Can you experts offer tips on playing Catherine at the higher levels...

[BLtheKid]

Some general questions (and I realize there is no one-fits-all answer to these):

I am playing the vanilla Civ 4 though, probably nearly all of you play CTS.

1) What is your initial build sequence?
2) What techs do you target at various points in the game (including techs that others don't go for, that you can research and then trade)?
3) Are there any Wonders you do everything possible to build (and how do you manage it)?
4) Is Slavery important and how do you manage this to successfully build things? And what civics are a priority?
5) What do you prioritize with respect to workers?
6) Do you try to get a certain number of cities? (I play Fractal, Random climate and sealevel, Standard Map, Normal speed, 7 other AIs (none of the optional boxes checked))
7) What type of victory or victories are most likely achieved and how do you manage this?
8) How do you keep from falling way behind in tech research?

The best game I ever had with Catherine was the level below Immortal when I had a Cultural victory - had a whole continent to myself, there may have been another Civ on it that I vanquished but that was so long ago I can't remember. I do remember having to fight off superior forces from overseas but was able to survive that and eventually win.

 

[sampsa]

What are Catherine's traits in Vanilla? There are plenty of detailed high level playthroughs here and you can find answers to many of your questions by reading a few threads.

 

[lymond]

I'll be honest here - I'm quite surprise that someone who is winning on Emperor is asking some of these questions. There's really very little difference in your approach to the game and start based on a leader. Most of your questions are situational based on land and in some cases, starting techs of the civ. In most cases, logical and basic gameplay applies. Only thing I might do as a Creative leader is prioritize Writing for fast libraries - after worker techs. But worker first and worker techs always is prioritized. Exception to worker might be some coastal starts.

Everything you ask is situational, except falling behind in techs, which would get a more advanced answer. We'd have to see what is causing you so many problems with teching on Emperor level to be sure. But the usual stuff applies:

1) Get library up a soon as you can to run scientists for first GS and academy in cap, or potential bureau cap
2) Prepare a good burea cap (i.e. green river and/or FP cottages). If that is not your starting cap, then try to find a good candidate elsewhere, possibly a captured enemy cap
3) setup a GP farm for gp generation...a well timed golden age for fast gp generation is good for bulb strategies
4) important - tech wisely and setup tech trades. Don't tech AI priority techs but rather trade for these later.
5) Trade resources for gold per turn
6) Trade techs for gold after currency. Old techs or techs that AI are close to finishing . You will need to monitor this closely each turn. It's pretty easy to get an idea of where AIs in tech (if you don't have EPs on them to see) by analyzing trades in the diplo screen. All this stuff gets more and more important as you move up levels.

Wonders - who knows. You can play without them, but otherwise as a non-Ind leader I'd avoid building certain things without the bonus resources. Like Mids is awfully expensive early without stone, but if I did have stone I would usually definitely prioritize Mids. Oracle is up to you really. It's rather cheap and not too hard to get, even without marble, on Emperor with chops. It is not necessary. Great Library is always nice. Great Lighthouse is OP on watery maps are maps in general in which you can settle a lot of coast.

Slavery IS ALWAYS IMPORTANT - I'm not going to give you a slavery primer here, but there is plenty of info on it. 2 or 3 pop settlers (Cathy usually at 2) or workers early to speed expansion. Whip armies when needed.

Civics - HR/Rep, Bureau, Slavery or key civics to most games. Caste in Golden Age (or strategically if spiritual). If you are spreading a religion - OR and Pac(golden age).

most of what I say here is not Cathy specific, and with exception of some minor things, you really should not be thinking this way.

edit: Oh..this is vanilla. I think Cathy is Financial/Creative but not sure. Still, same applies, but there are a lot of differences in Vanilla like Golden Ages suck.

Play BTS!

 

[BLtheKid]

Yes, Catherine is Cre/Fin. Understood that can get ideas from reading other threads but that stuff is kind of spread all around and thought it would be easiest just to put the question out there.

Anyway, I do have a little bit of an idea of how to play the game but a lot of people here are way more advanced than I am and I'm 100% sure do things that I never even thought about. As far as worker and worker techs being prioritized I think I haven't been doing that enough.

It's good to see that I seem to be doing a lot of what you mentioned above but one thing I've almost never done is use Slavery (I was getting the feeling I was missing something here by not using it and you just confirmed it).

Thanks.

 

[lymond]

Note that strangely Civ IV vanilla is probably easier to neutral to BTS on lower levels. Siege being able to kill can be exploited heavily, but get's much harder than BTS on higher levels.

Again, I recommend just playing BTS. It is the ultimate version and lot of changes.

Specialists and great people are important, but on vanilla for tech/economy purposes I would emphasize some strong cottage cities outside just your bureau cap. Especially, ofc, with Cathy or Fin leaders. The bonus on Golden Age GPP does not exist and malus to hammer building of wealth/research makes catching up more reliant on internal economic sufficiency and meticulous tech trading.

But..again..I emphasize playing BTS. More folks can really help you if you play the game everyone else plays.

 

[BLtheKid]

What is OFC?

 

[lymond]

of course