Notes from Emperor game, Huge map, 7 civs

Everybody who have looked at the Hall of Fame notices that everyone seems to be playing only the tiniest maps on the higher difficulties. I am, however, much more interested in larger maps and longer games, so I started a game at Emperor level, huge random map and 7 random civs. Barbarians raging hordes.

With a moderate number of civs on such a large map will early expansion be critical. So I picked the Iroquis, who are expansionist and religious.

I was quite lucky with the explorer, who managed to find a settler, two techs and two of the other civs (Russia and Persia). There was lots of unsettled land in between our countries, so I crancked out settlers and workers as fast as I could, and built almost no units (except for 1 warrior/spearman per city).

Since the AI is much better at research, I did not even try to compete with that, and always kept my taxes at maximum (so that I still get one tech each 40 rounds). This gave me money to buy the techs, mostly of the Persians.

Now, because of my lack of units, the AI soon started to demand tribute from me. At the latest at this time should I have started concentrating on my military. Instead I rejected to pay the Russians (who anyways still were a long way from me). Within 3 turns the entire world had allied and declared war on me!

Luckily, I had horses and could build my unique horseman unit with 3 attack and 2 move. I started building lots of there. The Persians (they did not yet have Immortals) were close, and I quickly lost one city to them. However, I also got into a Golden Age, and a Leader! I rushed the Great Library (my first wonder).

Well, I realized the Persians were too tough, and that I could not fight a two-front war. I got peace, but at a price of about 700 gold and 20 gold/turn.

Now I could concentrate on the Russians, who were not that good. They didn´t have Iron, so they didn´t have Swordsmen. When my army increased in size, I managed to get peace with the other civs (I mostly paid about 50 gold for it), and soon enough, everybody was instead at war with the Russians. Taking them out was no match, and I got most of their cities, the Persians some, and the Zulus one or two. I got another Leader, and rushed Sun Tzu´s.

I then swithed to republic and started consolidating my conquests. There was still pretty much unsettled land, and with the about 100-200 gold I made per turn, I could rush temples, marketplaces and libraries.

I also had two worker-spawning cities which gave me 2 workers/turn. This made sure I had all worked tiles improved, and I immediately got my 2 best cities to 12 (by joining the cities) after I discovered Construction.

So, there are my conclusions of the early game:

* Expansionist civs are great, since you actually get something useful from the goody huts.
* If you only concentrate on expanding will you fall behind in strength, and the AI always attacks the weakest.
* The only way to get wonders is through leaders, so stay at war and use elites as much as possible.
* Don´t research. Let the AI do that and buy the techs from them.
* Have a few worker-producing cities. This way you can pop-boom important cities, build roads and improve tiles very fast.

Any comments?

I'm gonna have to give it a go...................

Mr Tom

I have no comments, but have notes to share. I am currently in an Emperor level game, Random map, Random civ. I am Iroquois. I got a horrible starting position with the Chinese capital eleven squares away. By the time I get my third settler built, all the good land is claimed and I am trapped on a nine by nine square. Some people might restart at this point and I was tempted to do so, but I gave it a go. I start shoe horning cities in one space apart so I get eight to ten cities on my pea patch.

The Chinese make constant demands. They know I am weak and am in a terrible position. I give and give and give. The Chinese expand all across the continent. Meanwhile, I build horsemen, lots of them, more than I can support with cities and start burning gold. Now, it is my turn to start making demands as the Chinese are sprawled out and can not possible defend all their cities. After I bully a couple of techs out of them I unleash my Mounted Warriors. The Chinese never had a chance, despite being the number one civ at the time.

I enlist the weak Romans as allies and I claim all the Chinese land. I then turn on my former allies and the Romans are no match with six cities on a carrot patch (about 50% bigger then mine). I leave each civ with one mountain city.

Love them Iroquois. I only found maybe two huts before I got boxed in, but those Mounted Warriors are invincible when used correctly (huge numbers backed by catapults). I can take out Pikemen, Swordsmen, Legionaires, Immortals, even the occasional Knight.

I have mostly been playing at emperor level and find the Japanese work best. With their initial tech's you can see if there are any horses nearby and have you first or second settler make a rush to that spot. I immediately start by researching bronze and then horseback/iron working (if I have access to horses, I immediately go for horseback), and pray for a iron tile in my territory. Until I am producing either horsemen or swordsmen I kiss the AI's behind as required. As soon as horsemen or swordsmen come on line though, the AI's learn the true meaning of the phrase whoop a**.