Strategy discussion

Here you can discuss about strategy.

Your contribution is appreciated here: http://rhye.civfanatics.net/wiki/index.php?title=Strategy_guides

I figured that the best use of my 1000th post dance would be to start this thread off

Here is a mostly completed guide for Russia based on the experiences of my last two games on Emperor level as that country. I figure though that it should only work better for the other levels since they are easier. I've also chosen to not give them a strength rating (as was the custom for RoX guides) since I don't feel that I've played enough games yet to accurately assess that value.
Now without further adieu I present:


The Russians
By Gunner

So you want to rule the vast land of Russia – to follow in the footsteps of, and possibly even surpass, the likes of Ivan, Peter, Catherine, and Stalin? It will not be an easy task to guide Russia to greatness, and certainly not one for the weak. The rewards for your diligence and leadership will, however, be considerable. Russia has huge amounts of potential, and it should easy be able to ascend to supremacy if lead correctly.

The first thing you must learn is that the strength of your country lays in its land, the earth it will be built upon and achieve greatness on. It contains abundant resources which will allow your nation to grow, prosper, and eventually turn into an unstoppable war machine. For this reason it is key that you take an aggressive expansion policy early on to insure that the Germans and others do not claim the land that is right fully yours. Send at least two, preferably three, of your starting settlers west to take that land before it is taken by another. You can worry about expanding to the east later, but since you will not have any real competitor for that land it will not need to be with nearly as much urgency.

The only luxury resources available to you will be furs and then later on gems (there are some gems on the coast northwest of Moscow, its a good idea to build a city there just to get them.) To compensate for the relative lack of happiness that your cities will probably be experiencing because of this its a good idea to stay with Hereditary Rule for a while and use large numbers of cheap troops to garrison your big cities and keep them happy. Also don't forget that the market provides +1 happiness with furs and the forge provides +1 happiness with gems.

Another thing to keep in mind in the early game is that you will probably be receiving a visit from a group of barbarian horse archers from the east at some point, so be sure to keep a few troops in that area (preferably spearmen) to defend. You will also throughout the entire game need to be ready to deal with attacks made against you by the AI, especially since the AI in RFC is more aggressive. Obviously the Germans will be a threat due to their inherent aggressivness and their close proximity to your borders. Be vigilant against the threats which are not quite as obvious also, such as the Mongols and the Arabians. In one of my games I had the Arabians attack me with hordes of camel archers, taking 3 cities from me and nearly taking Moscow. Things would have been much easier if I had positioned a few troops on my southern border.

While Russia is blessed with great levels of production and growth, it main weakness lays in its poor capacity for commerce and trade. If you do not adopt the proper measures to counter this then you will find yourself falling behind in the technological race and with empty coffers, regardless of what type of strategy you pursue to victory. To that end, it is essential that you develop your county’s infrastructure with an emphasis on commerce and research. Do this by building cottages frequently and early, as they will be your tool to reach commercial parity with others. You must also focus on building libraries in all of your cities both for the technological benefits as well as the culture they provide. Finally, and most importantly, be very aggressive and active in the game of tech trading.

Tech trading is an important element for any civ in Rhye’s and Fall of Civilization, but for Russia it is absolutely essential. No matter what you do, your country will not be able to compete technologically in the early game if you primarily rely on your own research and engage in only the occasional tech trade. Once you fall out of the technological race it is very difficult to catch up, so it is essential that you make an effort to not fall behind early on. Make it a habit to check your foreign advisor’s technologies screen every turn or two to spot a potential trade. Sell techs for gold to civs that are far behind you, and try to buy, trade, and research techs that some of the top techers do not have. It will be difficult to keep up, but remember that if you have been properly developing your infrastructure (with many cottages and libraries) then things should gradually become easier.

Once your economy is in decent shape then you are presented with 2 main options. The first is to continue peacefully developing your nation. You can also start sending settlers out east to colonize the vast stretches of open land there. Try to build enough courthouses for the Forbidden Palace quickly since you will start paying extravagent maitinence fees once you start expanding. Given time you should come to dominate due to your sheer size.

The other option is to go on the warpath. Russia’s excellent production abilities make it very suited for building and maintaining a large army. You should be able to out produce any opponent you face and win in a war of attrition if necessary. Try and choose a weak country as your first victim, who this will be depends on each game’s situation. The wealth and resources provided by the conquest of another county’s heartland should add to your strength allowing you to take on a tougher opponent next time.

One final thing I would like to mention is Russia’s excellent unique unit, the Cossack. It is substantially more powerful than the default cavalry unit, with 3 extra strength points and a +50% bonus versus other mounted units. If you had already been following a military strategy it should give your efforts a great boost and maybe allow you to take a crack at that other superpower that you had been weary of facing before. If not, then the arrival of the Cossack would mark a great time for you to start some aggressive expansion. It would simply be a shame to waste such a great unit by not conquering someone with it. Additionally, if your game has not turned out as well as you had hoped and you find yourself lagging behind, then the Cossack is the opportunity you need to catch up.

Now go forth and bring Mother Russia to its rightful place of greatness. Its great capacity for production and expansion along with your skillful leadership should allow you to overcome early technological and commercial challenges and carry on to victory.

Sooooo, any feedback?

This is what you wanted us to do Rhye, right? Write up nation specific strategy guides like for RoX

It is very good! Perhaps it is a little more poetic than practical, but it is a very interesting read! Mayhaps I´ll post some suggestions I made in the Pax Romana thread here, but I was hoping that people gave some opinions on them before posting here...

Thanks Elhoim

I've gone back and added more stuff into it drawing from experiences in my most recent game. Hopefully its a bit more practical now

aye, I want something like the RoX ones.

So, your is good except from being too long and for not mentioning the UP.
If you can fix these things I will start posting

Don't worry about the rating, I'll just post the stars from in-game

Rhye said:

So, your is good except from being too long and for not mentioning the UP.
If you can fix these things I will start posting

Click to expand...

Hmm, too long and not mentioning something, seems like a bit of a contradiction to me

I'll see what I can do

Edit: How long do you want it exactly. I saw that most of the guides for RoX were around 4/3 pages. Would it be alright if I got this one down to 3/2 with mentioning the UP?

Suggestions for Russia thingy:

Mention the massive grasslands, which make PERFECT cottage spams.

Mention the UP, which allows you to builder turtle with spear based units.

Russia should be the richest power in the game, bar none. You have tons of acreage of grassland covered with forest meaning you can cottage spam while chop rushing markets, libs, and courthouses. How tight is that? Very tight.

St. Petes, Minsk, and the Crimea make excellent primary city locations, which you can use as your first three cottage spams. They have enough prod to pump out units at a respectable rate, and all three will grow really big.

Keep pushing east, and feel free to gank China and Mongolia, as both countries usu. have an issue with teching. China is a ***** to take down, what with its hordes of infantry, but if you use enough arty (or wait til tanks and planes) you can squish them into the dirt. Remember that cottages are your lifeblood. If you want, call them mirs and feel even more like a Rusky.

Recommendation: Play as Greece to start your game, build up a big army, build a city up in the Crimea, and put the army there. Works as a great jump start for your Russian empire, as it will flip to you, and you can then use it to annex a nearly empty Greece. I discovered this by accident, and found it to be handy.

Not bad after half a bottle of JD, eh?

To add to the russian guide:

Mention the importance of the spiral minaret, as the money it brings is often huge, and can save your research capabilities.

I have played about 6 games now as the japanese on emperor and I got to say its VERY hard. Only one game I have managed to be one of the top three through the game, which is the game im currently playing but havent finished yet.

First off you start on an island so no need to worry about for barbarian attacks. The first tech I go for is sailing, then alphabet. Build a galley and make contact with the indians. If a religion have spread to one of your cities do NOT convert. You need to stay freindly with asoka so you can get a open border agreement. Then you do the same thing with cyrus. You then want to make contact with Egypt and begin to trade your techs with them.Then you can travel with your galley through the seuzcanal if the egyptians have planted a city there to make contact with the european civs later.

The reason for this is that you dont want to piss off the chinese by trading with the indians, an early war with china must be avoided . And you dont want to trade with the chinese because remember this, China is your number one enemy and you dont want to share your reaserch with them.

I have found two very specific areas were you should place your first two cities. the first is two squares down from the starting position. The second is two sqaures two the right were eventually the copper resource will be. You only need those two cities on your main land to begin with. Then try early on to build two cities on the continent. One in korea, two sqaures above the rice field which will become a commerce city. Then a city a little to north of korea, left-down from the deer.

I usually try to grab the hanging gardens and great library, then i try to get a great engineer before i build the national epic in the city with the great library and begin to pump out scientists. You wont be able to build this wonders in every game, remember this is on emperor.

Focuse your reaserch on civil service and machinery so you can build samurais. Then simply build a massive army of these and some catapults, you also need a lot of galleys to transport your troops. Its very good to stay friend with the chinese until the mongols appear. Then you have the same religion and so so you ask the chinese to declare war on gengis and asoka. This shouldnt be a problem if you have traded your techs wisely so you have a lot of techs to offer the chinese. Then as the chinese are busy with their wars you simply wait a few turns for their troops to leave their country before you begin the massive invasion.

China is still pretty though to conquer despite they are at war with to others. Since thier cities are very culturally developed you have to conquer all of their cities on the mainland otherwise they will just flip back after or during the war. A good idea is to destroy their vulnarable horse resource since they like building horse archers which will become knights as soon as the reach guilds, and you really dont want to fight against knights. The resource is located west of beijing near the coast. Then they have a copper recource near macao and a iron resource east of beijing and if this to are destroyed they wont have much to set against you.

Once the chinese is conquered you have atleast 5 very good cities and two state religions, taoism and confusianism, and if your lucky they have a shrine also. And from here its up to you what to do but conquering the chinese when you are japan is in my opinion the single best thing you can do and it will keep you among the most powerful civs scorewise througout the game.

Egypt

The game as Egypt is tough on all levels. The first 50 turns of the game we are completely alone, as the Barbarians trap us in Egypt. After this turn other civilizations like Persia, Rome and Greece will rise very soon and they are advanced to us. Rome and Greece are also hostile towards us and we also have to deal with numerious Barbarians , who will treaten our homelands. The Sea Peoples, who are appearing from 1200 BC till 100 AD will roam the Eastern Mediterranian Sea and try to destroy our Fishing Fleets and our navy. After 200 AD (turn 130) Hordes of Bedouin Camel Archers and Horse Archers will set pace to our lands coming from the west. These attacks continue until 900 AD and its gets only worse when some guys called Arabs will decide to found Makkah as their capital, Islam as their religion and an army of Camel Archers as their basic arguments.
We can not avoid the Arabian Onslaught in 630 AD, as Egypt is an integrative part of the Islamic world and Kairo was THE center of science in the whole umma.

All in all to be frank Egypt in RFC is not meant to survive. But we can change that
It is a challenge, but it is possible. The key is to use our Unique Powers and Unique Units to best effect. Our Unique Power is that we start the game as a civilization and so we have Slavery and Hereditary Rule from the first turn enabled. That means we can whip and keep our people quiet with military presence. So we need big cities, which are growing fast .. we will found them.

But in order to do this every single step in the first turns is critical. We have plan exactly every single turn and every single decision. We have to know when to built what and on which place and when to research what. For this purpose I wrote this guide, which will make us survive all this dangers and lays the foundation for the middle game.

So we start our game as Hatchepsut, Pharao of Egypt and on level Emperor.

The start : Our starting technologies are Agriculture and Wheel. Our starting units are one settler and one warrior.
There are only 2 other civilizations : Chinese and Indian. They start with the same units. The Chinese have Mining and Agriculture, the Indians have Agriculture and Mysticism. Our first target is to outperform these competitors and to secure our Homelands.

1st turn : We start the game with one settler and one warrior. At first we do not found our capital instantly. We move to the sea. So go 1-1 (numpad) with the settler. Our warrior will explore the surroundings. So move him to the north east.
2nd turn : We will found our capital, but we do not use the tile which is highlighted. Instead we use the tile left to it. The highlighted tile is better, but we need to think ahead and later we will built Sin, which needs the critical two tiles that we now spare for it. In this case Sin will become very productive instead of being a mere placeholder and border defense.
So we move our settler 1 (numpad) and found the city. The name is Xou – I change the name now normally. We start to build warrior and research Fishing.
Our start unit warrior moves on until he reaches Sinai. There we can already see the borders of Yerushalem and inside are lots of units (7), especially 3 archers .. we are trapped for now.

3rd till 5th turn : we move our settler along the eastern coast to the south.

6th turn : Our cultural borders increase, which is important as now the tile with the wheat can be harvested.

10th turn : Our warrior now reached a lake in the Highlands of Ethiopia. He will have an encounter with an animal. We should survive this. In anyway at this lake, we have to turn west again.
Our warrior needs to roam around the later position of Niwt-Rst to keep the area free of predatory animals.

12th turn : We researched Fishing. Now we instantly change the production in our city to Work Boat. There are two rounds left for warrior, we will finish later. In the research we now go for Pottery. We need the granary and even more important the cottages.

14th turn : Our city grow to size 2, so we can rush the work boat.

15th turn : Our work boat moves to the fish tile and we start production of a worker. Our warrior moves westwards and discovers Elephants, that will be important later.

16th turn : The Nets are in place. Our exploring warrior should soon encounter another animal . Our city is now growing (producing worker) with 5 spare food. That is not bad

24th turn : The worker is finished we move him to our to wheat field and start farm next turn. In the city we can continue warrior.

25th turn : Our first warrior is produced, we start another one.

27th turn : We finished Pottery. We research Mysticism.

30th turn : The city grew to 2. We emphasize on growth (food), so make sure the buttons are activated and the wheat field is harvested. Our roaming warrior is cleaning the Nile Region from animals – this important for our later city.

33rd turn : Our Worker finished the farm. Don’t build a road. Our city will grow to 3 soon. So now move the farmer to the flood plains field south of the farm. There you start a cottage.

35th turn : Our city is 3 now, so we switch to settler.

39th turn : We finished Mysticism, so we go for Masonry.

41st turn : In our city we can now rush the settler. There is one warrior in our city. We send him the tile left of the incense, he will protect the settler, when he arrives on this tile. Our roaming warrior keeps on cleaning the area, too.

42rd turn : We finished our settler, so now we send him to the tile left of the incense. In the city we continue our warrior.

43rd turn : The now 3rd Warrior is finished, we start the 4th one. Our worker finished cottage, we move him to the flood plains tile north of our later city Niwt-Rst

44th turn : we found Niwt-Rst, our second city ! We already have one warrior together with the settler, so the city is protected. We start to produce worker in the queue. The worker on the northern tile starts a cottage.

46th turn : The 4th warrior is finished in our capital and the city reaches 3, so we start settler.

51st turn : Only two turns until masonry and the Greeks arrived so we need to check our results so far …

Egypt 2 - the next 40 turns

Turn 52 : Only turn until Masonry so at the end of the turn, we give the move order to our worker. He will move to the stone tile.

Turn 53 : Masonry is researched at last. We start to discover Animal Husbandery. Our worker will arrive on the stone tile and starts to build the so important quarry for our later Stonehenge.

Turn 55 : Finally we finished our second settler in our capital. This settler moves to Sinai (the desert hill tile, which connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranian Sea).

Turn 57 : In Niwt-Rst we finished our worker and we instantly move him to the stone tile. In the meanwhile we start Pyramids in Niwt-Rst.
Turn 58 : We can found Sin .. it will be become the gate to conquer Yerushalem later. In the production queue we decide for barracks.

Turn 60 : Our workers finished the quarry and we can move them to the marble tile. We also can move our roaming start warrior to Sin.

Turn 64 : We can rush Stonehenge in our capital and this is not too early. Stonehenge is an important part of our strategy as it saves us the obelisks either in Niwt-Rst as in Sin, which we need to reach the Copper and Horse Resources later.

Turn 65 : What a moment … our first world wonder and suddenly the world gets centered and we feel so small …

Turn 66 : Our workers finished the next quarry, which will make a production hub out of Sin. We let them start a road on the tile right of the marble.

Turn 67 : At least we discovered Animal Husbandery and we can start Mining. Horses pop up just between Niwt-Rst and Sin, but it will take a few turns, before the culture of this cities is strong enough to cover the tile.

Turn 69 : The workers finished the road and they move now to the tile with the horses.

Turn 70 : The workers start another road.

Turn 72 : The next road is finished and a short check tells us that the culture ratio is on 8 of 10 in both cities. That means we have two turns left and we should use them. There is still an unfinished cottage north of Niwt-Rst. (From turn 52, just north of Niwt-Rst). We move there now and order cottage.

Turn 73 : Mining is researched and we start Bronze Working. But there is more .. the next cottage is finished and it looks nice. We move our one worker who is free back on the horse tile as in next turn the culture borders will increase. His colleague will follow him next turn , too.

Turn 78 : There it is, our first pasture. Soon we can start to produce our War Chariots. The target is now to build an army of War Chariots to conquer Yerushalem and therefore to gain our religion : Judaism …
The now free worker will go to the desert hill tile right (east) of the horse pasture. His colleague will follow him next turn and they will build there our first mine. In the meanwhile we make sure that Niwt-Rst is using the Horse Tile, as we still want to let Sin grow a little more.

Turn 80 : Our capital is ready for army building. The barracks are finished and we start our first War Chariot.

Turn 81 : The Persians enter the game. Now the time to conquer our part of the Middle East is running out … but we are prepared and our targets are clear.

In the comparison we would see that we already catched up with the Indians in Infrastructure and City Size, but we are far behind the Chinese as they have simply too fertile areas in their homelands. We can’t help it.

But the odds are changing now in our favor. Thanks to our Unique Unit the War Chariot, we will be able to make some strategically important acquisitions and also to fill our treasury. The whole game long we will depend on deficit spending for research so just get as much gold as possible.

In the Persians we will find a very reliable and strong ally, so please by no means attack them, but just the opposite, make sure that they take Hattusa, as they will defend this town perfectly against the Greeks, who would otherwise treaten us. (Btw a strong (and non-islamic) Persia is also the best guarantee for a weak Arabia … and that is our only chance)
But all this will happen later.


Turn 83 : What a feeling. Our first Chariots rolls on the streets of our Capital. We leave it there for a while, as it keeps the citizen happy. As we maybe can notice our capital is getting quite big already (and as a side notice, the first cottage that we built long ago became a village in the meanwhile )

Our workers finished the mine, so we make sure that Sin is harvesting the mine now. The workers will build a road and btw. Sin finished the barracks, so also there we can start a War Chariot.

Turn 85 : The Romans founded their capital .. they will give us more than one headache later, but for now they are still weak and friendly.

Turn 86 : We researched Bronze Working and .. what a nice surprise .. our already built mine is exactly on a copper resource. (This is certainly a little cheating, but Egypt is really too hard, so I have too use my experience in order to plan ahead), besides the workers also finished the road exactly in this moment, so we can move them one tile north of the horses and to build a cottage there.

In the research we go for Sailing and in Niwt-Rst we shift from the Horse Pasture tile to a flood plains tile as we want to grow to 4 soon.

Turn 90 : We can rush the Pyramids in Niwt-Rst as the city size is big enough and the production is also advanced enough.
In the meanwhile we can already send one Chariot from our Capital to Sin and we can also let one of the Chariots in Sin do some reconnaissance nearby Yerushalem and Susa.

Turn 91 : The next world wonder is finished .. and everything in the first 100 turns
And as cool as it is to have the Pyramids at exactly in the right place and nearly the right time (just 1000 years difference ) we even really need them.

An immediate positive effect like with Stonehenge is unfortunately not there as we do not plan to change our government in near future. But more important is that the culture of Niwt-Rst is now growing with 7 point per turn. So we can be sure that we reach the elephants resource in time. The elephants not only provide happiness, but (after we have researched Construction) the elephant resource will supply us with War Elephants … War Elephants are our most important offensive weapon against the fanatic Arabians so plan ahead. Of all the dangers that we will face during the centuries the Arabians will prove to be the biggest one … sounds a little actual, doesn’t it …

At this point the guide will finish, because now you have everything in your hands.
But I wrote general strategic hints and suggestion in the next chapter.

Egypt 3 - the next X turns

Actually you can start to conquer the first cities. At first you go for Sur, because your units need experience to overcome the 3 archers in Yerushalem. At the same time, you may assault Iquy.

By turn 102 you are able to have Sur, Yerushalem and Iquy in your hands.
Sur is not meant to grow anymore, but from the start it will only produce settlers, but this it will do perfectly.

After we will have researched Sailing, we will need Hunting, we will need Writing etc.

Sailing enables us to create our navy. We need at least 4 galleys in place, which are protecting our fishing boats next to our capital and later next to Yerushalem. Yerushalem is of course very important for us. As soon as it got conquered Judaism will spread in our lands. Our first Great Person is very likely a Prophet thanks to Stonehenge So we also get the Temple of Solomon early. Altogether Yerushalem is meant to be one of my three cities for cultural victory, especially now with the new rule for the resurrection of dead civilizations.

Hunting is necessary to create Spearmen. Spearmen will be the backbone of our army, as they are the only ones, who will (behind the thick city walls) protect us against Camel Archers.
The interesting thing is that we basically just need to fortify Yerushalem and Iquy, because neither Sur, nor Sin or any other city get touched except one or two times.

It also should be possible to agree on Open Borders either with Persia as with India early and we can send one Chariot till China, because the Chinese are really very good trading partners. Just trade everything with them.

In general warfare we need a little luck, because the Greeks and the Romans are now most likely to be busy with themselves, but after some while they both will come for us. So you should hope that Persia is in War with Greece at this time, because it will really boost our relations with Persia and the Greeks are exhausting themselves in fighting the land army of Persia, so that we just have to protect the sea.
(Hattusa needs to be Persian, you remember)

Iquy is strategically quite important for us, because it will be our outpost against the masses of Bedouin Camel Archers who will come later. Normally they would go for our capital, but in this case we can direct them to Iquy. What we need in Iquy is a permament presence of 4 Spearmen and a Wall, as soon as the raids are starting. Do not waste time! Also the Romans will attack exactly at this points … so either maintain the best relationship possible or equip Iquy with at least 2 Axemen.

The benefit of fortifying Iquy is that only very few units will come for our capital, so that most of the time nobody is disturbing (razing) this very important area.
Keep Iquy!

It is quite possible to get the Great Lighthouse until turn 110 – 115. Try it, actually I really like the effect and .. the Lighthouse would stand at the same place where Alexandria is supposed to be.
The Great Library on the other hands is quite impossible , simply because we do not get Literature early enough.

Do not forget to send your units into Mercenary Service as soon as you do not need them. This can often really increase your finances.

Last but not least we have to settle. The Maghreb is not the best place for settling (because it is simply to dangerous). But .. the Eastern African Coast is our natural habit. Settle the whole eastern coast until South Africa, because only there you will find Iron.. and on the way downwards you will stumble over 2 Gems, 1 Silver, 1 Gold, 2 Sugar, 1 Copper Resource next to more Horses, Cows, Incense, Elephants, Crabs, Fishes and more. (not to mention … attention : spoiler … coal ) The area is worth every effort.

… I normally develop this starting position into a Cultural Victory or Diplomatic Victory, but maybe you can do even more


I wish you much luck and much success ..


Best regards
Rudi

Would it be possible to post an image showing where you settled your cities? I sort of have an idea, but it'd be nice to understand how it all fits together visually.

monolith94 said:

Would it be possible to post an image showing where you settled your cities? I sort of have an idea, but it'd be nice to understand how it all fits together visually.

Click to expand...

Can you clarify?

What I mean is a screenshot showing egypt at some point during your game...

So the guide is completed so far. If somebody has remarks, comments or needs more clarification then please do not hesitate to ask me anything. I may also give detailed plans, how to to settle Africa etc.

Edit : 31.10.2006

Actually I just downloaded 1.42 and so I had to decide to completely rework my Egypt Guide. The actual guide is definitivly a guide for long term epic play, as it makes maximum use of the Egypt in a long-term way, that means you can get really big and rich cities in Egypt to keep up with the other civs in End Game, but it is not maximizing the first 140 turns.. in version 1.42 everything gets different, as we go now for the Historical Victory.
So expect a completely new guide within 2 weeks and this time no Stonehenge, but Pyramids in the desert nearby Giza, Lighthouse in Alexandria and Great Library hopefully in Alexandria ... that will sooo cool !!!

Time to get started on my favorite Rhye civilization: Britain.

Name: Britain

Special power: Royal navy; every naval unit starts with Drill I and Drill II.

Historical victory objectives:

1. Be first to circumnavigate the globe.

2. Colonize American east coast, South Africa,and Australia by 1700 AD (by the way, you only need to colonize a bit of each area, not all).

3.Be first to enter the industrial and modern eras.

Guide:
So, you wish to play Britannia, and create an empire upon which the sun never sets? Then follow these pearls of wisdom in your quest.
Now, when you start off, you have a large pile of settlers, longbowmen and workers, as well as some galleys. You also have a catapult in antartica, for some bizarre reason, disband that. Build London in the start tile, then build according to the following plan (keep in mind that inverness is a barb city that will flip within a few turns):



Leave Ireland until last.

I would advise that after you get a few basic buildings up and running, you turn Inverness into a military base, as it has some good production and food tiles. Manchester should be used for building ships alot.
After improving most of Britain, it's quite good to colonize Scandinavia, as there are good resources there. The Germans might declare war on you for grabbing 'their area', but since you're on an island, they usually can't do any damage.

The best way to play England is the way it was in real life: get a good navy, and colonize the good bits! Why settle for grassland when you could have pigs and sheep as well? You can and should colonize America, and stick some defensive units there to resist the coming of the Americans (it is possible, as long you defend and don't attack). You should also make a run for optics and quickly build 3-4 caravels to cicrumnavigate the globe and to explore the world. This way, if you get into the unfortunate (and extremely unlikely) situation of having little tech or maps, you can trade around for them.

Another great aspect of Britain is its ability for science. It is quite easy to get several great scientists, and you should use them to build academies in London, Inverness and Manchester.

As for foreign policy, it usually good to get friendly with the French, as this will not only ensure the safety of the British Isles, but also gain you a frienship with what will probably be your biggest tech rival in the game.

So basically, if you ever need help, then think what the real British empire would've done, and you'll probably win. (Just don't copy the charge of the light brigade... )

When I build my cities in England, I prefer to build England and Plymouth on England itself, skip Manchester and only build Dublin on Ireland, which can make use of all 3 fish resources. I usually send the leftover settler over to Scandinavia or occasionally to South Africa to get a head start on colonization. The problem with South Africa is that it's a huge drag on your economy at that point. Also, I find caste system to be absolutely crucial.

Rod: Thanks for the Egypt guide. Here are some questions for you:

Is Sin really necessary? (I like settling 1 north on desert, then Xou, then 2 south of the stone.)

How do you expand down the coast of Africa on Emperor without destroying your economy?

How do you keep Jerusalem from the Arabs? If they try to revolt to the Arabs, do you declare war? (I have had problems generating a prophet in the past, so losing Jerusalem actually improved my research.)