[GS] A dumb difficulty hole - suggestions, please!

[Packherd2]

Here's my deal: I am trapped between "King" and "Emperor" difficulties. On King, I can't not win, and on Emperor, I never seem to get out of the early game. It's those three starting settlers, man. Even on a standard sized map, if the AI locates those three settlers quickly, in addition to their other difficulty benefits, I rarely seem to escape. My only hope has been that I was isolated enough in my start to avoid being harassed by a neighbor.

It's not fun to be between Can't Lose and Can't Make it Past the First few turns. When I have made it out of those early Emperor turns, each game's been challenging and fun through to the end—well, mostly.

I'm looking for tips. Both, how to get out of those early Emperor turns, but also for set-up options that might make for a more interesting King game. Map size, map type, number of AI, number of city-states? Whatever. I'm open to anything.

I suppose I could just play something else... but nothing's striking my fancy.

 

[Bliss]

What is your criteria for settling? New cities are weak so you need to place them in defensive positions (hillls, behind mountains, woods, jungle and rivers). Also, try to place new cities behind your capital, so you use your most developed city as a shield for new weak ones.

Also, your priority in the very early game should not be expanding nor building, but to get Intel (exploration) and make sure you are safe from barbarians and that you don't have an aggressive enemy moving his warriors to your land.

Than you are free to development. Also, save gold to fix weak some emergency gaps in your civ, like military. Buy slingers/warriors and save gold to upgrade slingers to archers.

 

[knighterrant81]

You could check out this thread. Sometimes it gets a bit off topic, but there are a lot of suggestions.

Mostly, I'd say raising the difficulty levels means you'll have to restart a lot, and try different things. There are many decisions that you make in this game, so many in fact you might not even be aware that those were decisions in the first place. They just seem like the most obvious choice, when in fact they might be exactly what is holding you back.

For a couple of really general suggestions, concentrating on military early is more important the higher your difficulty level. It also becomes much more important to expand early (either through conquest or settlement). Otherwise, after a bit of trial and error, you'll get it.

Some common pitfalls - people seem to often build districts too early, worry too much about Wonders or Religion (it is entirely possible, and not particularly difficult, to win with 0 Wonders and 0 Religion investment), or have just generally unfocused early game habits. Don't worry about being behind in yields (Science, Gold, Culture, etc.) early on. That is guaranteed to happen. The AI doesn't capitalize on their advantages, so human players win by playing more efficiently than the AI.

Is there something specific that you often seem to run into?

 

[Leucarum]

Maybe post some saves/screenshots? It'll be easier for people to give an idea of where you could improve?

For sure I wouldn't give up, emperor is a fun difficulty level! You don't have to play completely optimally and you can win with some wacky strategies, but the AI will still occasionally impact your game.

 

[Victoria]

I never seem to get out of the early game. It's those three starting settlers

2 things

Do not build 2-3 settlers first then. You can afford to do this on prince/king. On emperor I tend to try to get out one and then I am about right to build my army, sometimes I do not get my settler out before I change, it does depend on where the enemy is. On deity it is safer to build at least part of your army before a settler.

Someone else that was having a similar issue had a cause that was different to the normal and the problem was a slight misunderstanding with combat. When another civ or barbs are attacking you do not attack with your troops but set up fortified in defensive ground. It is often far better to just heal rather than attack.