Moving up to Emperor. Any advice or tips?

* Focus on city states: get from them the bonus you need most depending on your victory condition. And the extra luxuries! Trade routes to CSs can really help with influence if timed right. Also do a lot of their quests starting early.

* Think for the long haul - don't worry if you are a little behind in pop and science for a while - make sure you have the potential to grow quickly when you have the happiness to support it

* Beeline the techs that are crucial to you and especially if you really want that one wonder. Unless you're Egypt with marble and tradtion, you won't be spamming wonders early

* Don't over-emhasize on military early on if you're not playing for early domination - prioritize pop growth, culture and science and build a military city with lots of production and military buildings so you can pump out an army quickly when you need it. If the AI DOWs you early, just use ranged units and cunning to fend them off, not mig military numbers.

* Stop to think more about your choices than you would on lower difficulty. I have found this to be the most important thing.

* National college, observatories, Oxford university - get them as quickly as you can in keeping with your grand plan

*m_o_n_e_y -> no matter what VC you're going for, solid trade starting early will boost all other areas all the time

build more units

I'm somewhat disappointed, but not surprised by what you guys are suggesting. I've been playing for a few months and have in the last few weeks finally made it to King difficulty. I'm typically shooting for a Science win with a few Dip wins, but as you guys are saying once you're at Emperor you have to give up the early game wonders.

Since I typically go for a Science Victory I'm often times discouraged if I can't get Great Library, but I am very disappointed if I can't get the National College. This of course may be a bit naive, but that's just my Tech Tree Line up.

My question is and this may be apparent, is a Science Victory going to be that much slower at Emperor difficulty because you can't always get these early Science boost? I wouldn't anticipate taking the Cities Capital "just" to have these Wonders, so, what does a Science victory look like at Emperor?

BuzWeaverCiv said:

I'm somewhat disappointed, but not surprised by what you guys are suggesting. I've been playing for a few months and have in the last few weeks finally made it to King difficulty. I'm typically shooting for a Science win with a few Dip wins, but as you guys are saying once you're at Emperor you have to give up the early game wonders.

Since I typically go for a Science Victory I'm often times discouraged if I can't get Great Library, but I am very disappointed if I can't get the National College. This of course may be a bit naive, but that's just my Tech Tree Line up.

My question is and this may be apparent, is a Science Victory going to be that much slower at Emperor difficulty because you can't always get these early Science boost? I wouldn't anticipate taking the Cities Capital "just" to have these Wonders, so, what does a Science victory look like at Emperor?

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The GL is not really worth it. Develop your city and build stuff. Also National College is a National Wonder so you will always get it.

At emperor getting early world wonders becomes more of a lottery, if you want the great library you'll need strong early growth and hammers in your capital and you'll need to go for it ASAP. National wonders like the national college are always available, you don't compete with the AI to get them.

Science victories on emperor will probably be a little quicker than at king level because your research agreements will be worth more.

BuzWeaverCiv said:

I'm somewhat disappointed, but not surprised by what you guys are suggesting. I've been playing for a few months and have in the last few weeks finally made it to King difficulty. I'm typically shooting for a Science win with a few Dip wins, but as you guys are saying once you're at Emperor you have to give up the early game wonders.

Since I typically go for a Science Victory I'm often times discouraged if I can't get Great Library, but I am very disappointed if I can't get the National College. This of course may be a bit naive, but that's just my Tech Tree Line up.

My question is and this may be apparent, is a Science Victory going to be that much slower at Emperor difficulty because you can't always get these early Science boost? I wouldn't anticipate taking the Cities Capital "just" to have these Wonders, so, what does a Science victory look like at Emperor?

Click to expand...

Don't know what a Science Victory looks like on Emperor, a Cultural Victory always seems to be quicker.

But you can get a fair amount of early science from trade routes with other civs (2-3 science each), so don't neglect those. I typically research Sailing before Writing because a trade route is more valuable than a Library at that point.

Tradition-Patronage-Rationalism-Freedom Foreign Legion Rush.

Tried and true.

Biggest thing for me when I made the jump up the difficulties was developing map awareness. Every event that happens on higher difficulties is of more interest to you. You can't just be in your own bubble. Get 2 early scouts, develop a plan to get your settlers to the most ideal city spots before the settler spamming AI's come. They will come!

Try to bandwagon the hate on already hated AIs and keep attention away from yourself like others have mentioned.

You can't always do this, if they are coming for you, identify choke points, build range units, beat them to crossbows, etc.

Get the national college fast!

Use the first 15 or so turns to identify what kind of land you have to play with, then make your plan for that land. Don't just randomly stumble through the game. Identify the ideal pantheon, ideal religious bonus, most important techs for your victory condition/luxury situation/etc.

Basically you'll probably be fine, just make sure you watch what others are doing with keen interest and interpret how each action affects you.

I appreciate the pointers and advice.

GL is 10 science turns gain. In this time, on the other side you can build two settlers. This can give you early Education and all other tech. Train to win SV with only Oracle, Pisa and Hubble. You'll see the difference.

Early wonders are still viable on emperor, at least for me. Whether it´s optimal play is another question. I go for ToA, GLH (if naval civ or map), Pyramids and Oracle mainly. Of course everything is somewhat situational but I find that it works for me.

Then the need for an army as deterrant or protection as well as conquest is naturally more important than lower levels.

In short you have to be more meticulous as you increase the difficulty.

robertkelly260 said:

Can you speak to that at length, please?

I play at Immortal, and I find the AI/Diplomacy so erratic and unsatisfying - as no less than J Shafer admitted (http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/14/j...-civ-v-explains-how-at-the-gates-will-differ/) - that almost ignore it. I presume that is why I lose so much, but please, tell me how I keep the AIs focused elsewhere? I really don't know.

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I haven't played vanilla Civ since G&K 2.5 years ago, and I'm fairly certain Shafer is talking about that game since he was not involved in the AI diplo fixes that went into the game after he left in the lead up to the expansions. (he left before even vanilla patching was finished)

The diplomacy in BNW built of CIV5 is nothing like what you're describing. Even patched vanilla is a lot more stable.

He's selling his own TBS 4x game of course so i'm not surprised he's downplaying Civ5 there

And for me 5% going to immortal, whole different ball game, cant get the mix between growing cities, beelining science whilst avoiding cash/happiness difficulties, ny ideas?


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Going to emperor, you will start to see noticeable AI bonuses. they will make more units and cities, also there will be some tech runaways. You have to start using AI 'exploits', such as bribing to war, selling open borders or strategic resources, and picking Order (most AI will pick order and like you more).

In my current emperor game though, I picked autocracy for some giggles. once I got 6 battleships, I declared on the tech leader. everyone else then started declaring war on me. A long (and fun) war, and I'm winning.

rustyciv said:

And for me 5% going to immortal, whole different ball game, cant get the mix between growing cities, beelining science whilst avoiding cash/happiness difficulties, ny ideas?


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Don't overexpand/expand too quickly? (it's not as if you need to hurry since the AI starts with one city just like you on immortal... trade routes being the major income source, you'll hurt yourself if you have too many buildings in too many cities to maintain)

rustyciv said:

And for me 5% going to immortal, whole different ball game, cant get the mix between growing cities, beelining science whilst avoiding cash/happiness difficulties, ny ideas?


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Prioritize trade routes, they become worth more at higher levels because the AI has bigger cities and will be ahead of you in tech.

And I personally don't beeline much, because you get discounts on techs that have already been discovered by other civs you know, so you get more bang for your beaker. (Of course you still want to be researching techs that will do something to improve your current situation).

And overall, get used to being behind the AI most of the game.

Edit: nvm

zukenft said:

Going to emperor, you will start to see noticeable AI bonuses. they will make more units and cities, also there will be some tech runaways. You have to start using AI 'exploits', such as bribing to war, selling open borders or strategic resources, and picking Order (most AI will pick order and like you more).

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How are any of these exploits ?

Selling open borders is generally a bad idea by the way, you'll regret it when ideologies come.

Not in Emperor.

I understand exploits like taking advantages without disadvantages. Like selling gpt for gold, strat or lux ressources even AI doesn't really need it. It's not really fair, you never give gold to AI in exchange of something you don't need.