OK so I have won every victory condition on King and Emperor. Last game I was Russia and won a domination victory in 1870 so this morning I'll start my first game on Deity.
Excellent. I think you'll do fine with deity.
I have played almost every civ. My favorites are Spain and Japan (love their starting stuff). Least favorite is the Mongols. Capturing those barbarian villages was more trouble than it was worth. Bad city placement and only one population.
Yeah, Spain is fun. I've been practising a stratgey with Spain that involves getting to Mathematics (for catapults) as quickly as possible, and then sending out a couple of veteran catapult armies along with a galleon fleet to crush everybody else's capital. (The key to this strategy is to grab as much money as quickly as possible.) That's usually pretty hard to stop if the enemy is defending with archer armies. And if the catapult armies (CA's) get the Ninja upgrade (100% city attack) they are completely devastating
I agree about the Mongols. They would be even trickier to play in multiplayer, when people often try and rush you in the first 2000 years. The problem is the lack of money, since you can't get money from a barb hut. I guess switching to all gold would generate cash, but would also slow you down in science. I only play as the Mongols if I want a *real* challenge
I have looked at some strategy guides and typically start my games by switching my first city to 2 production squares and make 4 warriors and a galley. Start exploring the map and get a settler at 100 gold. Ussually I get most of the Wonders in the world and can even get free currency at 250 gold pretty quickly.
That sounds like a good beginning. Definitely getting the free settler with 100 gold is a *must*. If I get some cash very early on, like from my first exploring warrior, I'll often pay to rush the production of my 2nd and/or 3rd warrior, just so I can get them out sooner. This is especially important in multiplayer, when there is more competition to find those barb huts and artifacts first, so it's good to get used to doing this in single player as well.
A lot of players talk about getting out 3 or 4 warriors as quickly as possible (I usually go for 3 unless I think there's a *lot* of land around me to explore), and then switching the capital to growth until the city's population is at 3, and then switching all to science for either bronze working or horseback riding. I tend to do this if I have the time. The extra pop can be useful for quicker science growth - but again, it's all dependent on what's going on in the game.
Especially in multiplayer, your opponents are going to be more sneaky than the AI, and will certainly try and grab barb huts before you, and maybe go for your capital if it's poorly defended - so, for example, if I know Zulus are playing (multiplayer only) I will be definitely looking to get my warriors out a.s.a.p (to snap up the barb huts before their +1 movement warriors get to them, and get some money), and then get bronze working a.s.a.p. If you meet the Zulus fairly early on in multiplayer, know that they will be sending a warrior army your way just a few turns later!
Another counter is to get horseback riding, and go on the attack yourself. Zulu warriors are fast movers but they're still just warriors, and usually a multiplayer Zulu player will send out the warriors to find their opponent's capital cities and at the same time, to collect gold, and only army them up when they're ready to attack - so if you can take out a Zulu warrior or two, they have less opportunity to form an army. Even better, send your horseman army to *their* capital and get your revenge
Most of this only applies to multiplayer. The AI Zulu doesn't usually rush, as far as I can tell.
1. I there a list of the Wonders that you can explore and find and what reward you will possibly get? I remember the Lost city of Atlantis gives like 3 techs or so but don't remember all the others.
Yes. They are called artifacts. You can download the Nintendo DS extended manual, which contains all the info on artifacts, wonders, etc, from here:
http://downloads.2kgames.com/civilization/revolution/Civilization_Revolution_Expanded_DS_Manual.zip
...but basically, the 6 artifacts potentially available in each normal game are:
Angkor Watt
The civ that discovers Angkor Watt will instantly have a Wonder constructed in one of their cities.
Ark Of The Covenant
The discovery of the Ark immediately causes temples to be constructed in all of your cities. If a city already possesses a temple, the city gains a cathedral instead.
Knights Templar
The discovery of the Knights Templar will gain an immensely powerful military unit.
Lost City of Atlantis
Discovering the site of the lost city of Atlantis immediately grants a civ knowledge of several new technologies.
School of Confucius
Within the School of Confucius can be found several great people awaiting discovery.
Seven Cities Of Gold
This relic provides an immediate and hefty boost to the discoverer's treasury.
2. In my last game my first or second great person was a great leader. So I settled him in my best production city with a barracks and started pumping out units. I would combine an elite veteran with unpromoted units to form an army. My understanding is that it gives me an elite army. Is that correct?
The settled great leader gives each unit a special upgrade. If it's non-vet unit, it becomes veteran. If a new unit is veteran already because of the barracks, you get to pick the upgrade for that unit, usually based on 2 choices, i.e. you may be presented with a choice of Infiltration (100% bonus when attacking an enemy city) or Blitz (extra move after attack). Unfortunately, the names of the units are different to the names of the upgrade, so for example, a unit given the Infiltration upgrade becomes a Ninja unit, and the blitz upgrade creates a Lightening unit. The manual doesn't explain this, so it's something you have to remember through experience.
By the way, the above DS guide also contains very useful charts, such as a chart of the specific promotions available.
3. When you capture a city do you get the benefits of the wonders? Assuming they have not been made obsolete by tech research.
Yes. Wonders aren't destroyed by an invasion. Other buildings can be.
My biggest failures so far have been stupid mistakes. One game I was losing cities, early in the game, to culture flip and failed to build walls to stop it. Another game I was rushing (Bismarck) and took out Russia then failed to defend my capitol and an enemy galley dropped off a unit and took it. The unit was in trees and I wasn't paying close enough attention. Both those games I stopped half way through because I felt like such an idiot. Probably could have recovered both situations but it was unfun at that point.
Haha, we've all made mistakes, small and big ones. The worst, for me, is getting ready to rush a Wonder with your great person, and then settling him instead! Nightmare
I have tried to look up answers to some questions but can't seem to get the right information. I did find out why my cities start with different populations. In each era a city starts with one more population than the previous era.
Ah yes, that's right. Also, I just noticed in the manual (something I didn't realize myself, which shows why it's important to read the manual one day...lol), about those guys who aren't out working in the field:
TRADESMEN
"When a city has more workers than spaces available for them to work, the excess workers stay in the city itself and become 'Tradesmen'. (Further, you can manually assign workers to become Tradesmen; see Manually Shifting Workers.)
The productivity of each Tradesman is determined by the size of the city and by the number of Tradesmen in the city."
There is more to it, as explained in the manual, but bottom line, once the city grows to 7 or more, some of those Tradesmen will become specialists and will also generate you trade (in addition to 1 hammer), ranging from +1 to +5 trade.
I didn't know this (and I've been playing the game since 2008 lol), so looks like you really *do* learn something every day