Problem Producing Commerce - Early Game

[Wings]

Hey guys.

For some reason at around the beginning of the Medieval Era I seem to be having a very hard time making money and researching techs in under 30 turns. This current game I'm playing as Boudica (aggressive/charismatic) so I mean that could be part of the reason. Difficulty set to Prince, which I'm not new to. My only active civic is Organized Religion, I realize that it's a high upkeep civic but it doesn't seem logical to drop that to save a few $ per turn. I have been decently expansive with 8 cities by 720 AD and that seems like enough compared with the current computer opponents. If you guys could help me figure out what it is I'm doing wrong or forgetting about that would be great. Any pointers, suggestions, comments are welcome.

 

[ATopic22]

are you making cottages on river tiles and are u using the coastal squares for commerce. one square of coast with 3 gold for me as Hanibal reduced a tech by 3 turns. try using the coastal squares and try playing with a financial civ if you are willing to

 

[Crenor]

Are you building a lot of towns? If not, then thats your problem. I usually build towns in most squares, and then only enough farms to allow the city to work all the towns. Then for maybe a third of my cities that have good production potential I build farms, mines, lumber mills, and workshops instead of towns.

What do you usually keep your science slider at? If its going lower than 60 or 70% then you will get behind technologically.

 

[ATopic22]

Are you building a lot of towns? If not, then thats your problem. I usually build towns in most squares, and then only enough farms to allow the city to work all the towns. Then for maybe a third of my cities that have good production potential I build farms, mines, lumber mills, and workshops instead of towns.

What do you usually keep your science slider at? If its going lower than 60 or 70% then you will get behind technologically.

yes build lots and lots of cottages. especially next to river tiles. also have a citizen work on it

 

[Wings]

Hey thanks guys! My problem was definitely my lack of Cottages. For some reason I would build a farm every time I saw a square with fresh water next to it. I blame that on the old Civ titles not having an improvement similar to cottages. I picked up with a Financial civ and things are going a lot smoother now. Thanks again =D

 

[DrLaban]

An improvised solution if you are really short on commerce is to make one town work coastal squares. The food is abysmal and the commerce is not great, but it can really help early game until you get some cottages on line.

 

[futurehermit]

cottages, cottages, cottages.

or

scientists, scientists, scientists.

other ideas:

-get an academy in your capital
-lightbulb techs and trade them for key techs (currency, col, calendar, monarchy)
-don't overexpand until you get currency + col + some commerce cities (cottages) developed

 

[goonie61]

The strategy i have been using lately is building a lot of farms and great people, along with pyramids and you can make a lot of science and production.

 

[Blueberry]

You can do like me. Search for a map that contains at least one gem or gold in your starting city radius. I usually don't play a game that doesn't have two gems in my city. But it's more difficult to find a good map now with the BtS. It seems there are fewer resources on the map now than before.

 

[Wings]

All good ideas, thanks guys.

I use to be picky about my capital starting location too, but after while I just gave up on that and judged whether I was gonna play the map on the surrounding areas for potential cities.

 

[largedarryl]

If you can't turn your science slider up because of several things (look at your financial advisor screen). Is the city maintenance, civic upkeep, troop upkeep costing you too much.

Try making lots of scientist specialists in your cities because in early medieval period you can still use a SE to produce more beakers than gold can.

 

[acuoio]

When it comes to utilizing commerce tiles, the goal is to work tiles that pay for themselves. Coastal/lake tiles grant 2 commerce (+1 if you are financial). These squares give 2 food (lighthouse needed). So they pay for themselves.

A gold mine is good, but it doesn't pay for itself. Plus, a full-fledged town will give as much commerce as that mine - just takes longer to develop.

Besides using towns, you need to really let that town focus on commerce. That means getting the appropriate buildings and it also means using great person specialists such as a merchant, priest, or artist. [merchants are usually better off doing their mission as you'll make a ton of money.]

 

[largedarryl]

But attaching a GM to a city gives +1F, which IMHO is very useful early game. Although that early in the game it is very difficult to get a GM unless you build a world wonder that gives GM points.

 

[ATopic22]

All good ideas, thanks guys.

I use to be picky about my capital starting location too, but after while I just gave up on that and judged whether I was gonna play the map on the surrounding areas for potential cities.

yeah when i first started playing civ, i wouldnt settle until around 2000bc giving me a huge disadvantage. sometimes i even would go through half of the map before my city would be founded. now i just settle wherever i start because my culture can expand but if there is an important resource near my start that i can see, i would move there.