Help with liberty/domination strategy

Hi everyone, I'm new here and new to civ 5 in general. Hoping that someone can help me out with my strategies. I have had good success going tall and playing peacefully to get a tech lead, then either going for science or domination victory in the later game. I want to try more expansion and domination early on, and just bought BNW yesterday.

Following this strategy:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=503931

I am enclosing a save game, if someone is kind enough to give feedback. Overall it went well enough, as I was keeping up with the guide. Everyone hates me now as I forgot to denounce Persia before attacking him. Lots of unhappiness, minus gold, though. Also, behind where I would be in tech, though I think that is to be expected. Can anyone give me tips as to how I can do better, or is this to be expected this early on? I play on price BTW, as Assyria.

Thanks

the guide is pretty bad as it tries to combine an early agression war and a late artelery attack. Thats doesnt work

For a real liberty Domination u should not need artilleries, u can neglect things like NC totaly. Build up 6 cities fast, build some Basic infrasturctures and then units only, build 2-3 armies. Ai cant stand many clever used Units even if they are outdated.

U caan start attacking with cbows in like turn 50-60 and then upgrade em to xbows later. Dont Need more as that.

If u want tech to artilery and shoot your way to win u should not start wars before u r fully built up (NC, 4-6 cities up and so on) - then trad lib mix might be best.

OP, as you are new to Civ 5, I recommend that guide immensely. It helped me to win on Deity difficulty, within a few tries.

From what I've seen on this and other threads, TommyNT is a little single-minded and thinks his way is the best way, but for those of us relatively new to the game, looking to learn, and yet to develop our own play style, Moriarte's guide is great.

If you haven't done so, you should check out his YouTube videos too.

As far as the saved game is concerned, here are my own thoughts. My own 2p, if you will:

- Because you have chosen pangaea and want to do a domination game, there's no need, IMO to found a coastal city. If you want one, you can take it from someone else later on.

- Use your civ's strengths and make siege towers. Maths should be beelined, not skipped to get to another era. Siege towers are really almost broken during their era, they're so good.

- Try to build your cities on hills for production boost and defence boost, especially when, like Nimrud, it COULD attract the attention of someone aggressive like Alexander, later on.

- You chose the wrong pantheon. You didn't have many desert tiles to take advantage of. But there is a fair bit of wine around. Goddess of Festivals would have been a much better choice. Even if you aren't gonna try to spread your religion like wildfire, building up faith can be really useful for later in the game, when you might want to buy great people or useful religious buildings. If there are enough tiles to justify a shrine and a pantheon, which in this this case is BORDERLINE, then you should do it. Scout, Monument, Scout, Shrine would be OK on Prince.

- Mecca or Delhi would have made better first choice for victims, IMO. They are on flat land, and have less defence.

Why not reload the game at the start, follow the guide again, don't build Nimrud or build it in another location, such as on the hill NE of the mountain that is standing on its own NW of Assur, trying to get the other Wines. And though Susa has Ivory, it's capitals you want, and as I said before, India and Arabs have more vulnerable capitals. Once you've trained your army a bit, then you can send them after Darius. He tends to have a stronger start anyway as he beelines Civil Service and can have pikes by the time you attack him.

Everything I've written is strictly my own opinion and I'm not the best player in the world, but I think Moriarte's guide is a great intro to liberty domination.

TommyNT thinks it's bad cuz it has early and late domination but my first Deity win was by following the guide, taking one capital with CB and then tech-ing to Artillery (and Panzers!).

TLDR: Use your unique unit to better effect, tech the lower half of the tree and steal the top half when you conquer cities.

Good luck!

Thanks for the help. I tried the strategy on a different map with Poland and it seemed to be working a lot better. A little behind in tech but hopefully it will even out later.

As much as I think that Guide is semi-solid strategy, I feel that you may be as yet too new to BNW to be following any Guides. Play a few dozen games and explore BNW to discover your own unique play-style instead. Grow into BNW, and become a good player on your own terms. It makes the game so much much more rewarding.