falling behind with technology...

[noonay]

I'm a new player to civilization and I've been playing multiplayer on the xbox 360. I start researching my tech right away but it still seems that while I might have one tech down, other civs already have 5 or 6. I know there are the ancient artifacts (or whatever they're called) but other than that, is there a reason they might be getting their techs faster? Getting attacked by a tank army in 1300 took me by surprise....

 

[bonafide11]

There's plenty of reasons why they might be much further ahead in tech than you, but the main thing is they're simply producing more research than you. Many people think if they get a library in their city they should be able to keep up with tech, but I'd focus more on expanding rather than building a library in the early game. The more cities you have, the more research you're able to perform. Then once you have several cities, you need to specialize your cities. Not every city needs a library, a barracks, or a market. Decide whether you want the city to be a science city, a gold city, or a military city, and then build the appropriate buildings for it. Cities with a lot of hills nearby will be a better military city, while cities with a lot of coast nearby will be a better gold or science city. There's no reason to ever build both a library and a market in the same city. That's a waste of hammers because you will only be able to generate gold or science in the city, not both at the same time. Likewise, it's a waste of a GP if you settle a Great Explorer and a Great Scientist in the same city; the merchant should go in the gold city and the scientist in the science city. The same thing goes for wonders too; you don't want to build the Trade Fair of Troyes in a science city. The main thing in all Civilization games that newbies often fail to understand is the need to specialize their cities.

(By the way, I apologize if it was me who attacked you with a tank army in 1300 )

 

[noonay]

Thanks for the reply. That makes sense....and it worked for me (to a certain extent) in my last game.

Yeah, it could very well have been you who attacked me....and I've moved on
It was more amusing than anything watching my archers compete with a few tank armies....

 

[Bosey]

Not every city needs a library, a barracks, or a market. Decide whether you want the city to be a science city, a gold city, or a military city, and then build the appropriate buildings for it. Cities with a lot of hills nearby will be a better military city, while cities with a lot of coast nearby will be a better gold or science city. There's no reason to ever build both a library and a market in the same city. That's a waste of hammers because you will only be able to generate gold or science in the city, not both at the same time. Likewise, it's a waste of a GP if you settle a Great Explorer and a Great Scientist in the same city; the merchant should go in the gold city and the scientist in the science city. The same thing goes for wonders too; you don't want to build the Trade Fair of Troyes in a science city.

This is excellent advice. As one of the newbies who often errs in this area, I very much appreciate it! Thanks for putting it so clearly.

 

[jayhawklaw]

There's plenty of reasons why they might be much further ahead in tech than you, but the main thing is they're simply producing more research than you. Many people think if they get a library in their city they should be able to keep up with tech, but I'd focus more on expanding rather than building a library in the early game. The more cities you have, the more research you're able to perform. Then once you have several cities, you need to specialize your cities. Not every city needs a library, a barracks, or a market. Decide whether you want the city to be a science city, a gold city, or a military city, and then build the appropriate buildings for it. Cities with a lot of hills nearby will be a better military city, while cities with a lot of coast nearby will be a better gold or science city. There's no reason to ever build both a library and a market in the same city. That's a waste of hammers because you will only be able to generate gold or science in the city, not both at the same time. Likewise, it's a waste of a GP if you settle a Great Explorer and a Great Scientist in the same city; the merchant should go in the gold city and the scientist in the science city. The same thing goes for wonders too; you don't want to build the Trade Fair of Troyes in a science city. The main thing in all Civilization games that newbies often fail to understand is the need to specialize their cities.

(By the way, I apologize if it was me who attacked you with a tank army in 1300 )

I agree with you for the most part, but I tend to put libraries and markets in all of my cities, at the very least. Reason being that I generally go light on defense and give away techs to avoid war while I'm weak.

I build both because I seem to always get industrialization and the corporation first, which allows a science city to put out quite a bit of gold if it has a market and a bank.

 

[jknox]

There's plenty of reasons why they might be much further ahead in tech than you, but the main thing is they're simply producing more research than you. Many people think if they get a library in their city they should be able to keep up with tech, but I'd focus more on expanding rather than building a library in the early game. The more cities you have, the more research you're able to perform. Then once you have several cities, you need to specialize your cities. Not every city needs a library, a barracks, or a market. Decide whether you want the city to be a science city, a gold city, or a military city, and then build the appropriate buildings for it. Cities with a lot of hills nearby will be a better military city, while cities with a lot of coast nearby will be a better gold or science city. There's no reason to ever build both a library and a market in the same city. That's a waste of hammers because you will only be able to generate gold or science in the city, not both at the same time. Likewise, it's a waste of a GP if you settle a Great Explorer and a Great Scientist in the same city; the merchant should go in the gold city and the scientist in the science city. The same thing goes for wonders too; you don't want to build the Trade Fair of Troyes in a science city. The main thing in all Civilization games that newbies often fail to understand is the need to specialize their cities.

(By the way, I apologize if it was me who attacked you with a tank army in 1300 )

I have read this advice many times, as a newb this is what happens to me. I always try to specialize my cities, however when I run out of say "gold structures" for my "gold city" what should I build in that city? When you run out of structures do you just switch to military units 100%? In that case, I am always afraid the number of units I put out will eventually bankrupt me, so I just build other buildings instead. On top of that, what if you have 4-5 cities and have ran out of "specializations" do you make more than one type of specialized city? Isn't switching to military in a non-military city a conflict with the above advice? What would you do? Any advice for this newb delimma???? XD forgive me

 

[SVPM]

I have read this advice many times, as a newb this is what happens to me. I always try to specialize my cities, however when I run out of say "gold structures" for my "gold city" what should I build in that city? When you run out of structures do you just switch to military units 100%? In that case, I am always afraid the number of units I put out will eventually bankrupt me, so I just build other buildings instead. On top of that, what if you have 4-5 cities and have ran out of "specializations" do you make more than one type of specialized city? Isn't switching to military in a non-military city a conflict with the above advice? What would you do? Any advice for this newb delimma???? XD forgive me

You should try to build science city when you have at least one productive city cause this it will be enough to build quickly a reply force in case of an attack and to build wonder. The other science city will allow you to have an advantage against the other player with modern military unit and bonus that the new sciences give.

 

[Kadazzle]

You should always have more then one science city. Just only one city should be specialized specifically for science. Once you complete building the market and bank in your gold city, build things like Military Units, Temples, Cathedrals, Courthouses and Production Buildings. This will all help you, while not wasting production. For the "Isn't switching to military in a non-military city a conflict with the above advice" part, eventually all of your cities will produce military units. There's no such thing as a Military City, there is however, a Production city. Your production city is used for creating military units quickly, while at the same time getting wonders out quickly. This city will generally always have the highest culture out of all your cities.

 

[jknox]

You should always have more then one science city. Just only one city should be specialized specifically for science. Once you complete building the market and bank in your gold city, build things like Military Units, Temples, Cathedrals, Courthouses and Production Buildings. This will all help you, while not wasting production. For the "Isn't switching to military in a non-military city a conflict with the above advice" part, eventually all of your cities will produce military units. There's no such thing as a Military City, there is however, a Production city. Your production city is used for creating military units quickly, while at the same time getting wonders out quickly. This city will generally always have the highest culture out of all your cities.

"Once you complete building the market and bank in your gold city, build things like Military Units, Temples, Cathedrals, Courthouses and Production Buildings."

Ok, that is essentially what I have been doing. XD

 

[Kadazzle]

Also, I advise rushing the Market and Bank in your gold city. It will make room for more production based buildings to get built, while you're getting a lot more gold then before. Remember to always put your gold city by desert squares, science city by water tiles and production city by lots of mountains and hills (Marble, Aluminum can help as well!)

 

[Smirk]

A military city is one with the barracks and thus produces the veteran units, any other city doesn't need the barracks and can just build regular units. Assuming you are using armies you only need 1/3rd of your unit production to have a barracks, as an army only needs one vet unit to be vet itself. My barracks city is usually my production city (unless its a wonder city) so will generally produce enough vet units to keep up with all the other city's production.

I usually rush a library or two after reaching the 100 or 250 g level, and that's just about all you need for a good portion of the game. I usually rush them after 100g so I can research Currency myself and get a free market in a good place that I then turn into a gold city. Gold cities and tech cities are usually interchangable, but I wouldn't build a market and library until late game.
The thing to keep in mind here is that settlers cost half what a library or market costs and can give the same effect in gold or beakers while potentially giving double the growth and production. So, overall much better. So if there is one or two small one land islands with a couple fish or whales you are much better off building a settler to build there than to build more libraries.

In both my gold and beaker cities I sacrifice early growth and work trade squares. This makes it a priority to rush a harbor after the main buildings (markets, library, bank, university).