It seems that the game changes dramatically at Noble. I can win in just about any way - cultural, diplomatic, space - at Settler/Chieftain/Warlord, but when I hit Noble...it becomes a very different matter. Suddenly I am doing a lot more micromanaging (not my fave thing) and struggling to keep up with the AI.

Any simple tips?

If you're looking for "simple" then you're playing the wrong game. Name some specific things you're having trouble with.

The main differences between Noble and "below" are:
-Your happy cap and health cap is without bonuses
-The techs costs the same for the AI as for you
-You can no longer get Workers or Settlers in huts

Try playing a game with Washington, the extra :) and :health: from his traits should be good. Or try a financial civ like Korea or Netherlands for faster tech pace.

At noble you and the AI will have the exact same bonusses, on the lower difficulities, you somehow have a bonus.

A simple tip of advice... you don't need an army in every city, only border citys, trade techs and build atleast 6 reasonable citys(more would be better) and 1,5 workers per city. Goodluck

The best way to jump from lower levels to Noble is to read the articles in the war academy on this site. In particular the articles that cover empire management, city specialization and warring.

Noble is the first level where you get no bonuses over the AI and the AI gets no bonuses over you. The playing field is equal other than your glob of grey matter between your ears giving you an advantage.

You don't need to do tons of micro managing at Noble level, it is forgiving enough for you to be somewhat lax in that regard. If you get too complacent however, the AI can defeat you.

In my opinion, the best way to get good at Noble is to learn city specialization. There are guides and numerous threads on this, but to sum it up, identify good locations for commerce producing , food producing and production producing cities. Make your commerce cities your cities where you build markets, banks, libraries, universities, etc. Your production cities need forges, factories, etc. You then get some cities that are masters of one particular thing at the expense of something else, rather than jack-of-all-trades cities.

The simple:
Don't work unimproved land

The slightly complex:
Play the map, not the civ or leader.

I think a great tip is to focus and think.

Nothing messes up my games more (in my honest opinion) than rushing through decisions or trying to play Civ while doing something else (i.e. "I'll play a turn while I'm dead on CoD").

If you take your time and make your decisions/analysis more slowly, you'll find you play a less sloppy game and take things further than you usually can.

The slightly complex:
Play the map, not the civ or leader.

I disagree with you on this. You must play the map and your leader both.

I disagree with you on this. You must play the map and your leader both.

Well, the map kinda dictates if you can that, your warmonger-leader can't dictate squat when you are isolated.

[QUOTE=Maronae3;8155175]I think a great tip is to focus and think.
QUOTE]

QFT...the mushy junk between your ears needs to be used well