Need some minor help regarding Indus Age on Emperor

[Despair888]

Never really tried Emperor much before. Why, I don't know... Think I'm capable of winning here a lot of the time. This is my first real Emperor game. I've managed to make it to the Industrial Age with a huge chunk of land for myself. Playing as the Mongols (Stupid idea, I just recently got horses ). Need some help on whether to build factories and what I should do to catch up. Since I've taken over the 2nd island I've been Republic, before that was Monarchy. I own most of a huge continent and then the small island I just took over on the 2nd one. Have almost all city improvements built in most of my cities. Bringing in 4 luxes (1 myself, 3 through trades).

I've been pretty much just using my massive GPT to buy techs from the 4 civs that are ahead of me. Not too fond of this because it's kind of wasting my universities. I've had the opportunities to join in an MPP with the Aztecs or Carthage for a long time now, just never have because didn't want to go to war with one or the other. Feared it may have bad repercussions on my reputation considering I've always had lux/gpt deals with them.

I've considered gifting a few civs up to my level but it's not really a strategy that I've ever tried so I wasn't sure the effects it might have and never went through with it. Also not really sure how I'm going to win as this was kind of an experimental game (I do think I have a good chance of winning, just not sure how). Any pointers on whether to build factories or not would be appreciated. Also would appreciate any tips on how to go about winning and what to do technology wise.

Thanks in advance for any help. Tried uploading save but apparently the file exceeds the limit for Civ3Conquests saves. It's a huge map so I guess that's just the way it goes.

 

[rysingsun]

try uploading a "saved game" rather than an "autosaved game". I don't know if it works on the largest custom maps but it certainly works on "huge" size.

 

[NickyH]

When one of my saves was too big to upload, I made a .zip file of it. It reduced the size considerably - might be wort a try.

Factories: Build them in your most productive cities (with barracks) and use them to speed up unit production. I don't think they are worth building in cities with low shield production and/or lots of waste.

 

[Optional]

Factories increase your shield output substantially. So it will allow you to create units much quicker. It won't do anything for science.
I think it's really time to make up your mind about how you want to win. If you want to win by military means, than I would say; Yes, build a lot of factories, and try to clinch the Hoover Dam - increases the effect of factories.
If you want to win by diplomacy, then factories should have a low priority.
And for a Spaceship win I guess it's quite convenient to have factories in your most productive towns, as they are going to produce the Spaceship parts. But you don't need them all over the place. A good science rate is more important for the race to Space.
But first: try to make up your mind on how you want to win, otherwise it's difficult to say what priority factories should have in your game.

 

[Ringo Kid]

I would say it depends on your goal, conquest or science. Building Theory of Evolution and Hoover Dam are good, even if only to keep them away from the AI.

One "science" strategy that works for me is to alternately fight wars with the leading AI civs, as long as you fight on their ground, so its their infrastructure that gets ripped up rather than yours. And try to get the leaders at war with each other, so that they they also rip up each others territory. Again this is as long as the fighting is on their land, not yours. Meanwhile, you are building spaceship parts and researching spaceship techs with your best cities, and building military with the rest. The goal being to slow down the AI by ripping up his land so you can launch/research faster than he can.

If you find you are strong enough militarily, you can also raze the AI cities, which obviously slows him down even more.

In my games Republic is usually the best govt for science, or communist for war. If you just have the one lux, communism may be your best choice.

 

[Despair888]

I'd like to win by military, I just don't know if I can do it on a huge map... I'll have to go from 15% of world land and 25% of world pop to what 60/60 when some of the AI is already in the late Industrial Age.

Tried compressing the file into a zipped folder. Only went down to 514k so still can't upload.

Thanks for the advice all of you. I'll have to take a look at my game and decide right away how I'm going to go about winning this game.

Oh and it is a regular saved game on Huge Size Archipelago. Not a custom map or anything.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Use the easy upload system on the quick reply form. Here is a picture:

Spoiler :

As far as factories go, if a town needs more than 40 turns to build a factory, it's too corrupt or shield poor to build. That's my cut-off point. If you can build one faster than that, then it's worth it. Usually that's true only in 10-15 cities in a republic, comprising your core cities and your FP. I build factories no matter what the VC, they just seem to help too much to not.

 

[vmxa]

The Upload Files is in that red bar on the bottom and then you get the pix shown by Overserr714. It can handle up to 10mgb iirc.

1) don't like to see gifts unless it is very very weak civs.
2) I do not like to see buying techs as that just makes it harder to take over. Better to steal them with that money or beat it out of them. It is ok to trade for techs or even buy one, but not as a regular tactic.
3) don't like to see trades for lux or resources, unless a) no choice b) they are weak. You are just funding your rivals. It is ok to trade for a lux for a time, but you have to take care what you give them and how well they are doing.
4) switching governments hurts you, so make a better choice the first time.
5) you have trouble paying for everything you say, not a surprise as you said you have all structures in most towns. This will drain off your income and bog you down.
6) factories, well I guess you can do it a number of ways, but:

If you are not netting 15 or more shields, not sure it is great idea, unless it is a massive map and playing always war. You will need a fair number of turns to make a factory in 10 shield places and then you need a coal plant, till Hoovers, if you get that.

Now you have that 10 shield town out of action for a long time and it will only be a 20 shield town with a lot more maint to pay for, not to mention pollution.

I prefer in std games to just make about 4 or 6 cities with factories and let them do all the unit building for the whole empire, that works fine at all levels and is plenty on Emperor.

Check you towns to see if you need all those structure and see if you can cut down on the maint. Check on the cost for unit support and see if that can be improved.

Two ways to do that, cut down on useless units, build more towns.

 

[Despair888]

Mongol Emperor

Greek Emperor

Here's two of my saves on Emperor. Any advice would be appreciated.

Also, thanks for the help on uploading. Before I was clicking attachment in my post and that was the problem.

 

[vmxa]

Ugh another large or huge map (Mongols).

Starting with the F1 screen and the F6. I see you have Steam first or second, I hope first. I am not sure why you did Medicine instead of Electricity. Especially since you are doing a 50 turn research, so not beelining for ToE.

So why are you running 0 research with +131gpt and 561 gold? I see why at 10% you will run in the red. So I am guessing you have way too many structures in places that cannot use them or pay for them and too many units.

Well I am wrong about the units, it is of course better to have all the units your support will allow. More workers would be nice for those rails for instance.

Wow very low shields, I would take Ta-Tu and grab tiles from as many places as I need to get all 12 pop worker. You don't have 12, but I would get them quickly by merging in workers that I popped out of some of the nearby towns.

I am not going to go through the builds, but Cathedrals is not the thing to build at this point. Cavs are what you want.

Sell of those temples in place that do not need them, same for granaries. Get more workers out to rail tiles and to max pop in the best cities.

Be more careful about structures, markets can wait and probably are not need in places like New Ta-Tu. Temples in size 5 towns that are not growing, these choices are either ill conceived or lazy.

They will slow you down and get you to where you cannot research in 1630AD. A time where you should be in your way to other island as the big man on campus.

Some times it is not a good plan to build an aqua in tundra towns, so look the situation over. Will it have extra food or will it need a harbor, if it needs a harbor and an aqua is that a good deal?

You have partial gangs, but they should be full ones. IOW as many workers in a stack as it takes to finish a rail on that tile in one turn. I like to get to the front asap and rail back from that in case of a war.

Then not only can I get there quickly, but I get my workers out of the way soonest.

 

[Despair888]

Some of it is lazy, some of it I just don't really know how much the cities will benefit from having buildings. Right now I think that's my biggest weak point is managing production and knowing what to build where. I haven't been able to find too many good guides to point me in the right direction in this area. I think I've done a much better job on the second game, although I've played it a lot so I'm far more advanced now, leading techs for all nations in early Industrial Age.

I think I'll get better the more games I play on Emperor but like you've mentioned the one thing I need to work on is knowing when/where to build certain things and managing my production. Seems to be my biggest problem.

Thanks for all the help. I do appreciate it.

 

[vmxa]

No one knows how to do all the things, until they have some experience under their belts. Just keep learning and it won;t be long, before you slap emperor games down with one hand.

 

[Aabraxan]

Some of it is lazy, some of it I just don't really know how much the cities will benefit from having buildings. Right now I think that's my biggest weak point is managing production and knowing what to build where. I haven't been able to find too many good guides to point me in the right direction in this area.

There's an article linked in my signature on multiplier buildings. It won't teach you anything about temples or cathedrals, but maybe it will be of some help on markets, libraries and the like.

 

[Despair888]

Cool. Thanks. Will check it out definitely tomorrow.

And thank you vmxa for the help. Think I'm doing better already! Applied some of the suggestions you made to both games and seem to be doing better. Still leading all nations in technology as Greece, doing very well. Mongol game is looking a bit better also.

 

[vmxa]

sounds good, tear it up.

 

[Despair888]

It appears that I'm on my way to my first Emperor win, as long as nothing goes drastically wrong. Playing as Greece in this one. Early Modern Ages for me everyone else is in late Industrial Ages. Ottomans own about 2/3 of the continent only them and I share. I've switched to Communism and taken over a small island with a luxury. Tanks > Pikemen .. Getting ready to send back all my tanks to my main island to keep my sweep of the Ottomans going, running low on tanks at the moment so my efforts their have been some-what stalled. Other than that pretty much utterly dominating everyone in my path.

If any of you have any suggestions as to what not to do to let the AI catch up or anything let me know. I've gone ahead and set the research slider to 0, already have a few techs in the Modern Ages but needed to turn up the Entertainment slider to prevent mass disorder everywhere. Communism says no war weariness but I'm experiencing happiness problems so not sure what the deal is there.

Thanks in advance for any help. I do appreciate it.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Massive unhappiness in a Communism is probably due to not enough MP's. I have limited experience with that government, but what I do recall is that the lux slider isn't nearly as effective. You need MP's everywhere to calm the asses, err I mean masses. The problem with the Modern Age is there are no cheap units left, so you will need to convert the unhappies into specialists. Also build markets and capture as many luxes as are available. Have you built the SPHQ(Secret Police Headquarters)? It cuts corruption just like an extra FP. Only build it in a happy town with a market, maybe even a !gasp! Cathedral. Maybe the town with Shakespeare's. Good luck.

 

[vmxa]

What is the time frame in the game? If you have 30 turns to go that is one thing, if you have 140 turns to go then I would probably not turn off research.

I would want to get mechs and Ecology and maybe Modern Armor. The best way to not let them catch up is to keep killing their towns.

You should not have problems with happiness at this stage as you should have 5 or 6 lux by now. Here is my complaint about Commies, you are encourage to build too many structures and then find it hard to put pop up as specialist.

Most of my towns would be running scientist and not have any happiness issues. The main cities would have a market and be fine. If you have build libs and banks in the not so great towns, then you will want to keep everyone working and that means they need to be made happy.

 

[Despair888]

I think I'm doing a few things wrong. I certainly didn't go to war early enough to secure luxuries, but I am making good strong progress in my war against the Ottomans to take over half our continent. Kinda put the Mongol game on hold for now.

Any tips on what I should do in my game as Greece would be appreciated... Certainly getting better every turn from all the help I've received here. Thank you all.

I have Ecology and Mech Infantry, drafted a lot of Mech Infantry to fight my war on two fronts. Not sure if that was a good idea or not. I think I slipped up and made some stupid moves but I don't believe in reloading if you make a move that turns out bad unless it was a complete mis-click and affected the game bad.

Greek Save

 

[vmxa]

Drafting is a special condition item in my book and would rarely use that tactic.
Mechs are nice, but they still only have two hit points and can die. They cannot attack with 2 HP.

If they are for MP, then use cheaper units or the slider instead. Reloading is not kosher in my book, so glad you are not doing it.