looking for a few tips to improve my skills

[vesp3r1987]

So aside from playing that game for a long time im a complete noob. Always played big maps with reduced civs and CS so i have bigger chance of setting myself on a good land, always played low difficulties so i dont get overrun by my neighbor on ancient era and i always played Pangea map so i dont have to use ships.

However i now want a bit more challenge and im looking for a few tips which will help me "migrate" on higher difficulties with more water on map.
I`m also tempted to try OCC but im affraid i wont be able to do much if my city is too far from other civs - that would make me loose alot of turns just to move my army to the desired location and if its over sea there is always the chance of getting attacked by barbs and loosing health and more turns

Im usually all for world domination by force cause (my opinion) thats the safest victory to secure. I tryed few times Prince difficulty but i got behind whole era (late game) so i gave up on it back then
What interest me most is how you choose your techs on high difficulties: you ignore advancing to new era and take those techs you need for your city or you go straight to a better era
Also when do you pop your second and 3rd city and how much towns you make (excluding the ones you conquer)

Lastly i know there are some other threads giving similar info but i dont feel like reviving dead ones in case i got more questions

 

[Mr. Shadows]

At the prince level you sill have a lot of lee-way. Science is mostly dictated by population, and of course building the science buildings. Even if you want a wide empire make the National College a priority- it requires libraries in all your cities and unlocks with philosophy. If your going tradition (which gives a food bonus to your cap) consider building the Hanging Gardens (available with Mathematics) and your National College in your cap. Get some workers fairly early, build farms and make your cap grow. At the Prince level that should solve your science issues. At higher difficulties the Hanging Gardens will be difficult or even impossible to get, but you'll get it on Prince as long as you don't dilly-dally too much.Exaclty which techs you research first and in what order really depends on you. Pottery for an early shrine (and thus a pantheon) is viable, but so is archery to get archers out fast. Libraries (unlocked at writing) aren't the very first things you should build but they should always come early. At the Prince level you don't need more then solid basics. Early worker, have a unit or two to defend it, make sure you have a monument, a shrine, a granary and a library in your early cities and try to have your Natuonal College built by turn 100 or so. That means no more then 3-4 cities before the NC. If you want a wide empire delay expanding past that until it's built The AI isn't going to bum-rush you that early (or even at all if you have a few units) on Prince so that should get you rolling. As you increase the difficulty all that becomes open for debate but first things first.

 

[beetle]

Always played big maps with reduced civs and CS so i have bigger chance of setting myself on a good land, always played low difficulties...

Those settings all serve to make the game boring. My strongest recommendation is use standard size, standard number of civs and CS, and standard speed. Hundreds of games later and I am still really impressed how elegant is the pacing and how the game unfolds each time. Fending off an ancient-era DOWs is a standard part of the game, so to best experience the game as designed, you will want to be okay with that.

Ramp up the difficulty until domination is no longer a cake-walk, and then start experimenting with the different victory conditions. Stick with 4-city Tradition or 6-8 city Liberty. The game is pretty hard wired so that one of those combinations is best, but that works okay to. Honor and early domination with two-city Liberty are feasible even at Deity, but that can come later. The continents or large islands map scripts will force you to play with boats, that aspect adds interest as well.

 

[vesp3r1987]

hmmm i`ll check that tonight, but to be sure im not gonna ragequit too fast im gonna play my fav civ - Japan and see how it goes

 

[mrwho]

Science is extremely important in Civ, so if you find yourself an era behind the AI in the late game that's definitely something you need to work on. Regardless of your victory condition, you should always focus on science; everything else naturally flows from it.

Science is based on city population, so making sure your cities have lots of food is very important. To ensure your cities have lots of food, you need to have good city placement. Whenever possible, position your cities next to a river, because farms get extra food next to a river. Farms are needed to have a competitive science output, so make sure you've got a good amount of workers, and you get them early. Granaries are very good for letting small cities grow faster, so make sure you have them as soon as you can. Also ensure you get aqueducts in cities where you don't get them for free (the tradition finisher gives a free aqueduct in your first four cities), as they let cities grow much quicker. Food trade routes are also very useful, especially naval food trade routes, which are bordering on overpowered. If your economy can afford it and you want to make a city bigger, sending a food trade route to a city, usually your capital, is a great way to speed things up. Note that you need a granary in the city you send the trade route form.

It is almost unanimously agreed upon that Tradition if the best social policy to start on because of all the food benefits. Completely the Tradition tree, and quickly, especially if you're falling behind in science. Rationalism is also commonly considered a very strong social policy, and you should open it up as soon as it becomes available.
You also have to make sure that your empire remains happy, because an unhappy empire grows very slowly, which can ruin your long-term science output. This means making sure that cities you settle have at least one 'new' luxury that you don't have access to yet, but preferably two or more. Make sure you build happiness buildings if required, make sure you're trading spare luxuries with the AI, and try to gain influence with city states, especially mercantile ones if you're struggling with happiness. If you do these things and don't expand too quickly, you'll pretty much always be happy, and thus will grow much faster.

You also want to focus on getting to science technologies as soon as possible, and building science buildings as soon as possible. Try to get the National College, a national wonder that boosts science output in a city by 50%, in your capital quickly, as this is a MASSIVE science boost. You should focus on trying to get education early, as this gives you access to universities, which you want to build in high-pop cities. Obviously libraries are also very useful.

Although not that relevant on lower difficulties, trade routes with AI can be useful in the early game for a science boost. This isn't too relevant for lower difficulties because the science boost is based on the tech disparity, and on lower difficulties there isn't much of one, but it's still something to keep in mind. More relevant is putting your spies in the cities of AI who have a tech lead over you, to steal their techs. You want to put your spies in cities with the highest potential, and generally cities with higher population have higher potential, so you want to put your spies against AIs with the biggest tech lead over with, in cities with the highest population.

Do all these things and you should be leaps and bounds ahead of the AI on Prince difficulty.

Personally, I'd recommend trying a game where you turn off war, just so you can practice other aspects of the game, especially getting high population cities and good science.

 

[reddishrecue]

Improving your skills takes practice. Practice often in obtaining the most science that you can possibly get. Larger populations, scientist specialists, and rationalism are all major contributors to gaining a good science victory.

 

[Nares]

Don't wonderspam. Select wonders chosen to facilitate additional goals are fine, but for practice you should consider playing wonder-free for a time, not including national wonders.

Always avoid having the lowest military score. Early scouting can help tremendously; it supplies gold, directly by discovering minor civs and indirectly by discovering major civs, as well as supplying cheap "spears," the unit of measurement for military score.

Break out of the lowest overall score as soon as possible. The AI targets the human in three main categories; low score, low military score, and the top score. If you're first or dead last in score, you won't be well regarded, leading to wasted trade potential and a likelihood of being denounced. If you have a low military score, the effect is similar, but with greater risk of being attacked.

In general, focus on growth, science, and production during the first half of the game, generally in that order.

Once you hit higher difficulty settings, especially deity, the AI supplies much of what you need; incoming trade routes for gpt and extra science, and "free" workers.

Generally accepted strategy on standard speed is to get at least 2-3 expansions up by approximately turn 50, and the national college up between turn 80 and 90.

 

[Dushku]

always played low difficulties so i dont get overrun by my neighbor on ancient era

Instead of avoiding this, learn how to embrace it

https://youtu.be/rgG4BoUqkGo

 

[Puhi]

Also when do you pop your second and 3rd city and how much towns you make

On prince, I would start building a settler as soon as my capitol hits 4 pop. My opening build order would be:

1) scout- popping ruins can be a big help, and getting gold from cs is key
2) shrine- on prince it's easy to found a religion, so why not?
3) worker
4) settler - protect this with your initial warrior
5) warrior - to protect the other settler I'm about to build
6) settler

When I go Tradition, I don't build a monument, as you'll be getting a free one shortly.
This gives you 3 cities quick, and you can build the NC quick. As soon as the NC is built, try to get a 4th city settled.

This approach may not be optimal, but it sure works on prince.

 

[vesp3r1987]

On prince, I would start building a settler as soon as my capitol hits 4 pop. My opening build order would be:

1) scout- popping ruins can be a big help, and getting gold from cs is key
2) shrine- on prince it's easy to found a religion, so why not?
3) worker
4) settler - protect this with your initial warrior
5) warrior - to protect the other settler I'm about to build
6) settler

When I go Tradition, I don't build a monument, as you'll be getting a free one shortly.
This gives you 3 cities quick, and you can build the NC quick. As soon as the NC is built, try to get a 4th city settled.

This approach may not be optimal, but it sure works on prince.

kinda what i imagined.. although i feel like an archer is kinda needed between shrine and worker. I get to see alot of barbs running around me :/

 

[beetle]

This approach may not be optimal, but it sure works on prince.

I think that is decent enough BO for any level.

My initial BO (deity) on just about map, no matter the opening SP has settled into a pretty consistent pattern:
scout, scout, shrine, monument

After that is a worker, if I have not acquired one, and then settler and archers (or archers and settlers if the barbs are still bad).

Payoff from early scouts is always good. Shrine payback is faster than monument payback. I hard build a monument when opening Tradition as the free one takes too long, and is worth the free amphitheater in any case.

kinda what i imagined.. although i feel like an archer is kinda needed between shrine and worker. I get to see alot of barbs running around me

You should be able to manage the very early barbs with two scouts and your starting warrior. You do want archers quick, but a worker is more important. Unless I have a warrior UU, I hold off on melee until swordsmen are unlocked. I don't find warriors sturdy enough, and they don't seem worth the upgrade cost to me.

 

[vesp3r1987]

You should be able to manage the very early barbs with two scouts and your starting warrior. You do want archers quick, but a worker is more important. Unless I have a warrior UU, I hold off on melee until swordsmen are unlocked. I don't find warriors sturdy enough, and they don't seem worth the upgrade cost to me.

On my current game my scouts got rekt by multiple barb attacks... almost everywhere there we barbs chasing me with more than one unit.
For now im building the archers and take my 1st worker from Liberty (not sure if thats good)
I also get one of my settlers from Liberty tree.
This time around i managed to keep my tech level above the rest cause i had luck gaining 2 free techs from ruins so for now all civs are nice to me but i see them making alliances and already 1 civ lost their cap prior turn 100

 

[beetle]

On my current game my scouts got rekt by multiple barb attacks... almost everywhere there we barbs chasing me with more than one unit.

With practice, I have been able to cope with raging barbs on deity with just two scouts and the starting warrior. Keeping the scouts alive is not a problem unless one gets pinned against a mountain while running away and a barb comes out of the fog (and before sailing gets unlocked) -- so a combination of bad luck. Scouts can work in pairs or retreat back towards your cap if they getting wrecked or being chased by more than one unit. I am all for early archers, but after the shrine and monument.

 

[vesp3r1987]

well after the initial "bad luck" my game actually progressed good. Im in control of several luxuries and im trading them for some nice GPT. Got to advance really fast after Renaissance. Also im getting alot of faith and popping a missionary every now and then to convert others. I think im going to win this one