What are the "standard" builds (research and SP), and how far can I deviate?

[adcarrymaokai]

It is sad, but Tradition is pretty much a must in 90% of games regardless of map size even. It just gives too much to everything you want: food+growth (indirect science gain), gold (monarchy+gold saved from free culture buildings and aqueducts), and happiness. Tradition simply has a lot of obvious and hidden power to it.

Ahhh, also forgot to mention that +15% to wonders is a nice boost to national wonders and a big hammer save, while faster growth rate means gold saving. So basically, every policy has hidden bonuses which are not explicit but very powerful. So yeah

 

[adcarrymaokai]

Aesthetics and Exploration can be useful just for unlocking their wonders

The AI seems to love Aesthetics and ignore Exploration/Rationalism. However, in my latest game, expecting the AI to never go Rationalism, I delayed PT a bit only to get a notification that England completed that wonder. The Global Diplomacy screen showed no Rationalism, so I wonder: is it because opening a tree does not show (Rationalism: 0) or is it a bug/cheat by the AI?

Wide empires would usually want to stop growing after about 5 or 6, maybe 10 (except the Capital, which you should grow regardless).

Well, hm. But 5-6 citizens means no specialists and lower production, doesn't it? I've played pretty much Tradition/Tradition-Lib mixes and aimed going for 20+ population cities if I have only 3 or 12+ if 5-8, and 30+ capital. I guess I am still learning...

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

5-6 Citizen is rediculus low, you must like ISC to get that low amount of them

I would say then I Think about it, that tall and wide should be described on what is the limiting variable on your population growth.

In tall empire pop will cost so much to grow and be so big that food will be the limitation.

For wide happines will be the biggest problem and you will have to get many happines Buildings to have constant growth.

 

[Erneiz Hyde]

The AI seems to love Aesthetics and ignore Exploration/Rationalism. However, in my latest game, expecting the AI to never go Rationalism, I delayed PT a bit only to get a notification that England completed that wonder. The Global Diplomacy screen showed no Rationalism, so I wonder: is it because opening a tree does not show (Rationalism: 0) or is it a bug/cheat by the AI?

simply opening a tree doesn't show it in the diplo screen

Well, hm. But 5-6 citizens means no specialists and lower production, doesn't it? I've played pretty much Tradition/Tradition-Lib mixes and aimed going for 20+ population cities if I have only 3 or 12+ if 5-8, and 30+ capital. I guess I am still learning...

buy workshop (hope you get commerce!) and 1 engineer (and a mine) should be enough production for the rest of the game. 6 if you can add in a scientist, 10 as the limit which you shouldn't cross. Being wide piss off most AI so you will be at war often, and thus taking cities often. You need some happiness buffer. Of course, if you can afford it (after completing Commerce for example), you can start growing your cities more, but not before you have all that abundant end game happiness.

Going wide isn't about one super production city, but a lot of production spread across many cities. For a rough example, if a tall empire can pump out 10 units in 20 turns from 2 cities, wide can pump 10 units from 5 cities within the same period.

5-6 Citizen is rediculus low, you must like ISC to get that low amount of them

Actually, I'm more a tradition guy myself, but you're right. that was actually an ICS strategy I read here somewhere now that I think about it. If not going ICS then I guess you can go somewhat larger but you generally still want to stay small-ish (around 10-12).

 

[ravenmagus]

Tested a Culture partheon?

Tradition is so overrated, don't limit your self to it, try to become less dependent on it and just take it if you go smal which I can say I don't Always do, I maybe use it like 30-40% of the times and I can play on diety.

Tradition isn't overrated, it's simply very strong. Other trees CAN work but it's usually harder than just going tradition.

Peity's been discussed before. It's in a pretty bad spot where opening Peity deosn't actually help you get a religion all that much, especially on higher difficulties; you still need something like a Faith NW or good Faith pantheon to secure it, and then the Piety bonus doesn't make much of a difference; meanwhile you fill out policies really slowly because there's no culture boost, and many of the policies don't even do anything for you till midgame. There's some pretty interesting bonuses you can get with the Reformation Belief - notably Jesuit Education, which the AI values very highly so is hard to get, and Sacred Sites, which is easier to get - but the tree is extremely hard to leverage, especially as an opening.

Honor has some pretty cool bonuses; the finisher especially is great if you plan to throw diplomacy out the window and just kill people all game long. Again, though, opening Honor will always be rough because it doesn't offer good early game economic bonuses.

Tradition is strong because it always leads to a strong capital; a strong capital leads to strong science, and strong science is the key to everything. It's also why the first two points in Rationalism are so highly rated because they give the biggest science boost, useful for all victory types.

I do encourage people to play different things and use cool Piety or Liberty etc strats, but when you ask about cookie cutter builds, the answer is always going to be Tradition, and for good reason (at least, unless it gets nerfed at some point).

 

[Brutus2]

Questions...

For research, if I go... Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Luxury Techs then Writing, at what point should I make sure to move on to Writing from any lux techs?

For National College if I'm building settlers before starting Oracle and/or NC, should I be hard building libraries in those cities for NC, waiting until NC is built to actually settle, or saving gold to buy a library??

Workers... I know many people like to steal workers. Is this strategy assuming workers will be stolen? If not, where would I be building workers?

 

[pvtjava]

Questions...

For research, if I go... Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Luxury Techs then Writing, at what point should I make sure to move on to Writing from any lux techs?

Questions to ask yourself. Do you need another lux right now? Do you have enough happiness to support your growth while you tech Writing?

For National College if I'm building settlers before starting Oracle and/or NC, should I be hard building libraries in those cities for NC, waiting until NC is built to actually settle, or saving gold to buy a library??

If you have the gold already (or can get it quickly) to buy a library for an unsettled city, then its safe to settle. If not, better build NC first.

Workers... I know many people like to steal workers. Is this strategy assuming workers will be stolen? If not, where would I be building workers?

I don't like stealing workers but it may be necessary if you are playing on higher levels.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Some tips:

Check how many different luxury Resources you can se, you should try to get atleast one copy of every different resource.

Go for the ones Closest to other civs first even if they are far away, this will both give you more Resources and cut of much land so you can get alot of usefull cities.

Sell your extra Resources, this can help your economy alot.

If you got the choice of getting more usefull cities or a Wonder I would take the cities because it will likely help you more later on.

Don't be afraid of getting negative happines cap because your expanding because then you get your workers and happines Buildings your cities will start to grow very quickly

 

[Brutus2]

If you have the gold already (or can get it quickly) to buy a library for an unsettled city, then its safe to settle. If not, better build NC first.

So...

Build library / NC in capital before building settlers or build settlers first and just have them park and wait while you build NC (maybe settle one if you have gold for library)?

 

[ravenmagus]

Questions...

For research, if I go... Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Luxury Techs then Writing, at what point should I make sure to move on to Writing from any lux techs?

For National College if I'm building settlers before starting Oracle and/or NC, should I be hard building libraries in those cities for NC, waiting until NC is built to actually settle, or saving gold to buy a library??

Workers... I know many people like to steal workers. Is this strategy assuming workers will be stolen? If not, where would I be building workers?

This strategy is not assuming workers are stolen (as I listed only the first four things or so you'd build and you don't want to build a worker that early anyways). Stealing a worker is not needed but it's a nice bonus.

It's usually better to get NC first and then settle or rush-buy the library. If you see a really good spot you may want to settle it early and build the library first, but it takes a new city a long time to build a library.

For early research it really depends on the map. If you have mining lux or lots of forest then that is easy to pick up early. Calendar you'll likely research right after Writing anyways. Sailing, trapping and masonry are far more iffy; try to hold off on those unless they're your only lux. Trapping is on the way to Civil Service -> Education and Masonry is on the way to Construction.

 

[direblade99]

I would ignore some of the stuff Denkt has said (no offense man)

Tradition is not overrated and is extremely powerful for every win condition, piety has a good idea about it but as you yourself have noticed it doesn't provide any culture boosts to get through the tree quickly, meaning that you're likely to not get the reformations you desire.

Liberty can also be powerful, but is only really suited to either rapid growth in a mixed tradition/liberty tactic, or for when you have 6-8 self built cities and perhaps more conquered. (assuming you're not going domination)

A reasonable tall build is considered 3-5 cities, a wide build is basically anything more than 6.

Grow as much as happiness allows, if you have more than 10 happiness you're probably not growing enough or you have too few cities (or maybe you just got a bunch of luxuries and city states)

A typical cookie cutter BO in your capital is 2 scouts - shrine - granary - worker/caravan - settlers - library

BO in your expos should be either monument - library if liberty opener unless if that's going to slow down NC (libraries in every city won't be finished before you unlock philosophy) you should probably go for libraries first. With tradition legalism will get you monuments so you can go straight into libraries.

Cookie cutter social policy order is tradition through to landed elite, then monarchy, aristocracy and oligarchy finish.

I would ignore honour entirely even when going domination.

Tech order varies based on luxuries around you and terrain specific wonders you might be able to get, however I find that a pottery - animal husbandry - archery - wheel - writing and then beeline philosophy tech order to be effective, other people might have something to say on this.

I hope what I have to say helps.