.
Also remember that wonders are far more powerful in the hands of a human player. The AI won't leverage the GL to bulb their way to liberalism, you can. You can win at every level without building any, and you can win at any level while building quite a few, like Obsolete.
If you incorporate the wonders you build into your long term strategy (which is why the GL is so popular, GSs to bulb to lib), it is GOOD. If you build a wonder that adds nothing to your final perfomance (like the SP and then staying in OR), it is BAD.