Chieftan-Warlord

[NinjaSeeker]

So, I recently started playing and I found Chieftan difficulty to be insultingly easy. There were games where I managed to get two ages ahead of my opponents, and was lining up nukes to blanket the earth.

Now, I tried warlord, and I am stumped.

Or, should I say, I can't stand to see anyone ahead of me in scientific terms. Is this a problem? Should I not mind as much? (PS: I play almost exclusively as China, it's hard to get used to anyone else.)

 

[Snarkhunter]

So, I recently started playing and I found Chieftan difficulty to be insultingly easy. There were games where I managed to get two ages ahead of my opponents, and was lining up nukes to blanket the earth.

Now, I tried warlord, and I am stumped.

Or, should I say, I can't stand to see anyone ahead of me in scientific terms. Is this a problem? Should I not mind as much? (PS: I play almost exclusively as China, it's hard to get used to anyone else.)

More info would be nice, the ultimate being a posted save of a situation giving you grief. Do you mean that you are not winning at warlord, or do you mean something else? I would say that you shouldn't mind very much if the AI is temporarily ahead of you, but if you can't keep up in the MA or worse, the IA, there's probably something amiss with your empire management style, your use of the slider, or the techs you research on the tree. If nothing else, you should be able to trade your way to tech parity or even dominance. Although that phase doesn't last very long at warlord.

kk

 

[undertoad]

Or, should I say, I can't stand to see anyone ahead of me in scientific terms. Is this a problem? Should I not mind as much? (PS: I play almost exclusively as China, it's hard to get used to anyone else.)

Snap - I get uncomfortable falling behing in the tech race as well.

If you like playing in a "ahead on techs" style, have you considered going for a Commercial and/or Scientific civ? I like playing Greeks for this reason (they're both).

One mistake I've often made (I've recently moved up from Warlord to Regent, and found myself similarly stumped until I got advice here) is to neglect expanding as fast as possible in the early game. Get your capital down as quickly as possible, make sure you're settling right left and centre, don't bother too much with city improvements until you've filled your available space with cities, and build lots of Workers to maximise the productivity of your cities (though, as an Industrious civ, your Chinese workers will work much faster than my Greek ones).

Hard to tell without a save, but being behind on tech in the early game is not fatal! Trade techs as much as possible with the other civs, you'll be surprised how quickly you catch up. Especially if you go for techs that no-one else has - as soon as you get one of these, sell it to everyone you know in the same turn (otherwise the civ you sold it to will sell it on, robbing you of the benefit).

I recommend CivAssistII (available in the Creation & Customisation\Utilities forum) to help you make the most of what you have to catch up on tech. It warns you if you have anything at all you can flog off to the other civs - even the dead rats off your city streets (OK, I made that last bit up...).

 

[da3dalus]

Undertoad is correct, not being in the tech lead is not a bad thing at all.

I don't generally get too upset about this, as you can usually buy/trade for some techs soon enough. Granted I haven't really played at the higher levels yet (I usually play Monarch) so I haven't ever had much difficulty catching up.

I know a lot of the other people on this forum deliberately fall behind in techs so that they can save up massive amounts of cash and then catch up in techs within a few turns through shrewd trades between other civs.

 

[vmxa]

At what point are they ahead? In the Ancient Age, nations with expansion trait may will get ahead. They can get techs from huts and will have scouts to cover ground faster. If you are some what isolated, it may take some time to get back on top.

Otherwise, it is likely due to too slow expansion and lack of adequate workers or poor management of workers. You should not need a specific trait to pull ahead of them in tech, presuming a decent start.

 

[NinjaSeeker]

At what point are they ahead? In the Ancient Age, nations with expansion trait may will get ahead. They can get techs from huts and will have scouts to cover ground faster. If you are some what isolated, it may take some time to get back on top.

Otherwise, it is likely due to too slow expansion and lack of adequate workers or poor management of workers. You should not need a specific trait to pull ahead of them in tech, presuming a decent start.

That makes sense. They were the mongols.

 

[Sweetchuck]

Just a sidebar on this issue - IMO, when a player plays the AI at, say regent - the deck still isn't stacked equally since the AI enjoys certain advantages that the player doesn't.

 

[Theov]

It's too late, but don't ever ever begin a game on the easiest level. Not a sports game, not a race game, not a shooter and defenately not a turn based strategy game.

Anyway, "I play almost exclusively as China, it's hard to get used to anyone else."

There is your problem.
Try different things, post a save so we can see what you're doing wrong and you should be beating warlord like Tiger Woods beats me at golf.

 

[Theov]

Just a sidebar on this issue - IMO, when a player plays the AI at, say regent - the deck still isn't stacked equally since the AI enjoys certain advantages that the player doesn't.

IIRC regent is baseline, no one has an advantage over the AI, or vice versa.
From monarch on, the AI gets advantages.

 

[Sweetchuck]

IIRC regent is baseline, no one has an advantage over the AI, or vice versa.
From monarch on, the AI gets advantages.

I disagree.

It's not an advantage to know what your opponent is building or where the resources are before you've discovered them or where your enemies units are though you can't see them and how many there are in each city? The AI has and uses that advantage that the player is not privy to.

It's a huge advantage which makes regent still lopsided toward the AI.

 

[Theov]

I disagree.

It's not an advantage to know what your opponent is building or where the resources are before you've discovered them or where your enemies units are though you can't see them and how many there are in each city? The AI has and uses that advantage that the player is not privy to.

It's a huge advantage which makes regent still lopsided toward the AI.

hm, let me rephrase that.
In regent the AI does not have an advantage on using shields for a unit or does not invent science faster than the player.
I could be wrong. (edit; i'm not)

 

[vmxa]

The knowledge of the map is for all levels, so we consider Regent as the base. No bonus for the AI and no handicap for them as there is below Regent.

 

[NinjaSeeker]

From what I can tell browsing this site, China isn't the worst selection I could have made, so I don't think that selection of civs is going to be a terrible problem.

 

[Spoonwood]

I would very much hesistate to say there exists a "worst selection". Too many variables and conditions exist in pretty much every game for that.

 

[Theov]

From what I can tell browsing this site, China isn't the worst selection I could have made, so I don't think that selection of civs is going to be a terrible problem.

your gameplay will improve faster when you get to know how to play different tribes.

 

[FuzzyDoom]

I love the Persians and I hear the Egyptians are equally noob friendly so try them out.

 

[marceagleye]

Ninja Seeker it sounds like Warlord is the right level for you. It is more likely the AI is ahead in tech because of trading with other AI rather than outresearching you. Even though the AI "sees" the resources before they actually appear and "knows" your troop positions without actually seeing them, they still over-irrigate on all levels. Even in despotism they like to irrigate grassland. If an AI settler must choose between desolate hills and mountains with a strategic resource it "sees" ahead of time, or a prime city site like lush pasture full of cattle, It will go for the strategic resource. Don't think the AI has an advantage on warlord because it doesn't. on all levels the AI simply refuses to maximise shield production.

As far as tech researching goes... In 4000 BC set research slider to 100% and choose a tech to research before advancing to the second turn of the game. Then when you have two and one turn left before gaining the tech, check the domestic advisor. Usually you can move the percentage down and still gain the tech in two turns or one turn, while earning a little extra gold at the same time. But don't forget to move the slider back up again on the first turn researching your next tech. Also early in the game if your governors are in charge of your cities, they will hire clowns instead of scientists when your unhappy citizens outnumber your happy ones. Most of the time you will find you can fire the clown and hire a scientist instead without sending your city into disorder.

Another strategy you can try is streamline your research to go directly for literature. The AI will either research whatever will take the fewest turns or the tech that pertains to their civ trait. In either case, you will beat them to the literature tech, enabling you to build the Great Library, and keep you from falling behind in tech.

Another method (not my favorite) is to trade with them. Sometimes you can trade the same tech to two different AI for two different techs. With this method you may gain two techs while only giving up one.

 

[Spartanism]

1. I alwasy go for the Republic slingshot. You should research to code of Laws and then do philosophy. If you reach philosophy 1st you get a free tech and that free tech is Rep. Change your govt ASAP. That increase in science from govt change will vault you forward.

2. Dont research all the techs. If its not a mandatroy tech dont research it.

3. Move up the tree in a straight line and then trade those techs for the others. In Warlord the AI wont research fast enough but its a good habit to get for later. Pick a top or bottom of the tree and then trade for the other side. I bee line for Invention and then Economics. If your behind Chemsitry can be traded for everything up to banking on the top end. Simply dont try to reasearch everything. I havent researched amphibious Assault and advanced aviation in several yrs. I wont ever research ironclads either.

4. Workers, workers, workers: If you have enough workers you can do anything. 1.5 per city is the unwritten rule. To do this you need food.

 

[da3dalus]

4. Workers, workers, workers: If you have enough workers you can do anything. 1.5 per city is the unwritten rule. To do this you need food.

IMO and I'm sure I've seen others on this forum saying the same thing, you should have 2 workers per city, 1.5 if you're playing an industrious Civ.

 

[FuzzyDoom]

I just recently moved up to Warlord, and I'm enjoying it a lot more. A few games of this and I'm going to go up again. BTW, the Huge World map is turning out to be really fun. You should try it.