Ask Me Anything

[Matutin]

How do you find out good synergies regarding certain combos of civ/strategy/win condition? I'm always pretty overwhelmed when it comes to the choices. Are there certain established symmetries such as when aming for that vc, this religion/belief and that social policy is best?

 

[Funak]

How do you find out good synergies regarding certain combos of civ/strategy/win condition? I'm always pretty overwhelmed when it comes to the choices. Are there certain established symmetries such as when aming for that vc, this religion/belief and that social policy is best?

Years of practice, nothing else really.

In fact I do it so much by heart now that I couldn't even tell you how I do it unless you make a very specific question.

 

[LukaSlovenia29]

Matutin, keep reading the forums, maybe post your ideas and questions about this in each civ's thread in the "Leader balance". Other than that, like Funak said, practice&practice, trying out different combos etc.

One example of synergy is Brazil and taking Apostolic tradition when founding a religion. Apostolic tradition can give you almost constant golden ages from the early renaissance era onwards and it's almost unstoppable (when playing against AI) for granting a tourism victory. If you can also grab churches (which give you 3 spreads from a single missionary), that works even better.

Another is Austria/Greece and diplomatic victories. Then you have Arabia, where tradition works very well because you'll get lots of great people (and thus lots of historic events, which will be great due to Arabia's UA). Korea does wonders for a turtling science victory. Some civs are so great you can go for almost anything (like Aztecs, Poland or the Maya).

So maybe you can tell us which civ/strategy/... you're currently most interested in and we can help you formulate a plan to try out.

 

[Matutin]

It's not so much an interest in a special strategy, but rather a "how the heck am I supposed to see the opportunities".
I don't have much time for playing and often find myself playing along without any real focus.

In my current game as Hiawatha I totally forgot to press for my UU for example. Granted, on Prince I still managed to conquer neighboring Nutmeg-Guy (Polynesia?), but my got veritablily reckt when his Kris came into action. Had to quit the session yesterday, but I am not sure whether I'll be able to fend him off and avoid him regaining his capital.

Another weak spot I have is, where and when to build specialist buildings, how many cities to build and so on and so forth.

What I managed to use was Hiawathas Wood ability, for which I didn't need so many roads. But what about my pantheon for example? I took the one for mines on resources, as I hab plenty of amber around. But wouldn't something not limited to a few tiles be more efficient?

I think I still do know to little about the paths to other victories except conquering everyone :-D

Edit:
I think what I'd love to know is something like "OK, this is my civ, it's good for such and such approach and the following beliefs, pantheons and social policies support my strengths" (like your Brazil example)

 

[tu_79]

Well, this is a very complex game. To see the opportunities requires for you to know the stuff, and this isn't going to happen in a week.

For me this is a huge bonus. It means I can play at lower difficulties for a longer time. Mastering the game takes a long time and some skill. That's why I'm still getting my ass kicked in Emperor.

There are some guides in this same subforum, maybe they can light up things a little. Beware some may be outdated.

 

[CrazyG]

It's not so much an interest in a special strategy, but rather a "how the heck am I supposed to see the opportunities".
I don't have much time for playing and often find myself playing along without any real focus.

In my current game as Hiawatha I totally forgot to press for my UU for example. Granted, on Prince I still managed to conquer neighboring Nutmeg-Guy (Polynesia?), but my got veritablily reckt when his Kris came into action. Had to quit the session yesterday, but I am not sure whether I'll be able to fend him off and avoid him regaining his capital.

Another weak spot I have is, where and when to build specialist buildings, how many cities to build and so on and so forth.

What I managed to use was Hiawathas Wood ability, for which I didn't need so many roads. But what about my pantheon for example? I took the one for mines on resources, as I hab plenty of amber around. But wouldn't something not limited to a few tiles be more efficient?

I think I still do know to little about the paths to other victories except conquering everyone :-D

Edit:
I think what I'd love to know is something like "OK, this is my civ, it's good for such and such approach and the following beliefs, pantheons and social policies support my strengths" (like your Brazil example)

There are a few classic combinations you could try. A good one is to take Carthage, Progress, and God of Commerce. Carthage gets a free lighthouse in a new city, which can instanlty connect the cities. The God of Commerce pantheon gives gold and faith for city connections, and progress gives science. Progress also gives good long term strength, to help Carthage later in the game when her bonuses start to wear out

 

[doublex55]

I've been away from the game for a while. Is worker stealing still a good idea or will enemy civs or city stats get mad at me now?

 

[Myrrdin_Emrys]

I was trying to play Egypt. Is it better to go wide (to have plenty of bonus Artefacts) or tall ?
Any advices to play them ?

 

[Funak]

I've been away from the game for a while. Is worker stealing still a good idea or will enemy civs or city stats get mad at me now?

I personally never do it, because I think it's kinda lame and exploity. Actually not really sure how the current penalties looks.

I was trying to play Egypt. Is it better to go wide (to have plenty of bonus Artefacts) or tall ?
Any advices to play them ?

I actually avoid Egypt like the plague, I find them one of the absolute worst civs in the game. So, sorry I don't actually know. I would assume wide would be better considering how their bonuses looks, but no clue.

 

[CrazyG]

I've been away from the game for a while. Is worker stealing still a good idea or will enemy civs or city stats get mad at me now?

Stealing one is a decent idea (if you don't find it gimmicky), but at 2 you will start getting warmonger penalties

 

[tu_79]

I was trying to play Egypt. Is it better to go wide (to have plenty of bonus Artefacts) or tall ?
Any advices to play them ?

My best Egypt game was played with Authority. Your unique unit is really early, so if you want to make any of it, you need to play aggressively very early too. Try to secure as many horses as you can, or you won't be able to upgrade your uniques. The free settler lets your capital focus on a wonder or two for a while. Keep fighting until you can build your artifacts. Favor wonders that grant free buildings like Statue of Zeus, since you will be lacking a bit of development in your capital. Pyramids is good too, if you can pick it. From there, it's up to you to realize the best strategy.
Late game, try to enact the wonder bonus in the world congress.

Beware, the bonus to the artifact only applies to the one granted by your unique building.

 

[Myrrdin_Emrys]

Thx for your answer, my last game despite a good start was then a disaster falling deeply behind in science with little to no infrastructure in my cities (jungle start and going tradition was a huge mistake). I did clear a lot of barbarians encampent so i should have gone Authority.
I could grab stonedge statue of zeus and then pyramids but nothing more. I will try to play that game again by loading the initial save and to go authority and keep u update if u are interested.

Any clue how to play Marocco ? i guess his bonuses (from UA )fit more for a tall playstyle (cuz it does not scale with the number of cities but with the number of of technologies) but they pretty good UI scale with the numbers of cities.
Is it better to go for statecraft (ie diplo victory) or aethetics (cultural victory) with them ?

 

[tu_79]

Morocco is versatile. If you decide to go tall, Trade Routes are quite valuable. If you decide to go wide, your unique helps with defense. The only problem is that that comes too late. I think they do better for statecraft. The combination of trade routes (helps maintaining alliances) and better defense (helps against annoyed neighbours) makes diplomacy a good idea. Keep in mind that most of your cities need to be almost land-locked, and that you won't be working many farms. Even villages are difficult to place, when you build your kasbahs. So I'd say Statecraft and Industrialism are the best trees. Don't be afraid to fight, but try to wait until you have kasbahs and fight defensively.

EDIT.BTW Jungle starts are harsh. Go for the herbalist soon, and try to settle cities outside the jungle fast. Since you are not going to work on good terrain for a long time, your extra population in your capital is not going to shine, and you don't have enough food for specialists.

 

[CrazyG]

Beware, the bonus to the artifact only applies to the one granted by your unique building.

What? That sounds like its not working as intended

 

[Funak]

As mentioned, Morocco is pretty versatile, going tall means more benefit from your UA and going wide means more benefit from your UI, going for patronage and running city-state trade-routes is not a bad idea.

 

[GodDamnItAlexander]

How do you play for an aggressive cultural victory? Brazil seems pretty straight forward, Tradition -> Aethistics and so on, make trade routes to everyone, be peaceful so you can get open borders and uses spies as diplomats.
What about France? Persia?
It seems if start conquering, you naturally get wider. So your less cities bonus is removed. Also who would want to make open borders with a warmongerer?

 

[Funak]

How do you play for an aggressive cultural victory? Brazil seems pretty straight forward, Tradition -> Aethistics and so on, make trade routes to everyone, be peaceful so you can get open borders and uses spies as diplomats.
What about France? Persia?
It seems if start conquering, you naturally get wider. So your less cities bonus is removed. Also who would want to make open borders with a warmongerer?

Actually tried just this recently, and while I suffered quite a bit from the bug with the French UA, and by the fact that I missed out on religion by one turn it went rather well.
In general the plan seems to be grabbing border-cities with good resources, liberating cities (fantastic move, you get all the bonuses from conquest with none of the penalties), knocking out civs with key wonders. As the game works now, winning a cultural victory with 20ish cities is A LOT harder than winning one with 3 to 4 cities, this is getting changed in the upcoming version however.

The diplomatic aspect is actually not as hard as you make it out to be, there was only one civ in my game that actually refused to do business with me after my warmongering had reached "dark age" levels. Having a big army tend to make civs want to be friends with you, and especially have defensive pacts with you, which in turn makes them ignore most of your warmongering.

 

[GodDamnItAlexander]

Actually tried just this recently, and while I suffered quite a bit from the bug with the French UA, and by the fact that I missed out on religion by one turn it went rather well.
In general the plan seems to be grabbing border-cities with good resources, liberating cities (fantastic move, you get all the bonuses from conquest with none of the penalties), knocking out civs with key wonders. As the game works now, winning a cultural victory with 20ish cities is A LOT harder than winning one with 3 to 4 cities, this is getting changed in the upcoming version however.

The diplomatic aspect is actually not as hard as you make it out to be, there was only one civ in my game that actually refused to do business with me after my warmongering had reached "dark age" levels. Having a big army tend to make civs want to be friends with you, and especially have defensive pacts with you, which in turn makes them ignore most of your warmongering.

So basically instead of taking every city in sight like a spreading wave akin to a classical warmongerer, you use your army for pinpoint strikes. You're not trying to take anyone's capital or anything, but you are looking to for cities to expand your early borders, that having strategical/luxury resources and then later on in the game have great works (nothing else?).
By liberation you mean taking their cities and then trading it back to them?

 

[Funak]

So basically instead of taking every city in sight like a spreading wave akin to a classical warmongerer, you use your army for pinpoint strikes. You're not trying to take anyone's capital or anything, but you are looking to for cities to expand your early borders, that having strategical/luxury resources and then later on in the game have great works (nothing else?).
By liberation you mean taking their cities and then trading it back to them?

If a capital have great wonders I would go for it, but honestly I don't really believe total conquest works very well in VP the way it does in vanilla, feels like you need to take it slower, maybe two or three cities per war.

And by liberation I mean just liberating a city that another civ have conquered, works really well versus Mongolia for example, you can liberate all their enslaved city-states. Your UA triggers, any bonuses from authority or religion triggers, you don't have to keep the city and you don't suffer any war monger penalties (in fact they are reduced).

 

[Magean]

Quick question: how do you use GWAM when not aiming at cultural victory? I get the feeling that great works don't scale nearly as well as, say, academies. So, I tend to start bulbing great writers or artists very early. If I have a wonder with a theming bonus (like Oxford), I try to fill it, but that's all. On the other hand, great writers only give about 4 turns worth of culture, and great artists' golden ages are short, so I sort of feel bad when bulbing.

As for musicians, is there any "hidden" boon to doing a concert when not going for a culture victory?