I realize I really suck a this game.
Eh, you should have seen some of my first games. I found the save file for my first Immortal try where it was turn 177 and I hadn't even researched Philosophy for National College.
I think part of my problem is that other folks say "don't build wonders," but you did successfully.
Well...that depends on your end goal. In this case, I was trying to win a Cultural Victory...which means I do need to build wonders. But if you're going for a Scientific Victory then sacrificing production (needed for wonders) for Growth/Science will lead to a faster/easier victory. If you're going for a Domination Victory then spending that production on units and conquering the wonders is better. Also remember that this is King which means I can get away with a lot of stuff I couldn't otherwise.
Other folks say get chariot archers first and then upgrade to Keshiks, which I was trying to do (and you disagreed with).
I don't disagree with that, actually. Keshiks are the single best unit in the game. And if I had gone Keshiks I could have conquered the entire world with them easily.
But I wasn't trying to conquer the world, I was trying to win a Cultural Victory. Which makes Keshiks much less valuable.
My first opening in tradition was wonders (which you said was a mistake--although it came in hand).
But if you picked the +2 food and growth rate first, for example, that allows you to work a 3 production mine without stalling growth (or more food or whatever) and gives more science. In this particular case (a OOC focusing on wonders) then it's not as bad, perhaps even better in some instances...but overall it should be the last thing in Tradition taken.
I think there are so many experts and advice and sometimes they conflict.
Sometimes. Usually they're talking about different goals, though.
And I'm always neverous as heck when gold is negative or happiness at zero or a few below.
Negative happiness is bad. Negative gold per turn (but positive gold), not as much. I had like negative 100-200 gold per turn in one game, but it didn't matter since I kept raking in 300+ gold each turn from other things.
I DL'd that Ethopia save.
Beetle, I think I take back about what I said about it being straightforward given some of the stuff Chum said, and I will play it from Radio to Plastics.
You have a shrine and temple in every city, on a civ with +2 faith on it's monument.
This is something I'd disagree with. If you had, say, 4 cities with a Shrine and Temple in each one from turn 1 (note, that's impossible)...for a 300 turn game that's 4 cities times 3 gpt times 300 = 3600 gold total. If that even results in a single extra Great Scientist you're talking about getting an extra 6000+ Science. If you hit Public Schools (and thus Industrial Era) on turn 60, that means you have about 140 turns (less, actually), to earn 1000 faith for a single Great Scientist, 2500 faith for two, or 3500 for two Great Scientists and a Great Engineer (or 6000 for three GSes, and so on). Obviously you hope to have some "built up" prior to that but since the game so kindly auto spawns Great Prophets, it may take some fiddling to avoid an awkward spawn.
In order to get 2500 faith in <140 turns you need 17.8ish faith per turn. Four Steles gives 8...so unless your faith pantheon is insane you need another source of income (and if you want to be able to buy 3 Great Scientists an an engineer, for example, you need 5000 faith, or >35 faith per turnish). In theory you could build Shrines and Temples and then sell them after Grand Temple is built, but then you're pouring in 560 production plus the Grand Temple production. And all this to save 12 gpt from 4 Temples/Shrines? Not like they even have to be built that early. And even if so...you have major problems if 12 gpt is crippling your economy.
You've had scientific theory researched for quite awhile and still don't have public schools built.
That's really bad. Should basically be building them the instant you finish Scientific Theory.
You're building garbage like East India Company in the capital, and an Opera house and Seaport (for 2 resources) in your expansions
East India Company isn't garbage, not in single player. Helps attract foreign trade routes and adds 4 gpt to every existing trade route to you. So if you have even 5 trade routes to you (and I've had plenty more) that's 20 gpt plus the base 4 gpt (which is modified by Markets/Banks/Stock Exchanges/Commerce Opener to boot).
What's wrong with an Opera House? Hermitage is a good chunk of Culture for faster policies. Not at the expense of science buildings, of course, but...
Seaport for 2 resources is fine if you build it relatively early. 1 or less not so great, though.
Science is always the focus, you should always be generating as much science as possible as fast as possible for any VC other than early domination and you're not doing that.
This isn't true for Time, Cultural, or Diplomatic Victories. You'd also have to define "early domination" -- something like Honor/Commerce/Autocracy can go well into the 200s if needed and doesn't even bother with Research Labs.
B
ecause of the default focus, you're not working specialists in any city either. Hard to tech for science when you're not working scientist slots. This is pretty basic stuff, I'm not surprised you're having a hard time with deity.
Now this stuff, though, that's bad. I assumed you (meaning Beetle) were at least doing the fundamentals right.
^^Thanks for the feedback Chum, I really should time to force myself to experiment with micromanaging the city screens, and see for myself if I can make that make a difference.
There's micromanaging and then there's micromanaging. Do you have to check every single city every single turn to see if you can squeeze out more of whatever? Not really, get some harsh diminishing returns there. But do you need to make sure basic stuff like working Scientist slots are taken care of? Hell yes.
The default governor will also do really stupid things at times -- like working a 4 food tile and a 4 production tile rather than a 3 food/2 production and a 2 food/3 production tile. You literally just lose a food and a production.
That said, with the Korea DCL people asserted the same thing -- but the much bigger problem was with where I had put my expos. My stubborn belief is that the good Deity players are doing several things much better than I am doing them -- and that micro managing city screens is the least important but easiest to spot.
Micromanaging it to the degree I did in those videos, yeah, that winds up not mattering that much overall. But stuff like Scientist slots are huge. A size 20 city generates 94 science per turn with Research Labs (40 from population, 3 from Public School, 4 from Research Lab...then multiply that 47 base by 200%, with 50% from Universities and 50% from Research Labs). A size 20 city working 4 Scientist slots generates 134 science per turn (an extra 20 from four Scientist slots which is then doubled by the multiplier). So that's literally 42% more science from the city (winds up being less if you work Academies or Trading Posts with science or whatever -- but National College/Order Factories/Observatories don't change it).
@LordBalkoth, that might be an interest video lesson too: 50 or 100 turns with the default governor versus 50 or 100 turns micro managing the city screen.
Yeah, I'm definitely doing to do that.
Stables/forge -- simple hammer investment. How long is it going to take to recoup that hammer investment? If I only have 1 pasture, I'm not building a stable. 1 hammer for 1 gold is a poor trade, I'd rather have the gold. Plus it takes 100 hammers to build, so you don't even get to that 1 hammer for 1 gold trade for 100 turns. Same thing with the forge. Stoneworks is a different beast, because happiness is important, but it's a similar thought process.
This is all good stuff, though. Need 2 (worked) Pastures for Stables. Forge is more iffy -- if you'll actually be producing any kind of non-naval units the 15% bonus is a lot broader than the mounted bonus of stables. But if the city is just making buildings then yeah, not worth it. Stoneworks has the benefit of giving a base production inherently in addition to +1 for quarries, which makes it more clear cut (plus a happiness).
Barracks and Armories are maintenance heavy and return low - I MIGHT build a barracks in every city for Heroic Epic, if I'm planning on doing warmongering, but Armories generally don't get build, except for one or 2 cities I'm planning on churning out units with (high production cities that are ahead on infrastructure and can spare the turns). There's no reason to have them in every expo.
Indeed. Honestly can just sell the Barracks once Heroic Epic is built unless you expect to be building military units in that city too -- it gives zero benefit for simply existing.
Anyways, does this look streamlined enough? Where should I stuff the rest of my culture buildings? What am I leaving out here?
Why are you building Monuments and Aqueducts in the first place? And if you are building them, Aqueduct is extremely high priority. The main issue with your list is that you shouldn't be having to choose -- if you seriously have to debate Factories vs Research Labs then something is dreadfully wrong as Factories should have been up for a LONG time.