Beeline for Space Race.......?

[a0161613]

i love the game and despite being crap at it and sucking beyond belief at it, i am determined to add to my one cultural victory at chieftain.

I wanna soar into the stars......help me!!!

im gonna fiddle with Worldbuilder to give me the best start. I want a game that will keep me hooked (as my main problem is sticking with a game to the end) but i struggle in terms of keeping my research path on track.

I've figured that financial and industrial civs may be a good place to start or at least a civ with an industrial type building

i also guessed that the tiles i need for my cities need to have plenty of hills for production and the occasional commerce heavy area but i have no idea which research and improvement techs i should be heading for.

can anyone point me in the right direction, give me some hints etc? i am hoping your hints will help give me a boost in my adulation for CIV (which has recently been distracted by Fifa 07 & and Zelda....)

i didnt want to cheat but if i can get an idea of what to look for this will help push me up the levels and help me keep an eye out for where i go wrong.

 

[Ankh-f-n-Khonsu]

i also guessed that the tiles i need for my cities need to have plenty of hills for production and the occasional commerce heavy area but i have no idea which research and improvement techs i should be heading for.

This may be backward. That is, I think in a space race you're better off with "plenty of grasslands for commerce and the occasional production heavy area".

Most of the space race occurs before you launch Apollo, in the technology spending that precedes it. As long as I have two good production sites, I'm usually able to win the space race on noble -- now trying to do so at prince. Bear in mind that the less costly items can be spread out among the remaining cities, while the higher value items can be produced more readily by your main industrial centers.

 

[a0161613]

I see your point, i also think part of my problem is playing at too low a level means i am way ahead of techs with no like minded teching partners to keep and challenge me i should push maybe for noble...

 

[LucyDuke]

I see your point, i also think part of my problem is playing at too low a level means i am way ahead of techs with no like minded teching partners to keep and challenge me i should push maybe for noble...

If you've got one victory on Chieftain, I'd say try Warlord first. People will argue both ways but the jump might kill you. On Warlord, you've still got advantages over the AI but you're not so far ahead that there's nobody to trade tech with. Noble has you on (almost) equal footing with the AI and space race is their favorite victory, so the tech trading might end up biting you in the ass.

Financial is a good idea, but industrious might be irrelevant. Focus on commerce, not production - learning to specialize your cities is absolutely crucial. All you need is a few production cities, like Ankh-f-n-Khonsu said. Make sure you've got a science city to keep up in tech - I'm still amazed how powerful one specialized city can be.

The tech focus is going to develop later in the game. Don't waste your time with dead-end techs, you can trade for them later. Focus on going forward. I'm a big fan of first-gets-great-person techs, like Physics, and there will be a few of those on your path. Lightbulb techs once you've built an Academy in your science city. Use Representation for the research bonus.

If you're worldbuilding, you're cheating, end of discussion. What matters is how you feel about it, though. If you're okay with it, then have at it - if you don't think it'll lessen your accomplishment... playing by yourself, you'd only be cheating yourself. If I were worldbuilding for a space race victory, I'd spice the landscape with food resources to turbo-power the commerce(/science) cities with merchant(/scientist) specialists, don't worry about the hills but plant some hammer-rich resources around the production centers, and guarantee myself aluminum and uranium. In my current game I'm at war with China to secure some uranium, and I think the war might set me back in the race enough to lose it.

 

[OscarWildebeest]

I managed one of each kind of victory on Chieftain and went straight up to Warlord - where I'm struggling to get a Cultural Victory (my preferred choice, even if it doesn't always score as high as Dom or Conq). But that's for another thread.

 

[KMadCandy]

play how you want, i'm not saying not to use worldbuilder if it'll save you frustration. but given the advice here (which is good) about not needing a ton of production ... maybe using the 'balanced resources' option on a customized game map would be enough? that way you still get the fun of exploring the map ingame and not knowing it ahead of time, but will have the resources you need. i've never used it but i guess it means everything, including the spaceship stuff?

 

[Irrukathus]

consider reading through some threads like this one:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=204202
This isn't the only one, but it looks to be the most recent.

Where people are playing through the game in small chunks at a time and posting the results. The level of these threads are usually pretty high, but it is obviously to your benifit to see how they play and they strategies that they use.

I was finally able to win on prince after reading one of these posts. It taught me alot. I'm sure at first it will seem a bit much, cause it made my head spin for a while. But hey, the benefit out weighs the pain right?

>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

[pigswill]

If you're looking to follow a one-person game you'd be better off reading one of Sisiutil's earlier games (ALC series) when he was still on prince. The problem with monarch/emperor threads is that the majority of posters will assume a body of knowledge/experience which you may not have early on when you're playing warlord/noble level (and thus they don't post stuff that they think is too 'basic').

In terms of world-builder/re-loading etc its entirely up to you. Its a good way of learning the ropes before you start playing random starts.

 

[dragomaster]

read the threads, they help you alot. Importent for space race is aluminium and monney, it's rare somone trade aluminium so war is needed if you don't have it. Make shore to make friends, this is crushal. With friends you minimize the risk that somone win UN election. With friends you optimize tech trades. It's nice to have two tech trade friends and one warmunger friend. Hauyana is nice to play with, Industrius and Finacial. he's early UU and UB is greate, the UU replace warior and obtain 100 % bonus against archers and one free strength promotion that gives you an oportunity to to make an extreamly early war rush and thay are greate to counter barbs with early if they becum a problem. The UB replace granaty and gives culture; so no need to build monuments build warriors instead and reserch thowards pottery for more cottage cash and culture buildings.

 

[Harbourboy]

In my experience, your starting Settler will always be placed somewhere beneficial, so I don't see how tinkering with the Worldbuilder is going to make too much difference. The real key is in how you actually play the game. The pros around here could win a space race on Warlord no matter what the landscape had on it.

City specialisation, judicious military tactics, and sensible diplomacy are the key, not starting resources.

 

[Evanesce]

First, I would suggest giving up any ideas on using Worldbuilder. Just play more to get better. Second, keep in mind that wars (particularly early ones) may be necessary if you want a shot at getting your spaceship off first (though moreso at higher difficulties). Space Race is somewhat of a backwards umbrella under other victory conditions that you can go for if something else fails; if you've got a well-balanced empire that is equal to/greater than others, generally you've got a good shot at the Space Race. War(s) may be necessary to push down an AI that's running away in power/science.

On a side note, I just lost a Space Race to Asoka by *1* turn on Emperor, standard pangaea. Ironically, I also lost the Liberalism race by *1* turn.

 

[cabert]

A few hints :
- space race is a lower form of domination : you need to dominate in tech and production + keep enough power to deter any attacks. So don't expect it to be a peaceful game.
- I suggest playing THE space-racer : gandhi (I assume vanilla cIV). Why? Spiritual is the best all around trait, and space race is somehow an all around victory. + you have the fast workers. Industrious isn't as good as financial, but at chieftain level it isn't really important. + if you play Gandhi, you won't have him as opponent . Asoka may be just as good.
- Play the first 5000 years towards a large empire : worker, garison, settler non stop until you have covered the place. It will cost you a lot in maintenance, so cottage up the place and tech towards currency and CoL.
If you have 30% of the land, you should be alright. If you have more it's better. If you don't have it, take it!
- Fast teching is about tech trading at higher levels. Not so much at lower levels, since the AIs pay more for the same techs than you do. Still, a quick beeline using the Oracle (starting with mysticism is ) to a good tradable tech may save you a lot of early trouble. I'd go for Civil Service if you manage a good commerce base, or just CoL if you don't. Trading CS is dangerous. Trading CoL not so much.
- don't be shy on wonders, you're industrious! The best wonders for you :
stonehenge/oracle/pyramids/great library/kremlin
- after those 5000 years, it's time to prepare a huge economic force: go for democracy and communism, switch to Universal suffrage, state property and emancipation, while growing your cottage spam and building the kremlin.
- $ rush all the necessary tech (100% science isn't necessary) and production buildings : factories, laboratories, ... to be ready when apollo program is done.
- win

 

[a0161613]

did it guys....

got a space race with frederick, domination with JC and a cultural with rammeses(sp?)

the domination was very well played even if i do say so myself. and i got my highest civ score ever on that too.

one on warlord and a couple on chieftain i think, have started on noble after that boost in confidence but im taking that one slow!

island maps, high water level as many civs as poss.....

cheers.

 

[KMadCandy]

did it guys....

got a space race with frederick, domination with JC and a cultural with rammeses(sp?)

grats oops too short a message. good job for you!

 

[TyranusBonehead]

In my experience, your starting Settler will always be placed somewhere beneficial, so I don't see how tinkering with the Worldbuilder is going to make too much difference. The real key is in how you actually play the game. The pros around here could win a space race on Warlord no matter what the landscape had on it.

City specialisation, judicious military tactics, and sensible diplomacy are the key, not starting resources.

What he said...

 

[Jmaz]

Noone has mentioned the late tech path for Space Race.

The AI seems to beeline to Satellites and then backtrack from there.

The approach that I have found to work to maximize the use of buildings and wonders is to delay Rockets and Satellites. This is why it works for me.

After Physics, beeline Plastics. (start on 3Gorges Dam)
After Plastics beeline Robotics. (labs at Computers, Space Elevator eligible at
Robotics)
Now beeline Satellites. Start the Apollo, Space elevator, and you should have a bunch of labs built by now.

You get the picture. By starting out with Rocketry and Satellites then you don't get the advantange of the other goodies.