Be grateful for some feedback

[t10000]

Hello

Picked up this game after laying collecting dust for some years. Remember last time played never really got the to higher difficulties before quit playing. Deciding to try to understanding the mechanism in the game a little better. Did a catch up game on warlord but did lead to an early victory since AI was pretty lame with penalty.

Did browsing around the forum and try to learn a bit more and pick up some advice. Did a few starts with different civilization to try them out and optimizing my starting turns.

Now decided to go for a test and started on a huge map with 16 civilations on difficulty Regent. Playing as the mayans as I think their traits, agricultural and industrious are pretty strong not all really considering unique unit.

Attached a save of the game so far and any feedback I be grateful for as I'm trying to use this game to learn a bit more and be able to raising the difficulty for my next game.

Some points I think I need to improve myself is to get more workers especially if I'm not an indostrious civ and a bit more careful with micromanaging as I'm wasting some shields and food at nearly every turn in some city, also let riot burst as I'm missing to keep enough ppl happy in growing cities...

Now to the couple of question I have myself, got a lead a tech to other civs I met so far. Due to both some luck with huts, generous science funding and as I think myself a nice research of philisophy. What now troubbles me a bit is what to do with this lead in tech?
Sell and try to reap out as much gold as possible from the other civs? But with the disadvantage that i might let them catch up my lead...
Don't sell and force them to research the techs themselves but with the disadvantages of not getting their treasure.
My thought is to sell at some rate so they do never catch up but that I can still earn some money from it, but not really know at which rate...

Also about the more generally objective?
My plan is to get some cheap culture like temples and librarys and some baracks and get a swordsmen army to try to conquerining my neighbour persia before they got immortals in some decent number.
Am I to late, should i really have started the invasion, getting better use of my unique unit as it is starting to get obsolete already. That is only the low difficulty that keeping me from getting slaughtered by neighbouring persians?

Regards

 

[vmxa]

Due to a little lack of sleep in the last few days (blame Dreamhack being in Sweden) I am not up to a real good look. A little scan does not show any real issues. Things look quite well right now.

Not sure I would make all the temples going up right now, but it is not a big deal. Yax I would not make a rax as it is not a strong shield place now and is not in danger of being attack, before you could react.

Itza needs mines more than irrigation and roads on river tiles, so either more workers or bring a couple back to the core. You could just make some as well.

You have three rax going up and are already over the support level, with several barracks up now. I would disband a couple warriors and get out a 1 sword for each 2 or 3 disbanded.

Biggest issue is no settlers being made with lots of land to fill.

I would also not like to see workers out so far working with just a warrior, add a spear or better yet send them to the core. More useful in the core than getting up a road out in the boonies.

I do not like to see so many workers in solo mode. Group up a few to get tasks done in one turn or two turns.

Trades are a tricky subject as you want their money, but usually do not want to help them up the ladder. AA is a time that you can sell and let them get up some as they will get there soon anyway. The ages after that I am more inclinded to hold off.

At least peddle techs that are already known to those that have some gold. Philo is one you can deal for sure. I would not be in a hurry to sell Currency/Const as no one has enough gold to make that a good deal and I would not like them to get to the next age sooner.

Lit is up to you, I would consider it as I would not build GLB anyway at this level.

It is never too late to invade, but you have no need for that at this time. You have lots of land to grab for free and lots of improvements to make. You also can expect to get better units not to far down the line to use in any fight.

If no GA yet, I would move my JT units back out of any possible battle.

 

[t10000]

Thanks for the feedback!

Some parts i dont understand though:

"Yax I would not make a rax as it is not a strong shield place now and is not in danger of being attack, before you could react."

Doesn't really know what rax and yax is but my assumption tells me that Yax means the city Yaxchilan and rax is some shortcut for baracks.
And could se what you are pointing out, my plan was to mine the mountains and with the good foodproduction i would still be able to feed the citiziens... but might be better to wait a bit with that.

"You have three rax going up and are already over the support level, with several barracks up now. I would disband a couple warriors and get out a 1 sword for each 2 or 3 disbanded."

Again does the assumption rax means barracks... newly switched goverment from despotism to republic which gave me some problems with unit support.
Better to disband than upgrade warriors? Push some town into cities in order to get 4 instead of 1 unit support?

And yea I should probably dish out more settlers, just did focus a bit too much on military and culture in an attempt of maybee getting a cultureflip on the persian borderscities or at least preventing that from happening to me.

Another concern i have is about wonders, should i build or do i better of with spending my shields on something else?
Was thinking of pyramids but than I had already built granary in 3 cities as i needed that for keeping them up as settler factories and couldn't wait for 400 shields to finish. Pyramids never go obsolete either so figured that might be a good choiche but didn't fancy it so much when my most important cities already got it.
Maybee I'm just trying to optimize a bit to much with the effects?

Well the hitties that I haven't made contact with yet have already built 3 wonders. 2 in their capital (shows at F11) and some more in another city. No other civ have built one yet? Should i be worried of the hitties running of to far away? Start building wonders myself?

 

[Ataxerxes]

Welcome to the forums! How do you like vxma's not taking a good look? He is probably the best person to give advice as you noticed.

Yes, rax means barracks.

In the ancient age, it's all about expansion. Peaceful if you can, but sometimes you have a near neighbor with nice cities . . . Be very picky about AA wonders. They take away production that could be used for more settlers and more cities. I would only build the Pyramids if I had a SGL (Scientific Great Leader). It's good, but it costs too much. (btw avoid the Great Library, it's seductive but useless at lower levels). The only AA wonder I build is Statue of Zeus if I have Ivory. Gets you about the best AA unit for free. Good for expansion.

You might want to find out who does build the Pyramids. It makes a nice war prize. Getting cities to support more troops is good, but the main thing is more cities. Most of my games are always trying to get more cities, first by expansion with settler factories as you are doing, then through war.

You sound like you have a good understanding of the game overall. A lot of workers and settler factors. vxma once said he never saw a Regent or below game that was having trouble that had built enough workers. There's an old article on wonder addiction that's a good standard. If I play on Regent I normally build no AA wonders (except SoZ and I go for Ivory) but then build up a lead through expansion and grab almost all of the later wonders.

 

[t10000]

Welcome to the forums! How do you like vxma's not taking a good look? He is probably the best person to give advice as you noticed.

Thanks for the welcome!

And yea isn't it really provoking to have people not taking a good look
Well one sober look is more than you expect from most finnish guys i guess

Just kidding, if that isn't really figured out yet, and do understand the lack of sleep from dreamhack, didn't sleep to much myself when i was there couple of years ago.

And thanks for your insights too.
Comfirming my strategy to not actually build any wonder myself, just steal from my neighbours if it's something I want.

Try to get a few more rounds play and post the progress and see what you guys say. Problem is my games usually develops slow due to as I'm a bit of perfectionist and like to check out alot of things and thouroghly before commiting to next turn

 

[Raliuven]

One thing to consider when thinking about a trade is your intended VC (Victory Condition). If you are aiming for a Diplo or Space victory, it might be worth it to keep the AI closer to you in techs so they can research and become viable trading partners - otherwise you will need to be a one-Civ research machine. Quite doable, but it makes for a longer game.

If you are going for other VC, particularly conquest/domination, it probably makes sense to keep them as far in the dark as possible. Better to roll up with knights vs spears than pikes or muskets and offensive units start to take a hit when Infantry make an appearance.

For cultural VC's, it probably makes sense to hold them back as well - you get your main culture buildings by Universities and Cathedrals and you want first shot at every wonder for 20k.

Keeping the AI 1-3 steps behind in the Middle Ages will spell a tech death for the AI. At regent, they will never recover that gap; it will only get bigger later as you reap the rewards and build to critical mass. If you are in Monarchy for a government, be careful because it can be tough going in the IA and beyond. If the AI is in republic and nice sized, it can become competitive. At this level, once you start pulling techs first you will probably beat the AI to most if not all techs.

I have PTW (C3C is in the mail in a few weeks) so I can't open the save, but it sounds from the other posts as if you are doing well. Just a few 'canned' responses - keep researching left-to right, not top to bottom. Eventually you will get 'feel' for what techs the AI likes to research - avoid racing for those and research something necessary and trade-worthy.

And above all . . . welcome back!

 

[vmxa]

"t10000"

".. newly switched goverment from despotism to republic which gave me some problems with unit support. Better to disband than upgrade warriors? Push some town into cities in order to get 4 instead of 1 unit support?"

I would maybe upgrade a few warriors at some point, if they were vets. No use in having regular warriors now. I try to not have a lot of cash as it is more productive if I use my shields/gold for research/units/grow. It is always good to get towns up to cities. This is accomlished quicker with plenty of workers.

You tend to get into support issues in late AA and early MA, it is a small savings to just disband a unit now and then as you build a better one to replace the obsolete one, while the town has nothing better to do at that time.

"And yea I should probably dish out more settlers, just did focus a bit too much on military and culture in an attempt of maybee getting a cultureflip on the persian borderscities or at least preventing that from happening to me."

I have no interest in culture. At low levels I do not need it, at high levels I cannot match them, so I tend to not make much. Regent, you can pretty much do as you like.

Flips are just not significant enouigh to worry about them for the human in my book. At around DG you start to see the stronger civs put you at risk of a flip. This makes holding captured towns a concern.

Once I get to the point where the free land is gone, I will be taking their towns and wil not have culture enough on their borders to do anything. The front will be moving all the time, so flips are only going against me, if at all.

"Another concern i have is about wonders, should i build or do i better of with spending my shields on something else? Was thinking of pyramids but than I had already built granary in 3 cities as i needed that for keeping them up as settler factories and couldn't wait for 400 shields to finish."

Wonders, well most say do not make them. I look at Regent as you are free to make them, if you are taking care of the workers. As you move up it gets tighter and you have to give up something, so you probably will do fewer till IA.

I never make pryamids, there are games that it makes sense. I just do not value it and it is too early for my taste. SoZ, if I have Ivory is the one I am most interested in having. I often will make many AA wonders at Regent, just because I can.

"Well the hitties that I haven't made contact with yet have already built 3 wonders. 2 in their capital (shows at F11) and some more in another city. No other civ have built one yet? Should i be worried of the hitties running of to far away? Start building wonders myself?"

No need to worry about any nations at this level. You can easily handle them, when you come to that point. Remember the AI cannot wage war well and is poorer at invasions.

If it was maybe DG and you had a worse location, then you may have to take care. The land you have should let you win, unless you get some real bad breaks on resources like no coal and no rubber.

 

[MysteryX]

When it comes to getting the tech lead early, you'll never maintain it for long when you have other civilizations researching and trading with each other. Trade it to any civilization offering something of value to you. In the long run, draining your opponents of excess gold may be the best way to stay in the front position in tech.

Of course, you will want to make exceptions for key military techs when you are planning to war and you can make use of the window of time that you will have it before anyone else.

Occasionally, after some civilizations are eliminated, and the rest are sufficiently spaced apart in their tech/economic progress, your opponent civilizations will stop trading with each other because none can meet the price demanded for a higher tech. If you are in the lead in this situation, it may make sense to sit on the lead. Otherwise, as long as you have at least two opponents trading with each other, they will catch up to you (how quickly depends on your difficultly level).

 

[t10000]

Thanks to all for giving advice or input.

Well listen to what you said and tried to change some of my gameplay according to the advice i received.

Well did start more settlers to grab more land and at the same time try to modernize my army by disbanding my warriors. A few veterans got upgraded to swordsmen though.
When i researched feudalism i upgraded my spears into pikeman and swordsmen to medieval infantry. 30 gold per unit, I thought it was worth that. Maybee a little stop in science research in order to see what AI was researching and to get some gold so I could hurry necessary improvements in corruppted citeis, as well as cover for my army upgrade.

I then prepare most of my offensive force at the border to persia for invasion.

[First attachemnt]

Manage also to win a battle with my unique unit making me entering golden age. (Javeling thrower with defense 2 manage to knock off an immortal with offense 4, with not any significant terrain bonus either )

[Second attachement]

Think the invasion went pretty well, they managed to sneak away with 2 groups of 1 spear and 1 settler. First settler settled next to one of my knight and so I got the city razed leaving him with just one spear and settler.

Think I should reorganise and use my knights to grab a couple of cities of egyptians as well? Or should I have another objective now? Think my first invasion went pretty well although tips on how to make most out of an suprie attack like this is always welcome.

 

[Stoertebeker]

It's quite a nice starting position that you had there: Congrats.

I think, there's no further advice needed: You just have to be patient enough to win, by now. You lead in tech, you have by far the biggest population and the biggest land: Just decide how you want to win.

 

[vmxa]

[First attachemnt]

Manage also to win a battle with my unique unit making me entering golden age. (Javeling thrower with defense 2 manage to knock off an immortal with offense 4, with not any significant terrain bonus either )

I guess you missed my last remark on my first post. I suggested moving all JT's to the rear, so they would not be involved in any battles. This was with the intent of voiding triggering a GA, until you wanted to trigger it.

You had better defenders, pikes, better attackers, swords and MDI. At this level and with your position there is no reason to trigger a GA. May as well hold it off till you are in the IA sometime.

I am going to presume at this point you have the game well in hand, so time for tougher game.

 

[t10000]

I guess you missed my last remark on my first post. I suggested moving all JT's to the rear, so they would not be involved in any battles. This was with the intent of voiding triggering a GA, until you wanted to trigger it.

You had better defenders, pikes, better attackers, swords and MDI. At this level and with your position there is no resean to trigger a GA. May as well hold it off till you are in the IA sometime.

I am going to presume at this point you have the game well in hand, so time for tougher game.

Well never understand what JT meant until now. And yes could see your point with holding GA of until later when the others are about to catch up.

Well made it possible for me to engage a succesful 2 front war against about both egyptians and china, cassualties so far is less than what i have produced during this war. Egyptians almost completly wiped out even if china has a little more left there defense is cut down and it's just a matter of turns for them as well.

So think I will declare me winner for now and raise the difficulty a bit and start a new game instead. Thanks for all advice and tips.