Is this just bad luck?

i bought civ5 last month, steam sale, -75%. i played civ4 years ago and decided to finally give civ5 a go. never been able to get a real grasp of the game, only beat civ4 on monarch a few times.
been having some tough times with king level past couple games. my last try, chinese, standard pangea. after a scouting a bit i find i have 2 nations 10 hex away, india to the north and netherlands? to the south. 3 city states, all 8 hex away, one to the west and two to the east. also throw in 2 barb camps very close.
start of game i go monument,scout,worker,warrior and settler. i went liberty and got free settler and placed him close to india cap, very nice spot on river. few turns later he get upset i am too close. i try to explain to him that everyone is close but he wont listen. india declares war a few turns later and i quickly lose that city. i had two warriors there to defend but it was no chance. india had 3 elephants, 1 archer and 2 warriors, city had flat tiles all around, couple forests.

what really has me baffled is that i lost the city on turn 51. is india not usually a passive nation? thats why i planted 2nd city closer to him. i couldnt believe what i was seeing with all those units he had. all of them withing 50 turns? does the ai only build units at the start of a game? i understand the ai gets bonuses above prince but wow!!
is this typical for king and above? i have played about 200 hours to date and prince is really no challenge. but i have only won 1 king game to date and have rage quit about 5 so far.

feelfreetodie said:

is india not usually a passive nation?.

Click to expand...

Gandhi will play the diplomacy game for 5800 years and then nuke you with 0 remorse.

I believe that each civ should have the opportunity to get reasonably established with 2 or 3 cities up and running before they start to rub borders with another civ. And that for every major civ, there's several City States/minor nation. So I prefer Huge maps with 41 City States in play. Usually 8-12 civs. That gives everyone a fair amount of "elbow room" and diminishes the chances of a civ (including yours) from being exterminated before it has a chance to get started, just because a neighboring civ's Archer and/or Spearman shows up and batters down the city gates while most of the city's units are out exploring the world.

feelfreetodie said:

all of them withing 50 turns? does the ai only build units at the start of a game? i understand the ai gets bonuses above prince but wow!!
is this typical for king and above? i have played about 200 hours to date and prince is really no challenge. but i have only won 1 king game to date and have rage quit about 5 so far.

Click to expand...

I haven't been down in king in a while, but i'll answer for emperor: yes it is very possible. even though on emperor the AI tends to struggle or flounder in the early game, their unit build costs are still ridiculously low so if they apply themselves they can whip up an army in no time. the frustration of king and emperor difficulty is that occasionally you'll face an early-game AI at immortal-strength but have your guard down. I've been rushed by 15-unit armies on turn 70 somehow before - those were lost games.

also obvious note archers are always way more effective for both defense and offense, and you especially want to favor them as China since they will upgrade to the UU.

i started a new game with same settings, what a difference. funny looking pangea map, a lot of peninsulas and big lake next to me. map has me isolated this time so things have gone very well. just over 200 turns now and i am top score.
you really need to be on the ball early in this game. keeps games interesting, hope my hair grows back.