Tips and help to improve as a player in Civ5?

[Laurwin]

Ok I came back to Civ5 after G&K so far it's been quite nice! Playing so far on prince/normal, winning quite easily, as I had done pre-G&K, so I should definitely try some harder difficulty next time.

Anyhow.

I identified some mistakes for sure in my games. I don't tile micro, even though I should, mostly I've just run default governor, or emphasis governors in my cities, either gold or hammer.

My city micro is often quite lacking, presumably you guys always run manual specialists? Only scientists/engineers though? Sometimes I grow cities too much instead of having a neat ICS style empire where the pops are evenly divided (well unless it's the capital in tradition).

Then one problem is that surely I must be overdoing the buildings (or units), because I tend to have massive building upkeep and very little gpt, even if I have quality land to support my armies and buldings. Maybe it's even mismanagement of cities tbh, like for example not specializing cities with correct buildings.


some noobish questions sorry... these are for G&K

1. Is city specialization that important though in civ5, for a wide empire?
2. In what order do you procure buildings for a newly-built "ICS land-filler" city that was just settled? Assuming ample happiness.

3. What's a good worker count per city? BTW any tips on Civ5 worker micro, I guess I just gotta get to the habit of pre-building roads and all the good stuff
4. Do workers even cost upkeep?
5. Do workers cost upkeep if garrisoned inside city oligarchy?
6. Is unit upkeep always the same, or is it more in enemy/neutral lands btw?
7. When is the railroad hammer bonus available for a given city, and what is it?
8. How do get to renaissance fast enough that you don't need to spend policy on medieval stuff instead of rationalism? It must be some kind of tech slingshot right?

9. Weren't the trading posts also nerfed in G&K, is wide empire still viable for superiour gold income with this nerf?

Another problem is that I kind of lost the "feeling" for warfare in G&K. Combat is just a whole lot different. You definitely seem to NEED siege units for war. Or high quality ranged units. Upgrade paths are different, techs - buildings - socialpolicies - units -resources aargh...

10. What about unit combos in different eras, "combined arms", seemingly there's been a whole lot of new units added into the game, so what combos work for offensive, and defensive wars, in different eras or otherwise similar timeframes? In Civ4 it was like trebs+rifles or cannons+musket, and mounted units maybe. But something along those lines.


11. What to do with the first spies? I suppose on the higher difficulties you could steal tech, but so far when I'ver had techlead, I can't seem to be able to protect my techs against A.I. efforts with counterespionage.

12. How is it that some religious policies are sometimes unavailable to be picked if you found a religion? Does it just mean that it's like one religious policy of each (per game)?

13. I understand the religion bonuses and faith purchases but when/how exactly does a civ get available religion to be founded?

14. Do religious mountains/natural wonders count as mountains for wonder purposes?

15. Do you play by any rules of thumb regarding city placement, usually I just try to setle unique lux/res/"enough food"

16. How does the purchase discount work in G&K for autocracy+commerce+big ben, in G&K? I.e. all available gold discounts, although wasn't Big Ben nerfed too?

17. Any tips domination type of victories, for techpath, social policy strategy, empire types, religion strategy. Let's say the faster domination is better, (like space ship)?

[HarvesterofSorr]

I have always been one for worker/city micromanaging since the days of Civ2. Never understood those who automated. Resource/city pop management is one of the strategic facets of the game that can change things considerably. YOU are the one who knows what that particular city needs: Be it food, gold, or production.
On specialist management I recommend emphasizing artists for the culture. The addition of social policy through culture is one of the biggest changes through Civ5, take advantage of it by maxing culture As Much As Possible.

1. City specialization is of middling importance. Nowhere near as important in Civ4. This comes from different abilities of different GP. In civ4 you needed to have one of each different GP to create golden ages later in the game.
2. Population is key to city effectiveness, period. With science ouput being based on population in civ5 this is even more so. So I recommend for later cities (your ICS or land-claimer) you start with aqueduct, granary, and water mill/lighthouses (if appropriate). Then production buildings. After that it depends on whether you need gold, culture or science civ-wise.
3. Depends on game speed but assuming on normal I'd say 1/city. This is a rule of thumb I have found to work on every civ game since 2. Use workers from older cities to road to and to build ahead of pop growth. You do know that roads cost GPT in Civ5? On that thought don't build roads unless you need them. In all other versions of civ building roads on every tile was a good use of workers that are idle.
8. Other than maxing out science/possibly slowing down culture where possible (time to build more cities, take any specialists off culture, adjusting city workers). Then use the tech tree to see which renaissance tech is the quickest to research.
13. Your first Great Prophet can be used to start religion. You need either 200 or 300 faith points for your first Great Prophet. When he appears just click on the church icon in orders and it takes you to the screen.

I hope this has helped you some.

[Laurwin]

yea it was a little disconcerting playing G&K for the first time, everything had changed!

Great generals culture bomb, GAs only are able to golden age, can't build TPs until guilds for the moneyz

I guess what I meant by the worker micro, oftentimes I just keep lots of workers and they end up idling sitting fortified on some tile doing nothing. And I tend to blanket my whole land area with some kind of improvements if I havent got anything to do with them at all. Of course I could buy tiles but I like rush-buying stuff too.

I still think you are able to pre-build roads and improvements. Of course in civ5, it matters in the sense that you don't end up "bogged down" with your carpet of workers (rivers, bad terrain, 1upt). Ideally you'd want to minimize time spent running around with workers and maximize time spent working the improvements.

Is rush buying really a viable thing to do anymore though, lets say for a wide empire? I remember pre-G&K, maybe in a previous patch or whatever, you could still basically do a Gold Economy centered around commerce tree+big ben and rush buying everything, and just doing the gold things with all the cities, but I think trade post and social policy mechanic may have been different then...

I mean you can still do that type of gold economy but it just doesn't work like it used to, in mid-game, but it seems you get a nice economy boost after finishing commerce tree.

sometimes I'm really struggling with getting social policies, sometimes I'm losing a ton of gold and cant afford exquisite cultural facilities (admittedly mining lux help, but u dont always get them). It's tough sometimes being a wide empire, and not having the traits/UBs to buff that kind of play directly.

But I often times just play the civ for the different and nice looking colour scheme, and cool UUs too, never get tired of war

[HarvesterofSorr]

TBH I never have been a big rush buyer. I use it mainly as a last resort in emergencies or if I've reached the end of the tech tree and just max gold and bring all cities up to speed (in civ 2-4 where the slider was king). I mainly used gold to upgrade units and to cover for a few years of negative income.
I think in G&K the best use of gold for your economy is to get/maintain good relations with the city states. The bonuses they give you help increase population, happiness, culture and faith. Some advice I read on an earlier version of civ (I forget which one) I believe is still true: Don't try to maintain a large treasury as much as trying to maintain a good positive cash flow.

Of course take this with a grain of salt. I am a player used to the commerce slider from all previous versions of civ. I am still in the process of learning to adjust my thoughts on a healthy economy.

The number one thing with civ is: don't be afraid to experiment. That's why SID made save games. If you try something and it doesn't work and you want to go back, it's all good! I have been playing CIV4BTS for 5 years now and I'm still learning things. That's the fun of the game.