Newbie questions - what should I do?

I'm playing PTW, no mods, save is attached.

I started the game with all random, on Warlord level. Still trying to learn some of the nuances of the game, so I'm sort of using this game as a training experience after having found this forum and applying some of the stuff I'm learning here. So I'm the Spanish, and it's 1888. I have all of my home continent, and a good portion of land on the Egyptian home continent, which is also shared by Carthage - the FP is located in my biggest city on this continent. I also have a couple outposts on another continent - one surrounded by Celtic territory and the other sandwiched between the Arabs and the Babylonians (Samaria) which is part of what I conquered when I wiped out Persia.

I'm several techs behind the leaders but consistently have more gold - I'm trying to keep the science slider at 40 or 50 and the happiness slider at 10. Score-wise I'm second to the Arabs, who are aggressively trying to capture their entire continent. We both were at war with Persia, and each of us grabbed several of their cities, but as soon as Persia was eliminated the Arabs declared on me and started taking or razing all my cities in the former Persian territory. I got down to one, and finally negotiated peace. This probably hurt my rep as I had a alliance against the Arabs with Egypt. So I'm at peace right now, and trying to figure what to do next. I'm concerned that if I build up troops in Pamplona to invade and conquer the Celts who are pretty far behind, the Arabs will eventually want Samaria and I can't fight wars from two outposts. The Celts seem ripe for the taking, the Arabs are soon going to go expansionist again and try to wipe out Hammurabi. Should I gift Samaria to the Arabs to buy their favor for awhile, giving me time to wipe out the Celts? Or should I keep a strong presence in Samaria, expand into the open territory from razed cities around there, and focus on trying to take out Arabia since they are the score leader?

Any other thoughts or ideas would be helpful - thanks!

OK, just started to take a look at your save. The first thing I noticed is that you haven't built nearly enough workers and the ones you have aren't doing the proper things. At this point in the game there should never be unimproved tiles being worked in your main cities. Actually, all of your terrain should be optimized and railed.

The workers that you do have are all building a road on a hill next to a size one city that isn't growing. What is that going to do?

You have way too much irrigation and not enough workers to change them to mines. I mean, Santiago has a factory (I think only 2 cities have one), but is still only producing 10 shields. However, it is producing about +10 fpt because all of its tiles are irrrigated. It cannot grow past size 12 without a hospital, so all of that food is wasted. As a result, you have very little production capacity and not nearly enough troops. A Warlord AI should never be "strong" compared to you. There are several other situations where cities have too much food, yet there are 2 cities at size 6 that have an aquaduct, but aren't working the proper tiles and will never grow to size 7.

The AI is crippled at Warlord, so if you can get your production capacity up you can outproduce them and hopefully overcome their tech lead. Road and mine those tiles, rush some factories, and pump out lots of troops so you can take out the Arabs before they win.

Do the Arabs have tanks?

Also, I suspect that most of your troubles are related to early game mismanagement. If you would like, you could start a new game and post screenshots and saves so we could guide you through the beginning stages.

Don't take this criticism too harshly - after all, you are a noob.

Yeah, don't worry about harshness - like I said this game is for my learning purposes. I know I irrigated way too much early, but I've been trying to complete my unimproved tiles before converting irrigated to mined.

And you are right, early game mismanagement was a big part of where I am now, but I want to see the game through so I can learn.

Arabs don't have tanks yet or if they do they just got them, but they do have flight. Is it better to get aggressive now with the Arabs and worry about the other civs later?

A few more things:

You didn't need the lux slider at 10%. I lowered it to 0 and rushed a market in one of your size 12 cities that would riot. That alone increased your gpt by about 100.

You have a lot of coastal fortresses. They are basically worthless. They only fire at enemy ships if they move from one square adjacent to the city to another squre adjacent to the city, and the AI ships will avoid this. They are the 1st improvement that is destroyed if the AI bombards the city with a ship. This may temporarily save your other more valuable improvements, but it is still not worth even the minimal cost.

You have a lot of outdated units sitting on your main island. These units are costing you unit support and will never do anything. A Sid or Diety AI can launch a pretty big overseas invasion, but I doubt a Warlord AI will. Since all of your cities are railed together, a few calvs and a few arty could defend all of your cities. Unfortunately, you also may want to station an infantry in each of the coastal cities because the other civs may have marines. I have never played Warlord, so I don't know how it is like. I would disband the med inf to help build factories and other stuff. The muskets and rifles should be upgraded to infantry when you have the cash and are ready to attack someone.

I would consider forgetting about the Arabs and take down the Egyptians and Carthiginians after you build a lot more troops. Certainly as soon as you get motorized transport or flight I would take the oil from Hannibal.

I'm not sure how you could win this game - I would go for domination, but it needs to be quick I think - not sure about Warlord.

I would have expect to see about what Pluto noted, so you now know what to do to cure that stuff.

I would say that it is not my style to go into other lands, before I have settled whatever I am currently doing. So no two front wars, if I have the choice. If I am in a multiple front war, I will ignore all, but one civ.

Having gotten down to one city left on that landmass, why not give it to someone else? That way you canignore them being at war with you and not take a hit on your rep.

Give it to someone that may get into a war with them.

general rule for workers are to mine everything early on in the game, except desert and tundra. as the game progresses and hospitals become availiable you can then change a couple of mines to irrigation if cities are not growing, this ensures a highly productive base without facotries etc on top. make sure to road and then railroad everything. The capital and surrounding cities of course being the most important. with democracy stacks of 6 workers are advisable unless your an industrious civ where you can use 4, these normally finish a mine every turn.

BCLG100 said:

general rule for workers are to mine everything early on in the game, except desert and tundra.

Click to expand...

I disagree. The general rule at the beginning is to "mine green, irrigate brown". In other words, build mines on grassland and irrigate plains. Ignore all other terrain. You shouldn't be working any hills, mountains, tundra or desert in the early game since they ****** growth.

I only partially aggree.
Don't be affraid to mine hill,s because sometimes that what your city has. With a mined hill giving 3 shields before railroad, tha'ts a pretty big boost before a factory.

So yea, my moral is, mine green irrigate brown. Hills are green.

The consideration on hills is the amount of worker turns need and food. So if we have grasslands it is better to go ahead and mine the grass as it will be faster to mine and road and yield 2f1s1c, assume no river or bonus.

The food is the key. If you mine that hill it will take a lot longer to road and mine and only have 1 food. So you lost important time and now you gave up the food and need one more to cover it.

We really are only talking about early game were you need the food and the worker turns are not to be wasted. Later when you are at size 5 or better and have a worker dedicated to that town, fine if you have the food to spare.

If the hill has a bonus, that may make it worth doing as well. If it is a lux, yeah you may want to get to it fairly soon. If you have cows and are making 12 or more food (no river/aqua), sure mine that hill.

Of course all of that is if you are in despotism and suffer the food penality. By the time you are out of despotism, you are past the key worker turns issue and now are more concerned with shields and what is needed in that town.