I'm trying to beat the Into the renaissance scenario as Sweden on Emperor and would like some feedback on my strategy. It usually works as intended the first 80 turns but then I realize I'm behind my opponents and give up.
Due to Sweden's starting position in the scenario, with pretty much room around to the closest neighbours, I try to build my empire wide. This gives me more benefit from the Stave church UB (the more cities, the more Stave churches) than if I would be building tall. Also, the possibility to get one extra settler, through social policies, is too tempting to neglect. With these arguments as ground I try to build as wide as fast as I can.
With the two settlers (including the one from social policies) I build one city to the west, right where Oslo is in the real world, and one in a location close to luxuries in southern Sweden. I send my swordsman east to explore the area northeast and east of Riga and Polotsk.
I set my capital to production focus and start by building two scouts, that I send down to Europe to meet other civs, city-states and finding Gibraltar. After the scouts I build a settler, that I send east to build a city in an appropriate location northeast of Riga. In my second and third city i start by building workers, followed by settlers to keep expanding west and south. After bulding the settlers I build stave churches, libraries and markets in my cities. My capital starts building my army, mostly consisting of longbowmen and swordsmen. The new cities that my settlers settle follow the same build order as the earlier until the point where there's no room left to expand.
My research strategy is to beeline the tech (metallurgy?) that unlocks the hakkapelittas.
With my stave churches up I can soon start buying cathedrals for faith. When that is done I use the faith to buy units to my army. The gold I produce I often spend on city-states (preferably vatican city) right before HRE elections.
Diplomatically I try to be friends with all catholic civs and go to war with Russia to get the VPs from their eastern orthodox cities. The problem is that my army always is too weak and I end up having to defend my own cities instead of attacking theirs. That's when I give up and start up another game.
Please give me feedback on this strategy. Where do I go wrong?
Due to Sweden's starting position in the scenario, with pretty much room around to the closest neighbours, I try to build my empire wide. This gives me more benefit from the Stave church UB (the more cities, the more Stave churches) than if I would be building tall. Also, the possibility to get one extra settler, through social policies, is too tempting to neglect. With these arguments as ground I try to build as wide as fast as I can.
With the two settlers (including the one from social policies) I build one city to the west, right where Oslo is in the real world, and one in a location close to luxuries in southern Sweden. I send my swordsman east to explore the area northeast and east of Riga and Polotsk.
I set my capital to production focus and start by building two scouts, that I send down to Europe to meet other civs, city-states and finding Gibraltar. After the scouts I build a settler, that I send east to build a city in an appropriate location northeast of Riga. In my second and third city i start by building workers, followed by settlers to keep expanding west and south. After bulding the settlers I build stave churches, libraries and markets in my cities. My capital starts building my army, mostly consisting of longbowmen and swordsmen. The new cities that my settlers settle follow the same build order as the earlier until the point where there's no room left to expand.
My research strategy is to beeline the tech (metallurgy?) that unlocks the hakkapelittas.
With my stave churches up I can soon start buying cathedrals for faith. When that is done I use the faith to buy units to my army. The gold I produce I often spend on city-states (preferably vatican city) right before HRE elections.
Diplomatically I try to be friends with all catholic civs and go to war with Russia to get the VPs from their eastern orthodox cities. The problem is that my army always is too weak and I end up having to defend my own cities instead of attacking theirs. That's when I give up and start up another game.
Please give me feedback on this strategy. Where do I go wrong?