[BTS]:Advice for Moving from Monarch to Emperor

[i_imperator]

Hi, so i have been on monarch for a few months now and its starting to get easy for me. I'm able to win most of my games and i have learnt new tactics. I have decided to attempt Emperor difficulty. From what i read here on the forms, the jump from monarch to Emperor is one of the most difficult jumps in difficulty level. I'm just looking for advice on how to win my first Emperor game and what to expect from the AI. I would like to know the average dates for the lib race, and how many GP farms i should have in my Empire. Some war and tech, and isolation advice would be helpful also. Thanks.

I may post my first Emperor game on this thread either later tonight or tomorrow, so hopefully I ( and others who want to get better at Civ IV) may learn faster and improve our gameplay. Constructive feedback will be welcome.

 

[Puhi]

As a player who usually wins on emperor and is now struggling on immortal, i offer the following advice:

1) National wonders are really important. When settling cities, you really should think about ideal spots for oxford, ne, he, globe theater, and ironworks.

2) I didn't start using drafting and the globe theater until emperor. Drafting rifles can be really, really powerful.

3) Generally, don't intentionally found a religion. If you happen to be the first to code of laws or philosophy, well, that's fine. It's generally much better to capture a shrine.

4) Capture a shrine.

5) Don't feel like you must build world wonders. If the opportunity is there, they can be helpful. But often it's much better to put your hammers into units, settlers, workers and buildings.

6) A reasonable rule of thumb is that by 1 AD, I want to have at least 7 cities and 100 beakers per turn. Of course every game is different, that's why it's a rule of thumb.

7) Getting liberalism early isn't neccessarily important. Keep an eye on your opponents' techs so they don't beat you. I often like to take steel with lib, which means I don't get it as early as possible. Steel combined with drafting = a lot of power.

8) I find having 1 very good gp farm works well for me. Keep in mind, your first gp (usually a scientist) doesn't have to come from the city that will eventually become your ne city. I like to get that first scientist for an academy as soon as possible, often before I even settle the city that will one day become my gp farm.

9) Researching aesthetics early to trade for alphabet, ironworking and all kinds of other stuff usually works very well on emperor.

 

[Gwynnja]

read the forums. keep practicing. from what I understand, the jump from immortal to deity is by far the most difficult. I had a tough time moving from pre-noble to noble. Then I had a tough time moving from noble to prince, then I had a tough time moving from prince to monarch. I've recently made the transition to emperor, and without a favorable map, I struggle. That's what makes this game so much fun. Something that helped me get used to emperor was opening a few immortal games.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

I would like to know the average dates for the lib race

and how many GP farms i should have in my Empire.

You should always have just 1, and build the national epic in that town.

Some war and tech, and isolation advice would be helpful also. Thanks.

Try this:

Tech the bare essentuals like wheel, agriculture, mining, animal husbandry, maybe archery for barb defense if you didn't get horses, then go straight for writing. While your teching settle 4-5 cities and build libraries in all the cities, then run 2 scientists in all your cities while you tech to asthetics. If a great scientist pops, save him for later. Once you finish asthetics you can tech alphabet if noone else has it, or if someone has it, tech a little alphabet then trade asthetics for the rest. Then trade alphabet or asthetics to all the other AI's to backfill techs you skipped. Then tech literature and build the great library + national epic in 1 of your towns. Now tech to code of laws and when you get code of laws use 1 of your great scientists to bulb philosophy. Now you should be quite ahead of everyone and from there you can go paper-liberalism etc. You can use the great scientists you get for bulbing education and other later techs. This works pretty well on all difficulties.

 

[Yoshi1]

I would turn tech brokering off as first step, i learned more about research priorites when there was no way to get everything for free. It also speeds up the game way too much, i wouldn't be able to set any key dates like that.

Stuff i often think about: how fast should i get maths for the better chopping, compared to other techs.
These thoughts tend to form an early game plan for me, like when i plan to chop for 30h i might skip early slavery, and so on.

 

[i_imperator]

As a player who usually wins on emperor and is now struggling on immortal, i offer the following advice:

1) National wonders are really important. When settling cities, you really should think about ideal spots for oxford, ne, he, globe theater, and ironworks.

2) I didn't start using drafting and the globe theater until emperor. Drafting rifles can be really, really powerful.

3) Generally, don't intentionally found a religion. If you happen to be the first to code of laws or philosophy, well, that's fine. It's generally much better to capture a shrine.

4) Capture a shrine.

5) Don't feel like you must build world wonders. If the opportunity is there, they can be helpful. But often it's much better to put your hammers into units, settlers, workers and buildings.

6) A reasonable rule of thumb is that by 1 AD, I want to have at least 7 cities and 100 beakers per turn. Of course every game is different, that's why it's a rule of thumb.

7) Getting liberalism early isn't neccessarily important. Keep an eye on your opponents' techs so they don't beat you. I often like to take steel with lib, which means I don't get it as early as possible. Steel combined with drafting = a lot of power.

8) I find having 1 very good gp farm works well for me. Keep in mind, your first gp (usually a scientist) doesn't have to come from the city that will eventually become your ne city. I like to get that first scientist for an academy as soon as possible, often before I even settle the city that will one day become my gp farm.

9) Researching aesthetics early to trade for alphabet, ironworking and all kinds of other stuff usually works very well on emperor.

Thanks for the advice Puhi , a question on the drafting, wont i have to build teathers and colosseums to keep up with the unhapiness from the war and drafting. And won't spy's and Espionage help out instead of seige?. I have tried to draft an army before but it has always ruined my economy.

read the forums. keep practicing. from what I understand, the jump from immortal to deity is by far the most difficult. I had a tough time moving from pre-noble to noble. Then I had a tough time moving from noble to prince, then I had a tough time moving from prince to monarch. I've recently made the transition to emperor, and without a favorable map, I struggle. That's what makes this game so much fun. Something that helped me get used to emperor was opening a few immortal games.

I hear the jump from Immortal to deity is the same, if not harder than the jump from Noble to immortal.

You should always have just 1, and build the national epic in that town.



Try this:

Tech the bare essentuals like wheel, agriculture, mining, animal husbandry, maybe archery for barb defense if you didn't get horses, then go straight for writing. While your teching settle 4-5 cities and build libraries in all the cities, then run 2 scientists in all your cities while you tech to asthetics. If a great scientist pops, save him for later. Once you finish asthetics you can tech alphabet if noone else has it, or if someone has it, tech a little alphabet then trade asthetics for the rest. Then trade alphabet or asthetics to all the other AI's to backfill techs you skipped. Then tech literature and build the great library + national epic in 1 of your towns. Now tech to code of laws and when you get code of laws use 1 of your great scientists to bulb philosophy. Now you should be quite ahead of everyone and from there you can go paper-liberalism etc. You can use the great scientists you get for bulbing education and other later techs. This works pretty well on all difficulties.

Great tips, this sounds more like a SE than a CE though, still i'l give this a try for this game.

I would turn tech brokering off as first step, i learned more about research priorites when there was no way to get everything for free. It also speeds up the game way too much, i wouldn't be able to set any key dates like that.

Stuff i often think about: how fast should i get maths for the better chopping, compared to other techs.
These thoughts tend to form an early game plan for me, like when i plan to chop for 30h i might skip early slavery, and so on.

The only thing with this, is the types of tech you broker, for example whenever i trade education/paper around after winning lib, to pick up techs like guilds and baking and Replaceable parts, every AI seems to get a major boost to their tech. And once they get the universities up there either ahead or at tech parity with me. I have noticed this since i moved up to prince. Mabey i'm doing something wrong? Or mabey i shouldn't be trading education like that?

Thanks for the advice everyone

 

[i_imperator]

Ok so i started a random fractal game last night and i got Issy, with a pretty good food start. I have decided to post it here,
Leader:

Start:

Settings:

Last time i played as liz was back in my nobel days with vanilla where i got my first domination victory. This looks like a very good start for GP production. I'd say SIP? What do you think?
And here's the save if you want to play along.

 

[vranasm]

I tend to agree with SIP.
to the south it seems tundra...I would explore north way

starting order seems tough one.
If you go with aggri for corn and worker he will not have enough work because you need min->bw asap

you could probably start with wb on PH, maybe 2 wbs before worker and tech inbetween min->bw->agri.

Would love to hear another people thinking. The irrigated corn is strongest tile, but not enough work for worker there.

 

[Puhi]

I agree with sip and building a workboat (or two) first. This is one of those rare exceptions to the 'worker first' rule.

Since you can get food from the clams, I might tech mining + bronzeworking before ag. That may not be the best move, but getting those hills chopped and mined should be a priority.

 

[Puhi]

Thanks for the advice Puhi , a question on the drafting, wont i have to build teathers and colosseums to keep up with the unhapiness from the war and drafting. And won't spy's and Espionage help out instead of seige?. I have tried to draft an army before but it has always ruined my economy.

I think drafting works best with a SPI leader, because you can go into and out of nationalism easily, so it's good you got Isabella for this game.

I tend not to overdue drafting. Say you have 7 cities, and you go into nationalism for 5 turns. Your globe city will draft each turn, for 5 units (rifles are most efficient). Then other cities may draft only 1 unit, for a total of 6, so they don't incur much unhappiness. With enough happy resources, you won't even have to move your culture slider. In 5 turns, you've got 11 rifles, plus whatever else you managed to build, for minimal unhappiness. Not bad.

I think using spies instead of siege works best with 2 move units. If done well, it's very effective. Since you have a game with Isabella, keep in mind her UB gives a bonus to seige.

 

[vranasm]

I played your game to 550BC

Spoiler :

start was 2x WB (the first one built on PH, then let grow cap to size 2 and work clams+PH). Tech mining->bw
I met almost immedietaly Dutches... seeing the small land I was sure there is rush needed, I didn't know which one though.

I made a bit mistake. By exploring I found out that you have near gold with deer as food resource and instead after bw going hunting->ah, I did hunting->aggri->ah and I realized a bit too late that I have horses in cap BFC.

Well with gold nearby I thought that could be nice showcase of some Horse Archer warfare.

So I settled both gold with 2 cities, built 2 barracks and 1 stables in capital and then for awhile horse archers.
I think I DoWed Dutches around 800BC with 5HA's more coming.

That leads to 550BC, we have continent for ourself, 5 cities, with room for more, but actually I would settle probably the silver+crab south east and there is some seafood to the south west.

I would definitely not fillup the map just for the sake of filling up.

Techs right now I would take probably MC. I spared whole warfare gold, so we are sitting at 600gold. I am not sure if we get Colossus, but making forges everywhere means 2 more happy faces if you settle the land as I suggest.
Getting Colossus would be good, but I was kind of slow with the war and am not sure if you get it.

I just provide save, didn't make screens, so if you want more detail you have to look in save.

 

[michmbk]

On the monarch-emperor jump, I didn't find it that tough - really just needed to do everything a little crisper at that level, but it wasn't a bad jump. It could have been because a lot of us were playing monarch at the time and we were killing that level, so emperor wasn't too bad. Immortal was a tough jump for me, and obviously trying to win at deity was ridiculously hard - i never found deity level fun.

I played your save a little while too, to about 400 BC:

Spoiler :

Clearly a resource 1NW - grassland food in the midst of forests - I'm almost certain it's horses. I went AG/AH while building a worker. It's emperor, so even if it was copper, I'd still have enough time to tech mining/bw before barbs.

Sure enough, horses. Willem is weak militarily, so chariots---death.

He was kind enough to settle three cities and give me three workers before dying, so my dozen or so chariots were a worthwhile investment. From there, just lazy chopping and landfilling. It's a food poor island in some ways, so from here, I'd probably start overlapping some cities and plan for smaller cities. There's a landmass NE, so after the aesthetics line, I'd probably get a few economy techs and then beeline astro.

No one seems to be teching well - I'm used to immortal normal, so emperor epic is a bit of a change for me, but I haven't seen any wonders that concerned me yet. I imagine we have plenty of land to win from here. We're the largest civ at this point, so I suspect this one is in the bag from here.

 

[i_imperator]

Thanks for shadowing the game, michmbk and vranasm. I 'll have a look at the spoilers once i have played up to those dates. I will play the first 100 turns and post it tonight.

 

[i_imperator]

Well i played up till Turn 99:

Spoiler :

I moved the warrior 1NE and decided to settle in place as it seamed the best choice.

Tech- Agriculture-Animal Husbandry-The Wheel
Builds in Cap- WorkBoat-Worker-WorkBoat-Settler.
T4-Meet william

T14- I find Amsterdam's borders.
T24- Workboat is finished
T34-Animal husbandry is finished i find horses in my CAP's bfc. Looks like a chariot rush! Welliam also has horses in his Cap's bfc.

T42-Worker is done, start on workboat-settler-barracks

T48- The wheel is done, worker finishes horse pasture.
T70-Willy settles his second city

T75- Settler is finished
T77- Barcelona founded, and i finish BW Switch to slavery, tech pottery and writing next.
T82- First chariot is out. Worker chopped the forested hill and is now building a mine.
T95- Willy makes request/demand- i give in to it. 4 chariots done

T99- writing is done.And i have 5 chariots with another on the way next turn. I think willy has three cities, The haugue is on a hill and has 1 archer. I stopped here to ask for advice on what to do, and what totech next.
Tech:

Madrid and the 5 chariots

Barcelona at size 2:

Pic of the lands:

Power rating:

So any suggestions? Should i take the Hague or continue building chariots untill i have about 8-9 of them? And what should i tech next? I know im researching hunting atm but i havent wasted any turns in it.
As always, here's the save:

 

[gilmore606]

I think drafting works best with a SPI leader, because you can go into and out of nationalism easily, so it's good you got Isabella for this game.

I tend not to overdue drafting. Say you have 7 cities, and you go into nationalism for 5 turns. Your globe city will draft each turn, for 5 units (rifles are most efficient). Then other cities may draft only 1 unit, for a total of 6, so they don't incur much unhappiness. With enough happy resources, you won't even have to move your culture slider. In 5 turns, you've got 11 rifles, plus whatever else you managed to build, for minimal unhappiness. Not bad.

The great thing about drafting for me is doing it while in Hereditary Rule. If I'm accumulating my stacks in 2-3 border cities which happen to have good food, they've already got tons of happiness from HR so I can draft them every turn or two for a while, alternating with other random cities, and end up with an extra 10 or so troops once I'm done with my buildup.

 

[i_imperator]

Well i managed to play the game out to the modern era, (I had to reload twice as my rush on welliam wasn't fast enough) But i'm not sure on how i should win this game. I thought about getting a peaceful win. Tried UN but percelies is a monster on this map and he built it by the time i got to Mass media. So i am asking, what should i do now, could i still win a space victory, or should i rush buy a army of transports para's and tat nukes and teach the runaway Greek a lesson?
I have provided several saves if anyone wants to check them.