Condensed tips for beginners?

[adrianj]

Okay, Here is the situation. It is 1600BC. Rome will have IW in 21 turns. she has 4 cities. will get wheel after IW. She has 3 Warriors and 5 Axemen. Got the free Shock I Axe event. Will have Pyraminds in a few turns. No one seems interested in war. Hungary has a lot of Axe. France has warriors and Archers.

After the Mids are done, which government will benefit me most?

Plans build 3 settlers. before finishing war machine. Plan is to keep two French cities and build about 3 more, raze the rest. Hit with Axe first or wait for Praets?

Oh, btw, I somehow popped Mysticism, took chance got Poly and Mono, Have both Hindu and Judaism. Converting cities to Judaism (Rome actually is Hindu Holy City). That way I have an excuse to convert the heathen French.

My thought Axe the French, then put the Hungarians to the Sword.

Any Suggestions?

You are Rome. Ignore the axes. Once you have IW you'll really only need Praets. The only possible problem is if you don't have iron, which you won't know until you've learnt IW. Either a) have a settler and escort ready to settle near one very soon, or b) see if your neighbours have it, in which case you'll have to make do with axes.

In the meantime, I would probably use Representation and start growing your cities. The extra will help when you do have IW and it is time to whip out the Praets. OR, if you have a reasonable economy (ie, you've actually cottaged one or two cities, or have gold resource or something) then Universal Suffrage is an excellent tool for cash buying an army really fast. Police State... I'm not a big fan. Hereditary Rule... only if Rep and US weren't options, or you wanted really huge cities - but it sounds like your priority now (well, in 21 turns time) is to build an army and go to war.

Sounds like you're doing quite well

 

[Sisiutil]

Any Suggestions?

Yeah, move up a level! Sounds like you're about to run away with the game, frankly...

 

[Flash1]

there are about 36 civs on the map.

Sad part is I don't have much in the way of possible builds but military, missionaries, workers and Settlers.

PS.. Iron is in the BFG

I going to try representation.

Anyway not to wreck my economy during the upcoming fight? Any suggestions on an expeditionary force? Axes are for defense until replaced.

 

[kcd_swede]

Anyway not to wreck my economy during the upcoming fight? Any suggestions on an expeditionary force? Axes are for defense until replaced.

Click the "Burn,baby,burn" option often. As long as you are winning, cash should not be a problem since you will get cash every time you take a city. If you keep all cities, your maintenance will get as out of control as if you simply spammed settlers yourself.

Keep the best, burn the rest. Happy hunting!

Your stack should be heavy on city attack units (Praets, in this case, 6 should do most of the time). At least one stack defender against mounted and usually one against melee (an axe, or perhaps an archer... a combat-promo Praet will do, give him melee bonus when you can). Then you can never have too many siege units... but depends on culture defense levels you expect to face and whether you have superior units (like Praets) whether you need the cats or not. At least one to soften up defenses (suicide) is highly recommended, thus saving your high promoted Praets from the first one or two fights being at low odds. First GG should make a supermedic (on a 2 move scout or explorer is optimum) who follows along to heal everything in 1 turn, and keep the attack rolling. Time is money.

If you face 60% or higher culture defenses, bring enough cats/trebs to take that down to under 20% in a single turn, plus a suicide cat.

The worst thing you can do is get impatient and send out your stack undermanned for the length of campaign you anticipate. The next worse thing is splitting your stack so you require two attacks to have a good deal of luck to succeed, rather than one stack that would win easily. If you get lucky splitting is faster... but you won't get lucky.

 

[Flash1]

i went representation. I have 3 stacks of 5 praets; and 3 settlers. (gotta keep england honest).

each stack is 4x CR I and a Wood I.

15 Praets should be enough. I have more being made.

 

[kcd_swede]

i went representation. I have 3 stacks of 5 praets and 3 settlers. (gotta keep england honest).

each stack is 4x CR I and a Wood I.

15 Praets should be enough. I have more being made.

That ought to take care of anything you are likely to face.

 

[Qpla]

I have played on noble for ages. Noble is relatively easy for me but I can't move on to prince. I always fall behind in tech on prince, usually even very early on. Any ideas?

 

[adrianj]

I have played on noble for ages. Noble is relatively easy for me but I can't move on to prince. I always fall behind in tech on prince, usually even very early on. Any ideas?

More focussed teching, trade and a good dose of humility.

Focus your tech path a little more so that you don't research common things the AI already has. With Alphabet, you can Trade for those techs you skipped - and on a larger map with many AI you can often get 3+ times the value of the one you researched.

And Humility. You don't need to be #1 in tech the whole time from turn 1. (The same applies to Score) Often in the early game you'll be giving up something immediate in order to get some advantage later. The most important case in point is expanding your empire and just dealing with maintenance early on, and reaping the rewards later on.

 

[Ergo Sum]

Is it generally agreed that the Earth map is easier than a random map? I understand that knowing generally where everything is is an advantage, but I imagine the abnormal distribution of resources might change things, and the relative lack of land to expand into compared to other huge maps. Some starts are amazing - China, basically anything in Europe or North America. But starts like Mali's and Inca's seem quite thankless - drowning in jungles, devoid of hammers and difficult to keep up with foreign economies (even with Mali's FIN and floodplains). Also, more than once when I've done random civs on an Earth34 mod an AI managed to run away with the game technologically and even land-wise.

I'm wondering about this because on Prince I've got a few Earth games where I'm sucking it up compared to others, some where I'm beating them handily, and I've got a randomized map where I've completely destroyed any competition. In fact, it's ~1600s, I've 4 vassals and 50% population and land, 1-2 more techs before I can start the Apollo Program. I know this is a meager showing compared to others, but these discrepancies between randomized maps and Earth maps interest me. What do you say?

 

[Sian]

Earth Maps are generally seen as somewhat easier because you know where, what is, and have a reasonable idea beforehand who's going to be strong and who's going to be killed or can safely be ignored or the like

 

[Qpla]

More focussed teching, trade and a good dose of humility.

Focus your tech path a little more so that you don't research common things the AI already has. With Alphabet, you can Trade for those techs you skipped - and on a larger map with many AI you can often get 3+ times the value of the one you researched.

And Humility. You don't need to be #1 in tech the whole time from turn 1. (The same applies to Score) Often in the early game you'll be giving up something immediate in order to get some advantage later. The most important case in point is expanding your empire and just dealing with maintenance early on, and reaping the rewards later on.

I just finished another game on prince, and by trading techs with the AI a little more smartly I noticed some progress (I wasn't last on technology!), but still near the end of the game I was falling behind the AI. I tried building a lot of cottages around my capital and then adopting bureaucracy and it helped a bit, but not much. On the positive side though, I was second on score when the game ended in 1999 when Asoka won a space race victory

 

[Sisiutil]

I just finished another game on prince, and by trading techs with the AI a little more smartly I noticed some progress (I wasn't last on technology!), but still near the end of the game I was falling behind the AI. I tried building a lot of cottages around my capital and then adopting bureaucracy and it helped a bit, but not much. On the positive side though, I was second on score when the game ended in 1999 when Asoka won a space race victory

Cottaging the capital and adopting Bureaucracy help, but that will not win the game in and of itself. As the game progresses, having one powerhouse city (your capital) is not enough. You need several cities to power you to victory, each one specialized to take full advantage of its surrounding terrain and its chosen purpose.

Nine decent cities is just about the minimum you need to win this game. (Of course it's possible to do it with fewer cities, but it's challenging, and not much fun for a beginner.) Notice I said "decent" cities; you may have a few more that are junk cities, that are founded to claim a key resource, block off territory, or just to prevent the AI from plunking down a city of its own right in your back yard.

If you find yourself in a situation where the AI has claimed so much territory that you are unable to found decent number of cities, it's time to put your military to work. This is a common error I see among beginners, frankly: military timidity. I'll download a posted game by a newcomer asking for help and find them hemmed in with only 5 or 6 cities (2 of them junk cities surrounded by desert or tundra, usually) by mid-game. You need quite a few more cities than that to win, and usually the only way to claim them is to pry them from the cold, dead fingers of a neighbour. The AI has many advantages, especially as you move up the levels, but even if you play with the BetterAI mod, the computer still cannot match a human in military strategy. It's your biggest advantage, so leverage it.

 

[h@@kon]

Maybe disqualified to post in this thread since i am a monarch player now, but still feel like a newbie. My first monarch game goes very good, too...

But is it normal to be way behind in the beginning of the games? I only catch up tech-wise about 1000 AD - 1200 AD.

And when the cities are celebrating (big smiley face with fireworks); should i only take that as a sign that everything is very good, or is it a sign that i should whip them (tactically) (and make them less happy).?

 

[cabert]

Maybe disqualified to post in this thread since i am a monarch player now, but still feel like a newbie. My first monarch game goes very good, too...

But is it normal to be way behind in the beginning of the games? I only catch up tech-wise about 1000 AD - 1200 AD.

And when the cities are celebrating (big smiley face with fireworks); should i only take that as a sign that everything is very good, or is it a sign that i should whip them (tactically) (and make them less happy).?

celebrations are good signs, making the city cost no maintenance
and catching up in tech in 1000 AD is a bit late, but better late than never

 

[Flayed One]

really? celebrating towns cost no maintance? What is the trigger to celebrations then?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

It's random but you need to be at least size 6 and have no unhappiness in the city, IIRC.

 

[h@@kon]

It's random but you need to be at least size 6 and have no unhappiness in the city, IIRC.

Random? With a big probability? My last game i think they had their time of their life in most of the cities; it can't be very unlikely when no unhappines?

 

[Silu]

It becomes more probable the more happy surplus you have.

 

[blue_7]

people say that you should have about 10 cities by 1 ad. what map size are they playing. i always play standard and can only get out maybe 7 or 8 if im lucky and rex fast enough.

 

[h@@kon]

I think i only have 6 or 7, and I am pleased if i get the first message about population (250 000?) about 0 bc. (i'm playing marathon on huge maps, and my biggest problem is how to handle barbarians. I think that burden me on settling to much city early on, have to focus on armies).