Any comments on my game?

[Leveler]

I have managed to win only 1 game on monarch after 2.08, so would you like to check my game for any tips?

Standard size map, monarch difficulty, epic speed and all normal settings.

Save (2.08):
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/101463/Leveler_AD-0290.CivWarlordsSave

West: (edit: added resource bubbles)

In New York I have the Pyramids, GL and Hanging Gardens. Im going to build National Epic there even though there is not very much food for SF.

East:

I planned Boston to be my military production center to pump out forces when Monty attacks. I planned to start HE there next.

+2 to Ragnar
+3 to HC and Qin.
+5 to Cyrys and +7 to Monte.


As soon as I got alphabet, I was falling behind in techs and had little to trade. Now I seem to be falling back even more.

On power I am also weakest. So far there hasn't been wars between any civs. Only Churchill and Monty are annoyed towards each other and everyone one else is cautious, pleased or friendly.

I'm going for CS now and planning to spam cottages for Chicago.

So.. what would you do next? Should I start building army and wait for war to join in or possibly even start one? Or should I try to catch up with others with that size empire?

 

[Softnum]

Just Judging from the screenshots, as I can't open the save at work, I can see 2 things: No wait 3... 3 things..

1) You don't have a lot of improved tiles. You probably need more workers.

2) What's your economic strategy? By the time you're at Alphabet, you should have a firm grasp on your plan to keep your commerce up. Cottage Economy or Specialist/Food Econ are the two most popular choices. You arn't cottaged out enough for cottage econ, and you don't seem to have enough farms for food econ.

3) Without the little resource bubbles I'm bad at reading resources on maps, but, you seem to have gold without food resource. You should strive to make your gold working cities have 1 food resource to support the gold mine.

 

[KMadCandy]

yeah resource bubbles help in screenshots, at least for me. and more workers! weakest on power is a bad place to be, but it sounds like you have that in mind and have a plan to deal with it.

 

[Collier20]

1) Better manage your resources.
-You have camps on your elephants, but no roads. Connect them and trade one of the elephants
-You have three gold, but only one mine. Mine and connect them, and trade two away
-You have a worker building a road or cutting down a forest right next to an iron. As soon as you can, you should build the improvement of the resource, the bonuses are much better.
-you are working a forested hill in your capital, turned this into a mine, you get +1 production every turn and the one time chop bonus
-Until plantations come around, I like to farm by bonuses like sugar, spices, and dyes. They provide an additional gold bonus over regular farms.
2) Build more workers
-My rule of thumb is one worker per city
3) Monty happy?
-The guy always turns on me, I never worry about making him happy. You are going to ruin other relationships to try to make this one work, but in the long run he's going to declare war on you. Plus being so close is going to raise tensions. Work on Qin, then when monty attacks you have him surrounded. Keep Ragnar on the plus side, so you dont have to worry about a two front war.
4) New York is growing very slowly,
One pop in 19 turns?
5) I would span cottages in Chicago. It has a lot of plains and hills and no food resources. Farm flat and mine the hills and turn this into a production city.

 

[Leveler]

Sorry for forgetting those resource bubbles. Updated screenshots now. Image names are same, so you may need to refresh them manually.

1) Better manage your resources.
-You have camps on your elephants, but no roads. Connect them and trade one of the elephants
-You have three gold, but only one mine. Mine and connect them, and trade two away
-You have a worker building a road or cutting down a forest right next to an iron. As soon as you can, you should build the improvement of the resource, the bonuses are much better.

Camps are connected with river, no need for roads. And other elephant is already going in trade for fish.

Gold: There has been only food resources available for trade and 1-3 gpt and I don't have need for healt bonuses currently, so I haven't yet build other mines. And NY won't have food to work those mines until I can spread farms with CS.

On Seattle I planned to chop for library first and then mine iron.

I have currently 5 workers (one will be completed in Boston next turn). I'll build more as suggested. Though most cities have population only to work those improved tiles because of whipping.

Thanks for replies.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

An assortment of critiques, offered at random without suggesting a way forward....

1) Pyramids, GL, and the Gardens when next door to Monty? And he's at the top of the board? Rex Kramer, Danger Seeker....

2) You are top of the demographics charts in production, bottom of the charts in soldiers.... Not a good combination.

3) You are industrious, you have a gold resource and a gems resource, and you have no forges because you've forgotten to reseach Metal Casting?

4) That looks like an awful lot of "cities placed to grab resources" compared to the number of "just a good city" locations.

5) Representation encourages specialists. Where are they?

6) Why are you building a worker you can whip? Why are you building a worker at size 6 in a city that by rights should be growing to size 10? That's what those coastal tiles are for!

 

[futurehermit]

New york has 3 floodplains and 3 precious metal hills. Why are you not working both of the gold pits????? You say you need irrigation but those 3 floodplains are sufficient!

You must get a better economy or else prioritize CoL more. Col does many things for you:

1) COURTHOUSES: this helps maintenance when you have such a large empire (by large I mean anything over 4 cities)

2) Caste system: It may not be your choice of economy, but the ability to run more than 2 scientists can come in handy

3) Prerequisite to CS for bureaucracy, etc.

Not having CoL by 250AD seems just too late imo.

And yes, as others have mentioned more improved tiles and much more emphasis on economy.

 

[Leveler]

I finished researching CoL and traded it for MC with Qin, Calender with Cyrys and Monarchy with Churchill.

Only already invented techs that I don't have are Horseback Riding, Construction, Music and Theology. Looks much better now.

 

[Ruler]

I think your biggest mistake by far was that you let your empire to grow to size of 6 before courthouses because a thumb of a rule is that you should wait courthouses after your fourth city. Seatle is founded way too early in my opinion it's behind your empire so easy to take later and not so remarkable. Washington it looks good as it is. New York should be better 3 floodplains and 3 gold or gem mines are match from heaven, farm floodplains and work on gem and gold mines also Philadelphia there should be more cottages, what I could have done is work sheep, cottage grass one south of sheep then cottage two plains near the river what could made it a science and decent production city early. Boston is an excellent for unit production but why it's producing a worker.

In overall I think you are doing fine I hope you have an army of 10 units at least for coming wars. It looks like Monty is a good target as he's founder of Budhism so probably have a nice holy city to capture and if Monty get too strong he can be unstoppable.

EDIT In Chicago there should be cottages instead of farms in my opinion.

 

[cabert]

excellent advice already.
The biggest things that jumped at me were unimproved valuable tiles (gold!!!! FPlains!) and the late research of CoL.
That + seattle being near to useless (no food!).

If I had to play from there, I would
- finish CoL then rush to construction and currency
- lightbulb philosophy asap (if tradeable) : great library should help
- switch to pacifism+judaism (you need to have it in your NE city for the improved GPP)
- build the HE asap
- build hordes of catapults and some support troops (elephants, axe or maces, a medic)
- go conquering the world

 

[futurehermit]

Seems late for GL...

 

[cabert]

Seems late for GL...

he already has it

 

[TylerD]

One small point. You are building the NE in a city with 3 flood plains, 3 mines and a quarry. The excess food should be used to work the mines, so there shouldn't be much left over for specialists. You should find a more food worthy city for your NE (the North-East city?).

 

[Leveler]

1154 AD I was easily first to discover Liberalism and picked Astronomy.

In 1172 I finished Printing Press with GS. Half of civs don't have Education yet and I haven't traded Liberalism or PP yet. 3 civs have Banking and Gunpowder. I think I'll trade Gunpowder, research Chemistry and Steel and then preventive strike against Monty.

I think that NE works fine in NY. The Pyramids, HG, GL and 2 (free) scientists and one engineer gives 32 GPP per turn with 42 % change for GE or GS and 14 % for GA.

As long as AIs won't start war on me simulataneous, I should have no problem winning this.

 

[cabert]

I think that NE works fine in NY. The Pyramids, HG, GL and 2 (free) scientists and one engineer gives 32 GPP per turn with 42 % change for GE or GS and 14 % for GA.

You should add some wonders there to improve the rate.
32 GPP/turn is a bit low.
Mercantilism could help, a great merchant settled there would help too (1 more food!), but you won't get any great merchant unless you build a few merchant wonders .

As long as AIs won't start war on me simulataneous, I should have no problem winning this.

what victory condition do you aim for?

 

[TylerD]

Its not a terrible NE city, but the problem is you can't specialise. Need Great Artists to culture bomb your newly captured cities? Can't do it. Need a Great Merchant to fund those upgrades? Can't do it.

 

[Leveler]

I know 32 GPP/turn is not that much, but still it's not complete waste of NE. I popped IW there and now I'm farming GEs:

There was some delays in starting the war, but it was worth of it:

The Coalition:

Monte (after building total of 4 World Wonders) switched to vassalge and theocracy and soon attacked Cyrys and his vassal. I joined in and bribed Churchill.


I haven't completely decited which victory to pursue, but space race is probably the most reliable one. If I manage to get tanks early enough, domination is also a possibility.

 

[dutchfire]

You declared your first war in 1550 AD? You might want to be more aggressive next time.