New to emperor, strategy advice

[Janie]

I'd love some strategy advice from more seasoned players. I've been playing emperor games with Catherine, and more or less winning, but they are not solid wins. I've also been playing the same strategy and would like to learn to be more adaptive.

This game is:
Large | Emperor | Continents Plus | Time is disabled

Because this is a continents game, I am a bit too lazy to go domination and will probably wind up slapping up the spaceship instead.

I'm a bit torn between going wide vs tall... there is so much open land I can potentially grab, but, but I don't know if I can do it quickly enough and maintain my happiness. Usually I start to "covet" the lands of others and taking AI cities later in the game. BUT, somehow I keep finding myself in the middle of nuclear wars, which are no fun.

The next city i'm building is going north-west on the hill in range of the cotton. With all those flood plains and grass I can grow it tall and use it to spam G writers and G artists so that I don't have to prioritize my culture buildings.
Pantheon - If I go wide +2 science for city connections gives a nice early boost to science. But getting the +1 prod for 3 pop is going to help in the long run, especially with building an army / spaceship.
I've dipped into both Tradition and Liberty at this point and really need to decide what i'm doing, because I am all over the place.

Anyway, I get stuck on the same train of thought and i'd like to know what others think. Thanks!

 

[claudiupb]

For pantheon I would pick Desert Folklore and settle the first expo on tile east of that cotton, you have 3 irrigated dessert hills, another 4 hills, connection to a luxury, Observatory, and 2 cows eventually. With Petra it's like having a second capital.

You can definitely go wide for this map. You can even forward settle that civ in the west (I think it's Morocco with a city on the coast two tiles SE of that mountain. You don't connect any luxuries but you get Circus and Stone Works for 3 happiness (too bad it's local).

 

[Dushku]

I've dipped into both Tradition and Liberty at this point and really need to decide what i'm doing, because I am all over the place.

The more focused your gameplay is, the better suited you'll be for higher difficulties. The only time mixing Tradition and Liberty is acceptable is if you take the Tradition opener before realizing the map is better suited for Liberty. In that event, the minor delay you get with various Liberty policies is almost made up for by the added culture and tile growth. As seen here:

http://redd.it/39kcf9

Tradition is easier to make work. So if you're struggling on a difficulty level, favoring it over Liberty is one way to help that along. Plus nothing says that if you go Tradition, you can't still grab some open land. You can work Tradition with 5-6 cities, it'll just make national wonders take longer and you'll have to remember that not all of them will get the free buildings.

 

[Janie]

I usually go with Liberty, sometimes, I take the tradition opener first.

But if I only build 5-6 cities for the first half of the game and play peacefully until the industrial era. Then puppet some AI cities, does tradition than make more sense then Liberty? I feel like maybe I've been doing it all wrong!

 

[Dushku]

Something I do when I'm wracked with that kind of indecision is try both! Play the map one way, then load the initial save and try it the other way.

 

[claudiupb]

Getting the Tradition opener with Liberty is ok for the increased border growth, but with liberty you really need to rush Collective Rule, so a better way is to go for liberty left side, then open tradition, and then continue.
Also build a monument, especially with liberty. The typical build order should be scout, scout, shrine (if you have land for a good pantheon), monument, and then start on settlers. You can fit an archer between settlers.

 

[reddishrecue]

In that screen shot, you could also choose stone quarries pantheon or earth mother pantheon which go well with the resources that you have. Nearby stone and copper are both workable tiles that can use stone quarries or earth mother that can build up your faith up really quick and get you a religion going earlier since the worked tiles will give more faith than usual.

 

[Sclb]

But if I only build 5-6 cities for the first half of the game and play peacefully until the industrial era. Then puppet some AI cities, does tradition than make more sense then Liberty? I feel like maybe I've been doing it all wrong!

If you want until industrial or later for wars (assuming you meant artillery rush, or even later tech such as planes or tanks), it's better with Tradition as you have more time to grow your cities. You'll also get there faster because of growth bonus giving you better science. Honor is also possible, but it is difficult to pull off and probably only viable on deity.

 

[reddishrecue]

If you want until industrial or later for wars (assuming you meant artillery rush, or even later tech such as planes or tanks), it's better with Tradition as you have more time to grow your cities. You'll also get there faster because of growth bonus giving you better science. Honor is also possible, but it is difficult to pull off and probably only viable on deity.

Ive been finding piety particularly difficult to start with but at least the good part about it is that you make a lot more faith.

 

[Janie]

I restarted the game, going with Liberty tree only. I settled the second city on the grassland hill near the floodplains and cotton and chose Desert Folklore. I really suffered because of my lack of workers and the barb spam. In part this is because of the map, since the city states were off on islands it was hard to swipe workers. Furthermore, it took forever to settle my next two cities because of the barbs. I think in the future when playing on any kind of "plus" map I may add more AI to the game to minimize the open land (and thus barbs).
Eventually I got everything up and running, I'm now in the 300's and find myself in the same place I always am, struggling to stay ahead in Science, while focusing too much on military. I can probably win but I now realize how silly my strategy is for a science victory.
I think Catherine is better suited for domination, but she could also be used to play a strong defense, I think it just wold have made sense to focus more on the top half of the tech tree.
Also, I really enjoy warmongering and it's a good way to keep runaway Civs in check.
One last thing, how important is culture for a science victory? Because of my non-existent culture, I was really punished with choosing an Ideology. My borders were lack luster, even with the krepost.
I just keep coming back to the same conclusion... I focused too much on military at the determent of everything else.

 

[Dushku]

how important is culture for a science victory? Because of my non-existent culture, I was really punished with choosing an Ideology.

From the time you hit Renaissance to the time you have Secularism and Free Thought, culture IS science. Work your guilds and create great works and culture is not only not a problem, but you can ramp it up specifically just before Renaissance to get those key science social policies faster.

Culture isn't the only factor in fighting off ideologies. Tourism is also. The game calculates accumulated tourism vs accumulated culture in brackets. So if you get 10% influence over another civ, you offset them having 29% influence over you. I made a video explaining how important tourism is and how easy it is called Tourism Made Easy:

https://youtu.be/HvgyqhmoRCw

 

[reddishrecue]

I restarted the game, going with Liberty tree only. I settled the second city on the grassland hill near the floodplains and cotton and chose Desert Folklore. I really suffered because of my lack of workers and the barb spam. In part this is because of the map, since the city states were off on islands it was hard to swipe workers. Furthermore, it took forever to settle my next two cities because of the barbs. I think in the future when playing on any kind of "plus" map I may add more AI to the game to minimize the open land (and thus barbs).
Eventually I got everything up and running, I'm now in the 300's and find myself in the same place I always am, struggling to stay ahead in Science, while focusing too much on military. I can probably win but I now realize how silly my strategy is for a science victory.
I think Catherine is better suited for domination, but she could also be used to play a strong defense, I think it just wold have made sense to focus more on the top half of the tech tree.
Also, I really enjoy warmongering and it's a good way to keep runaway Civs in check.
One last thing, how important is culture for a science victory? Because of my non-existent culture, I was really punished with choosing an Ideology. My borders were lack luster, even with the krepost.
I just keep coming back to the same conclusion... I focused too much on military at the determent of everything else.

The krepost, if built quick enough is useful, particularly in tall one city challenges, but like most other UBs, its just another building that adds some kind of bonus to the whole empire if wide.

 

[Sclb]

Playing wide liberty on Cathy is pretty good for a Dom V. Krepost combined with extra production and strategic is very important for Dom V. Also you can pick Autocracy ideology despite the AI favor to go order. Going Autocracy lets you choose double quantity of strategic which I'm pretty sure it stacks with your UA to get 4x the amount. Also the +2 happy from military xp buildings is very good for a wide empire.

 

[kixkal]

I just keep coming back to the same conclusion... I focused too much on military at the determent of everything else.

Determining the adequate army size according to your goals is one of the hardest things for me as well. You need to have clear whether you plan on invading or you will only defend. Since defending is easier you will often need less units to do so. Few ranged units in the early game, artillery for the mid game and rocket artillery plus infantry is usually quite good for defence (plus air defence).

One way to balance it is to use a single city for military production (do not have multiple cities constantly). Also, focus on military at certain points (when you are weak, you have a threat or you plan on invading) and keep upgrading the units you already have, especially if they are experienced.

 

[Newbstep]

Anything harder than Prince I always prioritize environment as the most important aspect. Defense is usually the second on the list, unless you are lucky enough to be pinned down by a nice lake and mountains. Also, if the tide is right, I'll place a few dummy villas out near aggressive civs like Mongolia and the Huns hopefully before the medieval era. I have found happiness can be hard to control so getting construction and printing press out of the way early can be a huge help.