Ask Me Anything

[Taegi Kim]

How do I win after conquering few civs? Started as Celt in prince difficulty. Was stuck with Babylon at the small continent. Conquered him and other city states. Chose Authority-Piety policies... and thats it.
At Industrial Age, I became the most powerful civ in the world with 10 ruling cities and 9 puppets, but I don't know what to do with it. I have 6 more civs on other continents with powerful navies. My infrastructre is lacking. My once glorious army fell behind the time and needs to be upgraded. My economy is not bad, but not especially good compared to industrious civs. I chose Hero Worship, Crusader spirit, and Imperialism but I don't think I'm ready for overseas war. I didn't make enough GW to do culture victory. I'm constantly losing wonder race to other nations.

How can I fix this? If I can't, how can I prevent becoming this mess?

 

[Funak]

How do I win after conquering few civs? Started as Celt in prince difficulty. Was stuck with Babylon at the small continent. Conquered him and other city states. Chose Authority-Piety policies... and thats it.
At Industrial Age, I became the most powerful civ in the world with 10 ruling cities and 9 puppets, but I don't know what to do with it. I have 6 more civs on other continents with powerful navies. My infrastructre is lacking. My once glorious army fell behind the time and needs to be upgraded. My economy is not bad, but not especially good compared to industrious civs. I chose Hero Worship, Crusader spirit, and Imperialism but I don't think I'm ready for overseas war. I didn't make enough GW to do culture victory. I'm constantly losing wonder race to other nations.

How can I fix this? If I can't, how can I prevent becoming this mess?

Well, there are plenty of catch-up mechanics, trade-routes, spies and just general cheaper techs if you're behind.

As for how you're going to finish the game, I don't know that, I'm not the one playing the game.

Problems you might have however is keeping too many puppets, puppets aren't necessarily bad, but they aren't necessarily doing anything either, so despite you having the huge advantage of 19 cities, you're only really profiting from maybe 12 at most, while suffering extra unhappiness. Another common Autocracy problem is bad city management, ending up with really low population, that really hurts in the long run.

 

[Txurce]

Well, there are plenty of catch-up mechanics, trade-routes spies and just general cheaper techs if you're behind.

What do you mean by trade-route spies? Do spies work better with countries with which you trade?

 

[Funak]

What do you mean by trade-route spies? Do spies work better with countries with which you trade?

I meant that there was supposed to be a comma between the words.

 

[tu_79]

I meant that there was supposed to be a comma between the words.

Though in fairness, trade routes also spy.

 

[SwordMeow]

I love the CBP and have been playing on it for a short while. However, whenever I play singleplayer, I don't seem to be able to understand it well. Take the game I'm in currently: Iroquois, progress, piety, got some wonders, took over a single civilization, settled several cities. But it's turn 200 and I have 70 science, -29 gpt (I don't have a large standing army, a medium size one) and 22 unhappiness. It's a downward snowball and I don't know how to get out of it. This game is on emperor difficulty.

Comparatively, AI I look at that don't even get very good starts seem to be doing very well: much higher population than me even if I focused on food for a large portion of the game, and an overall better score.

 

[Funak]

I love the CBP and have been playing on it for a short while. However, whenever I play singleplayer, I don't seem to be able to understand it well. Take the game I'm in currently: Iroquois, progress, piety, got some wonders, took over a single civilization, settled several cities. But it's turn 200 and I have 70 science, -29 gpt (I don't have a large standing army, a medium size one) and 22 unhappiness. It's a downward snowball and I don't know how to get out of it. This game is on emperor difficulty.

Comparatively, AI I look at that don't even get very good starts seem to be doing very well: much higher population than me even if I focused on food for a large portion of the game, and an overall better score.

Really hard to tell what you're doing wrong, but if I had to guess I'd say you've not built enough buildings in your cities.

 

[tu_79]

Check happiness. If it is too high you've neglicted growth. At this point a common source of gold is trade routes to and from your cities, with markets to increase trade value. Villages are another. Preferably placed on roads with trade routes. Build temples, they will help your gold production going Piety. Sell unneeded resources (if you don't want diplomats, sell paper for example).

Your coastal cities really want lighthouse and harbor. Explore the world. More civs revealed are more trade partners, more states to impress with your feats, more happiness from your discoveries. The great lighthouse is usually despised, but I've revealed the world quite fast with it in many games.

This comes more from experience : when your starting location lacks gold, choose religious beliefs that help with income.

Iroquois are particularly lacking gold. You fear to use villages because your forests are soo good. Most forest resources lack gold. If you had planned for a great expansion, then Goddess of Commerce would be a good choice for pantheon. If you wanted to stay tall, the focus on trade routes. Right now, with your current game, I'd make a diplomatic effort to get many friendly states. Maybe some nearby allies, but having more friends is better for the budget. Statecraft opener might help here, but hopefully you can produce diplomats quite often.

 

[vyyt]

You have not told us what is the source of your unhappiness (you will see a breakdown when you hover over the unhappiness icon in the toolbar).

 

[tu_79]

You have not told us what is the source of your unhappiness (you will see a breakdown when you hover over the unhappiness icon in the toolbar).

Oh, right, I overlooked the happiness issue. If this comes from fighting, then the answer should be obvious.

 

[Mixster]

What Pantheon/Dirt do I need to found a religion with Venice on Emperor or above?

I've tried God-King and God of Commerce, all religions on a standard map get founded when I'm at about 600 faith even with events that boost it and a rush for Stonehenge. Do I need to build a lot of troops and bully some religious city states to get it? Should I go God of War and go hunting barbarians?

I'm asking because I kindda wanna try going Apostolic Tradition + Churches + Evangelism in multiplayer with no barbarians, with Venice as the holy city so I can grow it from the missionaries I spam.

 

[tu_79]

What Pantheon/Dirt do I need to found a religion with Venice on Emperor or above?

I've tried God-King and God of Commerce, all religions on a standard map get founded when I'm at about 600 faith even with events that boost it and a rush for Stonehenge. Do I need to build a lot of troops and bully some religious city states to get it? Should I go God of War and go hunting barbarians?

I'm asking because I kindda wanna try going Apostolic Tradition + Churches + Evangelism in multiplayer with no barbarians, with Venice as the holy city so I can grow it from the missionaries I spam.

God King is for lucky or religious civs. If you start near a religious wonder, your monopoly is incense or tobacco or find religious states very early, you can have an edge. About the States, I think they only give faith when friendly/allied, maybe with hard tribute too, but I don't remember. A religious civ with a guaranteed religion like Aztecs, India or Celts, can use any pantheon. Shoshone can use their ability to choose a revelation from goody huts.

Goddess of Commerce, on the other hand, is not that difficult to found with. You only need to max it. Settle wide, focus on gold and shrines. Connect soon. It doesn't seem fit for Venice, despite the extra trade routes.

 

[Mixster]

Thanks for the help man.
So okay I actually succeeded with god of the sea, Stonehenge and getting lucky with goody huts.
But I think it is horribly inconsistent, so if you have any suggestions for pantheons to make a consistent religion with Venice I'd be very interested.

 

[CrazyG]

Thanks for the help man.
So okay I actually succeeded with god of the sea, Stonehenge and getting lucky with goody huts.
But I think it is horribly inconsistent, so if you have any suggestions for pantheons to make a consistent religion with Venice I'd be very interested.

God of the Expanse is a pretty good source of faith if you take tradition. A tradition capital on luxuries that provide culture, such as furs, can sometimes get a religion by itself using that pantheon. It also works well with Stonehenge

There is no guaranteed path to religion for all civs, Venice has a particulary tough time.

 

[Txurce]

There is no guaranteed path to religion for all civs, Venice has a particulary tough time.

I've been playing them lately, and only tried to get a religion once. I had two marshes and three lakes fairly close, so took Purity, then helped out a religious city state twice -- and even then only got it on t109. I should have missed it.

 

[Funak]

Now that Religious city-states got buffed your best bet is probably throwing your first merchant of venice at a religious city-state, although just writing that sentence is painful.
As far as pantheons go, you've probably picked the two worst ones out of the bunch, one with close to zero faith generation and one that relies on going wide.

Pantheons that gives an OCC civ about the same amount of faith as other civs would probably be the best choice, and that mainly God of the Expanse(tradition) or God of War(authority). The one giving you faith for building wonders would have been a decent choice, except now wonders are mainly restricted by science, not culture.

 

[cammcken]

When to bulb and when to settle?

 

[Myrrdin_Emrys]

I struggle with Babylon to win a game.
For me it is jsut a worst Korea.
I'm at turn 215 with 8 great scientist improvements and in Immortal difficulty im not the last in technology but far to be the first (Siam and Portugal in lead). Even if i had a decent start (near tobacco monopoly not the best, and i could not found a religion) , i did rush Construction technology for walls (and i had few stones in the vicinity of my capital so it was a good combo). I could get Mausoleum of Harlicanasus and university of Sankore for a lot of yield when great people are expanded). Despite everything im still at the bottom of the score (one of my neighboor is Venice so i had plenty of room to expand). And with my 3rd and 4th city placement i could block Marocco in his peninsula so he was unable to found anymore cities in our continent without declaring me the war for passage (and He is too peaceful to do that).

Is it worth to go for Industry with Babylon for full investiements and a good infrastructure ? Or should i stick to Rationalism for full scientist (even if it is not really worht ....) I went for Tradition and Aestethic.
But still i think Babylon produces less science than Korea, ok he has the investissement bonus but .....

Any advices for me ? DO you need any screenshot ?

 

[Funak]

When to bulb and when to settle?

Hard to say, settling is a lot more useful in a compact empire, especially one going for tradition and Aesthetics.
But even with that sometimes you just want that one tech really fast, either to launch an attack, defend an attack or snag a specific wonder. Maybe just get into the next era quickly so you get bigger bonuses from things that scale with era.

I struggle with Babylon to win a game.
For me it is jsut a worst Korea.
I'm at turn 215 with 8 great scientist improvements and in Immortal difficulty im not the last in technology but far to be the first (Siam and Portugal in lead). Even if i had a decent start (near tobacco monopoly not the best, and i could not found a religion) , i did rush Construction technology for walls (and i had few stones in the vicinity of my capital so it was a good combo). I could get Mausoleum of Harlicanasus and university of Sankore for a lot of yield when great people are expanded). Despite everything im still at the bottom of the score (one of my neighboor is Venice so i had plenty of room to expand). And with my 3rd and 4th city placement i could block Marocco in his peninsula so he was unable to found anymore cities in our continent without declaring me the war for passage (and He is too peaceful to do that).

Is it worth to go for Industry with Babylon for full investiements and a good infrastructure ? Or should i stick to Rationalism for full scientist (even if it is not really worht ....) I went for Tradition and Aestethic.
But still i think Babylon produces less science than Korea, ok he has the investissement bonus but .....

Any advices for me ? DO you need any screenshot ?

I rarely even care about the great scientists when I play Babylon. For me Babylon is just about maximizing that upgraded hurry production mechanic and trying to make use of your unique unit to do an early attack.

With that in mind I'm never really going for tradition as Babylon, I'm usually going for Authority if I have a viable nearby target or perhaps progress, although I usually have a viable nearby target, and honestly not going for authority just means you'll get yourself killed when you do step two of the plan.

Step two is completely over-expanding, grab the gold/faith from city-connections pantheon, build two workers, spam cities make sure you get construction fairly early so you can defend against anything, worst case scenario keep a good stockpile big enough to rush your walls in a far off city. From there I'd probably either go into Piety or Aesthetics(if only to make some better use of academies) and then Industry, although depending on your situation either rationalism or imperialism could probably be worth considering.

 

[Paramecium]

Fort on coast gives access to naval units, but might not be build next to another fort. A Citadel gives access to naval units too, but cant be build next to another citadel. (I think the ingame text said so, even if the wiki dont say sth about it.)

My question, is it possible to build a citadel next to a fort? If yes, can create a "canal" between lakes/oceans two tiles apart from another? Or could it be even possible to build a longer chain of fort, citadel, fort, .... to create a Canal for a longer distance?