Final Romans Strategy

This is the updated version of the Roman Strategy.

Romans

Leader: Julius Caesar


Start with Code of Laws

Ancient Era: 1/2 Price Roads

Medieval Era: 1/2 Price Wonders

Industrial Era: More Great People

Modern Era: +1 Population for new cities



Start working on 2 forests, build two warriors and explore. If you see rushers in the game, that's what you should do, normally:

Zulu (Impis) : Use warriors to stop them, if you want to kill them use the warrior + warrior army trick, I mean, you let them attacking one warrior then you build the army and attack their wounded army, or use hills before they come. Don't waste many defences.

Americans: The horsemen rush is fast but, if you know where your neighbours are placed, or at least you see they killed one of them, you can still defend. Build at least two cities before starting defending putting everything on it. Look at diplomacy and if you see they already got one technology, look at the technology tree and if you can't see a green number one, it means they already got horseback riding. 2 warriors armies is the key. Use one to defend a choke point and another army behind that, then if he attacks one of the two armies you can attack his army.

Arabs: A warrior + warrior army at least is the key to defend against warriors, but remember about looking at diplomacy then technology tree if they got horsemen. If they do, then you should build archers and counter attack with warriors/archers if possible using hills. If you got many cities, then go for iron working and use this to counter attack. Build as many cities as possible but remember to do this only if you know they aren't going to press you everywhere. Build cities behind the capital and the second city to make sure they aren't going to reach these cities really fast.

Aztecs: Warrior army is ok, I would say. The problem is that they heal after a battle, then use hills if possible to attack them. Don't give them experience. If they do the warrior rush, then you should defend with warriors, but archers is better if possible. Use hidden cities to work on bronze working if you can.

Also China and Egypt can do this, then also other civilizations. Be careful and look at the diplomacy/tech tree.

Now, let's talk about expanding. What should be your second city? Look at this:

2 forests - 1 grassland is good
2 forests - 2 grasslands is really good
1 forest - 1 grassland is balanced

And more resources is better, but remember, Romans are expanders, then don't care about getting 3 good cities, 15-20 cities are much better.

The trick :

Maybe you don't know this, then I let you know how to expand easy, because reading it once a month wouldn't help. Work on two grasslands (2 turns), getting 8 food. Then, work on hammers for 5 turns and rush the settler if you got much gold (and much better if you got 100 gold, in this case rush settler as fast as possible, but remember to have 15-20 gold to rush units when needed). Do you remember 8 food? You could probrably think why 8 and not 10 (the food you need to back to 2 population ). It's simple, when you got only 1 population you MUST work on food and 8+2 means 10. Then in 2 turns you can build a settler and back to 2 if you got enough gold to rush it. Remember about your enemies.

How to use your cities

2 forests - 1 grassland is good – Work 5 turns on 1 forest – 1 grassland then put everything on forests
2 forests - 2 grasslands is really good – Work 2 turns on 2 grasslands then work on forests
1 forest - 1 grassland : Work 5 turns on balanced, then remove the worker from grassland to gold (water tile)
1 forest – 2 grasslands : Work 2 turns on the two grasslands, then remove the worker from grasslands and put one to forest and one to water tile on gold. Use the gold to rush units

Why not 1 hammer but 2 gold ? It's the same but.. Gold can be used everywhere while hammers are only in the city you produced them. Start expanding, and don't waste 60 gold on 3 warriors. If you still fear rushers, research bronze working and bank hammers for archers if you know they are going to attack. Work on a wonder to bank hammers then switch to archers. Move on the front your warrior army if you got enough cities. Sell them if you are too advanced or use them as another defence. Remember that also a city with no food is good enough, because you can work on gold/science and can better itself with bonuses like literacy, irrigation and much more (in the modern era)


The tech path normally should be:

Bronze Working
Pottery
Masonry
Irrigation (while building new cities) – If you see others have already got masonry, put everything on science and work on this. If you still need masonry, work on irrigation and don't let him getting this first.
Iron Working (if needed)
Alphabet (don't rush libraries, use gold to rush settlers)
Writing
Literacy
Mathematics / Construction / Currency (choose one of these)

Now, let's talk about what you want to do:

Expand: Follow Mathematics – Navigation and build new island cities, and get artifacts if needed. Defend Atlantis if you can see it or get it if you don't want to risk. If you can wait, then research cheaper technologies to get better technologies. This should help

Gold: You choose currency in a good gold city, and rush trade fair / colossus + bank when possible, plus corthouse and harbor later. I would prefer to get navigation, choose a good island and then rush
these wonders.

Construction: Choose a city with 2 hills and at least 4 food around. Send settlers to this city and add them if needed. I suggest to build buildings like hanging gardens then you can build whatever you want.

What would I suggest? Expand, then choose a place for a gold city and production city. I would prefer the production city then the gold city. The production city can become also a gold city if you got a nice spot.

By 0 AD, if you kept expanding, you should be ahead in technology or you should be ok. Don't build archers everywhere, build only where needed and in the coast more than inside of your continent. Use choke points to prevent walk-ins or attacks.

After this, I would go for monarchy (I'd prefer monarchy then currency), then invention / feudalism depending on what is happening. If you think the others are going to attack you, then I would suggest feudalism then invention. If you want to rush, you can still build how many legions armies you want, then build the leonardo's workshop and get “free” knights armies. You can also wait for tanks, but use the production city to build the workshop. If you are sure you want to do this, then bank hammers. Build only a barracks each 3 cities where you want to produce units. 2 barrakcs out of 3 cities is nice if you have got free gold or production, but 1 is enough to build a veteran army. If you want to be sure to build a veteran army, choose the veteran unit then press Y.

If you got a free scientist, then that's what I would suggest:

Research banking, and get 100 gold. After this, if you got like 100-120 science, rush industrialization. You should have this technology by 200 AD and I usually get a scientist (you get like 3 great people by 200 AD if you got the tech lead). Another scientist for corporation, then rush what you would like to. Use the builder to rush East India Company to improve your science and gold city if you got one. Use it for the Leonardo's Workshop if really needed. If you got a great humanitarian, use it to get +1 population. If you fear attacks and you got an artist, wait until they conquer one of your cities, then flip it when needed. Use a great leader to upgrade all units to veteran if you got no veteran units or use it to build elite armies. Use the explorer to get gold instantly or put it in the gold city.

Switch to democracy after you got enough cities, like 20, or enough to have an advantage, then update your units in the front if you think others are going to try a comeback or attack you. Use more units for choke points, build walls of units where needed (I mean one next another unit). You could use this trick building a city behind the wall, then with roads you send double movement units to kill the enemy easy. If you can't see problems, then tech to steam power if you haven't got atlantis yet and search it. Research industrialization and corporation if you couldn't do that before, then gunpowder if you need better defence. Research technologies like Religion or Printing press to get +1 culture per city. If you got 20 cities, then it means 40 more culture per turn, mixed with more grat people in industrial era, means more great people (you need less culture to get them). Start building libraries after you got enough defences (enough, not too many), and after this, choose two ways:

You build temples and improve your culture, or build markets that will let you build much more. The market costs 60 hammers but after you got corporation, industrialization and some gold, rushing the first ones, you get gold in a chain and more markets you rush, more gold you get, then after this can build temples. Only after these 3 buildings (libraries, markets, temples) I would suggest to build barracks or other buildings. Maybe 4-5 barracks are ok for your empire.

What about ½ price roads? Maybe you don't think the same, but in my opinion this is one of the most powerful bonuses in the game, if used in the right way. Obviously not like ½ price libraries, but this will let you use slow units to kill enemies. The trick is to move archers where you want to build the city, next to the enemy, then build it, build roads (save gold to rush it), and move units. It could be like rushing, a bit harder, but when you attack in this way, you won't have problems about cruisers/galleys/galleons killing your boats with all your units. And doing this, you can support your units really easy. This works as well, and you could switch to fundamentalism if you want to finish your enemy, or just stay in republic and build more cities where possible while you attack. Legions are ok also in the industrial era to finish the enemy. Not many people rebuild units or build armies, then 10 veteran legions armies, plus 1-2 archer armies, could finish them. Plus religion, you got 13.5 attack and if you really want to give them problems, you can build the samurai castle in your production city. If you could build leonardo's workshop after that, with feudalism, you are going to win without many problems. If you don't need these units, use them to counter attack instead of selling, or at least don't sell everything. When you attack, a trick is to attack with the worst units first, because every kind of unit can make the same damage to the enemies, I mean, a warrior could damage an archer army and it could become like an archer (1/3 defence). Then, your better units are going to overwhelm the defenders. Then, don't build only legions armies, but also single units can help. To make this work, you should at least have 1/7 of their attack, if worse, it would have problems doing this.

Do you remember their last bonus? If you don't want to look at the top of this page, then I am going to repeat it. +1 population for new cities. “Hey, I already got 20 cities, why should I use this?”. Every bonus should be used, and this is a NICE bonus. If you are having a bit of problems killing others, then while you press them, you can build new cities with 6 population. It means at least 6 production, and if built in a island, it's 12 science, without counting all the bonuses you got, like industrialization and corporation. New cities = more gold and science, plus production. I would suggest to prepare 4-5 settlers before you switch to democracy, while you are still in republic, then in the modern era you settle these new cities. Remember, the ½ price roads is still working and building huge cities next to the enemy is not bad.

I would suggest to build tanks then modern infantry (I prefer counter-attack then defend), and if possible get bonuses like mass media (+1 population per city), electronics (+2 trade per city), athomic theory (+2 science per city). I would rush manhattan project if possible but just to don't let enemies building this. I wouldn't use this because it's risky, just wait and use it when you are going to lose to an attack. After you used it, your enemy won't have problems about attacking you.

After this, I think you could do whatever you want, go for economic and switch every city to gold, or culture, building temples, wonders, cathedrals, etc.. If going for economic, to avoid enemies trying to stop you attacking, keep building units, don't build many armies, I mean like building 1 modern infantry army plus 5 modern infantry units. That should work unless they got more than 7 times your defence. You can still use roads to help your cities, and more turns you can defend, more gold you would get for the economic victory or cultural victory. A technological victory is obviously possible if you want, but it's longer to do.
I think I have nothing else to add, but I'm sure I will have to add more and more. Tell me where you need help, thank's

I like it Morte, similiar to your last one, but I can see many things here that weren't in the last Roman Strategy that work. Nice job.

A key strength with the Romans is growth, which Morte has pointed out and done a good job of explaining how to do efficiently.

I have played this Civ a few times with a similar focus on irrigation in the early game.

That said, I am currently toying around with an initial focus on navigation. In the games that I have played, I couldn't get my settlers to good city site using galleys. Furthermore, the island sites are twice as good in the early game if you can harvest whale.

The deciding factor here for irrigation push vs. navigation might be whether or not you spot wheat in your initial exploring.