xienwolf
Deity
To all the Min-Max'ers and strategists out there:
Imagine that you are signed up for a competitive FfH playing competition, and at the last minute your hands fall off. You are allowed to have a stand-in, but non-players are not allowed in the actual tournament room.
Fortunately, you brought along your little brother who happens to have a photographic memory. So whatever you tell him to do he will do. Unfortunately the rules of the tournament state that all initial settings are determined randomly, and you have never even mentioned the game to your brother before, let alone had him actually play a game. With only 5 minutes till the players are required to report to the tournament room, you have to tell him how to win the tournament.
What do you tell him?
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Though I am not the greatest of strategists, I'll give my rough instructions as an example of what kind of broad-sweeping strategies should be important.
At the start of the game, check if you are playing as the elves, they can keep forests when building improvements, so you'll want to move to a forested river-side hill/plains tile if you can find it. If you aren't the elves, you want a river-side hill/plains tile still, but one with a lot of riverside flatland to put farms on nearby. Oh, and if you happen to be the Elohim, check if a Unique Feature with good tile yields is close and settle over there.
First thing to research is Agriculture if you don't have it. If you can finish a worker AND a warrior in the time it'll take you to research Agriculture, pop the warrior first, then the worker. Otherwise start making a worker immediately since it'll probably finish at the same time as you get Agriculture.
Next you'll want to have 2 warriors in the city (3 if it is Raging Barbarians) and then build 2 more for getting your next city. Once those 2 are finished build a settler and send out the little expedition. If Barbarian World is enabled, ditch the settler idea completely and just build a bunch of warriors.
While this is happening, your scout should be checking out the nearby terrain to find a good spot for the next city, neighbors that should be cut-off or rushed, and chokepoints to be defended. If your scout dies, don't bother building a new one unless you can pop it out in 5-8 turns, you'll get large enough for that eventually.
Also you should research Exploration to connect your second city to the Capital and Ancient Chants so it can produce culture (unless you are Creative). Then focus on getting some Economy built up by getting Cottages or Education.
That should get you going into the game a fair ways. So the next thing to think about will be the promotions you want to aim for with your units and the buildings to focus on in your cities, for that....
----------------------------
For promotions I'd probably talk about wanting to focus on raw strength upgrades and shock for your roaming units (subdue animals on the scouts if you get animal husbandry), but for your city defenders make sure you get Guerilla I if the city is on a hill (which it should be).
Buildings will emphasize economy and culture initially, unit enabling mid-game, and health/economy lategame.
Tech selection should focus on Economy initial, religion next, and UU/UBs kept in mind the entire time (lots of recon UUs? Go FoL then Esus if you were beat to founding FoL, lots of Melee UUs? go RoK. Disciple UUs, go Order then Empy if beat to founding it, Naval ones go OO and Arcane ones go AV. Once economy is stable and you have a Holy City, aim for unlocking UU/UB or getting nice "First to research" bonuses/Wonders/Universal heroes. Emphasize your Hero unit when thinking about UUs to aim for.
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So time is about done at that point (if you talked REALLY fast, I guess). Lots of details about the start of the game because I feel that is the important bit. Then a very general strategy concept for the late game since a lot of that will be highly dependant on what has already happened (thus the start having been important)
Imagine that you are signed up for a competitive FfH playing competition, and at the last minute your hands fall off. You are allowed to have a stand-in, but non-players are not allowed in the actual tournament room.
Fortunately, you brought along your little brother who happens to have a photographic memory. So whatever you tell him to do he will do. Unfortunately the rules of the tournament state that all initial settings are determined randomly, and you have never even mentioned the game to your brother before, let alone had him actually play a game. With only 5 minutes till the players are required to report to the tournament room, you have to tell him how to win the tournament.
What do you tell him?
----------------------------------------
Though I am not the greatest of strategists, I'll give my rough instructions as an example of what kind of broad-sweeping strategies should be important.
At the start of the game, check if you are playing as the elves, they can keep forests when building improvements, so you'll want to move to a forested river-side hill/plains tile if you can find it. If you aren't the elves, you want a river-side hill/plains tile still, but one with a lot of riverside flatland to put farms on nearby. Oh, and if you happen to be the Elohim, check if a Unique Feature with good tile yields is close and settle over there.
First thing to research is Agriculture if you don't have it. If you can finish a worker AND a warrior in the time it'll take you to research Agriculture, pop the warrior first, then the worker. Otherwise start making a worker immediately since it'll probably finish at the same time as you get Agriculture.
Next you'll want to have 2 warriors in the city (3 if it is Raging Barbarians) and then build 2 more for getting your next city. Once those 2 are finished build a settler and send out the little expedition. If Barbarian World is enabled, ditch the settler idea completely and just build a bunch of warriors.
While this is happening, your scout should be checking out the nearby terrain to find a good spot for the next city, neighbors that should be cut-off or rushed, and chokepoints to be defended. If your scout dies, don't bother building a new one unless you can pop it out in 5-8 turns, you'll get large enough for that eventually.
Also you should research Exploration to connect your second city to the Capital and Ancient Chants so it can produce culture (unless you are Creative). Then focus on getting some Economy built up by getting Cottages or Education.
That should get you going into the game a fair ways. So the next thing to think about will be the promotions you want to aim for with your units and the buildings to focus on in your cities, for that....
----------------------------
For promotions I'd probably talk about wanting to focus on raw strength upgrades and shock for your roaming units (subdue animals on the scouts if you get animal husbandry), but for your city defenders make sure you get Guerilla I if the city is on a hill (which it should be).
Buildings will emphasize economy and culture initially, unit enabling mid-game, and health/economy lategame.
Tech selection should focus on Economy initial, religion next, and UU/UBs kept in mind the entire time (lots of recon UUs? Go FoL then Esus if you were beat to founding FoL, lots of Melee UUs? go RoK. Disciple UUs, go Order then Empy if beat to founding it, Naval ones go OO and Arcane ones go AV. Once economy is stable and you have a Holy City, aim for unlocking UU/UB or getting nice "First to research" bonuses/Wonders/Universal heroes. Emphasize your Hero unit when thinking about UUs to aim for.
-------------------------------------
So time is about done at that point (if you talked REALLY fast, I guess). Lots of details about the start of the game because I feel that is the important bit. Then a very general strategy concept for the late game since a lot of that will be highly dependant on what has already happened (thus the start having been important)
![[to_xp]Gekko](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/74/74677.jpg?1475248346){kind=avatar}
