Qwack
The Poopman
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2006
- Messages
- 836
You can interpret the word creative either way. Creative as in the trait, or creative as in the definition of the word. Both will apply 
. This is a early game strategy on emperor level on basically any map with land(No archipelagos). You can read my "Manufactured Science" report to see where I got the idea behind this strat. I have not refined this strategy, because I dont have time to do so. I only tested around 6 or 7 games with this, so if anyone has any suggestions to improve please post away. Im only posting the basic idea of how to make it work.
Overview: You try to get to alphabet as quickly as possible while expanding quickly as well. Scientist specialists are the best way to do this. After Alphabet, your next few cities try to overcome thier maintenance by using the build science feature. The main objective of the strategy is to peacefully and rapidly expand while keeping up in tech with very small cities (size 3 due to happiness cap) in the early game.
Pros:
- 8+ cities by ~1 AD. (Without war)
- 65 beakers per turn by ~1 AD
- Decent power
- Tech lead or atleast even in tech
Cons:
- Some cities will have overlap
- Limited infrastructure will be built in cities until after ~1 AD
Leaders: This strategy works with every creative leader. Catherine however, is the best leader to use this strategy with because her starting tech's are perfect for it, and she has imperialistic trait.
Requirements: The only conditions that have to be fulfilled for this strategy to work is that there cannot be a creative leader near you, and you must play warlords version 2.08. You also cannot be cramped in by the AI too badly.
1. Start off by building a worker unless the worker will have to be idle after it’s built. Start researching whatever worker tech’s you need to improve the land in the capital. If you dont need to research any worker tech's, set research towards archery.
2. Once the worker is done, start a barracks in the capital and emphasize food to grow to your happiness cap. Start researching archery after the initial worker tech.
2b. Instead of archery, Bronze working(If you start with mining) or Animal Husbandry are also possibilities, but are more risky. Obviously, if you researched Animal Husbandry as a worker tech and found horses in your capital or its third ring, you dont need archery. Just use common sense.
3. Time your barracks to complete at or after you get archery. Build 2 archers in the capital. If you like to micromanage, you should hopefully have built the barracks and 2 archers at the exact point your capital grows to its happiness cap. Start researching towards Bronze Working IF you aren't catherine. If your catherine, research wheel.
4. After the 2 archers are built, start a settler. Hopefully, you should research Bronze Working about midway through the settler. Switch to slavery immedietely and whip the settler. Whipping settlers is always best, because the conversion rate of food to hammers is greater than 1. Also, you will have to whip settlers to keep up with the emperor AI if you arent Catherine. Get BW after wheel if your catherine.
5. Look around, and find a site that can support two scientists AND will give you alot of extra land. Do not worry too much about distance maintenance. If you have a chance to block off a chokepoint, do that. Set research on writing after BW. Your Capital should emphasize food and grow back to size 4 while its producing some extra military(for the third city and barbs). Once it grows to size 4, start another settler. Start a worker in your second city and improve any resource around it with your initial worker to speed the process up. Also, you should have hooked up both cities before this city was even founded. Dont improve more than the 4 tiles you will use in the capital, instead build a road network and prebuild improvements before cities are even founded(this is quite possible with creative trait).
6. Whip your second settler for 2 population once its possible. You should have the second settler done by about 2000 BC. This early phase is a race against the AI to pick up or block off as much land as possible. The spot you found your third city should use the same logic as the second. Support 2 scientists and pick up alot of land.
7. Writing should be researched by about the same time your third city is founded and your second completes its worker. Start libraries in all of your cities.
7b. If writing isnt finished around this time, just prebuild an archer or something in your cities. But make sure to switch to libraries once writing comes in.
8. When library is done in Capital, build some extra military. Depending on barbarians, you should have anywhere from 1 unit per city to 1.5 units per city. Start another settler in capital whenever you have enough military. Your 2 other cities should build thier libraries ASAP and start running scientists. Research-wise, after writing you should backfill to pick up pottery. After pottery, set research to alphabet.
9. Your fourth city should be founded at a spot which will support cottages (grassland rivers or floodplains). Ofcourse if theres a spot you can grab without overlap, go for it, otherwise overlap any of your other cities. The reason your fourth city needs to work cottages is for gold. The research rate doesnt matter, but you can actually get to a deficit at 0% pretty quickly on emperor. Make sure that doesnt happen
10. After the fourth settler is built in capital, continue the same pattern. Build whatever military you need to support the fifth city while growing back to size 4. Then start another settler. Alphabet should be research sometime close to the founding of your fifth city. This is where things get interesting.
11. You have 2 options now in terms of what to do with settler 4. Either go for another cottage city, or go for a "Research manufacturer" city. The latter should have the following: 2 production tiles(strategic resource or hill), and enough food to support both of them, as well as enough food to grow to size 3 in a reasonably quick amount of time. Theres more than 1 way this is possible, just as a example.. A grassland forest and 2 grassland hills is a good city. The question is what to do with this city? Answer is build research. A grassland forest + 2 grassland hill city will produce 8 beakers and 2-3 gold per turn without any infrastructure. The only thing holding you back is the amount of time it takes to grow to size 3 and the amount of time to improve the 2 production tiles (Usually ~15 turns).
12. Research-wise after Alphabet there is more than 1 path. First of all, you should trade alphabet and writing around to some AI's to pick up a few important tech's. You should try to get Iron working/Sailing and Polytheism. Your first Great scientist will also be born around this time. I have not figured out the best use for this guy, but im leaning towards settling him for 6 BPT. (You will get a second in about 20 more turns to burn on philosophy if you want it). My suggested research path at this point is Math first and then literature, There are other options though. The reason is you should get math, and "Pre-Chop" forests in one of your best production cities that has alot of forests. The "Pre-Chopping" im talking about it different though. You are actually going to chop the entire forest, but the city should be building research until you get literature. All the forest chops will stack in the city(without decaying), so you dont need to waste extra turns going back into forests to complete the chop once literature comes in.
13. With literature, you should start Great Library in the city you were chopping forests into, using this strategy, great library is always possible around 100 AD, but usually before that. You should also continue the same pattern I have established in your capital and found cities 6,7, and 8. These cities should also be building research.
14. After literature, go after currency, currency is essential to pick up your economy in this strat. Once currency comes in, MAKE SURE that you build wealth instead of research, and jack up your slider to a high number
. The reason is simple, with libraries, building wealth will produce 25% extra beakers than building research because research that is built is not boosted by libraries. After currency, go to code of laws and pop philosophy with your second scientist if you want to. Also trade your tech's around to pick up gold (Ask for gold if your pleased with AI's).
15. This strategy ends at about this point. You should have started cottage spamming most of your cities now and start infrastructure. 3 wealth building cities will generally support your entire empire at this point at around 80% research rate. You should also have some extra happiness sources from one place or another, so your cities will start growing above size 3.
The economic side of this strategy will always work. I did not go bankrupt in either one of my test games. The only thing which may cause this strategy to fail is if the AI cramps you super-quickly (This happened to me in 2 games). You can usually place cities to steal tiles from these AI cities if this happens (They wont get any culture into their cities until 500 BC usually). This is why I mentioned this wont work if a creative leader is near you. Cities will have overlap, but I never care about that. As long as they can grow to around size 13, im perfectly happy.
Here are my test games, the first one is Catherine on monarch level(my first test). The second is Catherine on emperor level, the third is Loius on emperor level(Which I dont feel I played optimally). I will also eventually post a report of the 2 emperor games in this thread as soon as I have some time.
. This is a early game strategy on emperor level on basically any map with land(No archipelagos). You can read my "Manufactured Science" report to see where I got the idea behind this strat. I have not refined this strategy, because I dont have time to do so. I only tested around 6 or 7 games with this, so if anyone has any suggestions to improve please post away. Im only posting the basic idea of how to make it work.Overview: You try to get to alphabet as quickly as possible while expanding quickly as well. Scientist specialists are the best way to do this. After Alphabet, your next few cities try to overcome thier maintenance by using the build science feature. The main objective of the strategy is to peacefully and rapidly expand while keeping up in tech with very small cities (size 3 due to happiness cap) in the early game.
Pros:
- 8+ cities by ~1 AD. (Without war)
- 65 beakers per turn by ~1 AD
- Decent power
- Tech lead or atleast even in tech
Cons:
- Some cities will have overlap
- Limited infrastructure will be built in cities until after ~1 AD
Leaders: This strategy works with every creative leader. Catherine however, is the best leader to use this strategy with because her starting tech's are perfect for it, and she has imperialistic trait.
Requirements: The only conditions that have to be fulfilled for this strategy to work is that there cannot be a creative leader near you, and you must play warlords version 2.08. You also cannot be cramped in by the AI too badly.
1. Start off by building a worker unless the worker will have to be idle after it’s built. Start researching whatever worker tech’s you need to improve the land in the capital. If you dont need to research any worker tech's, set research towards archery.
2. Once the worker is done, start a barracks in the capital and emphasize food to grow to your happiness cap. Start researching archery after the initial worker tech.
2b. Instead of archery, Bronze working(If you start with mining) or Animal Husbandry are also possibilities, but are more risky. Obviously, if you researched Animal Husbandry as a worker tech and found horses in your capital or its third ring, you dont need archery. Just use common sense.
3. Time your barracks to complete at or after you get archery. Build 2 archers in the capital. If you like to micromanage, you should hopefully have built the barracks and 2 archers at the exact point your capital grows to its happiness cap. Start researching towards Bronze Working IF you aren't catherine. If your catherine, research wheel.
4. After the 2 archers are built, start a settler. Hopefully, you should research Bronze Working about midway through the settler. Switch to slavery immedietely and whip the settler. Whipping settlers is always best, because the conversion rate of food to hammers is greater than 1. Also, you will have to whip settlers to keep up with the emperor AI if you arent Catherine. Get BW after wheel if your catherine.
5. Look around, and find a site that can support two scientists AND will give you alot of extra land. Do not worry too much about distance maintenance. If you have a chance to block off a chokepoint, do that. Set research on writing after BW. Your Capital should emphasize food and grow back to size 4 while its producing some extra military(for the third city and barbs). Once it grows to size 4, start another settler. Start a worker in your second city and improve any resource around it with your initial worker to speed the process up. Also, you should have hooked up both cities before this city was even founded. Dont improve more than the 4 tiles you will use in the capital, instead build a road network and prebuild improvements before cities are even founded(this is quite possible with creative trait).
6. Whip your second settler for 2 population once its possible. You should have the second settler done by about 2000 BC. This early phase is a race against the AI to pick up or block off as much land as possible. The spot you found your third city should use the same logic as the second. Support 2 scientists and pick up alot of land.
7. Writing should be researched by about the same time your third city is founded and your second completes its worker. Start libraries in all of your cities.
7b. If writing isnt finished around this time, just prebuild an archer or something in your cities. But make sure to switch to libraries once writing comes in.
8. When library is done in Capital, build some extra military. Depending on barbarians, you should have anywhere from 1 unit per city to 1.5 units per city. Start another settler in capital whenever you have enough military. Your 2 other cities should build thier libraries ASAP and start running scientists. Research-wise, after writing you should backfill to pick up pottery. After pottery, set research to alphabet.
9. Your fourth city should be founded at a spot which will support cottages (grassland rivers or floodplains). Ofcourse if theres a spot you can grab without overlap, go for it, otherwise overlap any of your other cities. The reason your fourth city needs to work cottages is for gold. The research rate doesnt matter, but you can actually get to a deficit at 0% pretty quickly on emperor. Make sure that doesnt happen
10. After the fourth settler is built in capital, continue the same pattern. Build whatever military you need to support the fifth city while growing back to size 4. Then start another settler. Alphabet should be research sometime close to the founding of your fifth city. This is where things get interesting.
11. You have 2 options now in terms of what to do with settler 4. Either go for another cottage city, or go for a "Research manufacturer" city. The latter should have the following: 2 production tiles(strategic resource or hill), and enough food to support both of them, as well as enough food to grow to size 3 in a reasonably quick amount of time. Theres more than 1 way this is possible, just as a example.. A grassland forest and 2 grassland hills is a good city. The question is what to do with this city? Answer is build research. A grassland forest + 2 grassland hill city will produce 8 beakers and 2-3 gold per turn without any infrastructure. The only thing holding you back is the amount of time it takes to grow to size 3 and the amount of time to improve the 2 production tiles (Usually ~15 turns).
12. Research-wise after Alphabet there is more than 1 path. First of all, you should trade alphabet and writing around to some AI's to pick up a few important tech's. You should try to get Iron working/Sailing and Polytheism. Your first Great scientist will also be born around this time. I have not figured out the best use for this guy, but im leaning towards settling him for 6 BPT. (You will get a second in about 20 more turns to burn on philosophy if you want it). My suggested research path at this point is Math first and then literature, There are other options though. The reason is you should get math, and "Pre-Chop" forests in one of your best production cities that has alot of forests. The "Pre-Chopping" im talking about it different though. You are actually going to chop the entire forest, but the city should be building research until you get literature. All the forest chops will stack in the city(without decaying), so you dont need to waste extra turns going back into forests to complete the chop once literature comes in.
13. With literature, you should start Great Library in the city you were chopping forests into, using this strategy, great library is always possible around 100 AD, but usually before that. You should also continue the same pattern I have established in your capital and found cities 6,7, and 8. These cities should also be building research.
14. After literature, go after currency, currency is essential to pick up your economy in this strat. Once currency comes in, MAKE SURE that you build wealth instead of research, and jack up your slider to a high number
. The reason is simple, with libraries, building wealth will produce 25% extra beakers than building research because research that is built is not boosted by libraries. After currency, go to code of laws and pop philosophy with your second scientist if you want to. Also trade your tech's around to pick up gold (Ask for gold if your pleased with AI's).15. This strategy ends at about this point. You should have started cottage spamming most of your cities now and start infrastructure. 3 wealth building cities will generally support your entire empire at this point at around 80% research rate. You should also have some extra happiness sources from one place or another, so your cities will start growing above size 3.
The economic side of this strategy will always work. I did not go bankrupt in either one of my test games. The only thing which may cause this strategy to fail is if the AI cramps you super-quickly (This happened to me in 2 games). You can usually place cities to steal tiles from these AI cities if this happens (They wont get any culture into their cities until 500 BC usually). This is why I mentioned this wont work if a creative leader is near you. Cities will have overlap, but I never care about that. As long as they can grow to around size 13, im perfectly happy.
Here are my test games, the first one is Catherine on monarch level(my first test). The second is Catherine on emperor level, the third is Loius on emperor level(Which I dont feel I played optimally). I will also eventually post a report of the 2 emperor games in this thread as soon as I have some time.
)
