Struggles on civ 5

[xraptorx]

So I have played civ 5 for a bit now and found some struggles. I typically build 4-5 cites from my own settlers and play Japan on prince.

I go all out and try to get some samurai and then conquer 1 civ. I will annex until unhappiness is too high and then create puppets. By this time, I have to build happiness improvements and end up with negative cash flow. My whole score starts to slide and other cigs are still growing in numbers of cities, armies and cash.

How can I better manager happiness and cash flow to enable domination victories? As for policies, I try to get the ones which help me get city states bonuses for units and the science boost.

 

[Dai]

Where game balance is now, annexing is nearly always far, far worse than puppeting. Puppet cities give you many of the benefits of annexed cities, but at a tiny fraction of the cost in happiness. The primary drawback to puppeting is that you don't get to choose production, but the AI governor is, on the whole, somewhat decent at it. You also can't rush-buy units in such a city. Something that might solve both your issues at once is using workers to replace farms in puppet cities with trading posts. This helps keep the city from growing too large too fast (a strain on happiness) and also brings in more gold for you (so you can afford your happiness buildings and other infrastructure.) I very recently moved from Prince to King, and for domination victories (or really any kind of victory) the ideal number of cities to annex - rather than puppeteering or razing - is typically around zero. Right now the game strongly disfavors large empires of "real" cities, but huge puppet empires get many of the benefits that come with such empires and few of the drawbacks.

Additionally, you're probably already doing this, but when you're picking out city-states to make your allies, shoot for ones with luxury resources that you don't already have. It's an important way to manage happiness while you're expanding militarily.

 

[Securion]

First; Do not annex unless you have to.

Also, You shuld only settle on rivers. Everything else will be a negative cash flow or really gimped city, unless you have really good site with lots of resources, fish, etc...

 

[AznWarlord]

The AI settles a bunch of useless cities to grab space. Raze them.

 

[chazzycat]

Plan for happiness better, you want to be constantly building happiness buildings from the get go, don't wait until it's crippling you. Growth drives your economy, so you want to keep the happiness coming. And like others have said, there is no need to annex all the cities you conquer. Only cities that are immediately useful to you for production should be annexed. If you have gold problems after conquering, leave more cities as puppets. They are stuck on gold focus so will not drain your economy. If they are bad places, raze them.

Also, 4-5 own founded cities is rarely optimal IMO. You either want to stay small and reap the benefits of going tall (early science, fast policies), or expand a lot more aggressively (7-10 cities) to get the long-term economic boost of REXing and the Liberty tree. You can probably make it work on Prince but may be worth trying some other playstyles.

Warmongering will also hurt your diplomacy, so you won't get good trade values for your resources. If you have many of the same type of luxury (as opposed to many different types) you may be better off playing peacefully so you can trade your surplus more effectively.

 

[dojoboy]

Something that might solve both your issues at once is using workers to replace farms in puppet cities with trading posts. This helps keep the city from growing too large too fast (a strain on happiness) and also brings in more gold for you (so you can afford your happiness buildings and other infrastructure.)

Good tip. Thanks.

 

[northernlights]

While there are a ton of different directions you can go at Prince, I thought I would post on strategies for the highest difficulty (Deity) which are never bad to get used to at easier difficulties.

What everyone else is saying about Annexing is correct... On higher difficulties where Happiness is a challenge to manage, you really want to limit this to crucial cities (i.e you are playing a Continents map and need a coastal city to launch Caravels from).

This extends to your own cities as well. Cities you settle require the time/money investment for the settler itself, workers to connect the roads and hook up resources and then have happiness issues themselves. On Deity I have the most success with just 1-2 'settled' cities, with the rest of my empire puppetted.

This essentially means two things:

1. One of those first two cities must be a production monster.
2. You need to be able to start conquering a neighbour before they blow by you in the Tech race, so every early decision you make should support this (meritocracy from Liberty tree bulbing Steel to upgrade 4 warriors to LongSwords is a common and effective early rush strat).

The big picture approach to this strategy as think of it as giving yourself the essential tools to take other empires and no more. Conqured empires become your source of gold (trading posts for every puppet) and science and the more you conquer the less you have to worry about things like Research Agreements to keep you competitive (although they still help and are still almost neccessary on Deity).

 

[King Patrick]

Also, don't forget that if you puppet a city on conquering it, you can opt to annex it at any time afterward. I find it's best to puppet cities initially, and then, if for some reason I decide I need it as a full-fledged part of my empire, annex it later after the happiness hit wears off - particularly if I've been doing a lot of conquering. (You'll still get another hit for annexing, but if you wait for the initial batch of penalties to wear off you'll weather it better).

You also probably want to specialize your cities - production, science, gold, maybe culture. Prioritize the buildings for the that city's specialty, and only build outside the specialty if you have the money to pay for it. I.e., science cities build libraries, universities, etc. and population improvements (since pop adds to science), but not temples or factories unless you have a lot of spare gold per turn to pay upkeep on unnecessary buildings. Target wonders to the city specialties, too, for some massive bonuses.

 

[Colonel Bogey]

Also, don't forget that if you puppet a city on conquering it, you can opt to annex it at any time afterward. I find it's best to puppet cities initially, and then, if for some reason I decide I need it as a full-fledged part of my empire, annex it later after the happiness hit wears off - particularly if I've been doing a lot of conquering. (You'll still get another hit for annexing, but if you wait for the initial batch of penalties to wear off you'll weather it better).

You also probably want to specialize your cities - production, science, gold, maybe culture. Prioritize the buildings for the that city's specialty, and only build outside the specialty if you have the money to pay for it. I.e., science cities build libraries, universities, etc. and population improvements (since pop adds to science), but not temples or factories unless you have a lot of spare gold per turn to pay upkeep on unnecessary buildings. Target wonders to the city specialties, too, for some massive bonuses.

Just to add the obvious that specialising cities in very small puppet driven empires denies you much needed and easily built national wonders. I guess most of the 'specialisation' is geared towards tile improvements as it may still be beneficial to have a workshop and library in all cities.

 

[roguepro92]

play Egypt.
the puppet cities will always build the tomb which will give you culture and make up the happiness drop a little easier to handle.
+ if you use chariots properly, you can start warring/puppetting off of your capital alone which would make social policies super cheap to get and get quickly with your puppets giving +2culture from tomb.

 

[King Patrick]

Just to add the obvious that specialising cities in very small puppet driven empires denies you much needed and easily built national wonders. I guess most of the 'specialisation' is geared towards tile improvements as it may still be beneficial to have a workshop and library in all cities.

Right - I generally construct the basic buildings, like libraries & markets, in all my cities. The more advanced ones are more dependent on my economy & whether or not the city in question is up-to-date on its own specialty.

 

[Colonel Bogey]

What is everyone's take on specialists then?

Of late I've been building enough farms to allow at least enough to feed specialiss in my universities. They seem to be seldom mentioned in a lot of strategy threads. Are they worth it?

 

[northernlights]

What is everyone's take on specialists then?

Of late I've been building enough farms to allow at least enough to feed specialiss in my universities. They seem to be seldom mentioned in a lot of strategy threads. Are they worth it?

Assuming we only have a couple of non-puppet cities for production, those cities will shift between food, science or production focus depending on my needs.

I generally start between food and production focuses and once I've built the critical buildings/troops as well as a University I will move to science focus for great scientists. Unless playing a culture game, I will continue to run Engineers and Scientists through the midgame and focus on science at end game.

The key mistake I made early on in Civ was to be so focused on running specialists I didnt let my cities grow large enough as population is directly connected to your output of science.

 

[Agent Cooper]

Don't annex unless your strategy depends on having the city under full control and you have the happiness surplus to afford it.

As an example, I'm playing a deity Babylon game right now where I currently have 10 cities in my empire. I played an aggressive rush start gambit depending on getting Rifling while still in the bc's and as such, the capitol is the only city I've settled myself. 2 of 4 conquered capitals are annexed and and the rest are puppets. The remaining 2 puppet capitals will be annexed when happiness allows it and a 6. city will be annexed as well down the line to have the 6 citys ready for a scientific win in the late game.

PS: remember to build courthouses in annexed cities asap. Very important.

My happiness right now is exactly 0 but will sky rocket when my next sp is activated, which will be Theocracy. In this type of games, that sp could get somewhere in the region of +25-30 happiness in one turn which will be a huge impact on the rest of the game.


So, some of the sp's in the Piety tree are a great choice for happiness in a large empire with many citizens.

The current 0 is reached with a bunch of different luxuries under my control as well as 5 allied city states (+20 happiness), 4 of them with luxuries I don't have myself. I have only constructed a single circus and colusseum at this time, so there's happiness to get from building more of those if needed, but I don't think I have to which is great, It saves a lot of hammers.

 

[apocalypse105]

Plan ahead if you are building up your army dont forget to build happiness buildings because when you are taking cities your happiness will fall... You have to plan your warfare not only military but economic(happiness). Befor you delcare war make shure you get enough happiness.

When you capture a citie look if it on a good situation some cities are just really bad and you dont want them only exepction is here if the citie has luxury resources you dont have.

When you do find it is in a good spot allways puppet the citie sow you get the benefit of their output of gold and culture but you can't choise the production and it will only build buildings and not units.

You only want to anex a citie if it is in a really good spot and will have a lot of production for example... This is mostly the capital. But keep in mind that you want maximum 2 cities anexed because the courthouse cost 4 maintanance a huge cost.

If the citie you want to anex isnt a capital just burn it down. And build a settler your own and place it where the citie is sow you dont have to pay the maintanance for the courthouse!!!


If you are razing cities you will get most AI leaders mad and they will denounce you or some even will declare war on you like Siam. Sow keep that in mind if you just want some more territory but dont want to get labeled as a warmonger take a few cities and puppet them make peace dont wipe the civ out because that olso get you labelled as warmonger.

But if you are going for domination victory then it doenst matter Because you are going to wage a lot of war and a lot of people will hate you and will atack you sow get use to it.