Strategy Discussion and Guides

Well, there is one for the RFC thread, so I thought I'd make one here too. And the wiki cannot be edited(for changes made in recent patches) and it contains no DoC content either. And if any of you need it, heres the link to the wiki:http://web.archive.org/web/20100726233055/http://rhye.civfanatics.net/wiki/index.php?title=Strategy_guides

OK, I'll start with Russia on monarch. I was actually surprised that Russia was one of my first monarch victories, and I played quite well. So heres what I learnt:
1.Tech stealing was the foundation for my awesome tech lead(I stole 15 in total from turkey)
2.State property+levees+watermills+factories+electricity make your land insanely productive, and watermills will produce 132.
3.Your UB is AWESOME. A great library with +25% will make you very self-sufficient in techs, and you will leave your rivals in the dust in every aspect.
But the most important is that you must first playful peaceful and let germany and turkey kick you around, but when you get your watermills and factories in place you can show them who's boss

==English Strategy (Emperor, Epic, UHV/Domination, 3000BC/600AD)==

==Keywords:
1. Sistine Chapel
2. Banking
3. Reformation
4. Liberalism
5. Trading Company
6. Splendid Isolation

==Stage 1: Buildup (Start ~ Optics)
Goal: Acquire essential tech. Build up infrastructure. Trade;
Economy: Specialist (save 2 GPs for GA) + Trade (Open Borders & Pacifist);
Production: Build buildings only, except 2 Triremes; 1~2 Galleys if you initial Galleys died;
Your Best Friends: Germany, France, Byzantium/Rome/Greece;
Your Free Punchbags (declare on these whenever someone asks you): Arabia;

Essential Techs to Acquire By Trade:
Calendar (from Byzantium, via Feudalism);
Divine Right (from Mali, via any price);
Engineering (possibly from France);
Aesthetics (from Byzantium/other older civs on 3000 BC start);
Civil Service (from Byzantium & many others. Delay this tech indefinitely);

Essential Techs to Research:
Meditation (for Monasteries);
Banking (for UB + later Mercantilism);
Drama (need Theatres for happiness) - Music (for Sistine Chapel, explained below);
Optics (you can get this *slightly* later than Spain; it doesn't matter);
Education (need Universities for tech) - Liberalism (Optics slingshot Astronomy);

[To be continued...]

For Byzantium on monarch/normal, turn research down to 0, build a market in Athenai, max out merchants for said city and Constantinople, sit back, and wait. If you've got peace with Arabia, you should be able to get those great merchants to India for hella cash.

Of course, that's only the first goal, and not accounting for recently added Seljuks and Mongols. I guess you should turtle up until all that is done, build your army, and blitzkrieg Egypt and Turkey. Egypt is weaker, generally, so go for them first. I haven't gotten to the final goal yet, because I've been pressed for time between schoolwork and new games, but I think it's viable.

For the third american UHV:
If you do not want a stack of doom like this:


to waste your time (and reduce your score ) then you should take the other oil resources NOT in the middle east:
1 in denver
1 in the carribbean sea-naval
1 north of mexico
1 4-5tiles north of denver
1 in venezuela
1 in brazil
1 southeast of mali - requires biology
1 in carthage
1 in malaysia-requires biology- naval
For the last one, you will need to invade muscat. But that is much better than the SoD above

Akbarthegreat said:

1 in venezuela
1 in brazil
1 southeast of mali - requires biology

Click to expand...

In my game (way earlier in old DoC) Portugal controled those three Oils and Vassalized (around 1880) to me. I paid them approx. 300 Gold/turn (around 1940) for those oil, but hey, it's totally worth it with Oil Industry in all my cities.

I would suggest every American player to try to Vassalize Portugal. They give you very good trade routes (cross-continental) and many good resources that America lacks (e.g. Banana, Spices, Wine), and if you Vassalize Inca too it will give America unquestioned hegemony over the entire Western Hemisphere (instead of just North America), maximizing the benefits of your Naval Supremacy (any Euro/Asia declares will be quickly crushed with strategic Navy SEAL landings and Nukes).

Also, Portugese AI is uber pacifist and never pisses off/declares on anyone, but will build lots of Destroyers to strengthen your dominance. Best late game vassal by a very large margin IMO.

You need to secure them, getting them by trade is not allowed. You will need to invade Portugal for the brazilian oil, unless spain has collapsed them.

Akbarthegreat said:

You need to secure them, getting them by trade is not allowed. You will need to invade Portugal for the brazilian oil, unless spain has collapsed them.

Click to expand...

At least in older builds that I played getting Oil by trade is allowed. It's a major step down if it's not in the current build, IMHO. Discourages diversified gameplay. In fact I'm pretty sure the current Dutch UHV allows getting Spices by trade. I don't see why a different mechanism is implemented for America.

Edit: Just booted up the game and checked. The mechanisms are indeed different. Phoenicia/Dutch UHVs allow trade whereas American UHV doesn't. That's really strange and unnecessary, isn't it? Trading for Oil is already impossibly difficult as it is. And I clearly remember trading for Oil from Portugal. Perhaps it was just to further boost Oil Industry.

iOnlySignIn said:

At least in older builds that I played getting Oil by trade is allowed. It's a major step down if it's not in the current build, IMHO. Discourages diversified gameplay. In fact I'm pretty sure the current Dutch UHV allows getting Spices by trade. I don't see why a different mechanism is implemented for America.

Edit: Just booted up the game and checked. The mechanisms are indeed different. Phoenicia/Dutch UHVs allow trade whereas American UHV doesn't. That's really strange and unnecessary, isn't it? Trading for Oil is already impossibly difficult as it is. And I clearly remember trading for Oil from Portugal. Perhaps it was just to further boost Oil Industry.

Click to expand...

I seem to remember from the original RFC documentation that the whole point is to force America to invade the Middle East, as in reality.

In RFC, it is those who understand history who are doomed to repeat it!

iOnlySignIn said:

At least in older builds that I played getting Oil by trade is allowed. It's a major step down if it's not in the current build, IMHO. Discourages diversified gameplay. In fact I'm pretty sure the current Dutch UHV allows getting Spices by trade. I don't see why a different mechanism is implemented for America.

Edit: Just booted up the game and checked. The mechanisms are indeed different. Phoenicia/Dutch UHVs allow trade whereas American UHV doesn't. That's really strange and unnecessary, isn't it? Trading for Oil is already impossibly difficult as it is. And I clearly remember trading for Oil from Portugal. Perhaps it was just to further boost Oil Industry.

Click to expand...

That itself took me 10 turns more to win. Because I was getting oil from England and China(vassals), and so I had to go deeper into the middle east to get more oil.
And IIRC, oil industry gives you gold for each oil you control.

I have a question that may not fit here. I'm playing marathon speed China on monarch difficulty (3000BC scenario). By the time I get UHV (1599 AD, turn 882) my inflation is outrageously 178% percent and severely crippling my economy. Is there a way to reduce the increase of inflation over time? I don't think my empire can hold on much longer economy-wise, not to mention the stability issues.

Can anyone help me with the inflation issue? In my last game as Ethiopia at around turn 1000 (marathon speed) my inflation rate was near 300%. And as the Americans spawned I switched to it and the starting inflation rate was 143%. None of these correspond to this post http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=370404
Now I wonder how on earth would one be able to play in late game... Any help?

Fresol said:

I have a question that may not fit here. I'm playing marathon speed China on monarch difficulty (3000BC scenario). By the time I get UHV (1599 AD, turn 882) my inflation is outrageously 178% percent and severely crippling my economy. Is there a way to reduce the increase of inflation over time? I don't think my empire can hold on much longer economy-wise, not to mention the stability issues.

Click to expand...

Economy rating is linked to tile yields and total commerce.
You need to be increasing your total gains every turn to maintain a stable economy.
I don't think your problems are rooted in inflation.

Build:
-Courthouses, Jails, Security Bureaus & Intelligence Agencies to increase stability
-wonders that help with tile yields; like the Colossus
-gold & science multiplier buildings to help economy
-make sure no city is working an unimproved tile
-Certain techs increase tile yields and by extension, assist with your economy:
Railroad comes to mind with +1 Hammer to mines, lumbermills & quarries bonus

What civics are you running?
There could be an issue there as well, as well as how big your empire is.
If you've conquered any regions, be sure to mention those too.

Tomorrow's Dawn said:

Economy rating is linked to tile yields and total commerce.
You need to be increasing your total gains every turn to maintain a stable economy.
I don't think your problems are rooted in inflation.

Build:
-Courthouses, Jails, Security Bureaus & Intelligence Agencies to increase stability
-wonders that help with tile yields; like the Colossus
-gold & science multiplier buildings to help economy
-make sure no city is working an unimproved tile
-Certain techs increase tile yields and by extension, assist with your economy:
Railroad comes to mind with +1 Hammer to mines, lumbermills & quarries bonus

What civics are you running?
There could be an issue there as well, as well as how big your empire is.
If you've conquered any regions, be sure to mention those too.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the long reply. I know the basics well enough to achieve Historical Victory for China, but can't keep it going much longer after that. Now I don't play marathon speed anymore.

Another question: exactly how is expansion stability measured? When I play Persia it's natural to get ~+30 stability in expansion (I never got 8% of total land so never UHV though), but with China I only get 10 and dropping to negative in late game. Correct me if I'm wrong: every tile within cultural border gives a penalty if it's foreign area, and building cities increase stability. Is that right? So any problem in expansion stability would be from cultural border pushing deep into foreign land? I wonder where can I find exact formulae for these quantities.

^ I don't think Culture in foreign lands count toward negative Stability. Only cities in foreign lands do.

If I'm wrong then it needs to be changed, as there is no means for a player to decrease their cities' Culture, and high Culture should never be punished.

Come to think of it, I can't be wrong, because if I am, then culturally powerful civs such as Turkey, China and Arabia will have horrible late game Stability no matter what they do.

Culture in foreign tiles does indeed contribute to bad stability.

It's why civ_king was asking Leoreth to remove the stability penalty associated with culture leaking over to a random marsh tile. Because you can't help culture spillover claiming stuff way outside your core and it's a little unfair that it happens like that. This is one of the few instances where I think a Civilization 5 mechanic would work well within the context of this mod; if you could bank culture and just buy tiles in RFC, you'd never have to worry about things like that.

Tomorrow's Dawn said:

Culture in foreign tiles does indeed contribute to bad stability.

Click to expand...

Gah! That explains why my late game stability is always so horrible (except when I play America, whose Stability map covers a whole continent, LOL). I'm just born with the uncontrollable urge of culture-mongering.

It's also utter BS. Remove that feature, PLEASE!

This is one of the few instances where I think a Civilization 5 mechanic would work well within the context of this mod; if you could bank culture and just buy tiles in RFC, you'd never have to worry about things like that.

Click to expand...

If that could be implemented it would be the perfect Civilization game. I doubt it though - it would require way too much work.

I think RFC: Europe needs it more than DoC. I remember my Venice taking and holding Ragusa, and Austria keeps declaring on me because my culture presses all the way past the Danube. I only ever wanted a thin slice of the Dalmatian Coast! It's not my fault that your people prefers my Culture!

Tomorrow's Dawn said:

Culture in foreign tiles does indeed contribute to bad stability.

It's why civ_king was asking Leoreth to remove the stability penalty associated with culture leaking over to a random marsh tile. Because you can't help culture spillover claiming stuff way outside your core and it's a little unfair that it happens like that. This is one of the few instances where I think a Civilization 5 mechanic would work well within the context of this mod; if you could bank culture and just buy tiles in RFC, you'd never have to worry about things like that.

Click to expand...

You are penalized for owning marsh which does nothing and desert which does little off a river, I think they should be treated the same as mountain, nothing.

iOnlySignIn said:

high Culture should never be punished.

Click to expand...

Even I'm a culture monger at heart, and when I learnt that piece of info some time ago, it really blew my mind. BTW it isn't included in the wiki.

The Indians are builders. War you will rarely face on the Indian subcontinent, and the only battles you will have will be the skirmishes with barbarians or with the still independent states in the south. If you are a builder at heart, then this is your civilization.

3000 BC start

Any victory aside from the Historical Victory


I do not recommend going for them. While it might be interesting to see the Indians in space and India's land lends itself to teching, the Mughal spawn in 1210 AD will flip two of your most important cities, and their army will probably dwarve yours. Skilled players might be able to pull off a culture victory before date mentioned or conquer the world quickly enough, but it will be hard to do so.

Historical victory

The techpath I took was Priesthood-Masonry-Mathematics-Calendar-Currency. This will net you all the obligatory technologies, although you can always research more technologies if you like doing so.

-Found the Buddhist and Hindu shrines by 100 BC.

This one is probably the easiest of the three. Tech priesthood straight away and start a Hindu Temple in Varanasi. Once it is completed, run two priests there (thanks to the Pagan temple conversion, you will have both a Buddhist and a Hindu temple there). Then found the Hindu shrine and start running five priests until you get another prophet. Obviously don't build any other wonders there to prevent GP pollution.

-Build 20 temples by 700 AD.

This will likely be the hardest victory condition to complete. You will certainly have Buddhism and Hinduism, but other religions will be hard to come by. Founding an additional one is possible : Zoroastrianism, Taoism and Confucianism are ruled out thanks to your neighbours the Persians and the Chinese, but Catholicism might be achieved in time if you focus on commerce.

Conquering a Chinese or Persian city can give you access to Zoroastrianism, Confucianism or Taoism.

However, it is also possible to complete the condition with just Buddhism and Hinduism. You will probably need more than 10 cities, as some cities do not have enough production to get more than one temple out (and on top of that, only one religion can spread out of itself to a city). Techwise, this isn't really a problem, as the only techs you do really need are masonry, priesthood, mathematics and calendar (although Currency and Code of Laws can help your economy). Just be sure not to go bankrupt when the plague comes around.

You should only build monasteries, settlers, workers, spearmen and temples. Other buildings (and wonders) are wasted hammers if you want to go for the UHV.

Forced labor can help you to get the temples out in food-rich but production-poor cities.


An example as how to settle your cities. I also settled the Indonesian capital, but that got obviously flipped right after completing the victory condition.

-Have the highest world population in 1200 AD.

Just surviving until then usually earns you the UHV. Your builds should be more military, granaries, stepwells and harbours. An untimely plague might ruin your day, however.