General Advice Wanted

Silv Something

Pi(e) Loving Maniac
Joined
May 17, 2009
Messages
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Location
Somewhere over the rainbow . . .
I was playing a game as Elizabeth today and everything was going fairly well, but since I'm not a very good player I figured I'd ask for whatever advice anyone feels like giving. It's at Warlord level. I was mainly trying to figure out how well trading technologies to multiple civs and then trading those technologies etc, etc, would work in this game, and it's doing pretty well.

I will ask for one piece of specific advice: What should I specialize my other cities to be?
York is commerce, but I don't know what to do with the other cities.

Save attached (vanilla civ)
 

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1) Too few cities - expand more aggressively or conquer early
2) Too few workers
3) Working too many unimproved tiles
4) Too small army to take on JC - more siege and more attack units - JC may not have been the best target at this stage
5) You are in caste but not using it...slavery may be better unless you are setup for caste
6) CS allows for chain irrigation - food, food and more food
7) Bureaucracy can be powerful
 
I'd like to help, but I can't open vanilla saves...

Well, at least I don't know how to do it. I bought CIV IV from Steam and installed BTS, so, for some reason, it seems that vanilla CIV can't be played... It's crazy like that (I know it's a long shot, but if anyone knows how to handle this, I'll apreciate it).

So, if you could post some screenshots I could give some advice.
 
Silv,

Lymond's first point is probably the most important one for you to look at. While it's quite possible for small empires to win the game, generally it's best to "expand more aggressively or conquer early". Four cities at 960AD is just too small, and even at Prince-Monarch type level you'll be quickly outrun. Your invasion stack (when your units are combined) might win, but it's barely adequate numerically.

You did ask a specific question about specialisation, and to me at a quick glance would be;

London: Like most capitals, makes a powerful 'hybrid' that can leverage Bureaucracy. Your resources point you towards a :hammers: focus: Grassland Cows, Iron on Plains, and a few Hills to support the :hammers: productivity, but two strong :commerce: tiles in the Silver Mine and the Silk Plantation augur well for this good 'all round' site. The main criticisms would be lack of :food: tiles and a river.

York: You've shaped this into a commerce site with its two Towns, but it would actually make a pretty fair production site. Only the one resource; Wheat, but several Hills ripe for Mining.

Sakae: All those Fur tiles supported with Fish and Deer - it's a commerce site albeit with a lot of other poor Tundra tiles.

Nottingham: Probably a hybrid in the making. Riverside Tundra Horses provide a mix of :commerce: and :hammers: while the Plain Silk Plantation is :commerce:-heavy, but the surrounding lack of food will make this city difficult to cottage up for a good commerce site.​

All the best! :)
 
Somewhat "after the horse has bolted" as the AI has part-encroached on a few prospective sites, but these two would seem OK imho if you were to play on;



... and hardly dazzling, but does make use of the Corn and Plains Hill, and supported by a few other worthwhile tiles ...



Nonetheless, these three additions would add 75% to the number of cities in your empire.
 
you seem scared of overlap ...

repeat this 100 times

Overlap is good
Overlap helps making more, equally productive, cities when it matters
 
You're right. I am scared of overlap.

Spoiler :
Overlap is good
Overlap helps making more, equally productive, cities when it matters
Overlap is good
Overlap helps making more, equally productive, cities when it matters
Overlap is good
Overlap helps making more, equally productive, cities when it matters
Overlap is good
Overlap helps making more, equally productive, cities when it matters
Overlap is good
Overlap helps making more, equally productive, cities when it matters
Overlap is good
Overlap helps making more, equally productive, cities when it matters
Overlap is good
Overlap helps making more, equally productive, cities when it matters
Overlap is good
Overlap helps making more, equally productive, cities when it matters
Overlap is good
Overlap helps making more, equally productive, cities when it matters
Overlap is goo
d . . .
(x10 more of that set of 10)


And now I'm not. Thanks for the advice, Sian and Cam H.
 
Okay, I played some more turns, till 1300 AD:

Spoiler :
Not in Order:

Captured Antium, later they took it back.
Converted Mansa to Christianity
Brought Mansa in against Caesar
Mansu makes peace with Genghis
Bombay revolts to me
Toku demands I cancel trade with Mansa, I refuse, he is now annoyed
I take Pisae
Founded Hastings
Built a lot of Forges
Built Hanging Gardens
Great Prophet born, I saved him because I wasn't sure what to do with him.
Have another settler, about to be settled
A bunch of other stuff that I forgot


And now for questions: (I came up with some so you can give me advice more easily)


Spoiler :
Should I continue this war with Caesar? He is pretty powerful but I can take him. It's just dragging on.
Should I keep Pisae, or let him take it then raze it so I can build the other city near? Or am I being afraid of overlap?
If I capture other roman cities should I keep them?
Techpath?
Diplo situation?
How should I win? If I don't know how I will win, does that mean I'm doomed? I think I'm in a good spot for a diplo win, but I could also possibly pull off spaceship.
Civics? I forgot to change to Slavery, but I remembered Bureaucracy.



I have lots of questions, don't I?

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Should I continue this war with Caesar? He is pretty powerful but I can take him. It's just dragging on.
Try asking Bismarck for help. He has a fair amount of units and probably will help for guilds tech.
Should I keep Pisae, or let him take it then raze it so I can build the other city near? Or am I being afraid of overlap?
Pisae has a quarry for marble and dyes. Keep. If you found Islam you'll be grateful for it, I promise you.
If I capture other roman cities should I keep them?
I'd definetly keep, if you get resources twice because if you go to war with Toku (I chose this example as Toku is obviously annoyed) and he pillages one of the resources, you'll have spares.
How should I win? If I don't know how I will win, does that mean I'm doomed? I think I'm in a good spot for a diplo win, but I could also possibly pull off spaceship.
keep highest score possible. start with spaceship* asap - as this is original CIV IV and I use BtS it doesn't really matter in how many parts. two ways to victory can help.
*If you achieve score first, because your launch was overdue, your spaceship won't really count anymore.
 
I'm not gonna do a score victory.

I can easily drag Bismarck into the war, I've done it before, so I'll do that.

Why did you think space would work better than diplo?

What do I do with the Great Prophet?

Should I keep Pisae, or let him take Julius raze it so I can build the other city proposed by Cam H near? Or am I being afraid of overlap?
 
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