Long Roads

I'm an infrequent player at prince/king level. In general I'm a passive chicken who clicks rather than thinks through games. I'm really trying to change this pattern. Here is my latest nagging worry.

My last two games were Liberty DomV. At the advice of Moriarty/Conscience I build roads forward into my next target. After the 2 or 3rd capital the gold crunch starts to really be a problem. On the income screen I see that roads are my largest expense and accounts for my entire budget deficit (~30 gpt) when I'm at the unit resource cap. Occasionally I can trade for enough GPT to overcome this drain. It is worth noting that both games ended with x-bows and before the second commerce policy.


My question is at what distance should I stop building the long roads in this victory type? I realize they speed up an assault but if I'm ever forced to regroup they represent a significant drain.

I generally only build roads to have money for the latest upgrades and if happiness is a pinch. If the current push is the final one, I don't bother. The last map I did Domination on was ICL Mongolia and I think I only built roads to like 2-3 AI caps. I gathered around 1800 gold, upgraded all to Keshiks and nobody really had a chance anymore. Happiness turned into a bit of an issue but some Courthouses and a pair of Mercantiles took care of that. If you want to get a feel for it, it's a really good map for Domination training (like I said, Immortal difficulty). 3 city Liberty setup should give you enough time to grab that 2nd policy in Commerce anyway, and you should use trade routes with city states for just that little more gold

As I normally raze non-capital cities I delete the military roads as soon as possible.

If I'm keeping the city the normal road rules apply - they must be short enough and the city large enough to make a profilt from the connection to the capital.

Keep in mind that difficulty level has an indirect effect on how much gold you can generate in the early game. At higher levels, the AIs tend to have more gold, which, in turn, allows you to sell luxuries earlier and more often. It's not as bad as the cheese that was allowed in G&K ("Oh, hello. I know you barely know me, but would you be a dear and kindly empty your entire treasury and buy this Silver? Thanks!")--but you can still get some solid gold-per-turn deals early. This isn't always possible on Prince/King (cuz the AIs dont improve tiles very fast and stay broke longer)--which makes this road-building strategy kind of suspect at those levels (IMO).

My guide was for Immortal/Deity. There aren't enough sources of gold on lower levels. After I learned to win on Deity, I can't play on Emperor or below because none of the AIs have any gold. But on those levels, I wouldn't make it seem more complex than it is. Just spam units and kill the AI. Nothing special is required. 8 CBs and 3 Horses can easily win you the first 4 capitals, and then build a 2nd army of the same size to get the others. Just keep them alive, take it steady, and upgrade them when you hit a new tech.

Some good points here. I actually found Immortal easier than Emperor when all of my knowledge was based on the forums here, because the strategies change at each level. I know it's a bit intimidating, but try stepping up a level just to see how things change. The biggest danger stepping up to Immortal is getting wiped out by an aggressive neighbor, but you can often bribe them to leave you alone. You can also steal workers in Immortal/Deity early game to give yourself a boost and hamstring the AI.

10000hours said:

Some good points here. I actually found Immortal easier than Emperor when all of my knowledge was based on the forums here, because the strategies change at each level. I know it's a bit intimidating, but try stepping up a level just to see how things change. The biggest danger stepping up to Immortal is getting wiped out by an aggressive neighbor, but you can often bribe them to leave you alone. You can also steal workers in Immortal/Deity early game to give yourself a boost and hamstring the AI.

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I kind of thought emperor was a challenge sometimes too. Was it because the AI on emperor had a geographical convenience by any chance?

I only play on Emperor nowadays if I want to break in a new modded civ to see how it plays out. Usually it's not realistic as I'm definitely too good for Emperor level at least but it's a different strategy definitely

I know that this is probably a bit late.

I do it for everyone on later difficulty levels because a quick conquest is a must. Typically do not do it against humans because, well, they would see it coming, wouldn't they?

Now, if I have Rome and I'm in the classical era conquest spree? I'll do it. Because I have legionnaires. Might not do it right up to their gates, but even 5-10 hexes towards them can be very beneficial.