Build cities too aggressively, AI dows, inadequate defence (wide liberty)

[Civilopedian]

Noticing a pattern lately. I'm trying to play a wide liberty game and the AI gets irked by my persistent plonking down of cities. I forward settle them to define my borders/stop them getting the best spots then I can't defend my city. I then restart the game and try again!

On the one hand i need to get a bunch of settlers made, on the other hand they are often unescorted and i have few units to defend any city i make.

Is it better to slow down the settles and stick in a few archers/warriors between each settler in the build queue?

Problem with that is I end up with national college after t100.

Btw my tech order is usually to go to construction for comp bows and colosseums, then currency to get markets, then philosophy, then guilds, then machinery.

In this strategy should i make markets before library?

 

[LordBalkoth]

What difficulty are you playing?

 

[Civilopedian]

Immortal

 

[LordBalkoth]

How many cities are you trying to "plonk down" usually? Aka, how wide is "wide?"

 

[consentient]

You do know you can use the Liberty finisher to build the NC, right?

 

[Civilopedian]

How many cities are you trying to "plonk down" usually? Aka, how wide is "wide?"

recently i've made 6-8 settlers to begin with, then expanded after national college to around 10-12.

typically i start making settlers around turn 30 regardless of my strategy.

in a recent shoshone game i got NC up by t98 with 6 cities

 

[Maxattack]

In my latest game I got 7-city NC on T78 and I stole only two workers (but built Pyramids before my last settler, I don't really know if that was a good plan after all). I was pretty happy about that It's incredible how, even in a 4 pop capital, it acclerated the game until Education (T115ish after a detour to Metal Casting). I didn't even have spare time to build Markets in most of my cities until pretty late...

My neighbours were pretty peaceful and didn't complain too much about my expansions but with 7 cities up that early I could have easily pumped out a bunch of Archers to defend my territory. This time I also planted all of my cities within 5 tiles of each other tops and this made a pretty big difference in GPT actually. I didn't even sell most of my strategics ! So I wouldn't have gotten bankrupt even if I had needed to support a huge military.

I think the most important thing in wide play is actually production. It's what gives you the flexibility to switch to military production when needed while still being able to get the necessary buildings in time.

 

[kamex]

No doubt it depends on map size but I've heard that 7 is an optimal number for peaceful Liberty games. Although I have trouble pulling it off on standard maps on Emperor.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Nowadays I go for 6 city Liberty NC and then use XBs/Trebs/Medieval UU to take out a neighbor and end up with 8-10 cities for a decent Liberty SV. Managed a T212 on Immortal the other day :]

 

[consentient]

I like 3 cities for Ancient/Classical Domination, 5 for Medieval/Renaissance, and as many as possible for Industrial. When imitating Acken's play on the Morocco Deity Challenge I think we both settled 6/7, to start war much later.

 

[Civilopedian]

I like 3 cities for Ancient/Classical Domination, 5 for Medieval/Renaissance, and as many as possible for Industrial. When imitating Acken's play on the Morocco Deity Challenge I think we both settled 6/7, to start war much later.

did you make a video of it? please tell me you made a video of it

 

[LordBalkoth]

recently i've made 6-8 settlers to begin with, then expanded after national college to around 10-12.

typically i start making settlers around turn 30 regardless of my strategy.

in a recent shoshone game i got NC up by t98 with 6 cities

I'd probably aim for six cities, then NC, then expand more if feasible. As you get more comfortable with things possibly aim for seven to eight cities prior to NC.

That said, I'm honestly not too familiar with wide Liberty games so take what I said with a small grain of salt. I'd have to play out some more to feel more comfortable giving solid advice.

 

[sugerdady87]

I usually build one to three archers in my initial first or first two expansions. Make sure you get a few before you even start building settlers. I held off a double team attack this way in my last culture game.

 

[Acken]

Add archers to your build, especially in the firsts city made, and get construction somewhere.

Building more than 4 cities early triggers that idiotic diplo negative no matter what.