Am I doomed without ANY luxuries?

[morchuflex]

Hello.

I'm stuck on an island that doesn't contain any luxuries.
But the territory is otherwise quite decent.
How bad is it to have no luxuries at all? I would consider it to be a huge handicap: not only will it make it harder to control citizens' moods, but I'll have much less to offer in negociations...
Furthermore, strategic resources can be found overseas, but luxuries generally cannot, since they tend to appear mainly around starting locations.
Note that I want to play a pacific game, so please don't tell me "just go and conquer them".
Also note that I would rate myself as an average, Emperor level, player: so I'm not desperately looking for impossible challenges!
Shall I start over or give it a try?

 

[Turner]

I'd say give it a try. Might learn something.

Emperor means you get 2 content citizens before they start getting upset. Which means you need to rely more on Temples, Cathedrals, and PT deals. So long as you keep your rep clean, and go to war with the right people, you should be okay. You'll just have to ask yourself, do I want to pay for luxs, or entertainers?

You might want to move your palace to a city near the resources, then you can possibly get them via culture flip.

It would be a challenge. One, I admit, I'm not up to.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Actually, Emperor only gives 1 content citizen. Monarch gives 2.

You don't need to restart. Keep going. Here's some advice:

-Since you don't have a luxury, I would suggest monarchy to keep citizens happy with military police, BUT:
--Republic would be ok if you turn the luxury tax up around 20-ish %.
-Like Turner said, if you can build a temple and cathedral in almost every city, they will pretty much be happy, so you can turn the luxury tax down a bit.

It is rare (at least for me) not to have at least *one* luxury. Some games I have 3 without any wars. It's completely random..

 

[Turner]

Is it 1? I thought that was just Deity/Sid.

Republic would be hard. Monarch would be easier, since you'd have MPs. Later, communism. I'm wondering if the 20% lux would be offset by the Rep. bonus. Guess it depends on how big he gets.

 

[Tomoyo]

a) You can't play an entire game isolated: Try to keep the peace among you rivals and see if a trading hopportunity appears.
b) I guess Republic + 20% lux would be the best way. It also gives you some flexiblity in case something happens and you want to move the lux down to zero (maybe for all-out research) and then you could hire specialists for a while. You can't get that maximum run with Monarchy.

 

[Dida]

You are dead for sure if you don't have any luxury. Look around see who has them, take it from him by using overwhelming force.

 

[norwegianviking]

You are dead for sure if you don't have any luxury. Look around see who has them, take it from him by using overwhelming force.

Dead without any luxurys? I think not. Tighten your belt, build temples, put the science down 10% then add it to the luxery slider, hire some entertainers, and guess what? You'll be just as well off (minus a little science and production).

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

If about every city has some kind of commerce bonus instead (Fishes, Tobacco, Gold), you should be able to grow most cities to size 8 with a Temple and Cathedral, and 10% Lux in Republic. Monarchy or especially Despotism doesn't have to be better; the MPs are good, but OTOH, less commerce=less commerce assigned to Lux tax, so you'll need 20 or 30% Lux in those Govs. 1 uncorrupted gpt makes one citizen happy.

 

[AA-battery]

I say you make a ton of friends and then save up some gold to trade for their luxuries. You will not only get the luxs but also be friendlier with the AIs. Then you can trade a whole lot more than just luxs. A good way to avoid war as you claim you want a peaceful game.

 

[Charles 22]

You know what the luxury advisor said, don't you ?

Only a fool runs a kingdom without luxuries; King.

 

[Tomoyo]

I've won on Emporer games without any luxuries. It certainly is possible.

Btw, that is no luxuries for the entire game.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=101382

Have a look here...
Tried that game on Emperor, and did win (though pretty close).

 

[Dida]

I never run a whole game w/o luxury. I usually build up strong military muscle and just take them from whoever has them. This makes me extremely popular among my subjects.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Of course I'll try to get Luxuries by or trades. There are, however, maps with no sea routes to your landmass. So, even if you get hold of Luxes with military, you won't benefit from them before Navigation/Magnetism...

 

[norwegianviking]

Of course I'll try to get Luxuries by or trades.

I like the first one most, but, as Doc said, sometimes you don't get the benifates soon enough.

 

[bingen]

I won a Sid game starting on an island with no luxuries. Granted, it was an archipelago map and I had a fair sized island all to myself. The contactless AIs made for easy trading.

I used Republic with Temples and Cathedrals. I also prebuilt for and got Sistine's Chapel which was very helpful. If the island is otherwise decent, and you are able to contact the other civs, then you should be in fine shape.

 

[Abaddon]

please post a save game from ur 4000bc autosave!!!

i would love the challenge.. but i would go violent for some lux!

 

[norwegianviking]

Bye your previous posts we all know you will go violent from not having any luxeries, I pity the AI.