Advice

[Rwedgie]

This is my first regent game, I'm doing pretty well I think, I was just wondering if anyone whos bored or has the time wants to take a look at the .sav and let me know where i could stand to improve.

I realize its quite late in the game for the tech pace, but thats just because i had zero research with one scientist. I had the GL... so I didn't really need to research. Now that i've lost a few galleys to treacherous seas I finally managed to find some of the other civs only to find out they are even more lacking than I

Anyways, I just finished up a war with Spain (which took a million times longer than it should because of ONE elite spearman who didn't know how to die.), and left them with a single city.

 

[nullspace]

You had me at "bored."

Looks like everything is fine. Your empire is large and well-developed. You're certainly in a winning position, but the Hittites and Americans are competitive. I'd say domination or diplomatic wins would be easiest at this point. Although even getting to the modern age might be difficult since tech is so far behind.

OK, advice:

Build more ships. Contact the remaining civs soon. There's a Chinese city visible on the map, but you don't have contact. Just explore everything. You'll also want ships for settling and invasions. So, many more ships.

Micromanage your core cities. Some are at size 12 and need the irrigated grasslands changed to mines. Others need citizens to be shifted to irrigated grasslands in order to grow. Don't build courthouses in core cities. In general, be more careful about what improvements you build. Cities in the tundra need harbors to grow. Knossos needs an agueduct. Once the cities are growing then worry about markeplaces and happiness.

Pump some settlers. There are lots of availible islands you can grab if you want domination (coast counts towards land area). If you don't want domination, you could just grap the resources you see.

Establish embassies at least so you know where the other civs' homelands are. They're also good for knowing who's fighing who, and improving relations though ROPs.

Now a question: Why did you build the Great Library when you only had contact with one civ? In that situation, it's totally useless, and as far as I can see, it has done almost nothing for you. The lighthouse would have been much more useful (you could trade resources with everyone you've met) or you could have simply not built any wonders at all. You'd have had more troops and crushed Spain faster. Building the GL has seriously hurt you in this game.

But, you're winning anyway. One intersting strategy might be to settle a lot of distant island cities, then switch to Communism when you get it to make them productive.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

THE GREAT LIBRARY IS EVIL !!!

That being said, I took a swift peek at the game and found a couple things you could improve, imho. First, you did a good job at irrigating stuff to maximize food, but it was unnecessary to do it to that extent. For the greatest part of the game (usually the greatest anywho) you will not have built hospitals, and 12 pop is the max you'll get. You have a pretty good terrain for powerful mines on hills and mountains, but your production cannot rely on just them. Micro-managing workers to give you just 24 food per city and maximal production is a tedious task at first, but very rewarding once you have got the hang of it.

You seem to have built quite a few uncalled for improvements, like a courthouse near your capital, or a temple in a city you took back from the spanish that already broke its cultural circle. Oh, and the great library falls into that category too . You could put those shields into colosseums and MP so that you can lower lux tax and research at a better rate: with your growing empire, 8 turns a tech should be reachable soon.

Necessary buildings, at Regent level, should be aqueducts and libraries, since you can research your way up and not fall behind. Since you cannot secure more luxuries and you'll have to research over banking-up, marketplaces are not a top priority in small cities. Libraries will soon be though, as well as MP and maybe a few temples/cathedrals(big cities) and colosseums(med-size).

Good city placement in general, it's better tight and hot. The more worked tiles you have, the more you get gold and shields. You could use a couple more workers I guess, but it's alright. Use that gold to catch up in tech with the hitties, no gpt and start imposing yourself as the intellectual leader of the world. Build embassies because 1: you have cash and 2: you have size, which means people will pay you for ROP, and you re-pay your embassy in a blink.

 

[Rwedgie]

thanks for the advice. A few of the things you mentioned I just hadn't thought about yet - like harbors in tundra and the courthouse near the capital, well im not really sure where that came from.

As for the GL... I know it hurt my game i've been kicking myself, but truthfully what happened was I had the GL before I had even met the Hittites. I was pretty quick in getting it as my capital grew quite quick... and then i spent the next while complaining to myself because i didn't know any other civs. I started looking for them but you'll notice alot of the islands involve the galleys passing over sea and ocean squares, which, didn't fare too well for me a few times.

Anyways, thanks for the advice. I've gone on to colonize many of those small islands, and am getting ready to assault the hittites

 

[DBear]

I disagree. The GLib is almost essential when starting on a remote island. The AI will trade tech between each other and be far ahead while you are on your lonely isle. The GLib is the best way to catch up. While doing so, you can put your money to better use by building a military and or workers.

 

[Rwedgie]

Yeah, see the GL didn't help me out, because apparently everyone did horrible tech research. Like, I was researching at 0 with one scientist, and got i think four techs from GL total, and i've got tech lead.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

On archipelagos, I usually like to build a handful of curraghs, especially if I'm seafaring, to scout and so I trade tech with comps a lot, before THEY meet each other and THEY trade. It helps more than the GL, and has been far more cost-efficient to me.

On a side note, omg DBear, a MoO 1 avatar ! woohoo

 

[Renata]

If it's a true archipelago -- civs generally scattered only one or two to a landmass, with boat-building necessary to gain more contacts -- then AI research will also be slowed greatly. Proper prioritization of research should get you contacts ahead of most of the AIs, and with good trading, you shouldn't have trouble keeping up in tech. This'll work at least through Monarch level, maybe higher.

Where the GL *does* help is at very high levels (unfortunately it's also harder to build in time) or in those rare situations where you're alone but all the AIs do have contact. Even then, though, contact can frequently be made early enough to make the GL unnecessary -- particularly in C3C, with curraghs.

Renata

 

[Rwedgie]

Yeah - the problem this game was that I had everything on random, so I didn't really know what the landforms were like.

but no matter, things should turn out well.

 

[vmxa]

At Regent or lower, it is fine to build the GL, you just have to keep researching as if it does not exist. It is useful for denial.

You could avoid Education, until it is gotten via the GL. You do need to get out and make contact to get any boost.