Bad start?

[el_kalkylus]

I have played European map several times at diety, but I never seem to get a good start. I am playing with 7 civs, and I am the English, and the barbarian mode is set to "villages only". I haven't reloaded a single time.

If there are people that would like to comment on what I do wrong in my game (wrong investments at different times etc), I really like to hear it.

I have saved 2450BC, 1400BC, 500BC, 1AD and 500AD.

2450BC, I concentrated on building the colussus, and roads that connect the cities. I have already monarchy.

1400BC The colussus is built and I need to irrigate some lands and mine some hills, so that I can produce more. This requires a lot of work, and settlers. There is a piece of land that I need to build cities on too. I met the French and have plan to take their capital in the future.

500BC All work has gone to build the Coopernicus wonder and irrigate/mine land. I still have plan to take the French capital.

1AD The cities have become large, and almost everyone of them needed a temple, so that took a while. I also needed to build Michelangelos chapel, and that took a lot of production and time. I still have plan to take the French capital, it has built the great wall now, so it will be difficult. The russian and the americans have come for a visit. The russian seem big, and wanted war (sneak attack after I swapped maps). I have peace with the americans for a while. I thought this was a good time for a revolution to republic.

500AD The cities have grown well in republic, but they are so few At this time I have only built 4 wonders, the Colussus, Coopernicus, Michelangelos, and King Richard's Crusade. The Newton's College is on it's way. I still have plan to take the French capital.

Thanks

 

[Sodak]

I looked at your save games, and it seems you are generally on the right track to success.

I think your cities remained small for too long. Irrigate those land squares to grow while in monarchy! I'd also suggest building roads on the way to new settlement sites. Then the new city will already have good squares to use as it grows, and is connected to other cities by road. That is good for the dozens of turns that pass before the new city builds its own settler.

Until you have Mike's Chapel built, you are fine with the few cities you have. At deity, it's harder to settle more cities quickly, because of the happiness issues.

Have you traded many techs with the AI? I think you could improve your research progress by trading. Fatten your coffers by demanding the occasional tribute. Also, you should try to get trade routes established in all your cities as soon as possible. It makes a big difference over the many turns that have passed.

Good luck!

 

[Jorge]

Hi,
I think you are in the right way but you could still improve a few things. As they have already tell you it's good to irrigate to get more food. Another thing you could do is expand a little bit more. There is still a lot of space to build cities near your borders. Expansionism is always the key to victory. Or if you prefer you shoud attack the french to get their cities (they don't seem to be very advanced).

For the rest, you are doing well in my opinion.

 

[el_kalkylus]

I thought I was doing well on the irrigation-part. I built almost too many settler, but if I hadn't built that many settlers I wouldn't been able to do all the irrigation. I also needed alot of production so that I could produce more caravans, so mining took a little while too.

About building new cities and build roads first, I don't know if that is good to do in the beginning of the game, since science is such an important matter then. The faster I build a new city, the faster it will produce a new settler and build a new city...when the island is full with cities, or it takes too much time for the settler to go and build a new city, I build roads with the settlers, and then irrigate/mine the lands. In a city with lots of food, I build more settler to help irrigating. As you saw in the savegame, I had built 3 settlers in one city.

I think I can't build more than 7 cities before the unhappiness factor kicks in, so I stayed with 7 cities for some time, and I actually prepared for new cities with roads, even though you may not have noticed .

In this game it was actually pretty hard to demand tribute, since they the AI's thought I was weak or something. I met them a little too late I think (about 1000 BC) when everyone was making war. I know you can demand tribute early in the game before 2000 BC. The reason I didn't go for Map-making in the beginning, was because I was concentrating on getting Monarchy, trade and writing. Trade is very important for me to get early so that I can start producing caravans, and build the colussus.

Sodak, you said I should get trade-routes as soon as possible, but if I would try to do that, I wouldn't be able to build all these wonders that I need. I really want Collussus, Coopernicus and Michelangelos chapel. If I can get King Richard's crusade, that is really good. Isaac's newton college is also very nice for my SSC. So the caravans are pretty much going to be helping with the wonders. When I am in Monarchy, I never establish trade routes because you only get +0 or +1 between your cities. If I trade with the AI, I get +3 or +4, and a lot of gold, so I do that instead. In republic, I must get 3 trade routes at least to the SSC, and if I can get some "good" trade routes with the other cities I go for it, otherwise I use the caravan to build the wonder instead.

What I am very bad at, is making war. I need at least 2 or 3 catapults, and a warrior to take a city, and that takes a lot of production and time. Now when the French had the city wall, I would probably need about 5 catapults to pull it off. In another game I was playing, I went for more expansion and tried to kill the french as soon as possible.

I got the game here if you would like to see it. Then of course I couldn't irrigate much land, or produce as much, but it's a pretty nice game anyway. (In this game I didn't get a nomad from the hut up north).

Thanks for helping

 

[el_kalkylus]

In my new game I built the hanging garden because I knew it would give me 7 more trade arrows in the SSC because of "we love the kings day" (when the SSC is size 6), and allowed me to let the cities grow, and build more cities (or take more).

I also just found out about when you should do a revolution so that you don't get so many turns in anarchy.

I also found out to get more special terrain, which is a boost for the production.

 

[Odin]

"What I am very bad at, is making war. I need at least 2 or 3 catapults, and a warrior to take a city, and that takes a lot of production and time. Now when the French had the city wall, I would probably need about 5 catapults to pull it off. In another game I was playing, I went for more expansion and tried to kill the french as soon as possible. "

Have you tried building diplomats and bribing other units? If you're in a barbarian-intensive game, this can be a quick way to build a huge army.

Then, do this: :rocket:

 

[el_kalkylus]

Yeah, I bribe cities when I have the cash, but in this game I don't play raging hordes, I play villages only.

I think the two games I have attached are good results of what happens when you do different choices in the game.

 

[el_kalkylus]

Which of these two games are the best start?

In the first game, I could advance in science much faster, but in the other game, I had more cities, and could produce more.

Anyone?