How the heck do you beat this game on Emperor?

I am so amazed by England, I never expected this. For me, the Civ is nearly God Tier on Island Maps / Small Continents. The ship of the Line is just outright overpowered, especially with promotions vs. land units. And the Longbows do not take any damage at all if you maneuver them carefully and after they get Logistics they are simply unstoppable.

In my current game, I just build two strong production coastal cities. There wasn't enough space for a good third. that's why you need Scouts at the beginning. you need to know if there is enough land for your cities. if you are staying small (therefore playing tall), you should go with Tradition. If there is a lot of free space and no AI to soak it up fast than you might consider Liberty. Both works, just be careful not to overextended too fast.

As I said I only build two cities as a backbone. I found Venice as a neighbour in a good spot and immediately decided that his capital will be my third city. Build 4 Archers, teaches to Machinery quite fast (skipping University, Civil Service and the other top techs for a moment), upgraded the Archers to Longbows and took the city with those archers + 1 Trireme without losses.

I think it's easier to play with 3-4 big cities instead of many small ones, but this depends on your style of play I guess. if you go tall,you need to understand the concept of internal trade routes. it's mandatory.

Tradition is easy to use. Using another civilization could be a challenge.

immortalwarrior said:

Right thanks for the help. I've noticed a few of you saying you don't build many workers (or any in some cases). How do you manage that? I find that I build around 4 or 5 so I can upgrade my tiles as soon as the borders expand in my cities (and if I have 4 cities I'll need workers in each one so I can upgrade tiles, build roads etc).

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The answer to this part is some people take them from city states or other civs. Some people think is "gamey" or against the spirit of the game. Others don't.

I will admit, taking early workers does help out a lot. That's 10 turns you can build some archers or another building.

Optimal play is going pure tradition and getting 3 - 4 cities up fast. Then focusing on getting libraries and your national college as soon as possible.

Steal workers from CS as opposed to building them. Get out caravans running food to your cap as soon as possible.

Have 1 more worker than you do cities.

Once tradition is filled out go patronage until renaissance. Once you hit renaissance its all rationalism until your ideology. Order is the best ideology IMO, going for the great person boost, happiness from monuments and then hammers from mines or science from factories.

Good attack times are when you hit composites, when you hit xbows and when you hit dynamite. This is because ranged units are king.

A good opening build is scout scout shrine monument settler settler settler granary caravan caravan, Library, NC, watermill. This is optimal and most likely not possible since you will probably need some units some where in there.

Requiring luxury techs that are not on the way to your NC will also throw you off from optimal play. This is not a big deal. Your first expansion can start off with a granary and will most likely complete the granary by the time your 4th city is being built. You will start cities 3 & 4 on libraries so they can finish in time for your NC.

Using tradition is a must if you are going for the win. If you want to have fun, you can try the other beginning social policies like liberty, piety or honor and give yourself a challenge if you like. However, tradition isn't always guaranteed to work.. it could still fail.