Industrial Era Starts

[krc]

I recently tried an industrial era start for the first time in BNW. It seems to make for an interesting (and maybe harder) game, where you have to make different decisions than in the usual ancient era start. Some of the key differences:

1. No ancient ruins.
2. Religion is disabled, so you cannot rely on faith points to buy great people.
3. You have a wider choice of starting policies since everything is open. Tradition is no longer a no-brainer since you can start directly with rationalism. Or aesthetics.
4. The AI seems stronger, probably because they are closer to tech parity when the more advanced units come around.
5. Ideologies are going to matter a lot, since everyone is going to get one fairly early.

I lost my first three attempts at this on king (and I can't remember ever losing three-in-a-row with an ancient start). The first time, I was rushed by Bismarck and lost a city. The second time, I thought I was ready for a rush, since I had defended my city closest to Oda with three musketmen and two cannons. So he sent his forces (unseen) around it and took a different city!

The third try, I played much longer before losing. I started out trying for domination, so I had taken two cities from the Celts early. As a result, everyone hated me. I took the first ideology (autocracy). Everyone else took a different ideology. Since I was ignoring tourism, the ideological pressure was high. Siam was gobbling up city-states. They built the Forbidden Palace and founded the World Congress, and controlled it throughout the game. Germany and Russia were both emphasizing science and ahead of me in building spaceship parts. I captured Athens and Moscow, but there was no way I was going to win by domination before someone else won. I had caught up in science, and had spaceship parts queued up in six cities. At that point, the ideological pressure got too great, and I went form +12 to -37 happiness in one turn. So I switched from autocracy to order, and lost the "double resources" tenet. The next turn, Siam bought the two city-states supplying me with aluminum. So I had to switch production to recycling centers before I could complete the spaceship. And while this was going on, Siam won the world leader vote!

Now, this was actually one of the most fun games I've played in a while, since the AI put up some serious resistance. But I obviously need some advice. Has anyone else tried industrial era starts with BNW? Which social policies do you take to start with? Which victory conditions do you go for? Which wonders do you try to build? What build orders do you follow?

 

[tommynt]

pretty much all wonders are op and worth it. Pisa and taj should be prio but other are nice too

Sp Wise I d suggest going full liberty into Order idiology.
The faster workers speeds help very much in Imporvin your cities.
And 4 cities > 3 cities also settlers very expensive

BO should be something like.
IW -->Wonders --> NC --> Buildings in cap

And worker-->Caravan-->worker-->Watermill-> Buildings in noncap cities.

Indu start is much fun in mp and therefore I kinda know how to do it ...

Concentrate on improving lux 1. send food carvans to cap

You can attack after factories are up (Units build very fast then) or just hower your way to a easy space win

 

[krc]

Interesting.

In the game I'm playing now (which so far seems to be going pretty well), I started liberty. Took a detour to open patronage so I could get the Forbidden Palace for the extra delegates, and then concentrated on the order ideology. (As a result, for the first time, I've now seen two AI civs take autocracy in the same game.)

Does rationalism not matter with an industrial era start? It's possible to skip both liberty and tradition and just start by plowing through rationalism....

 

[Silverman6083]

Interesting.

In the game I'm playing now (which so far seems to be going pretty well), I started liberty. Took a detour to open patronage so I could get the Forbidden Palace for the extra delegates, and then concentrated on the order ideology. (As a result, for the first time, I've now seen two AI civs take autocracy in the same game.)

Does rationalism not matter with an industrial era start? It's possible to skip both liberty and tradition and just start by plowing through rationalism....

Well IMO Rationalism is so good in a normal game is because the policies benefit DEVELOPED civs with specialist economies. And starting in the Industrial Era means you aren't developed but that's just my opinon

 

[BlackWizard]

If yoo take liberty. Remember to take policy that gives golden age and lowers sp cost first. Strangely enough also first city increases social policy cost.

 

[krc]

Well IMO Rationalism is so good in a normal game is because the policies benefit DEVELOPED civs with specialist economies. And starting in the Industrial Era means you aren't developed but that's just my opinion

Good point. But it's still interesting that this suggests you are unlikely to ever get around to rationalism in an industrial era game. By the time you finish liberty, it's almost time to go into ideologies.

Maybe the patronage opener for Forbidden Palace and the rationalism opener for the Porcelain Tower?

If you take liberty. Remember to take policy that gives golden age and lowers sp cost first. Strangely enough also first city increases social policy cost.

Another good point. Although i'm still trying to decide if this wastes most of the potential Golden Age benefits, since the cities aren't yet developed if you do this immediately.

 

[tommynt]

ya better to wait with the ga, no point in wasting it when cities arent even planted yet ..

typical noob mistake to get it right away.

 

[Haig]

I love industrial (and renaissance) era starts, takes some of the edge from the early game UU civs like Greece and Mongolia, gives more power for example Americans.

 

[BlackWizard]

ya better to wait with the ga, no point in wasting it when cities arent even planted yet ..

typical noob mistake to get it right away.

Well I dont take it for Golden Age but for faster GE which I use to some wonder like Pisa. Otherwise I might lose it. Dont know which is worse losing Pisa or take less effective Golden Age when going for peaceful victory.

However I havent played indu era starts with bnw only with g&k.