Reasonable turn time for National College with ~10 cities? (liberty)

Maybe it's the wrong question to ask because maybe I should settle a few cities, build NC and then build more.

In which case, when is the latest I want to have my last city out by? I have heard turn 100, but I think that is only appropriate for fewer cities.

Let's say I don't do that.

When I bang out 9 more (or more) cities it's not popular with the AI, so I have to build military to fend 'em off. So that slows things down as well.

Let's say I want 1 comp bow per city, one or two melee units, strictly for defence while I am building up. I will build monument, archer, granary, library, colosseum+circus, then market then workshop, then university. Sometimes I will put caravan/cargo ship/worker somewhere too.

My cap is pop 5 while pumping 9 settlers in a row.

What do you reckon's a good turn time to have NC up by? When should I have universities online? I find I get NC up by t100 at latest, universities up by around t135.

Well, first of, it is best to use the Liberty finisher to get a Great Engineer and rush the NC. You can shave off 20+ turns on it that way. The trick is to have all the Libraries finished on the exact turn this guy shows up (or a bit earlier if possible, of course).

Then, what I usually do, is stop settling cities when I get my second to last policy in the tree and prioritise Library before Monuments in the last expos to get them up in time. When I have the choice I try to settle the cities which will get access to nearby forests last to get them done faster when I chop. If I know I'll have good cash when I finish Liberty I can also settle a last city a few turns prior and just rush buy the Library there. I usually get NC between T85 and T90.

Then for Education, it depends if you make the detour to Metal Casting first (what I usually do) but I would say that between T105 and T115 is normal and getting most of the unis up 10 turns later.

Your build order should definitely adapt to each city. The first cities you settle can pump out more Archers than the last ones which will basically only build buildings for a while to catch up.

Once your capital is done making settlers you should definitely send one or two food caravans to it. You can also make one or two of the last settlers in your expos so you can restart to grow your cap earlier.

I did 10 city NC twice and got it at T86 on both occasions and I'm not a very good player

I took your challenge and made 12 cities with Ashurbanipal and had NC on turn 89. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. I think that the more of those cities that are on top of luxuries, the better. The more they on mining resources, the better. The more workers you steal, the better. I stoled 7 workers.

hiawafer said:

The more workers you steal, the better. I stoled 7 workers.

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How did you avoid major diplomatic penalties?



How many times did you declare war?

Civilopedian said:

How did you avoid major diplomatic penalties?



How many times did you declare war?

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If you steal from a CS, you only need to declare once. Simply park your warrior 2 tiles away from their borders, preferably next a resource which a worker has to improve, and wait. Should be able to steal from them continuously. You could also steal some from a normal Civ as well.

If you declare on a CS before you meet any Civ, you won't receive any diplomatic hit.

sugerdady87 said:

If you declare on a CS before you meet any Civ, you won't receive any diplomatic hit.

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The only possible diplo hit (with an AI) for declaring on a CS is if and only if with an AI that has to have a pledge to protect with that CS.

Civilopedian said:

How did you avoid major diplomatic penalties?

How many times did you declare war?

Click to expand...

I declared war 3 times. I stoled 2 workers and 2 settlers from my nearest neighbour, 1 worker from another AI player, and 1 from a CS.

I stayed at war with the neighbour, made peace with the other one, and immediately made peace with the CS. It was not in a good position to steal any others.

If you wathc wideos of the best players you can see how they do it. Its actualyl easy.

hiawafer said:

I declared war 3 times. I stoled 2 workers and 2 settlers from my nearest neighbour, 1 worker from another AI player, and 1 from a CS.

I stayed at war with the neighbour, made peace with the other one, and immediately made peace with the CS. It was not in a good position to steal any others.

If you wathc wideos of the best players you can see how they do it. Its actualyl easy.

Click to expand...

i personally really struggle to get any workers before turn 30, even stealing. i don't find it easy.

i see some guys have workers on turn 12.

Do you play on Deity difficulty? Do you use your warrior and 1st scout to hover around the cities of the first civilizations you meet?

Also, if you don't like stealing workers you can always build your own. I usualy build a scout, then a monumentm, then anotehr scout, then 2 workers, when I play aLiberty which is most of the time

immortal