tough jump to immortal from emperor

cairnsy44

Gooner - first class
Joined
Jan 23, 2006
Messages
664
Location
Vermont
I have had some successes with playing on emperor and thought I would try a jump to immortal. I played as a mod civ, JFD's Scotland (excellent mods), on a standard continents map. I had Japan (with Tojo) and the Goths (you can tell I like modded civs) next to me and the Anglo-Saxons and Danes a little further out. It was rather cramped. not a lot of space and I was in the middle. Japan to the west and the Goths to the east. Danes to the south. I knew it would mean early war as there was little room for anyone to expand. There was one lovely location to my south. 4 gems on a river. Some nice hills with sheep and grasslands and Mt Kilamanjaro. Of course, the Goths arrived there 2 turns before my settler was complete. Their 3rd city. Tojo had 4 by this point as he had lots of room to his west. So with nowhere decent to build a city, I declared war on the Goths and razed their new city (which got to size 3 in about 3 turns somehow). I pressured their capital even though they had a bigger army at the beginning. I could not keep up the advance, and settled for peace. Shortly after I founded Glasgow in the location I wanted, Tojo comes calling with his massive army. I rout them (boy the AI can be dumb with their units) and see a large number of Goths on my eastern border as I am about to press home my advantage. So back to fighting a truly massive Goth army....I can see where this is going. My economy is in the tank, My neighbors have clearly higher production and I know with these two "friendly" neighbors, I am going to be constantly at war. Not a recipe for a competitive game. I do very well on emperor but the jump has been brutal each time I have tried it. What I would like to know is what should one be conscious of when trying to adapt their game play to this higher level? Obviously, I needed a decent military. I had a lot of gems, so I was hopeful to get the right pantheon (I met 2 religious CS and got it). I just couldn't get my capital up and running fast enough to get that settler out before the other had 2. I did not think I was going slow, it was just that everyone else got such a head start. When I meet them, they have 2-3 warriors and 2-3 archers at least. Thank you in advance for your advice.
 
are you micromanaging the citizens? it would help a lot.

on immortal the AIs have unit and tech advantages but it's just one step up from emperor. from the way you said it I feel as if you DOWed with only your capital, which is usually a bad thing. I'd prefer at least 2 cities for rush invasion.
 
I did only have my capital. unfortunately, I felt forced into it, as the only really attractive city location was just snagged by the Goths. It was tundra to the north (and not much of it) or mostly desert to the west (and right on Japan's capital's border) or land devoid of anything to the east.
 
I heard that the most significant thing abtou switching to Immortal is that the AI also gets a free worker. This really helps them build up early game.
 
It might just be bad luck. If you get a below average starting location the first time you try a harder level, it is easy to get discouraged and prematurely conclude that the level is beyond your skills. I recommend picking your opponents the first time you try a harder level. Even with a bunch of the more passive civs, it won't be a cakewalk.
 
The ai probably also gets a free warrior also because stealing workers and plundering ai improvements wasn't that easy.
 
Hmm. Basically what you need to do is get 4 cities up whilst not going unhappy and complete national college then get a 5th and if you can 6th city. No need to attack anyone keep your cities nice and tight. Settle spots with unique luxury and food (grasslands/river/food tiles/jungles) and production (hills). go straight to uni's, then down to porcelain tower tech, then straight to public schools, oxford into modern era through electricity and Eiffel Tower tech, grab order and factory science build factories go to research labs then build a ton of infantry, planes, paratroopers the game is over. Or you could just science victory at that stage.

Build Scout, Monument, Shrine, Settler. Buy an archer. Steal a worker from AI and 1 worker from CS. Wait for the right time to steal from AI when troops are away. Then block your 1st expanse with your warrior and archer, block and kill any settler that gets close. Then build granary and worker in capital then 2 more settlers. Workers at this stage are improving luxuries and chopping forests. 1 per city at least and move then to your new cities to improve the luxuries there ASAP. DO NOT GO UNHAPPY as it will slow you down so much.

Make sure you get techs for your luxuries, masonry for marble, calendar and trapping. You need to focus on luxuries at start to stay happy with 4 cities. Build granary in 2nd city then shrine and archer the library. Your 2 new expands should build library straight away so you don't delay NC. Make sure your teching NC tech so it finishes same turn your last library finishes and build NC straight away and chop for it.

In your cities set focus to production but manually lock your citizens onto food tiles. When your city grows take that new citizen off the production tile and onto a food tile. Usually when you're pop 5 you can keep 1 citizen permanently on production tile and still grow again in a good timeframe.

Send food caravans and cargo ships ASAP. You want 1 to capital and 1 to 2nd then later that changes but it's complicated on the best one.
 
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