Can't seem to get king difficulty down

[Fooliscious]

Fairly new to civ 5, have about 120 hours logged into it. I recently started trying king mode, as standard was far too easy. I always seem to get stomped by one civilization who just crazy out-techs the rest, including me.

A few scenarios as I recall them to see if anyone can point out any tips or flaws. My general early game strategy is to make a monument for expansion, establish a religion(which rarely works for some reason) then rush the science techs, Oxford wonder, and picking up any lower wonders I can afford on the way. I generally don't build a military til I need it. After that I just play catch up with the lower techs, grabbing what I need whatever my current situation is. I very rarely go to war with anyone(yet they seem to love picking on me) until I have artillery, then I start steamrolling cities I want to annex for their wonders/resources etc. My great people handling is probably lacking, as I'm not sure how their academies compare to their abilities, and which wonders are worth getting etc.

Carthage - Carthage is probably my favorite Civ, navy ftw. I played continents and was pretty much pinned down by Russia the entire game. I had 3 cities to start before the bastards attacked, and ended up have to wreck a few allied city states to keep them away from my capital. I ended up owning the entire coast, and survived with some tacky citadel placement, yet couldnt make any forays into Russia's territory. I don't even recall the other civs, except Egypt who ended up massacring its continent and winning a science victory by a long shot.

Austria - Sounds fun, yet every time I've played them I get wrecked on making friends with city states. The last game I think may have been bad luck, I got sandwiched beween Russia, Japan, Celts, and China. I only had 2 cities for the majority of the early game, and managed to steal the Dutch's capital as everyone was pissed off at them for some reason. I thought even with my two cities I was managing to keep up my techs, and on my continent I was. I eventually ate up China while Russia/Celts ate Japan. Every city state was on the coast I wasn't on. Little did I know France had conquered the ENTIRETY of the other continent and had somewhere along the line of 25 cities, and was building the spaceship before we had hit the atomic era.

Byzantium - Wanted to see what religion could do, both times I tried I barely managed to get three cities before I had to devote all my time and resources to defending my borders, all the while Arabia/China went nuts and researched everything before the rest of us could get into the Renaissance. The second time I had a boatload of money, as I was a little more aggressive with missionaries, but I couldn't get other great people to spawn through faith for some reason, and Spain just wouldn't leave me alone to expand.

I would like to stay away from the civs that make things easy(looking at you Babylon), as I really won't learn much that way. Any help would be appreciated. Looks like my main problem when I go back and read this is that there always seems to be one civ that is always miles ahead of the the others, including me, that I am not in a position to do anything about.

 

[Matthew.]

I generally don't build a military til I need it... I very rarely go to war with anyone(yet they seem to love picking on me) until I have artillery

This could be part of your problem. 1. As you move up in difficulty it becomes increasingly difficult to "rush an army" competent enough to hold back AI army spam. Some preventative measures is good. 2. Military strength (essentially a number which is total sum of combat power at your disposal) is used in many diplomatic equations. Strong military strength means the AI will be less likely to declare war, more likely to give in quickly or larger peace deals when at war, agree to not settling/spying, etc.

Moving up in difficulty also becomes increasingly difficult to focus on wonders. Simply by building a couple less wonders and using those hammers instead on military will probably be enough to deal with King difficulty.

Looks like my main problem when I go back and read this is that there always seems to be one civ that is always miles ahead of the the others, including me, that I am not in a position to do anything about.

Runaway Civs (a Civ that tends to swallow up all the other AI or wonders and snowballs into huge tech/military lead) are common. Open up the demographics window occasionally and keep an eye on who is leading military/science. If there is an obvious runaway, the goal of the game is to either 1. Bypass that runaway through superior teching (not always possible if it is late in game) or 2. Doing everything in your power to break down that runaway before it becomes unstoppable. If you wait until it is too late... well, then it is too late

 

[ense7en]

King is easy to keep ahead in tech. If you aren't, something's not being done right.

When are you building libraries?
When is the National College being built? This is the most important early game wonder you need to build. No, i am not joking.
The next important tech is Education. Get Universities up, and once you hit around 8-10ish pop or whatever size you can while still growing well and producing, put citizens into the scientists slots to start making Great Scientists for Academies (and much later, for bulbing techs).

Are you growing your cities as much as possible?

Don't stagnate your growth to build tons of wonders.

Build up archers (a good bunch of them, 5-6+ or more) and then finish Construction, upgrade them to Composite Bowmen, and go cripple your most conveniently located neighbor. Bring along a couple Spearmen/Pikemn/Horsemen/Swordsmen for capping the city(s). Don't eliminate the civ, just take the good cities you want.

Just settling by them (or provoking them in other ways) will get them to attack you so you won't likely have to.
There's always someone who needs to be dealt with early on.

If you are growing and getting science buildings up fast, you will be able to out-tech the AI (even usually the runaway ones) on King just fine.

Don't ignore military; it makes you a target.
If you are higher up in the military demographics you won't be looked at as easy picking and will not end up getting attacked as much.

If you are doing maps with other continents, you'll want to get a good coastal base of operations where you can pump out Galleas > Frigates and Caravels/Privateers to go snipe the runaways coastal city(s). If their capital is on the coast, it's too easy.

If you have an extra luxury, sell it for gold/gpt to the AI, or if you need happiness, trade luxs. Same for extra unneeded horses/iron/etc, sell it.
Use the gold to rush buy early settlers/workers/upgrade units, vital buildings.

 

[Fooliscious]

The first things I go for are libraries and the science techs. I was unaware military strength made that much of a difference, will have to try that. Are there specific wonders I should shoot for? Most of them seem really invaluable to have.

 

[joncnunn]

I would like to stay away from the civs that make things easy(looking at you Babylon), as I really won't learn much that way. Any help would be appreciated. Looks like my main problem when I go back and read this is that there always seems to be one civ that is always miles ahead of the the others, including me, that I am not in a position to do anything about.

Do you want an early peaceful start? Try a water based map. (In particular Large Islands / Tiny Islands). There's about a 33% chance of Archepello starting with an AI on the same landmass, and it's much less on the two maps I mentioned.
Or do you want contacts early but just want to ensure you only have at most two borders to defend? Try Ring map, but be advised there are at most 5 City states on that map (all in the middle)

Other map types: You really need a defensive army even if your not planning on taking any of the AI's cities. 1 Archer per city; promote to composites and then Crossbows as you get the tech for it. Getting these out of the door is more important than Barracks.

 

[Matthew.]

Are there specific wonders I should shoot for? Most of them seem really invaluable to have.

Don't let the tiny cut-scene and fancy music fool you; most wonders are not that great. Or to put it another way, they aren't free and you need to consider what all those hammers could have been used on instead. A 250 hammer wonder is nearly 4 composite bows. Next time you get rushed and lose a city, ask yourself how useful that wonder was in defending your empire. Worse is when you miss the wonder by a few turns, as all those hammers were essentially wasted.

My own personal rule on Emperor and above is if I beeline straight towards a specific tech/wonder, I will go for it but ignore all the others around the same time period. For example if I choose to rush for Hagia Sophia to form a religion on a faithless Civ, I won't bother trying for Chichen Itza afterwards since there is a high probability of someone like Gandhi already nearly finished or has completed it.

 

[comatosedragon]

Are there specific wonders I should shoot for? Most of them seem really invaluable to have.

I used to be just like you, as far as not building a military goes. I learned while moving up in difficulty that this is nearly impossible. One thing I leaned on early (which helped quite a bit) was the Great Wall. It's fairly early, provides a GE point, and helps out immensley if you are not the best military. It is also good to NOT let the AI get it, and although I don't build it quite as often as I used to, I feel it can help greatly when learning the different difficulty levels.

 

[Fooliscious]

I'm really not much of a war monger early on so I rarely have a military, sounds like my biggest issue. All good info, the great wall is a good idea. How about cities early on? I seem to be unable to get more than three reliably, and I get smoked in the science department.

As for specific wonders, which are must have? Pisa, the porcelain tower, Oxford all seem very useful.

 

[sufficiency]

2 cities as Austria is probably fine if you are nicely positioned to have CSs around you.

 

[Fooliscious]

CS? Good news, got my first king victory after an all day game today. The early on military paired with Austria and Persia being unable to steam roll each other on the other continent let me stay ahead. I feel like if there were more than the huns for militaristic societies I wouldn't have done so well. Austria got mean at the end, bought a buncha city states with too good units. Kicked everyone off my continent and got the science victory though. Had the Manhattan Project done in 1860 Thanks for all the advice!

Quick question though. For most of the latter half of the game Austria had a GPT of at least 400. How on earth did they manage that? With my religion abuse I stayed hovering around 90.

 

[Syailendra]

Quick question though. For most of the latter half of the game Austria had a GPT of at least 400. How on earth did they manage that? With my religion abuse I stayed hovering around 90.

If he bought many CS's and establish tradelines with them its not strange for them to have that kind of GPT. You can have more if you puppet cities and change every improvements on those puppets to trading posts.

My tip for you, which every other posters seems to forgetting, do build scout (at turn 1).
1 is enough for continents map, sometimes 2 for a pangaea game, they really is a gamechanger.

 

[tetley]

One sole exception might be if you are not Polynesia on Tiny Islands/Small Islands map. Starting with a scout just doesn't work.

 

[ssnitrousoxide]

There are really many ways to go.

You can basically spam wonders just like on Prince difficulty. The AIs may beat very few wonders to you except Ramesses. But anyway many wonders are not so useful on high difficulties. Great library is definitely doable on King so go for it.

Rush your nearest neighbor if it's really close to you. Leave a city or two and take those with nice resources. If you play as Attila/Oda/Alex/Caesar/Maya, early conquests are very easy. Neby and Sejong are always great, crush your enemies with technology!

The easiest way to beat king would be playing on archipelago or island maps since the naval combat AI is basically broken. As Elizabeth you can crush everybody after you research ship-of-the-line but any other civ will work because AIs are too stupid to use their ships effectively.

I beat King on my first civ game (after tutorial) and it was a hard one. Had to go for early war against Washington but he is a coward. Then nearly got eliminated by Russia but just at the right time I finished Civil Service and repelled her invasion with Landsknecht spam. The war lasted for centuries before I finally pushed into Moscow with Artillery and Panzer (Cathy never asks for peace unless she takes significant losses). At this time Ethiopia was already far ahead on the other continent and at last we went into nuke wars. We nuked the heck out of each other and both got -1,000 balances.