Anticipation

[Tabarnak]

Let's talk about how we can anticipate what our opponents have in mind. Here some of mine :

Demographics : Shows statistics about who is first in each categories, but you must know him first. Most important are Soldiers(total army) and manufactured goods(hammers per turn). Litteracy can be helpful in the beginning.

Soldiers : If you have a neighbor with a big army, i.e. far away from the average, you must prepare yourself for a possible big war.

Hammer per turn : If somebody has suddenly a big raise of his production, he might be building something with hammer bonus. May be settlers under Liberty or a wonder with hammer bonus from Tradition or marble. After 60 turns it becomes irrelevant. If you know he's building a wonder, well you know what to do.

Litteracy : If a player goes for early writting, he will get some percentage of litteracy. No writting, no litteracy. Early writting often means delay of iron working...

Diplomacy window : Probably the most important. You can actually know from players you encountered what they have for both luxuries and strategic ressources. Easy to see if someone got 2,4, or 6 iron. Just go in diplo in the trade window to see all his stuff.

This is it for now.

 

[Smote]

Other demographics I look at:


Crop Yield:

Predicts fast growth/many more hammers soon if someone is ahead of you in this. High crop yield is a good indicator that an opponent needs to be attacked SOON, before they get too strong. Frequently, high crop yield can also mean low production, though this isn't always the case.


Population:

Other than Literacy, the best indicator of current research rate. High population usually means fast research rate, since the majority of the research stems from the capital and that is usually the city with the most people.

Number of cities/strategy can typically be deciphered from the population demographic (1 pop = 1000, 2 = 6000, 3 = 21000, so if you see a number like 22000, you know the person expanded and has 1 size 1 city, 1 size 3 city, even before contacting or finding the civ)

Score:

Early game, score can be a good indicator of strategy. A jump in score usually means a new city, if not accompanied by a wonder built notification.

GNP:

An opponent having a high GNP is a bit worrisome. It can make life difficult in many ways (they can get CS allies, or purchase units/buildings, or mass upgrade)

 

[Tabarnak]

Population:

Other than Literacy, the best indicator of current research rate. High population usually means fast research rate

Score:

Early game, score can be a good indicator of strategy. A jump in score usually means a new city, if not accompanied by a wonder built notification.

GNP:

An opponent having a high GNP is a bit worrisome. It can make life difficult in many ways (they can get CS allies, or purchase units/buildings, or mass upgrade)

Population vs research rate : A pop 8 capital have more population than a pop 6-4-4 cities. If both has the NC, second player with 3 cities produce more research points.

Score: Well if a player get a wonder but you just realized this when he finished it you must have units ready to be upgraded fast enough to not let him build a sufficient defense. What i'm trying to do is to evaluate before he finished his wonder. But overall score is a good indicator in what shape a civ is.

I completely agree about GNP. Upgrades/rush buys are powerful.