I need a little advice keeping my power ranking up on monarchy+

[beckdawg]

I'm much more of a builder than a war monger. I'm trying to break this habit but early wars aren't something I like. I'm used to attacking with more better units in the late game though I think that may need to change.

So here's a little run down of my early game:

I usually play huge marathon games. I usually start by researching towards bronze working. My start build is usually worker worker settler with chopping in there where I can to speed that up. I tend to regenerate maps until I get a decent food and production site for my capital. My second city usually turns into a copper miine like everyone else. I like to play as FIN. civs so my third city is usually a cottage spam site.

Here's where I get a bit lost. With 3 early cities my research starts to die down because of lack of money. IIRC that usually puts me at around 70% Should I be building more? Or just stick with the 3 I have for awhile and if so how long approx. I've still yet to figure that out as you get hit a lot harder in IV than you did in III and II for city spamming.

Anyways, with those three cities I try to mass units with the copper miner, I try to hit a few wonders with my capital and my third city early on focuses on growing food production so later on it will have a high pop for cottage working.

I think that strategy is ok. I try to get 3-4 axemen in each of my cities early on for barb protection. However, later on my power ranking falls and I'm not totally certain where I go wrong. Should my copper miner just constantly pump out axes? I know somewhere in there I want to finish a barracks to give them xp but other than that just keep producing my strongest military unit?

The current game I'm playing with mail went pretty good and I actually tried something new. I was amazingly the founder of the jews. I was lucky that I in that i had coast at my back which really helped with barbs. After I felt comfortable I started to try and spam out some missionaries to get the US on my side(the were the top ranked civ at the time and were way up there in power ranking and also were hindu cows). Well the gamble sort of worked as Louis decided I should die and threw a weak 2 unit attack at me. The following turn rosevelt turned to my religion and I got him to declare war on louis.

To give you some sort of idea what part of the game this was IIRC i think I had gotten macemen right around then. So I'm wondering what's the best way to keep my power ranking up while keeping my costs down so I can still tech like crazy.

 

[Cam_H]

Beckdawg,

It seems to me as though you're not too far off the pace, and I do empathise as I'm also generally a builder more so than a warmonger, although have had to train myself out of necessity sometimes to expand by conquest.

A few minor observations on your post;

I usually play huge marathon games.

OK, I admit that I don't. I typically play standard continents at normal speed. As discussed elsewhere, Marathon suits the warmonger because units can mobilise themselves better relative to other aspects of the game.

Here's where I get a bit lost. With 3 early cities my research starts to die down because of lack of money. IIRC that usually puts me at around 70%.

70% with only three cities is concerning if not confusing - especially for a Financial civ that has cities that typically run a lot of Cottages on a Huge map. My initial thoughts are that you're founding the Cottages but not working them, or your cities are miles apart and you're paying 'through the nose' because of the distance penalty. You can control city upkeep costs holding the population down; be it though the whip or building Workers / running Specialists and therefore stunting growth. Big cities are more expensive to maintain.

I try to hit a few wonders with my capital

Wonders are somewhat of a trap, and you need to consider the merits of spending on these instead of your other options. This is one of those topics that has attracted hundereds of forum posts already.

my third city early on focuses on growing food production so later on it will have a high pop for cottage working.

I too like the power of large cities, but you must be able to afford them. It seems like a small tweaking to your - - is all that's needed to place a bit more emphasis on tiles.

I try to get 3-4 axemen in each of my cities early on for barb protection.

I am assuming that you mean that each of your cities is producing 3-4 Axes, and these are not your city garrisons. If so - it's overkill, and those Axes should be fogbusting on forested hills on the edges of your cultural borders, with the view to eventually being used to attack rival empires.

However, later on my power ranking falls and I'm not totally certain where I go wrong. Should my copper miner just constantly pump out axes? I know somewhere in there I want to finish a barracks to give them xp but other than that just keep producing my strongest military unit?

Pretty well 'yes'.

Once you get Currency and Code of Laws your empire should be able to comfortably expand (by force or organically), and you should have several 'unit pumps' operating. It's been said before; "even when you're at peace you should act as if you're at war". Perhaps that's overstating it somewhat, but it's not a bad premise - you should be generally looking at your rivals as targets until you've expanded to a point that you're happy with (depending upon your objectives and capacity to hold a large empire together {razing cities aside}).

Using Slavery while in Hereditary Rule to whip units to boost your Power rating is another tactic, as the unhappiness penalty is offset by Hereditary Rule's happiness from a strong city garrison. The cost is obviously population, but it can be quickly replaced thanks to Granaries and food resources.

I am not sure why your power ranking should fall unless you're losing units. If you mean your relative power, it's due to the AI's bonuses at playing at something that roughly equates to 'Noble' difficulty where they get cheap upgrades and quicker unit production. Big jumps in the AI's rating is usually attributed to lots of upgrades thanks to a new technology that provides access to defensive units such as Feudalism or Rifling.

So I'm wondering what's the best way to keep my power ranking up while keeping my costs down so I can still tech like crazy.

Again, it's a bit unclear as you seem to be leveraging your Financial trait and specialising your cities already. Make sure that you don't bypass Currency and Code of Laws, as these two provide the 'green lights' for further expansion. Construction is another important technology from a power perspective thanks to Catapults and War Elephants.

If you want to post a game, then other CivFanatics members may be able to provide more 'hands on' insight. Also - check out the succession and training games in this forum for other ideas.

 

[beckdawg]

Thanks for the advice. Some replies. I generally try to keep 2 in garrison and others for fob busters though as of late I've decided it's probably more worth while going after the great wall early.

As for the 70% thing, I was mainly talking about early in the game. In other words I found my first few cities pretty quick and that drops it to 70%. However eventually my cottages get going. The problem is by the time they start allowing me to up my slider I usually am getting near the point where someone decides to have their way with me.

I would post a game save but I currently don't have any. The game I'm currently playing seems to be doing alright but I'm trying a SE instead of CE. I managed to chop the GW early in my capital and also nailed stonehendge. I was hoping that would net me a GE to use on the pyramids but alas I got a prophet which wasn't too bad after I got alphabet and did a little traiding. I ended up getting theocracy and founded Christianity. I didn't convert yet though. Monty is a hindu cow and I'm trying to stay on his good side.

Oddly though I seemed to fall behind the AI in tech more than I usually do. By the time I had alphabet most of the AI had writing which is unusual for my games.

Oh and this game is with Liz and the lime bastards. I think I'm still kinda low in the power rankings but I seem to be defending myself better. Japan declared war which was stupid because they were really far away. I think it was probably because I wouldn't give them a tech. They sent a half assed attempt at me which I slaughtered. I think they bribed mali to attack me because they went to war with me during all of this. That wasn't a huge deal as I was eyeing them as the target of an axe rush before all this started. I was hoping to get them as a vassal but i think they are too hardened for me to take enough cities. I got one but lost 4 or 5 axes.

I guess my biggest problem is I alway seem to start massing axes too late. I think I need to just play a bloodlust game but whenever I try I still find myself building too much. I try to build a barracks before axe's and then I try to stop to get forges.

What is annoying to me is I can pretty much dominate noble but monarch is still a bit to hard. Maybe it's not. I guess I'm not doing terrible but I hate the huge advantage they get early on and it makes me feel like I'm doing crappy. Most of my recent games having got to the gunpowder

 

[Tee Kay]

Sounded like you had some tough opponents. Elizabeth is neighbour from hell when it come to tech. And you also had the two most anti-social leaders as well.

I had similar problems with wonders (by this I mean I'm a wonder addict and can't help building a few in my capital if I'm Industrious and/or connected to stone or marble). I find that building cottages right at the start of the game and delaying expansion until around 1000BC help a bit. Personally I start by building a warrior or two then a worker, then another unit (archer) then a settler and then I start on a wonder usually Oracle which I use to get Code of Laws so I can assign specialists + confucianism. My second city builds units while worker build cottages on every viable tile. I would build my third city around 1500 or 1000BC (on epic) and then build no more until I can keep my reseach up around 70 or 80%. Keeping the research up is very important since the AI is usually very strong tech wise and rarely trade techs unless they rip you off.