Bts-specific strats and tips

[romelus]

i'll start:

1. when in anarchy, poisoned cities don't lose food. so when you are being mass poisoned, it's actually a good time to switch civics

[snipafist]

Take advantage of the new benefits of Golden Ages. They require less great people to start, and you gain additional benefits beyond the original effects while your Golden Age runs:
+100% great person points
no anarchy when switching civics

Walls are much better and siege weapons (notably trebuchets) less good, so taking cities is a bit harder. Prepare adequately.

[Landstander]

1. when in anarchy, poisoned cities don't lose food. so when you are being mass poisoned, it's actually a good time to switch civics

Ah, but does the unhealthiness go down while in anarchy?

2. Always keep a reserve of gold on hand - for those random events! I've found ~200 is plenty for early game, but you may want a bigger reserve in late game.

[ButSam]

Originally Posted by snipafist

Walls are much better and siege weapons (notably trebuchets) less good, so taking cities is a bit harder. Prepare adequately.

On the other hand, you don't have to go to war with everyone else at high difficulty levels to stay caught up on techs now (at least not as much as before).

Be sure to learn how to manage your espionage points, and prioritize your targets accordingly. Be willing to shift those priorities periodically. Some AIs spy on you in-depth, some don't. Some don't yet, but will later. Some you need to target more than others, for a variety of reasons. Learn it, use it.

Also, a spy on a boat makes a great way to find a new island and scout it out. There is some risk your spy will be discovered, but it is a nice way to ignore borders and take advantage of already-built infrastructure!

Sam

[Polycrates]

Mid-to-late-game espionage:

Specialise your espionage cities, since the espionage buildings stack really well. Jail, courthouse, security bureau and intelligence agency will give you lots of espionage points as well as a +100% modifier - that's 44 EPs just for the buildings alone, plus you can run spy specialists too.

Plan ahead, and choose a target to be the focus of your energies, then pump most if not all of your EPs into them. If you can get to the point of seeing into their cities before you start your active spying, all the better, since you'll have a much better idea of the most vulnerable targets.

Missions:
Destroying towns seems to me to be the #1 way of seriously hampering a "friendly" rival, and it's cheap as chips too.

For otherwise damaging their empire: focus a number of spies on one city simultaneously, and most importantly, hit the city twice in close succession. Bring a couple of extra spies just in case you fail.
I've found the two-step approach works really well - first you hit them with poison water (and others if you like), which doesn't actually hurt them much on its own, but it will wipe out most of their food surplus. Then you hit them hard with simultaneous poison water and foment unhappiness and destroy their best food-producing improvements. The second time will really wipe out a hell of a lot of population. If it's a really good city, hit them a third time as well, just to kick them while they're down.

Foment unhappiness can either be very powerful or very weak. If they're in Hereditary Rule, they will move units over to quell the unhappiness and you'll probably have wasted most of your money (though it can still add a bit of sting to a simultaneous poison water attack). But if they're not, or if they're in a war, it can work wonders. I would still poison the water at the same time though.

A civ who has just gotten to assembly line will soon be a very good target for poison water, since factories and coal plants will be straining health resources to the limit anyway.

Inciting a revolt is great for wiping out city defences in advance of a massed attack on the city.

[Monty Python Ni]

If you can get the Oracle, use it to found Theology. You'll skip right over the classical era, and have plenty of time to create the Apostolic Palace (and Hagia Sophia as well), giving you power very early on all the way until the UN is founded.

[romelus]

always use the great spy from the great wall to infiltrate another civ. the EP will allow you to steal 5-6 early techs

[WJF]

Build lots of airships and just constantly pound an under siege city from afar. Due to it not having any natural counters until Combustion, Rocketry or Flight, you'll be laughing manically for a long time to come.

[jackdog]

The AP palace is great if you found the religion and have the majority and can be a nightmare if you have the minority religion, weather you founded it or not, so found a religion pre the palace, build the palace yourself, and then spread the new religion to every civ so they have at least one city but as few more as poss with it in.

Its great to control it but if you end up at its mercy it can be a nightmare.

[Grimus]

Always have some gold on hand now!

[RedRalphWiggum]

Stockpiling nukes and then voting for a NNPT is pointless now as it can be defied. Dont learn this the hard way as I did.