I just made a step up to Emperor after winning more or less consistently on Monarch (unless my starting position sucks).
I prefer to play with just Conquest and Domination enabled since I don't see the joy in other wins against the AI (they must be crushed like the bugs they are ;) )

On Monarch I was often ahead in tech, which meant I often had a military advantage with newer units. But on Emperor, the AI is always ahead of me for larger part of the game, which means that they build all the fancy units before I do. I do tech trade like a maniac, but that doesn't really give me the edge in military power.

I have read the guides in the War Academy, but I still have a very hard time on Emperor. The step from Monarch seems huge somehow...

I always go for cottage economy with a financial civ (which one varies) and usually do an early rush with axes / swords to take out one of my neighbours, and then cats, maces and knights for a second rush. I could easily take out a whole civ with a decent stack on Monarch, but on Emperor I get stuck after a city or two, unless I spend so much time on building units that I get too far behind in other areas.

I'm really having a hard time balancing expansion, tech and military to be succesful on Emperor.

Any advice on Conquest strategies on Emperor? Are you able to keep up tech with AI, or otherwise beat them with older units? How large stacks do you attack with early and later?

still easy to have tech lead in Emperor, especially with Fin leader .

Now you've entered the part of the game where every small detail matters. One of the things that holds people back in Emperor+ is over-all micro. If you don't switch tiles accordingly/adjust sliders..etc you'll fall behind in the long run.

Now you've entered the part of the game where every small detail matters. One of the things that holds people back in Emperor+ is over-all micro. If you don't switch tiles accordingly/adjust sliders..etc you'll fall behind in the long run.

Hmm..not sure I have the patience for that :rolleyes:

How dependent are you guys on a good starting position? I guess it gets more and more important as you go up in levels? I seldom regenerate as I feel I should be able to win on any map (on Monarch) , but I guess this doesn't hold true on higher levels?

I used to be one of those people that would explore first, then load up an autosave and play. But you wont be able to progress your skill if you don't learn to adjust to any given situation. My advice is, play whatever you have. Even if it's bad, and learn to think outside the box instead of using your same strategy's, even if you lose you'll have learned more then if you started on a familiar terrain.

One of the reasons that liberalism beeline is popular at higher levels is that it enables you to pinch a tech lead. If you haven't read Snaaty's guide in the strategy forum that might be a good starting point.

It's also popular because the AI doesn't prioritize it, you can use it to trade around and get huge returns on beakers you invest.

If you don't already, try using the Binary Research strategy. I.e. have the slider at 100% gold or research. Gold to build up a gold reserve (while waiting on library/acadamy for example) and then use the gold to finish research a tech. Once it's yours trade it. I've only recently begun using this so it's not really essential to win, but I find it to be a sound strategy.

I don't have many Conquest victories on emperor because they take so much effort.
But when I've won conquest it has often been with the use of Helicopters + Paratroopers and enough air support to drill a hole to china.
NUKES help. A lot.

Units with Commando help a lot too, to speed it up. Try getting a city up to 20xp with a charismatic leader by settling great generals and getting the pentagon and using the civics etc.


I often have periods when I am lagging behind in tech but then quickly race up to tech parity/lead. Usually because I have REX'ed out to grab all my territory before the greedy AI does.
The trick here is to recover as fast as possible, and get the techs the AI don't have to trade. Or use espionage, or just get your economic engine up and running. (Once you have a good research city with OXFORD you should own the AI's research)


Be careful of AI's going for Cultural victory. Conquer or raze one of their cultural cities (which one usually doesn't matter).
Also be careful of AI's that are going for space race. You can use espionage versus these to slow their spaceship construction, but it takes A LOT of effort to do it.



Easiest victory on Emperor is probably Cultural. It's so easy in fact that it's boring.
I find that if you are new to emperor going for an Espionage Economy can be any easy way to ease yourself into the difficulty. It's probably the easiest way to stay in a decent tech range of the AI.

Thanks for the tips.
I have read about both beelining Liberalism and binary teching before, but I always find myself "needing" other techs which distracts me from the beelining. Will try to focus more on it though..probably need to spend some more time looking into specialist economy as well.

And yes..cultural wins are boring...cultural/diplo/space race can be fun in MP, but against the AI its just no fun...on higher levels the AI gets military and tech bonuses (which makes war more interesting), but their lack of reasonable reasoning makes the other paths too flat for me...

It seems one never has enough time to play civ4 enought...might have to quit my job and send away my girlfriend to find the time for in-depth play :-)

Beware of so called pure "Specialist Economies". It's usually to your benefit to run more of a hybrid. Every economy should use specialists, and imo every economy should use cottages.
Though you can get away without using cottages, they are just so useful you can gain tremendously even if you only use them in one city.

Often I use cottages in my Oxford city, but often enough it's where I have my science specialists. Like in my current game, my oxford city is a Floodplains + hills + a food resource which it shares with the capital. This city built the Pyramids so I am running Representation, and it has the Great Library. And like 5-6 settled great engineers! +3 hammers and +6 science ftw. With the ability to get like 5-6+ Scientists without starving (with cottaged floodplains mostly). My only problem is I haven't been able to get a 2nd scientist! (made an Acadamy in the capital early which is a cottage city mostly). I keep getting Engineers despite the odds running at 8% or so :D (I also got the National Epic in this city).

Beware of so called pure "Specialist Economies". It's usually to your benefit to run more of a hybrid. Every economy should use specialists, and imo every economy should use cottages.
Though you can get away without using cottages, they are just so useful you can gain tremendously even if you only use them in one city.

Often I use cottages in my Oxford city, but often enough it's where I have my science specialists. Like in my current game, my oxford city is a Floodplains + hills + a food resource which it shares with the capital. This city built the Pyramids so I am running Representation, and it has the Great Library. And like 5-6 settled great engineers! +3 hammers and +6 science ftw. With the ability to get like 5-6+ Scientists without starving (with cottaged floodplains mostly). My only problem is I haven't been able to get a 2nd scientist! (made an Acadamy in the capital early which is a cottage city mostly). I keep getting Engineers despite the odds running at 8% or so :D (I also got the National Epic in this city).

Heh..it really sucks when you're expecting a certain GP (often GS) and you get one of the lower odds ones.
Regarding hybrid economy..yes..Since I always play financial civs I will definitely not give up cottage economy, and I always try to get a good science city with cottaged flood / grass plains where I build Oxford, Great Library (early!) if I can and then run lots of scientists.

I never get around to have super dedicated GP farms for unknown reasons...usually the science city produces GS while one of my wonder production cities generates a mix of the others. I like Great Merchants trade missions for deficit research...I seldom bulb my GP though, which people on higher levels seem to do a lot..I always tend to settle them or perform their speciality to gain a more long-term effect, but its probably hurting my early game research....I guess its a mix of the little things that I do "wrong" that worked out for me on Monarch but gives me headache on Emperor..

Often it is about timing. You wait and wait and wait because there is something better waiting around the corner. Sometimes you have to settle for something mediocre that can become great faster than the good can become awesome.

I just made a step up to Emperor after winning more or less consistently on Monarch (unless my starting position sucks).
I prefer to play with just Conquest and Domination enabled since I don't see the joy in other wins against the AI (they must be crushed like the bugs they are ;) )


First part does not answer a question, but just to point out that as you move up in levels the AI can actually beat you in a space race or cultural victory. They will still almost never win/beat you via domination. I guess if you cannot beat them they will still "win" via time.

On Monarch I was often ahead in tech, which meant I often had a military advantage with newer units. But on Emperor, the AI is always ahead of me for larger part of the game, which means that they build all the fancy units before I do. I do tech trade like a maniac, but that doesn't really give me the edge in military power.

The beelining technology X strategies are much more effective at higher levels you will find out because the AI will actually have things to trade you. On Diety if you research Aesthetics then some AI will have alphabet to trade you 99% of the time on a more standard map. At monarch you could perhaps research Aesthetics and Alphabet before a more militaristic AI has writing. This means that getting technologies the AI values highly before they do is just as important as the rate you are teching early in the game. At Immortal/Diety Aesthetics alone can get you Alphabet, Monarchy, IW, Math, and a ton of fill in. Philosophy has similar returns if you can reach it, normally via a GS bulb, early on. In order to get a tech lead and stay competitive at the higher levels you need to focus and learn how to use the AIs. This includes trading techs, trading resources, bribing wars, and so on.

As far as the war itself use more units. With a proper beeline you can have Steel or Rifling before 1200AD regularly at emperor along with enough troops to take out 1-2 other civilizations quickly. Trade the valuable but mostly useless to the AI techs on the way of your beeline, Paper for example, to backfill. Only trade for techs you need. Don't research techs that don't really help you. For instance if you are going for a peaceful opening, are not industrious, do not want to build the collosus, and do not have any luxury metals, do not research MC yourself. Trade for it later when the AI considers it almost worthless.

If you take over someone with a competitive tech edge 3.19 lets you catch back up with relative ease as vassals will now trade any tech with you. Mass up some gold. Buy the highly prized tech off your vassal, biology for example, and then trade it to everyone else and suddenly you are at tech parity again after a large war. Attacking early vs. late depends on the map, like everything else. Does the AI next to you build a lot of units? Will it be likely to attack you anyway? What does its land look like? Are you blocked in with no other expansion options? Etc

Not that my report was very good, but I posted an immortal conquest victory (1690 AD) in IU 25. I posted some saves that may be helpful.

Drafting helps. A lot.

Drafting helps. A lot.
mass upgrade help more :D

You almost described exactly where I am and the problem I'm having, so I guess I don't have much to offer in terms of suggestions. But I'll say one thing that is, in my experience, in higer levels, moving one ladder up forces you to learn a certain aspect which you don't know because that aspect is usually not needed to win at that lower level. For e.g. moving from Noble to Prince I had to learn how to specialize cities. Moving from Prince to Monarch I had to master the combo of early rush/expansion/finance management. I think at Emperor what's important is learn to assess the situation on a whole and adjust accordingly. You don't have to, and often cannot shoot for one favorite strategy, i.e. rush, rinse, repeat at those three distinctive levels (axe, cat plus Mace, and cannon plus rifle).

Thanks all for your advice.
I realize that I have to revise my Monarch strategies a bit to make it on Emperor...
It certainly seems more and more important to have a bag full of different strategies dependening on the situation when you move up in levels...up to Monarch it kind of works with the same basic strategy on most maps and opponents

Hmm..not sure I have the patience for that :rolleyes:

How dependent are you guys on a good starting position? I guess it gets more and more important as you go up in levels? I seldom regenerate as I feel I should be able to win on any map (on Monarch) , but I guess this doesn't hold true on higher levels?

Given the rate I play it's hard to make a case that you can't perform the *necessary* micro to win immortal relatively quickly. I actually don't think perfect micro would take me much longer than what I currently do, the time sink is actually determining that perfect micro. But game experience can draw you gradually closer. Hell, I've actually won some cheese victories on deity (rome domination, apostolic palace...I have little doubt I could win standard or smaller marathon with most early UU leaders).

But if you want a tech lead on the highest levels it's time to work your best tiles and bring in enough GPP to pop a lot of great people...or capture a lot of cities then recover + catch up using the land advantage.

You don't need a tech lead to win though. After flopping like a fish due to a diplo miscalculation in my first attempt, my 2nd attempt at immortal toku went much better, even though it involved invading a similarly-sized AI that finished guilds while I didn't have machinery yet. 2 wars and 30 turns later, I had a tech-strong vassal and a shrine capitol to my name.

If spamming catapults, longbows, and whatever else you can get isn't your thing do the more common approach of the renaissance war, or early industrial war.