Arrrrrrggghhhh!!!!

[blazer-glory]

Im not a very good player at this and even though its addictive I find myself becoming very frustrated and annoyed at my leadership. Time and time again I find myself bogged down in never ending wars with civs I just can't kill off. Im only playing on Warlord level but right now Im stuck in an endless tit for tat conflict with the english. I try everything but my forces are continually picked off by a few units. Could I pass my saved posistion on to someone to analyze? There are only a about 70 turns left but I would be grateful for any advice and to see if others can make any head way.

 

[LlamaCat]

post your save here and someone will look at it. I will check it out probably. we like criticizing other people's games to avoid discussing our own shortfalls.

warlord level.... you will be up to Noble and Prince levels in no time with a little help, don't sweat it. After Prince I think it really means you are playing with the big boys.

 

[dozenlong]

Without seeing the save, at Warlord you should be able to create a SOD (Stack of Death) of a combination of artillery and offensive units and wipe through things.

We have no shortfalls llama!

 

[blazer-glory]

Well I guess this is going to be embrassing but here it is!

 

[Cam_H]

Wow! That is embarassing!

... kidding

I'll give you a few suggestions;

Civics! You have access to some of the best civics in the game, but aren't using them - The Pyramids opens all Government civics, while you also have access to Slavery and Bureaucracy - each can give you the tools to build a really strong empire.

From here - you're in a really strong position because you've got Industrial Age units (Cannons and Grenadiers) fighting late-Medieval units (Musketmen and Pikes). As dozenlong advises, you need to bring together your strong units into one or two Stacks-of-Doom, and focus your attacks in a co-ordinated manner. As you've noted, single units wandering the countryside tend to get picked off.

If you need some time, you can negotiate a Cease Fire or Peace deal with Elizabeth - but I'm not sure that it's necessary.

Swap Civics into Slavery and start whipping Cannons and Grenadiers. Bring them together into a single fighting force. Rather than going after Radio, I'd look at picking up Drama for Theatres and the Culture Slider so you can start to appease your angry citizens. Hereditary Rule or Police State would be the go with regard to your Government civic.

 

[blazer-glory]

Thanks for the advice. Its annoying how their muskets seem to be more affective than my riflemen, they were destroyin everything I threw at them(?)
There is a HUGE gap in my knowledge of this game even though Ive played for years now. My organization and governing skills are lacking. Funny, it almost mirrors you the real me!! :s

 

[RLesink]

Took a quick look at your save. It's not that bad. I would suggest:
1. Don't automate your workers. Especially in Beijing, just build enough farms to work the mines which should be on the hills instead of windmills. Cottage the rest.

You have too many farms in a lot of cities, and you've only made 3 great people. Either use the farms to run specialists, or build cottages. As is it now, it looks like you're just creating an army of angry citizens who provide nothing.

Nanjing, Machu Picchu, and Cuzco need to have their land improved. Nanjing still has jungle. Cut that down, mine the hills, build any farms you need, cottage the rest.

2. Pay attention to your civics. You built the pyramids and you're still running Despotism! If you had more cottages, I'd switch to Universal Suffrage, but I think Police State might be best right now, since you're building military and war weariness is pretty bad.
Also, switch to bureaucracy as soon as you get Civil Service. It's a really good civic. Also a good reason to make cottages in your capital since the commerce they give gets a 50% bonus. If you're going to run Caste System, run more specialists

The best unit you can build right now is grenadiers. Build them, not musketmen. Grenadiers are way better. Also I noticed some of them have forest and hill defense promotions, I'd just stick with combat, maybe some with Pinch later when England gets gunpowder units. I don't know if you have auto-promote on, if so I'd turn it off and just give out Combat promotions.


As far as the general game goes, looks like you are in good shape to win. Either conquest, domination, or diplomatic, since you already have I think 63% of the population. I can't remember what percentage the diplomatic victory requires, but I'm sure you'll have it once you conquer your continent.
I'd suggest taking peace for 10-20 turns to regroup and build a few more units. Get a stack or two of some cannons and maybe 10 grenadiers outside Canterbury. Bust down the culture defense with the cannons and then your grenadiers will pretty much walk right in. That will take some of the culture pressure off of London. Heal up if you need to, and take the rest of the cities on your continent and then load them onto Galleons and take the last couple cities they have left. (Or vote yourself the winner in the UN)

You're off to a good start, just take care of those small problems, and you'll do great!

Edit: Grenadiers get a bonus against Riflemen, so they actually are more effective. This is probably just me, but in these ages, I usually rush to Cavalry or Grenadiers, then just use them until I get Infantry. In fact, I'm not sure I ever built a Rifleman... I guess if you're being attacked by a bunch of Cavalry they'd be good.

 

[blazer-glory]

Thanks guys. When you say stack units you mean just group them together yes? Unfortunately I played to the end yesterday and did'nt gain any more ground and England's leader won the Time Line bonus thingy. Turns out they had almost populated a huge continent to the right of the land mass we were fighting on. Once again I was rated a Dan Quayle!

 

[Morgrad]

Stack of Doom: yes, pile them up together.

Instead of units going alone (or nearly so), stack together 6-12 of your best combat units and 4-8 seige units, a specialty defender or two, and go crush everything in your path with it.

For example: early in the game, get 4 axemen, 4 swordsmen, and 4 catapults and move them together. March into enemy territory and smack 'em good.

Where your game is now: 12 grenadiers and 6 cannons would make a nice stack. Your rifles probably get slaughtered because you're attacking cities without bombarding cultural defense - or you're attacking with too few units so you're unable to take the city - so the defenders gain xp against your units, letting them heal from the promotion and getting more city defense bonuses.

Use your civics, use slavery, and when you're at war, make nothing but units in your cities. Slap them into stacks and go whomp on the enemy.

Good luck! You'll get there. We all experience the 'WTH?' sensation when we're getting used to the game.

 

[blazer-glory]

Its worked quite well. They still put up stiff opposition but I managed to take another two cities before the game ended AND I was'nt rated as Dan Quayle either!

 

[Morgrad]

Yay!

Now do it again, but earlier in the game - and leave poor ol' Dan in the dust for good.

 

[bigbaddru]

stack of doom is SO counter-intuitive for me as I played a ton of civ2 and went straight to Civ4, but nothing works better for war. strength in numbers

 

[Felidae]

I won't claim to be the world's greatest player ('cause I'm not), but I think I have some useful pointers here.

It appears you really pushed your research forward without taking the time to 'backfill' some of the older techs. You're having problems with health and happiness; the former would be helped by having access to the grocer (Guilds) which also gives you more cash. Happiness can be helped dramatically by the Theatre, and gives you more culture. Lack of both of these have limited your city sizes - they should have been into the high teens at least.

I played through your game (save attached one turn before a Domination victory - the culture slider is set so high to force that; I was running 60% research, 10% culture much of the rest of the game). I got peace right away with Elizabeth, along with a few techs, including Drama. I switched most cities to building the theatre, while I researched Guilds. Government went to Universal Suffrage and Legal to Bureaucracy. Workers were taken off automatic, while I added a few mines to Beijing, and improved some neglected cities. After that I got a foothold on the other continent, taking two barb cities, and founding two of my own, while I backfilled a few more techs, built 3 WoW, then researched Artillery.

I had 8 cannon, several riflemen, cavalry, and grenadiers sitting in Guangzhou with the upgrade to Artillery, I easily wiped out the three remaining continental cities, and took a few of their overseas possessions. I sure a better player than I could have gotten a Elimination victory, though.

Imo, you should spend more time improving your cities. It takes time, but really pays off in the long run.

I hope this helps.

P.S. I've also got a save just before I started the Arty rush, if anyone is interested.

 

[blazer-glory]

Thanks everyone. Many thanks for the save Felidae, I'll check it out. This is great, being able to have others look at your saves and analyze them and offer advice etc.



Just checked out your save position. Nice work!!