One tip for each CIV

GhostSalsa said:

Denmark fast pillage is melee-line only.



Denmark's military value holds up fine on Continents up to Standard size - Large is pushing it. But Large is pushing any continental invasion. Denmark still gets an advantage. You're just discounting the utility of coastal warfare arbitrarily. How do you get to inland cities if you don't take a coastal one first?

Denmark's free amphibious promo (if you're establishing your core melee force with Berserkers) is also underrated, and gives them an edge in near-coastal cities. Unsupported sword/infantry can take cities very easily when five units can surround it and attack together. No need for cycling or sacrificing units, the city falls in 2 turns. Amphibious is an important part of that puzzle - avoid river penalty - as is being able to swarm up from the coast to the city that has no defending units around it. As is being able to step back, step forward, attack again on flat land, pillaging two tiles along the way for a 50HP boost, so your Berserkers are strong enough to hold off incoming AI units after you take the city. File this under tips for Denmark. You can take any city you want on your own continent with Berserkers.

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The amphibious promotion is under-rated for Pangaea. There are almost always rivers around capitals. Being able to attack from across a river without penalty, but the defender can't do the same, well, it's quite valuable.

Cromagnus said:

The amphibious promotion is under-rated for Pangaea. There are almost always rivers around capitals. Being able to attack from across a river without penalty, but the defender can't do the same, well, it's quite valuable.

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Good point! Especially if you play on a modded map like Communitas or Perfectworld, where there are countless rivers/streams...

El Caballerion said:

Good point! Especially if you play on a modded map like Communitas or Perfectworld, where there are countless rivers/streams...

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You could also use amphibious when landing on land by attacking land units that are in the shore without a penalty. You can use ships to cover your amphibious units from range attacks.

Inca - Rush build/buy as many slingers as you can before you research construction for terrace farms - that way you can upgrade them to comp bowmen later & as the 'withdraw before melee' promotion carries over.

Redaxe said:

Inca - Rush build/buy as many slingers as you can before you research construction for terrace farms - that way you can upgrade them to comp bowmen later & as the 'withdraw before melee' promotion carries over.

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Inca - Don't use your Slingers to guard your Workers. They'll withdraw and let your worker get stolen for free.

I really think the promotion shouldn't apply if you're fortified but eh

denmark, liberty + pyramids, units heal 60hp/turn in enemy terretory with double pillage+heal.

redwings1340 said:

Then, turn on raging barbarians and start again.

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Raging barbs doesn't really help Songhai the bonus comes from clearing camps not killing barbs.

IndonesiaWhen settling on a continent that is different from your own to get the Unique Lux don't settle on top of another Lux as it is destroyed.

As Indonesia, it isn't necessary to settle on a foreign continent to get the island spice bonus -- if you are at war with an AI on another continent and it gives you a city as part of a peace deal, this city will now have the spice bonus at the city center, provided you haven't already settled that continent.

That was actually declared a bug and fixed in the last patch. Kind of sad really, I would have kept it as an "unintended gameplay feature".

Bah, too had indeed, I guess I haven't played Indonesia recently enough

Resipsa said:

Raging barbs doesn't really help Songhai the bonus comes from clearing camps not killing barbs.

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This is actually an important question that I never figured out... does turning on RAGING BARBS increase the frequency of encampment spawns OR the number of barbs spawned from camps? or both?

El Caballerion said:

Does is actually an important question that I never figured out... does turning on RAGING BARBS increase the frequency of encampment spawns OR the number of barbs spawned from camps? or both?

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more barbs from camps, not more camps. no bonus to songhai or germany

Portugal: This is assuming you're playing in Small Continents or Archipelago maps. Instead of building Naus later on, you can start by building Triremes early. The idea is to secure your waters and sea trade early from threats such as barbarian galleys. Once you've sufficiently secured your area, you can then upgrade your Triremes into Naus. When they find a good spot to use their Trade Mission, the gold gained will eventually outweigh the upgrade costs.

Ethiopia - Aim for fast hill start near floodplains, build stele first, go Tradition / tall, Tithe and Itinerant Preachers: barring bad luck / highest difficulties, expect religious dominance and piles of money.

Venice: set game to maximum CS, get every Great Merchant generating wonder, Commerce and by all CS with merchants. Kill Greece if they show.

Fabio1701 said:

Venice: set game to maximum CS, get every Great Merchant generating wonder, Commerce and by all CS with merchants. Kill Greece if they show.

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Sure, and then run into signficant unhappiness problems and troublesome relations with everyone because of all the shared borders.

Personally with Venice, I tend to avoid using MoVs on CS that I'm already allied with. In fact, all in all I'd rather be using the double Trade Routes to create a MegaVenice and a pile of money, then using that wealth to conquer my neighbours while benefiting from the buy-in-puppetted-cities rule. MoV generation is nice in the early game, but in the mid game onwards I'm only interested in Great Scientists.

Actually I tend to save a lot of the MoV for the later game, so as to avoid diplomatic problems. Doing this, I don't have problems with happiness either as I tend to take over CS with good luxuries. If you are gonna take over a CS, you do have to choose the right ones.

Did not see this one but I LOVE Carthage and Dido:

special bonuses are a better trireme and war elephants, both good early defenders.

The real steamroll happens if you are on the coast. If you choose archipelego you can basically win without trying.

Have not tried this on BNW but this works great in G&K:

1. Found every city on the coast. Way before anyone else can have harbors you have instant, free harbors to connect everything with trade routes. Never build any roads. Coastal cities already get a bunch of gold and even more with the harbors. You will be rich in no time, easily 50 gpt and 100+ after currency, economics, and the monetary boosting techs.

2. Found a religion as quick as you can and select as your pantheon: +2 science per trade route. No other AI chooses this so it's easy. From this point on you get a massive boost to science that no one can match. I've easily doubled or tripled my early science output with this combination due to the free harbors in every city. Every city you build boosts the gold/tech combination further so expand rapidly early.

3. Go patronage as the luxury and resource inputs of the CS's enable you that much further.

This often puts me an age ahead even on immortal games if you can do it early. Plus the gold from all those early free harbor routes means you have way more than you can spend. If you are on archipelego everyone else will be struggling with gold and science while you basically get it all for free as soon as you found a city. Use the gpt to secure a bunch of luxuries from the other AI and keep expanding. From this point on the game is easy. You can minimize land military and just have a ranged one in each city. Build a large navy instead and dominate with it since you are far ahead in science. Once you get frigates/caravels first wiping out other nations is easy if you like to play that way. Same with ironclads and modern ships. but it's just as easy to go cultural, diplomatic, or science.

Note: religion stats+enhancers are up to you. The standard is usually tithe but you will already have plenty of gold with this civ. The last Emperor game I played this way (small map size) I chose tithe on top of the other bonuses and converted most of the world - by the industrial era I was averaging +550 gpt with 8 cities. Basically a free building every turn. I was buying everything and couldn't use it all so it went to waste. Nice to have a free military at the drop a hat though. by the end of the game I also had a never-ended golden age. Quit after 100 consecutive GA turns. This came from the artists from the Louvre and gifted artists from city states and started after Chichen Itza. Every artist gave +16 turns of GA after the lengthening boosts and I always got another by then.

Venice: Get the Colossus, you get two extra trade routes.

Austria: If you have enough money in the midgame, you'll win. Tradition and Commerce give you money, Liberty and Patronage don't. Also, hill start bias is nice for Machu Picchu, which also gives money.
Religion only gives money if you don't build shrines and temples and if you go for the commercial beliefs.