Any Specific tips for terra maps?

[kartrak]

Hi, Im a monarch/prince level player and love playing medium size terra maps.
I am slightly pacifist in my approach and usually build about 6-8 cities in the old world and try to shoot for astro as quickly as possible ,preferable thru lib.
On prince i could manage this and usually ended up with a strong new world economy.

On monarch though, even after winning the liberalism race, i notice that the ai manages to arrive and colonise chunks of the new world very quickly, while my economy crashes as i overexpand to prevent the ai form taking all the new world land.

i would appreciate any tips to keep up with the ai..my own thoughts were :
1.save a great engineer for versailles/forbidden palace.-tough as i usually only get one GE by that time and that is only if i build the pyramids, which i skip in favour of expansion.
2. build versailles/fp in old world before itself, and chop the palace in the new world- this is slightly more doable, but divine right is usually researched at the same time and ai tends not to part with it until versailles is built.

any advice in this regard is welcome

 

[TheMeInTeam]

It's difficult but possible to get Astronomy in the BCs, but early ADs is doable. You avoid research civil service or theology until you bulb it with great scientists.

On terra it's also possible to just bulb optics, upgrade a couple triremes to caravels immediately and go off claiming huts, since you can pop astro from huts.

The AIs rarely get astro before 1000 AD, even on immortal, so you should be able to get a head start if you want to go that route.

 

[DaveMcW]

On terra it's also possible to just bulb optics, upgrade a couple triremes to caravels immediately and go off claiming huts, since you can pop astro from huts.

Only if barbarians are off.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Only if barbarians are off.

Spies can pop goody huts.

 

[Iranon]

I generally find it easiest to play Terra as a small, crowded Pangaea... just take over the old world and leave the new one for those who can't take the heat.

If you can't afford the maintenance, there are always colonies... one advantage of those is that they receive the full AI bonuses and generally like you enough that you can make semi-decent use of them.
Unfortunately, Monarch bonuses are nowhere near enough to offset the general incompetence of the aI...

 

[TheMeInTeam]

He said he was pacifist, otherwise I'd have advocated treating it as pangaea for most of the game too. A vassal AI can function as a "colony" after you punt it off the old world .

But if he just wants to do a colonization thing then fast astro is the way to go.

 

[shyuhe]

Or play as Joao.

 

[kartrak]

TMIT: spies popping goody huts is a great idea
the problem is not getting to astronomy quickly,as much as too fast expansion in the new world..

I usually have 8-10 good cities in the old world and try to flip a couple of cities thru culture and fortify while beelining astro... the problem is my new world empire quickly becomes as big or even bigger than my old world in terms of size in under 50 turns as i bring both stacks of troops and settlers ... this temporarily crashes my economy and others tend to catch up or leave me behind.

in prince and lower, i just directed all my espionage points to the tech leader of my religion and stole optics or divine rights for the maintenance control, however, in monarch i find its tougher to do the same, guess ill just have to improve my game!

 

[Jrrd Tzu]

Why is astro so important here?

 

[the reverend]

Why is astro so important here?

Astronomy lets you build galleons, so you can transport troops to the new world. Before galleons, the only ships that can enter ocean tiles are caravels, and they can't carry troops (IIRC they can't carry settlers, either). I believe it also allows trade across oceans, so the new world receives old world resources, and vice versa.

 

[kartrak]

Why is astro so important here?

also, unlike other maps there is an entire new world to be colonized and early astro can allow for massive expansion

 

[TM Moot]

Astronomy lets you build galleons, so you can transport troops to the new world. Before galleons, the only ships that can enter ocean tiles are caravels, and they can't carry troops (IIRC they can't carry settlers, either). I believe it also allows trade across oceans, so the new world receives old world resources, and vice versa.

Until Astonomy (and Galleons) no settlers/workers or troops can cross the ocean. Optics allows Caravels to sail the high seas, but they can only carry scouts, missionaries and explorers.

Or play as Joao.

The exception to the above is to play the Portugese. Their UU (the Carrick (sp?)), which replaces the Caravel, can transport settlers. The main problem then though is not bombing the economy, as IMP/EXP doesn't help out!

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Unfortunately, I play terra with barbs on, so my tactics are combat related. I essentially face a barbarian nation full of large cities, and the barbarians improved some of the tiles.

The tactic I like to use is to find the Cuba-like island that seems to always be placed near the center, between the North and South portions of the continent, drop a single settler, and use that island city as a troop staging location to attack the Barbarian defenses. The 50 barbarian macemen/musketmen will destroy anyone who dares plant a colony on the mainland, so I don't care if the AI Civs try to plant cities at this stage.

I gather a handful of strong city defenders, take the most remote barbarian city, cut their road system, and let them throw dozens of units at my new conquest. As I shuttle my troops from the old world, even if I lose the city I can take it back. Wear down the Barbs, and once they exhaust their surplus units, I roll in and take out the 7-12 really large barb cities with little trouble. Whip all that pop to get the courthouses and other helpful infrastructure in place, and... profit!!!

 

[kartrak]

yep, barbarian cities are extremely profitable, but if u try for an early astro slingshot, then the barbarians do not get much time to build many cities, so i have to ship settlers along with them.
On higher dificulties, barb cities are always defended by longbows and usually some maces are roaming around, so i have to bring siege+mace +longbows to defend these cities, which takes some time and reduces the army strength in the old world temporarily

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The exception to the above is to play the Portugese. Their UU (the Carrick (sp?)), which replaces the Caravel, can transport settlers. The main problem then though is not bombing the economy, as IMP/EXP doesn't help out!

Bah. Just settle them and build cottages/whip courthouses/whatever. The cities won't get trade routes w/ your homeland until astro but they'll get routes between each other. Of course good commerce resources or riverside/seafood helps with the expense some too.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

yep, barbarian cities are extremely profitable, but if u try for an early astro slingshot, then the barbarians do not get much time to build many cities, so i have to ship settlers along with them.
On higher dificulties, barb cities are always defended by longbows and usually some maces are roaming around, so i have to bring siege+mace +longbows to defend these cities, which takes some time and reduces the army strength in the old world temporarily

Hmm, you must be getting to Astro real early. I don't understand how the AI can keep up unless the map gave a fast researcher like Mansa some really good land and good friends to trade compass and the other Astro prerequisites with.

As to how many cities you find, I don't really know but I have a logical idea why I see more cities. It may not be true, so I'll put it in a spoiler.

Spoiler :

I do try to wipe out every barb city near my empire in the old world as early as possible, so barbarians will have more cities relocated to the new world. Let me explain what I mean.

Since the number of barb cities planted and respawned depends on the number of unsettled/uncultured land tiles on the map, I want them to concentrate in the new world before the old world fills in with multiple border pops. So I kill every barb city I come across as early as possible, no mercy. I never really measured how well that tactic works. I have no clue if it's really true but knowing the number of respawning barb cities will decline as cultural borders and number of civilized cities expand to choke out uncivilized tiles in the old world, it is logical to try to force as many barb cities to respawn into the new world before then. I add extra fogbusting just to be safe.