rules of thumb?

What is the benefit of being in a perpetual war????

Not benefit, but benefits. It's a rule of thumb. Off the top of my head, some of them are: rack up xp, united front bonus from autocracy, diplomacy bonuses ("the enemy of my enemy is..."), keep AI in check, not letting him build up an army and DoW you but instead you pick him off continually and heal, territorial expansion, science/gold/cultural growth by way of puppets, you pay maintenance on your army anyway so might as well use it, extra GG's for citadel bombing or reliquary/mausoleum bonus, pillage gold, lots of workers from steals, archaeologist/missionary/prophet steals, CS liberation ...

Benefits of 100% peace? Different diplomatic benefits, trade, slightly smaller army, swords into plowshares, faster game time (in real-life time), don't have to watch out as much for dumb stuff like his scouts killing your generals or caravels on your trade routes. I'm sure I missed stuff, but anyway the list is shorter.

Yeah, the first thing I learned playing Immortal is that if you keep bribing AI to DOW each other their armies become much smaller, no more "carpets of doom"

OBRkenobi said:

could i get a list of a few rules of thumb and tips for the game plz?

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It's completely different at different difficulty levels. Even between Immortal and Deity. It also varies according to which victory condition you're seeking, which social policies you are using (especially the opening ones) and whether or not you want to involve a little war, a lot of war, or none at all. And which Civ you play. And which map type, and which size and game speed.

The only rule I can think that transcends all of the above is: try to have a victory condition in mind from the moment you've scouted the map, and make that as early as possible. For example, on standard size pangaea I like to have met everyone way before turn 100. On continents, you'll just have to suck up the fact that you don't know exactly what's going on on the other continent(s), but you should still try for one VC. If you dither and don't focus, you will increase the chances that you will lose.

tetley said:

1250 hammers wins world's fair on immortal standard

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I have been wasting hammers on the fair and the International Games. Is there a way to tell how much I have contributed?

Go to any city that is working on either project and mouse hover over the icon for the project -- it will show you how many hammers you have contributed.

I try my darned hardest NOT to meet the AI, save the first two. It's a race to take/raze all the cities you can before you meet people.

I'd say that a qualitative rule of thumb is to determine your Victory goal within the first few turns by your start position and Civilization. Then, try to tailor your build and research order around it. Don't just play generally and hope to have a good game. At the higher levels you'll need to focus every turn if you want to pull out your victory condition (and I don't really consider time limit to a legitimate one to shoot for, because somebody can usually win before turn 500).

So basically, if you want to go Science, go for the science wonders, try to get a big population, stay out wars if possible (but have a good defense), and try to build a lot of science and production buildings.

If you want to go culture, know which wonders you'll need, try to theme well, and stay out of trouble as much as possible.

If you want to go diplomacy, know which wonders will help you (but don't Wonder Whore), go a bunch of cash and start befriending CS's and wipe out the Civ's who puppet CS's (like Venice and Austria).

If you want to go domination, try to expand steadily throughout the game, don't try to be peaceful and then decide to take out the whole world at once in the last 50 turns. I'd also recommend trying to keep your empire contiguous to make it easier to manage, and feasible for units to defend, kind of like real life and unlike what the AI does.

lindsay40k said:

Always find a CS whipping boy to farm XP for long range rapid firing archers and GGs.

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What do you do if one of the AIs decides to bring your whipping boy city-state under their protection? Do you back off and leave the two of them alone, or does that AI simply make themselves the first target of your blitzkrieg?

Big exception to the contiguous rule, though: if you put a CS in between. Then you can make friends with the CS and build a road through it to connect your cities. They pay the maintenance. They may even give the road quest to help be friends.

That early in the game, if you haven't DoWed your CS yet and an AI has already pledged protection, odds are that AI is a neighbor and you have little interest in diplomatic relations with them.

tetley said:

I try my darned hardest NOT to meet the AI, save the first two. It's a race to take/raze all the cities you can before you meet people.

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I am trying to get better at early war. If I wipe out that 2nd civ early (before meeting anyone else), there seems to be no diplo repercussions. But what if I fail, and have left them with a city? So long as I don't take any more cities, once meeting other civs, can I hope for decent relations with those others? Or will the other civs label me a warmonger all game long? I don't care about reconciling with the 2nd civ I was trying to wipe out, but I don't want everyone to hate me all game long. (Unless I start warmongering again.)

Kirin Rider said:

What do you do if one of the AIs decides to bring your whipping boy city-state under their protection?

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If you are already at war before the AI pledges to protect the CS, do you take a diplo hit? I don't think so.

Warmongering penalties accrue for whatever you do after you meet an AI, not before. So if you DoW and take 1 city, meet another AI, and keep fighting, you accrue no warmongering hit with the new AI. Until you take another city. That's actually a good time to farm that AI for xp and pillage gold, and hope Shaka or Genghis or an allied CS nearby acquires that AI you're farming for his new love interest.