City building rush help needed

Hello experts

Developers said that they introduced new settler rules (need 2 population) to reduce city building rush. But I really notice that to keep up with AI on higher dificulty anyone need to build even more cities than it was needed in CIV2 or CIV1.

I also noticed that AI puts cities in places where a normal person or AI in previous versions would never place a city. Also AI is focused mostly on city building and nothing else.

How do I keep up with such city building (settler building)? Any strategies??

Also,

how do I get rid of an AI city that is IN THE MIDDLE of my culture area? I mean there was a small piece of land out of my sphere, and it put a city there - disrupting all my defense works...

Any ideas, tip 'n' tricks?

Well, so far everybody has the same opinion on the AI expansive tactics: they suck. The AI moved a settler/spearman combi into one of my squares, i said: get the **** out! they said: ok, next round they move even further into my terrain. I again told them to leave. again they said ok and again they continued on. baically, they had to cross 9 squares of my terrain to reach the nearest neutral square and after i told them to leave 5 times (human players are FORCED to leave on second request, their units are automatically removed then!!) and the AI always said k, and still moved on. There is no way to prevent this stupidity. I killed the units(and got me 2 free workers ) and so we where at war. now comes the funny part: during the war they tried to move another sttler/spearman combi throug my territory!!. It gets worse as soon as the AI gets Map Making, then they biuld cities on every free square, even if it is in the middle of a tundra. This is VERY annoying!

The only way to keep up is to rush buy your workers and settlers at the cost of the population during despotism. Stay in despotism as long as you can and keep sacrificing population for units. I finally tried this strategy and it's the only one that has worked for me. After 60+ hours of restarting game after game I am finally in first place but it's still early ... 600 AD.
The Romans actually gave me all their gold and 2 cities in exchange for a peace treaty.

From a very experienced Diety Civ2 player to a meager Civ3 Warlord.

do you have any idea, what is the happiness penalty for rush buying under despotism? I didnt do it beacuse I was afraid unhappiness gets out of control? So whats the story?

Originally posted by mazer
The only way to keep up is to rush buy your workers and settlers at the cost of the population during despotism. Stay in despotism as long as you can and keep sacrificing population for units. I finally tried this strategy and it's the only one that has worked for me. After 60+ hours of restarting game after game I am finally in first place but it's still early ... 600 AD.
The Romans actually gave me all their gold and 2 cities in exchange for a peace treaty.

From a very experienced Diety Civ2 player to a meager Civ3 Warlord.

Click to expand...

Yeah, rush buying under despotism solid actually. I started to do that in a game and it seemed to help _ when I changed to Monarchy, I found missed it terribly because now I needed money. I started a new game and changed strategies.

I build at least one granary before completing the pyramids _ this allows for a steady stream of settlers out of that city. I have my worker making roads to the next city location. When I get to the point that I want a temple, I rush buy it along with everything else _ population is the only thing that grows quickly.

I don't even bother with science funding anymore _ I can't keep up no matter what I've tried (e.g., building libraries and Colossus). I put science at 10% and simply buy tech from other civs, even at $100 per tech I can generate that in 10 turns which is far far better than the trying to produce it myself. Plus, some techs are much cheaper than that. Also, if you have trade networks set up, you can trade extra happiness resources for tech.

I'm still in 9th place out of 10 on Monarch level, but at least I'm out of last place and not completely behind. I just need to go kill the Russians

Read my post about rush building granaries, it's the only way to get ahead of a computer AI that spreads like a virus.

I will agree .. sacrificing your people is the only way to keep up with the AI in regards to expansion and building in the start.

But please note .. by doing so .. all the other nations are going to have more tech, better land development, and a larger military, and you will .. at most .. get only 1 wonder ...

The AI does some pretty "amazing" things.