King difficulty; getting my.. kicked, help

mkp523

Chieftain
Joined
Sep 23, 2010
Messages
1
Hey everybody. I played 2 games on Prince and it was just way to easy. So I bumped it up to King and I'm having a real tough time. I can only ever settle two new cities before happiness becomes a problem. I never get outstanding starting locations. Other civs are ahead of me in every aspect.

I try to focus on expansion then military, but like i said i get stuck at 3 cities. I build nothing but trade posts/mines and ally with one maritime city-state for food. Money is never a problem.

My relations with other civs never seem to go well, do you have to agree with every one of their terms to have a good relationship? Its not long before a strong civ declares war on me, usually they will have 3x the amount of units and cities then I do.

Anyway, I could use some tips for starting out. Point me in the right direction. Civ IV I had no problems at higher difficulty levels because there was an exact formula for success. I can't keep up with the competition on King, what are your starting strategies?
 
The best general overall tip I've heard so far is to save your initial gold until you get 310, then buy your first worker outright. That's helped me a lot in the early game.

As for your happiness problem, just start building the happiness buildings - Colliseum, Circus if you've got Ivory or Horses nearby, etc. Also you could try Egyptians - they get the Burial Tomb that gives +2 culture and +2 happiness for 0 maintenance.
 
The problem is on Prince level and below the AIs are generally very reluctant to DoW on a player. On King level and above they DoW at the drop of hat even breaking very beneficial treaties. If I recall reading somewhere, that besides big production/happiness bonus's AIs get VERY aggressive at the top 3 levels.

On my first Civ 5 king game I was quietly building making good treaties and then out of the blue all 3 of my neighbours just rushed me all at once despite being at war with each other. It was a nustercluck.

Rat
 
Be prepared for early war (start preparing right after you settle 2nd city or even before making a settler). Take out one civ early (the one foolish to declare war on you ) .That should help with luxury resources

On higher difficulty settings I go for honor right away to smack barbs (=xp) and adjacency bonus. Horsemen are probably best unit early , but archers can work too (since ai sucks at positioning)
 
It took me 4 or 5 games to get King level figured out after finding prince absurdly easy also. My only advice is warmonger early and often. The first game that I was excellently situated I was more or less perpetually at war from the founding of my second city on. I was able to get peace around 1200AD having effectively neutered the other 3 civs on my continent.
 
On King level the ai starts having productivity bonuses compared to the human player. You simply can't play like "bob the builder" and get ahead anymore. You need to scout, grab luxury resources and make a city state ally relatively early just to compete.

Your second and third cities should have access to at least 2 new luxuries each. You need culture to remain competitive on the policy track bonuses, which means you need an economy. Best thing you can do early on is make a small but capable military and ally with a maritime city state by conquering their competitor. Now you have a 4th/5th city, bonus food so you can be building mines and trading posts instead of all farms, and if you played your cards right have access to 6 or 7 different luxuries between your cities and what your ally gives you. Have this all done by 500AD and you're in good shape for a foundation, now you just need to make sure someone like Japan doesn't get super huge...
 
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