[c3c] Best strategy?

[Fly or Die]

I'm currently playing emporer games, after a REX period using the ring city placement and turning into a republic i am now doubting what my next strategy will be.

Im falling behind in the tech race, some other civs are currently 2-3 techs in advance. Greece has build a city in the north and obtained my dyes. Currently i am trading dyes with the carthaginians for my 2 excess resources.

In my main cities i constructed the main improvements (temples, libraries) to boost production and research. In some other cities i also build a courthouse in case of many gold in the area.

My doubt is whether to attack the greeks to get my dyes resource back and expand my territory. The carthaginians can be seen as allies and i could get them to attack the greeks as well..

What do you guys think of this? Do you agree or are theyr better ways to get the game (back) in control. I feel like it's slipping a little bit out of my hands.

 

[megistatos]

Hi Flie or Die,

I'm not really playing at the moment, so looking at someone else's game is the next best thing.

Firstly, not bad at all, you've got a strong looking civilization which definitely is keeping up with the rest. Let me say a a few things that have come mind after loading your save.

Ok so you're a bit behind in tech. I wouldn't worry too much about that- The Carthaginians are basically equal with you. U'd guess you're not that far behind Greece etc.

I think what you need to do is to go on the attack in a war. Firstly construction needs to be switched primarily to barracks then units. You've been unlucky not to get horses, so I'd recommend trading for horses from the Greeks (300 gold should do it). Then you can build some Mounted Warriors. Research to Military Tradition and you'll get Cavalry, which you can upgrade Mounted Warriors to.

Ok so if you're trading horses from Greece that basicly leaves Carthage to attack. So I'd say definitely stop building wealth - units would be much more useful (the military advisor says you're weak to everyone else - no good having a good economy but no army to protect (/enlarge) it. Also courthouses are a bit of an unneccessary luxury - defend you're empire first. Go for horses for Mounted Warriors and then Knights or Cavalry depending on what tech you get (don't forget barracks are very useful for a productive city) (also remember slow units can't keep up with horsed units when you're on the attack.

Also - remember you can build the forbidden palace - reduced corruption around it - very useful. I'd recommend building it somewhere like Tonawanda. Hopefully by the time it's built the cities to the east won't be quite so Greek any more.

Also, the Celts might trade you incense so try to get that. Also - don't forget the luxiry slider - mostly it is better to have citizens working the hills for extra production rather than as scientists.

Ok hope that's not too confusing (probably is). I suppose my main advice is to build soldiers and take out the Carthaginians (even if they're you're "friends"!).

Hope it goes well, and let us know how you progress!

 

[Spoonwood]

There's probably much more I could say and ask from just what you've wrote, but let's keep focus here... what's your desired victory condition? If you just want to win, which one do you think easiest for you to achieve here?

 

[Optional]

Another option to get the dyes back would be this one:

Spoiler :

And you really need to try and meet the other civs on this map, to start with the Byzantines. They already landed on your continent, so it shouldn't be hard to find the other continent. Your trading options will become much better once you know more civs.

Ring city placement only makes sense on Vanilla and Play the World. The corruption model in Conquests is completely different, and you can now just place cities at the best locations - much easier.

You can place more towns on the ice. Where there's low food, like on tundra, just pack your towns together. Each tile on tundra that gets a town on it produces food like any other town centre tile, so each town placement on tundra is a great improvement in its own right. So for this reason, rather put your towns on tundra than on hills.

If you want to go to war then certainly produce units in your best towns. Having major towns on wealth is a sort of hibernating that won't get you anywhere.

A problem you probably have is that you hardly have any rivers, so not much commerce. But mainly I think your early expansion could have been better. Agricultural gives an extra food at sweet water locations in despotism, so it's a bit strange to choose a start like this, that has nothing of it, but with those cows you should still have out-expanded the others on this level. Probably you're still somewhat inexperienced with use of graneries and the micro-management that comes with it.

 

[vmxa]

I was a little slow on this one, but here is some feedback. Has Optional already said RCP is not a factor in C3C.

One issue is that you are next to last in the number of towns. You have 12 in the game, but have only met 4. The one big advantage humans have in a continents game or archi map is they will send out boats into the ocean, without Nav or Mag.

This lets you met others that not everyone else knows. This lowers your cost of techs, if they know them. It often lets you make good trades, when you met some backward nations. You did get out and scout the land via circumnavigating the continent.

Not a great chunk of land, but not the worse you have ever seen either. Nasty part is no river and the land has lotsl mountains, except for the tile next to the volcano, nice touch.

You did drop St. Regis next to a volcano, any reason? With grass hard to come by, I would not want to plant one next to a volcano.

No horses, so no MW. Once you have some idea of the layout, you may have been well advised to consider packing in to a CxxC as if you were on an island. You have so many hills and mountains and no water to allow mountains to be used. This suggest using the coast more than I would like, 2f 2g is beter than nothing.

19 workers for 15 towns, is not much considering all the hills and mountains.

Why have someone plant a tree in the middle of nowhere? I would rather see him clear the grass of pollution and put it back into use. In fact I would not have planted that town in the grass. Put it in the tundra and it still gets it food and the grass is available to use.

I would suggest you not have workers doing task in solo mode. Gang them up so they can get a task done in single turn or 2, rather than many turns. That gets the tile into production now, not later.

A lot of places are on wealth, that is fine late in the game or in farm towns, but not for core cities. If nothing else build replacements for the spears and swords. A pike is useful, a spear is not.

Let me say right off, I disspise giving two lux to anyone. That is too much help, unless they are way behind or you are dead meat anyway. Here you are giving 2 for a lux you could have had all along.

Ganasetaigon is making an aqua, but it is not able to feed 6? Well it can, if you put the pop on the grass or the water. Grass gives 2g 6 beakers, water 3g 6 beakers. Not sure I would spend all those shield to get a 7th pop that will starve. One thing for sure, you cannot afford to let a town go to riot.

Bursa's placement is very aggressive as it has tiles that would be yours. Was it planted, before your borders popped?

I would not be making temples/libs in Akwesasne or any tundra land locked town. Just ICS the area and put the lone citizen to science and save your money. It is making 3 beakers and rasing a lib, it will cost as much as it gives. I would prefer to plop down 4 or 5 towns in the tundra and take the support.

You have a temple every places, it looks like. You have a colosseum in many cities. That is a lot of shields back, when you should have been expanding by peace or force. Just grabbing the dyes alone would have been worth it. It is a bad break that Alex is your neighbor, so force would have been expensive, but you have to pay at some point or be locked down.

Caughnawaga making a court, it is a size 3 town? It can only feed 4. Not a good investment. The small empire size and lack of cities means you have tiny free support.

You do not have a single cat or treb? I think I would have detected Alex is my only target and made a bunch of cats and tried to take some land, long ago. It will be a lot harder. He will go from Hops to muskets, neither is a lot of fun for swords and MDI. You only have 6 total and a longer boarder to defend.

Reduce science for a time, put cities on making MDI in barracks places and trebs in non barracks towns. You could toss in a couple of Longbows in non barracks towns, if you have to in order to get up an army. They can be used to get in ping on defense of the pikes.

You will need settlers to combat replace a few towns as they are flip risk I would guess and if they are yours will draw less ire. IOW the first town you capture of Alex, will get him to come for it.