After Prince, Before King...

[fatboris]

I haven't seen any reviews on the Duke mod which is a level between these two. Prince is getting too easy but I get whooped on King.

I've only played continent maps so far, maybe I should try a different map type but here's how my games are going:

- I'm starting out, survive the initial onslaught of neighboring civs by playing turtle, get good promotions on my archers

- Mathematics hits and I start taking the capitals on my continents, as I build new units and neighboring civs start new cities, I hit those while they're weak and get promos for my newer units and keeping them from getting strong.

- I research Astronomy, scout the next continent, settle a coastal city there, start amassing units, then there is an epic battle with the big guy over there. It's typically a battle of attrition because I go for his capital right out of the blocks.

- After I take that capital there is just 1 or 2 weaker civs I have to mop up and the game gets really boring.

King kills me and I can't make it past the first round of everyone attacking my capital. I've tried playing Diplo to change up VC but find myself getting pretty bored by the time I'm halfway through my fourth policy tree. Science is just too long a game and either Ghandi nukes me or someone shows up with a Death Robot. My favorite part of the game is military tactics/logistics.

Is there a map that would make Prince more challenging? Is the Duke mod good? Any ideas or suggestions. Unfortunately I play this when I'm not at home so I have crappy wifi and can't watch Let's Plays to get solid enough strategies for King.

...OR do I just need to suck it up and move up a level?

 

[Circlet the Zen]

Suck it up and move up a level. I used to only play on Prince because I got my ass kicked before the first year AD on King. Now, I play on King and it is too easy.

Just keep playing at King, see what nation works best for you, try different military strategies and policies with other nations.

 

[Donaskme]

I've only played continent maps so far, maybe I should try a different map type

Unless naval warfare is a huge part of your general playstyle, I tend to use Pangaea maps at first when trying a higher difficulty, to minimize variables.

Mathematics hits and I start taking the capitals on my continents

You can start taking cities well before siege units. I like five archer/CB/XB and a melee. I don't usually build any siege at all until at least cannon.

King kills me and I can't make it past the first round of everyone attacking my capital ... do I just need to suck it up and move up a level?

Just focus on having 4 - 6 Composite Bowmen by turn 100, in addition to two melee, and you'll survive those early wars. It's a skill you have to learn in order to go higher than Prince. When I see some cheesehead start dancing his five archers and three warriors on my border, I just declare and wipe them out before they get positioned. I generally follow up by puppeting the city they launched from, then suing for a juicy surrender.

 

[krc]

Just focus on having 4 - 6 Composite Bowmen by turn 100, in addition to two melee, and you'll survive those early wars. It's a skill you have to learn in order to go higher than Prince. When I see some cheesehead start dancing his five archers and three warriors on my border, I just declare and wipe them out before they get positioned. I generally follow up by puppeting the city they launched from, then suing for a juicy surrender.

It's not worth the diplomatic (warmonger) penalty to declare on them. Just sell them any resources you have and let them declare. Use the gold to buy archers and kill their units, and then go take all but one of their cities.

 

[Civking5]

I have the same problem between emperor and immortal levels. Emperor is too easy and immortal too tough. My main problem in immortal is that I fall behind in tech in immortal level. Several times in last few games, I gave up my immortal level games when I realized that there is more 20% difference between my tech and top AI.

 

[Donaskme]

It's not worth the diplomatic (warmonger) penalty to declare on them. Just sell them any resources you have and let them declare. Use the gold to buy archers

Diplomacy doesn't factor into my playstyle, but this might be a concern for others, for sure. Mostly when I'm looking at a mob of warriors and archers on my border, it's only turn ~50 or so, all my resources are already sold down to zero and have been for many turns, and I've only met maybe three out of ten civs.

I generally have four to six archers and a couple of warriors already, and there's no chance the AI was ever going to be victorious anyway. I'm just speeding along the inevitable.