Tell me what you think of this...

Start game hurry to techs that lead to oracle

have the pre reqs for lit by then

make sure to get roads, farming, and the like afterwards...

if on massive land hurry to machinery (build many cross bowmen)

if on island hurry to caravel tech (discover round world)

Save all great engineer to build newer wonders that dont expire

Hurry to liberalism get encyclo to catch up on minor techs you missed along the way (Ie Slavery)

get banks

set politics to democ/repub (based on size), free market, liberal and base religion on religions founded

be the first to get riflemen use them to defend self is anyone attacks

be the first to gunships and war those who have not

i dunno It may not sound ornate and specific but is not supposed to be

i follow this and generally I'm way ahead in technology until i start brokering them out to earn gold to rush my nation building
along the way i generally found near 4 religions which give lots of prophets and each is worth 5 gold
by the
time a nation decides to attack me i have crossbowmen vs either horse archers pikemen or axemen (even against macemen and heavy pike they're good)
I can usually trade lit for a lot early on if I find an oversea nation whose advance wont bother me much
I don't keep a large standing army because my troops are usually superior so I can hurry a quick defense if i need one and when I'm ready to blitz my army comes out quickly (usually 1-2 troops/turn)


...

Find the holes and poke em through my strategy

Quickreaded and only thing I would do diffrent is to get a religion, oracle is not that important, and try to tech to x-bows (with much land as you said) and vassalize some of the AI's. Then demanding some of the resources (Like farming/fishing resources, but no metal (unless I don't have) becouse it would screw the ability of to build an army (especyally good when It is a vassal which shares borders with other civs. And when got enough power, teching the way as you said.

Instead of Oracle, which is useless except as a huge culture buff, get the Stonehenge, which really helps spread your culture to your newly founded cities with the free monument.

Yeah the religion is important but I go for lit as my free tech so I usually found Hinduism.

after i've got lit ill go back for mining or farming or fishing depending on my starting tech and my location

then tech to crossbows like you said and my xbows are usually the strongest soldiers until someone finds horsemen... I'm generally so involved in tecing however that i never have time o make a large army and only make between 2 and 4 for each city buts thats usually more than enough to survive any onslaughts

then i hurry to gunpowder banking and liberalism and i usually found several other religions so religions are no problem


what i don't like is that if you have like 5 sankore and the tower still only work for one and when you end up becoming a secular state they're essentially worthless

Instead of Oracle, which is useless except as a huge culture buff, get the Stonehenge, which really helps spread your culture to your newly founded cities with the free monument.


I disagree I think oracle is a great opportunity to put yourself ahead quickly if you use it on the right tech...


by using it on lit im the first to have libraries as well as the great library... it can probably be used to get machinery too which will give u xbows while the other civs only have axemen....


I think i'll try to get both next time i play

I disagree I think oracle is a great opportunity to put yourself ahead quickly if you use it on the right tech...


But see, you lose 20-30 turns building it that could have been utilized building settlers and whatnot. Anyways, techs aren't always that important. The AI is generally bad at researching the right techs, even on high difficulty settings. However, the Oracle, if properly placed on a border city, can vastly expand your culture (it has a +16 culture bonus, one of the largest of any wonder).

i do indeed lose a good 20 turns if not more :(

Instead of Oracle, which is useless except as a huge culture buff, get the Stonehenge, which really helps spread your culture to your newly founded cities with the free monument.

It is possible to get oracle to bulb yourself the confuncian religion. (At least on emperor, though I did not start as minor civ) But if you tech right the oracle gets you the best religion there is for that time (spreads nicely, 1 gold/ city. And the oracle generating GP's for prophet so you get a shrine.

But I don't think that that works as minor civs, (had to trade some techs to get the chance of bulbing confuncian with oracle).

i play as minor and i suaully get hinduism confusianism islam and christianity without really trading at all

i play as minor and i suaully get hinduism confusianism islam and christianity without really trading at all

Difficulty level?

That is key isnt it.
I play on the default level not quite ready for any higher because i hardly win a game... either im winning and the turns start taking more than 30 sec to pass or i'm clearly losing before industrialism {which is where i really shine :P... gunships/tanks}

a good strategy on lower levels

My suggestion is beeline military strategy( Sun tzu art of war)
build no more than four cities
develop them as much as possible
beeline Aesthics(Hellenism)
build Gymnaisia in all cities
beeline Code of laws(confucianism)
make holy city your military factory so with holy shrine every unit gets mobility plus pankraton expand as much as possible with monarchy as your gov
Start a war of you have not fought one to get great general
with confucious as your religion attach general to your best archer unit add gentleman promotion add CR1 if you do not have it to help negate -25 city attack
beeline philosphy(taoism)
build tao monastery in all cities
spread tao to all cities build shewagdon playa
enable free chuch civ
tao as state religion
beeline machinery
beeline civil service
if on a large continent wreak havoc on your enemies with an army that is virtually invincible because of pluses
concentrate on building offensive units in city with Kong Miao(confucian Shrine)
(Build all siege weapons in kong Miao city with waidan +20 str, -25 upgrade cost hard to beat gives you best possible siege weapons in game speed kills in civ4
alot of people lot sending all their great generals to a city for the exp, i prefer to attach them to units, veteran exp. units with warlords keep their exp with upgrade and upgrade faster allow for smaller stacks with low attrition rates and ruthless conquering abilities which comes in handy on immortal and diety levels with massive AI stacks especially in medieval with mailed knights and modern with tanks)

Wonders
Build Colosus as soon as possible
economic boost
Art of war in Confusious holy city
long term cheaper upgrades
faster great generals
Everything else according to your playing style
I usually get great library, pyramaids, stonehenge early
I play on diety huge maps everything else fluctuates will try for liberalism which I only got first once
I am usually in the top two tech wise and want a challenge so i have never built encycopeida besides it is usually built by a civ that does not need it

tell me what you think

tell me what you think

What version of the mod are you using?

was using 2.7test2 now using 2.7 huge map, raging barbs, aggressive AI, barbciv, deity, I do not use revolutions because the AI cannot seem to handle it unless they are aggressive, charismatic or imperialistic everyone else has way too many revolts

was using 2.7test2 now using 2.7 huge map, raging barbs, aggressive AI, barbciv, deity, I do not use revolutions because the AI cannot seem to handle it unless they are aggressive, charismatic or imperialistic everyone else has way too many revolts

I'm afraid I don't remember where it was, but we found the modifier for the AI revolution index and turned it way down, that helped a lot. They will still revolt, but more like 1 in 5, rather than a total meltdown. Still using BTS 3.17 and ROM 2.53 because we play multiplayer and its the last stable version we've tried. (Takes us weeks to finish a game and we've more than one going at any one time because not everyone can play every time we want to get together to play.) I think the plan was to keep Rev as a challenge for the players, but allow the AI to play well too. We turn off stuff like tech trading to keep it really challenging.

Switching up to BTS 3.19 and ROM 2.7 isn't going to happen until reports of multiplayer stability improve. Too hard for 5 of us to get together to play regularly so we don't want to spend too much time "almost Civvin" as we put it. :)

I'd suggest you use Engineers for their passive production bonuses which may be small but will last the rest of the game. By saving a few turns you can complete more buildings faster and have more time to build your wonders overall while still retaining the bonuses.

tell me what you think

Good stuff. I've recently discovered the Athletics/Aesthetics beeline, which allows Olympic Games (early super-city, Stonehenge-like effect that never goes obsolete, and the +1 exp in every city is a nice bonus), then the incredible Pankraton promotion for all your units.

Playing on high difficulties, I don't usually worry about founding religions (as I adopt the religion of my strongest neighbor to turn his attentions elsewhere), but making sure you have access to Hellenism is crucial.

BTW, shrines are much weaker (relatively) in RoM. If you need extra cash, build some caravans. Any kind of rushing is usually a fools game, as there are so many techs/things to build. Concentrate on maximizing the number of good (optimally improved) tiles worked.

a good strategy on lower levels

My suggestion is beeline military strategy( Sun tzu art of war)
build no more than four cities
develop them as much as possible
beeline Aesthics(Hellenism)
build Gymnaisia in all cities
beeline Code of laws(confucianism)
make holy city your military factory so with holy shrine every unit gets mobility plus pankraton expand as much as possible with monarchy as your gov
Start a war of you have not fought one to get great general
with confucious as your religion attach general to your best archer unit add gentleman promotion add CR1 if you do not have it to help negate -25 city attack
beeline philosphy(taoism)
build tao monastery in all cities
spread tao to all cities build shewagdon playa
enable free chuch civ
tao as state religion
beeline machinery
beeline civil service
if on a large continent wreak havoc on your enemies with an army that is virtually invincible because of pluses
concentrate on building offensive units in city with Kong Miao(confucian Shrine)
(Build all siege weapons in kong Miao city with waidan +20 str, -25 upgrade cost hard to beat gives you best possible siege weapons in game speed kills in civ4
alot of people lot sending all their great generals to a city for the exp, i prefer to attach them to units, veteran exp. units with warlords keep their exp with upgrade and upgrade faster allow for smaller stacks with low attrition rates and ruthless conquering abilities which comes in handy on immortal and diety levels with massive AI stacks especially in medieval with mailed knights and modern with tanks)

Wonders
Build Colosus as soon as possible
economic boost
Art of war in Confusious holy city
long term cheaper upgrades
faster great generals
Everything else according to your playing style
I usually get great library, pyramaids, stonehenge early
I play on diety huge maps everything else fluctuates will try for liberalism which I only got first once
I am usually in the top two tech wise and want a challenge so i have never built encycopeida besides it is usually built by a civ that does not need it

tell me what you think

i used this (almost) strat in 2 my deity gigantic games. Won both by conquest at around 800-900 AD. I wasnt using confucianism as i was usually beelining to Christianity (grabbing on the way Hellenism and Taoism for pankration bonus and taoism +20% to melee (dont remember how its called)). When at stone age i war nearest neighbour with aim to making 4 generals out of my spearman with siege 4 promotions. Those are good for ancient age wars, this stack can take out walled cities without catapults etc. I always keep one of my first spearman with woodsman 3 to keep advance going fast. This also saves hammers on settlers. Also i use this army to non stop war neighbors to cripple their economy and get gold from captured cities+missed techs, razing cities which you dont need/or are too far to maintain. In my highest score game (was playing ottomans on gigantic earth2 map) i founded myself only 2 first cities, rest was conquered, final score was like 1,450,000.

Once in medieval i use 2 cities for military units production, one for templars and other for teutons and pump them out non-stop. When i start war at medieval i attach first general i get to teuton marshal and next to templar knights. By that time computers basically dont have anything to counter my stack of doom (4 pikeman generals+templars+teutons+few crusaders+couple hospitaliers for healing). I usually use 2 stacks when advancing, one with siege weapons etc. slowly advancing and taking city after city and second consisting of templars/teutons wrecking havoc in enemy back, taking workers, weakly defended cities, destroying strategic resources. Built-in crusader promotion for templars/teutons, 3 movement for templars AND march AND defence bonuses (i think its only mounted unit in game getting terrain defence bonuses) is kinda overpowering imho. All of that when you dont have chivalry, only need guilds. When you get to chivalry and get Templar and Hospitalier Marshals (medic 3 for templars) and attach generals to them as well its even easier but game is mostly won by this time.

Once when playing continents and conquering my own continent then waiting till astronomy etc. i went deep into modern era and promoted all my ex-templars into gunships :) now that was fun - stack of 40-50 gunships with crusader and march promotions :)).

Of course this all depends on kind of map you are playing and neighbours you have.

Another strat i used in few of my games both in RoM and regular civ was beelining to musketman or rifleman if you're falling behind in middle ages, skipping horse related techs at all and slowly build your army of middle age melee units. And pile up money by trading with comps. Once you get tech upgrade your army to musketman/rifleman and start war. Computer's huge stacks at that time usually consist of lots of outdated units which are easily defeated by your gunpowder army, getting you lots of exp.

one thing that I've noticed is that you are not taking into account of the present value concept.
if someone tells you he would give you a dollar today or dollar tomorrow, you want it today right?

when you use engineer for something that that obsoletes, in the long run the output from the wonder per se is of course less than wonders that doesn't obsolete. but with the bonus that's created and the reduction of 1 coin/turn maintenance of the engineer your total output is much larger.
it took me too long to notice this but after I found about this I rock in immortal level.