Always getting picked on

[drewtown]

My name is Drew and I have a problem...

I'm still trying to win a game on Nobel as I'm kind of a newb.
I am almost always very culturally strong and I often culturally take over cities as I build a lot of wonders, but I am usually pretty militarily weak up into 1800s~. So my question is really what if any wonders should I skip and is there a way to get better military production? Even if I'm not last place in soldiers people the AI still always picks on me and me alone, what am I doing wrong!?!?!

Thanks for listening.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

So my question is really what if any wonders should I skip

Have you tried skipping all of them?

 

[drewtown]

Are you saying there isn't one wonder worth getting?

 

[RIcs]

No. But just by doing that, skipping all, you will be more keen to find out which one doing what. And which will be important to your stage of building your Empire. Also, the excessive military can capture you some on the way.

 

[Cam_H]

Drew - welcome to CivFanatics!

I agree with Voice of Unreason (yet again ) that you shouldn't over-estimate the value of Wonders.

They will vary in value depending upon your circumstances and game objective, although some will struggle to prove their worth at the best of times.

Sisiutil's Strategy Guide for Beginners outlines some that are often of particular value broken into two groups "Best" and "Good". The Guide sets out;

Unlike older versions of Civilization, Wonders are not as crucial to winning strategies. Avoid “Wonder Addiction” – building Wonders that provide little benefit, or that become obsolete quickly, instead of building more valuable buildings and units.

As for getting picked on, Triangle Diplomacy could be worth a read ... not just the opening post, but other suggestions such as suspendinlight's (Post #16).

 

[drewtown]

Thanks everybody for your reply I will have to try that out and see how it works, and I'll definitely look at the guides suggested.

Thanks again

 

[thefais]

You have to build a good military, or you'll get thrashed. Only 3 cities are needed for the cultural victory, the rest should alternate between units and essential buildings.

 

[Meatbuster]

In addition to the Triangle Diplomacy, how about giving in to threats/help requests? Sure it can hurt (the pride) to give up a tech or some cash, but if you're not ready to go medieval with an army of your own, giving up a tech or a sizable amount of cash when you are asked for it can get nutcases like Montezuma and Catherine off your back.

 

[futurehermit]

1) As suggested, diplomacy is VERY important. Make sure you have friends and limit your enemies, preferably to one, which YOU will attack FIRST.

2) DO NO NEGLECT YOUR MILITARY EVER. Watch the power graph. If you start to fall too far behind in power you WILL be attacked by the aggressive civs.

3) Know your neighbours. If you have an aggressor nearby (e.g., Alex, Tokugawa, etc.) then be wary of an attack. If you have a nutcase/psycho nearby (e.g., Montezuma, sometimes Ragnar) then EXPECT an attack. A good way to divert being attacked is to bribe an aggressor (post-Alphabet) with techs to attack someone else. If they're attacking someone else, they're not attacking you!

4) It cannot be stressed enough. BE THE AGGRESSOR, especially against aggressive neighbours.

5) Wonders are good, but you should not build them at the expense of your military. If you are NOT industrious and you do NOT have a wonder resource (e.g., stone, marble) then wonders are VERY EXPENSIVE. If you ARE industrious and you DO have a wonder resource then--once you have some defenses in place--go ahead and build a wonder you want WHILE STILL BUILDING MORE TROOPS IN OTHER CITIES.

 

[Technocactus]

Force yourself to play a game without wonders. That way, you'll learn that a lot of wonders you may have thought of as essential are actually not needed.

 

[mice]

Also, practise the axe rush. This is where you get to Axemen pronto by hooking up copper, and then, after a barrack, building just axes.

Send 6 or so of them to the nearest city, preferably the capital. Grab it and then relax for a while building graneries, a library. You'll see how good other peoples' capitals can be.

The target should be near though, not too far.

 

[futurehermit]

You may find, however, that capitals are much more heavily defended (and sooner) in Warlords than in vanilla civ.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

I'm trying to get back to monarch post patch. Plus I'm an idiot.

The no wonder strat is a good idea to see what works. Early aggression is key.

aelf expressed this better in the EMC series, but if you're going to have wonders, have a plan and make them compliment each other.

 

[futurehermit]

^^yes, exactly