some questions for a new player

hello

when going for a domination victory, should i leave the last city of all opponents or not.
It seems i get a diplo hit for it but they denounce me anyway and are pain in the ... so scorched earth or not?

when to annex and when not to annex? i think i know when to burn and when to puppet but i habe no idea when and why to annex a city

i play currently a difficulty6 game with germany and try for domination (honor start then patronage and the science thing at last for all the tps). i did not expand unitl i ate the arabs and i seems that i have nothing to build in my capitol half the time and the other times i need more production citys for I NEED NEW UNITS RIGHT NOW
so how many citys for domination and more important when to build them ( i want to up at least one difficulty)

oh and i want to thank MadDjinn for his videos he bostet me like 3 difficulty levels
are there any good mp videos? i am not sure if i want to play mp since i know no other people playing

the trade information is not displayed very good in this game (which resource are trades which i have from city states,...). i am not sure if is ok to use mods (cheating, game crashing,..). any tips?

oh and please dont make comparisons to vanilla. i see them often in this forum and they are lost on me since i am a new player.


skar

skar said:

hello

when going for a domination victory, should i leave the last city of all opponents or not.
It seems i get a diplo hit for it but they denounce me anyway and are pain in the ... so scorched earth or not?

when to annex and when not to annex? i think i know when to burn and when to puppet but i habe no idea when and why to annex a city

i play currently a difficulty6 game with germany and try for domination (honor start then patronage and the science thing at last for all the tps). i did not expand unitl i ate the arabs and i seems that i have nothing to build in my capitol half the time and the other times i need more production citys for I NEED NEW UNITS RIGHT NOW
so how many citys for domination and more important when to build them ( i want to up at least one difficulty)

oh and i want to thank MadDjinn for his videos he bostet me like 3 difficulty levels
are there any good mp videos? i am not sure if i want to play mp since i know no other people playing

the trade information is not displayed very good in this game (which resource are trades which i have from city states,...). i am not sure if is ok to use mods (cheating, game crashing,..). any tips?

oh and please dont make comparisons to vanilla. i see them often in this forum and they are lost on me since i am a new player.


skar

Click to expand...

Wipe enemies out, if you don't fear bad relations with other civs, I usually do, then let some time pass by, then turn on the next enemy.

Annex a city if you can afford the courthouse and want that city to really develop/be useful for unit production (but beware the 4 gold/turn for the courthouse upkeep aswell).

I personally wouldn't start on Immortal when I'm new to the game - I play the game for quite some while now and still "dick around" on Prince level, just to try out all the civs/scenarios/map types etc., before I buckle down with some harder difficulty.

For domination, I would chose honor, commerce and autocracy, you get a lot of combat boni, happiness from city walls etc., + happiness from luxuries + more money and + happyness from courthouses, which is really important and basically lets you annex all cities after the riots died down.

Have fun playing, hope I could help you.

Conquering all cities of an enemy civ (taking it out of the game) creates a negative diplomatic modifier with others. If you have 1 war, and want good diplomatic ties with other civs afterwards, you might consider leaving 1 city. But if you attack 3 or more civs, it doesn't matter because you will be viewed as a warmongerer one way or another.

If you know when to puppet and when to raze, then you also know when to annex.
Annexing is useful when you want to build/buy units or specific building for defense, otherwise puppets are still the way to go. Puppets do however have a 25% penalty on science and culture, but annexing makes getting social policies harder.

For domination you need to expand when happiness permits. Maybe waiting a little bit so you can take the full Honor tree faster, but it is better to expand early, hook up resources (iron, horses, happiness), and go for the Liberty social policy tree. Keep the cities small and focus on production.

Using mods is a great way to add fun to the game. Most mods are not considered cheating, and besides, who cares, as long as you are having fun. The stability depends on the mod... With G+K being new, bugs are bound to be in some mods. But just try it out if you find a good one, and if it doesn't wok, you deselect is next time.

when going for a domination victory, should i leave the last city of all opponents or not.

Leave them 1-2 cities early game, because they will sometimes re-expand, saving you the work of this. They make buildings faster than you on higher difficulty so this can be quicker than making a city AND putting buildings in it.

Also, if you can, leave their capital because they will hate you once you take it. SOME civ's that hate you will fall in love with you at the end of a war if they still have their capital. I mean game-long friends.

It seems i get a diplo hit for it but they denounce me anyway and are pain in the ... so scorched earth or not?

If you don't plan to sign research agreements with that civ, you should NOT care what it thinks. The only reason to have "friendly" relations is to sign research agreements.

when to annex and when not to annex? i think i know when to burn and when to puppet but i have no idea when and why to annex a city

I always Annex ONE coastal city in other continents, and puppet the rest. If fighting a neighbor on your own landmass, look at the stretch of the AI Empire. Annex maybe the farthest away city you plan on taking, and Puppet the closer ones. The only reason to Annex is if you WANT to produce units there. Keep in mind, this will increase the costs of national wonders and increase the number of cities you have to have those required buildings in.

i play currently a difficulty6 game with germany and try for domination (honor start then patronage and the science thing at last for all the tps). i did not expand unitl i ate the arabs and i seems that i have nothing to build in my capitol half the time and the other times i need more production citys for I NEED NEW UNITS RIGHT NOW
so how many citys for domination and more important when to build them ( i want to up at least one difficulty)

You have to choose TALL or WIDE. If you choose TALL, you want 4 settled cities, 1-2 annexed cities and a puppet empire. A wide empire involves settling every luxury you can - possibly 12 cities with nearby luxuries.

You RAZE cities when you notice that a city over 1-2 hexes gets better yields for YOU, for example if moving 2 tiles over gets a lux - or allows river/mountain front city or deserts if you have the desert worshiper pantheon.

oh and i want to thank MadDjinn for his videos he bostet me like 3 difficulty levels
are there any good mp videos? i am not sure if i want to play mp since i know no other people playing

There actually ARE people who play MP, but its all about grunt-rushes and isn't much fun for me. However, if you like war-based games it just might be for you. Check out the multiplayer forums, there is a "NO QUITTERS" group who is reputed to finish the game even if they won't win. You might get into that.

the trade information is not displayed very good in this game (which resource are trades which i have from city states,...). i am not sure if is ok to use mods (cheating, game crashing,..). any tips?
We all hate this very much, and 2 mods can help. UI Trade Opportunities - InfoAddict.

These mods are NOT cheating in the mind of most players because they don't give you anything new, it just puts all the info in ONE spot. However in a multiplayer game, when everyone has a timer, part of the challenge is getting enough done on EACH turn, so it might be different over there. Also, check out some of the wonderful mods, and decide for yourself what is good content (echoes of ages, city state diplomacy) and what "could" be considered as cheating.

oh and please dont make comparisons to vanilla. i see them often in this forum and they are lost on me since i am a new player.

Well, for a player who has not played vanilla you have a small edge - instead of having to always re-correct outdated information, you get to jump right into the latest version so do not view this as a bad thing.

Kill em all! You'll get a diplo penalty, but it will fade in time. The less civs on the map the less civs you have to worry about. Also, the less civs on the map, the less civs which will have an influence on diplomacy. The first thing that happens when you leave a civ in a remaning city and declare peace, is that it denounces you. If the civ is eradicated, no denouncement. If you don't like diplo penalties for being a warmonger, then don't play domination.

Also, about wiping a civ - if you let it live, it will use spies to lower your city state relations and steal techs.

and backstab you at entirely inopportune moments when you can't afford to focus your attention everywhere.

smallfish said:

and backstab you at entirely inopportune moments when you can't afford to focus your attention everywhere.

Click to expand...

at least the AI is good at SOMETHING, eh?

thadian said:

Also, about wiping a civ - if you let it live, it will use spies to lower your city state relations and steal techs.

Click to expand...

And send settlers wandering all over to eventually found a city in a rather poor location - that also happens to be across the only road that joins the two halves of your expanding empire, resulting in a sudden big drop in trade gold and a big loss of happiness if you are using the SP that gives 1 extra happiness for each city connected to the capital...

Also slows or entirely prevents the movement of much needed reinforcements to the front line. And since you already declared war on them at least once they are unlikely to let you have open borders... forcing you to declare war on them again to raze the offending city.

Yeah, so there are plenty of reasons for killing a civ off. In my games I have chosen to kill some off an keep others around. For the most part the ones I let live, caused me trouble. Sometimes they will help keep another rival occupied with a war, but they usually end up backstabbing you at the wrong time. In which case I finish them off.

It depends on how much you war, if your raking up warmongering points faster than it can decay, there is little and mostly no reason to leave a civ alive.

On the other hand if your largely a peaceful civ, it is an advantage to delay finishing off a civ so you don't get massive warmongering points in a short amount of time.

I use the last strategy, so I most of the game is on friendly terms with all the civs.

thanks for all your replys

it seems i am winning my current game (arabia, japan und napoleon down) but as you suggested i should not have left the arabia und napoleon a city they are just annoying and arbia (the first i killed) has rebuild an army and reexpanded and is stealing my city states, so i should have just killed them and be done with it.

4 Cities is way to many for my current game plan. I would not get to attack as early with my special unit and all the social policy would take forever. I think only my capital and annex the cap of napoleon (maybe later washington) would have been the way to go instead of building a secound city, since i did not need iron just horses and i got those en masse from my city state allies and building a city from the ground up takes for ever.

another question: my current plan goes for no RA and just stealing with all my spies. I am currently at attilery and it seems ok the ai is on par with me as far as unittypes go. and i dont really want to be friends with them. "Diplomacy is the art of saying nice doggy till you find a big stick."

Just to clear things up i am usually a very peacefull player i just wanted another prospective on the game.

is there a map type with two continents?

skar

well, spies can keep you on parity but research agreements jump you ahead. This in mind, you need them. One good way to get friends quickly is to share intrigue - if 2 AI are in a war, just put a spy in each capital and you will get intrigue to share with both. This is of course, in addition to stealing their techs!

Using research agreements lets you allocate spies to city states - you should donate gold at the same turn you reduce everybody elses influence with a coup. Another tip - If you don't like more than 2-3 cities, you can run those 2-3 cities all game, even on deity mode. Just conquer one capital, annex it, THEN settle 1-2 cities in between to connect the dots. Then, build your troops, get maintenance and happiness under control and find the next victim.

When you find a victim (even your first one) denounce them first - in fact, denounce them before they denounce you then gift sell resources to the other AI to establish a "friend bloc" and a "scapegoat".

You can put different AI in the scapegoat position as needed. Just pay attention to "who hates who" on the AI front, and pay them to war each other when they are at peace and choose sides with who likes you more.

skar said:

4 Cities is way to many for my current game plan. I would not get to attack as early with my special unit and all the social policy would take forever.

Click to expand...

In most situations having four cities will actually get you the social policies faster, at least once you get beyond the first 3-4; more production = more cultural buildings, more science, more building opportunities (including a few wonders), and/or more units (esp. with your cheap-to-produce UUs). Yes, it might mean putting off your initial assault until a little later in the game, but it will also give you more leeway in terms of maintaining happiness and a strong economy.

I might be a little off as I only go as high as King difficulty, but it seems like other comments/videos I've seen tend to back this up on more difficult levels, too.

is there a map type with two continents?

Click to expand...

In my experience, just going with the "continents" map type on standard or smaller will usually net you two continents.

as always thanks for your help

i am still not sure if i should plant more cities in the beginning but i think that i will give it a try next time.

the problem with RA is that they are nullified if i get backstabed (happend in my current game yes i am looking at you elizabeth) and even if i get the RA i get a lot less science than the other guy or girl since i have less base sience. (that is how is works right?) Seems like i am helping my future enemys

i already do the denouce then bounce thing to find out early who i piss of by attacking my next victim.

about the continents map: i seem to recall playing that (on standard size) even my "continent" was just big enough for 2 cities of me and one city state (maybe that was continents plus can not remember exactly)


ps. the title should be "some questions from a new player"; my mother tongue is not english but this still bugs me

skar said:

ps. the title should be "some questions from a new player"; my mother tongue is not english but this still bugs me

Click to expand...

If you choose to edit your first post and go to "advanced", you can edit the title as well.

But either way you got your message across, so it worked.

Your future enemies are already helping each other, because what the AI does is sign research agreements with each other (what do you think they do with all their gold to get so far ahead in the mid-late game?)

Keeping them at war slows down their science.
Selling them luxuries keeps their gold down.
Making them re-donate gold to city states keeps their gold down.
Keeping them at war keeps their gold down.

You always want to keep their gold down, so they can help you more and each other less.

Sometimes little cities aren't worth the bother of maintaining.

I'll leave the AI one or two cities once I've taken their capital if I'm shooting for domination victory.

I've never had them turn around and attack me, but they do sometimes attack my CS's until I gift the CS a few units.

the trade information is not displayed very good in this game (which resource are trades which i have from city states,...). i am not sure if is ok to use mods (cheating, game crashing,..). any tips?
We all hate this very much, and 2 mods can help. UI Trade Opportunities - InfoAddict.

These mods are NOT cheating in the mind of most players because they don't give you anything new, it just puts all the info in ONE spot. However in a multiplayer game, when everyone has a timer, part of the challenge is getting enough done on EACH turn, so it might be different over there. Also, check out some of the wonderful mods, and decide for yourself what is good content (echoes of ages, city state diplomacy) and what "could" be considered as cheating.

Click to expand...

Click on the button at the top left of your screen (most likely research), and a menu should pop up with stuff like unit list, city list etc. There also is an option for resources and luxuries which gives you a detailed overview over all your imports and exports.