Different game

[Sweetchuck]

Yeah, I know I could browse the articles - but that defeats the fun of getting replies from the forum on a thread, plus I'm getting to know the 'locals' at this point and there are some who's opinion I appreciate a lot (and I appreciate everyones opinions, so don't get me wrong).

Anyway, I'm playing a warlord game with 6 other random civs on a large, archipilago map with the Iriquois. All of these options are different from what I typically play.

My tendancy is to build a lot of wonders and structures, but I'm trying to get more settlers, workers and defensive units in the mix (still hitting those wonders, though). Lost out on the Oracle, but I have the SOZ which is going to be a nice pick-up.

I thought I lucked out when I had much of my continent explored already so far, but I didn't run into any other civs - until I hit a wandering barbarian. I figured one of the other civs must have triggered it from a goody hut - on the continent that I was working. It was funny, I bumped into it with a spearman that I was using from a city that I settled, just to wander about a bit and the warrior was across two little natural bridges over water and wouldn't advance or attack - just would move up and down as to block my spearman from moving across one of the bridges.

Then I popped him after a couple of turns of that.

Turned out to be true, caught some border lines across the harbor and found a roaming Indian and then a Chinese warrior.

So now I'm figuring that my outlying cities close to where these guys are have 2 or so spearmen, etc on them and I'm wondering if I should build more. I just settled an area of iron, and it will be many turns before I can tap and road it back to my core cities.

And, unfortunately - many of my outlying cities are well spaced apart, and I'm wondering if that's a mistake and I need to fill in the gaps quick.

Also, I have the urge to rush settlers to this area and keep my backland open for now figuring I could settle them later.

I'm also thinking about sending a bunch of spearmen, etc. up around say India to see if I could pop a few of their cities.

Any quick advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

Here's a save.

Thanks all.

 

[Synobun]

My advice is to get some settlers into those large gaps, in order to get some sort of system happening. Also, if you can, blockade them from expanding around your area.

I would say more, except that I don't have time to check the save.

 

[Sweetchuck]

Thanks, Highland - for the reply.

Here's my thing, though - I'm wanting to go on the offensive quick and not just sit back and tend goal. Maybe tending goal is the best option, but when I've played these scenarios before, I've found out that the AI will send a pile of spearmen, archers, etc. toward your weakest point since it's in the know and I'm not wanting to play that guessing game.

Plus, I don't have horses - which kinda stinks, so I can't build and send troops fast (except for what I pop out of the SOZ).

Which gives me the urge to go check out the unexplored area to see if there's horses there.

Yoiks, I'm out of my comfort zone.

 

[civverguy]

Build some boats to go exploring. Also, don't build the temple of artemis. It costs too many shields.

 

[Sweetchuck]

Thanks, civguy.

I was hoping to get the TOA just because I haven't been building temples in my cities because I'm building settlers and defensive units, but you're probably right. The TOA gets nixed on a later tech and I just might be better off doing something else at this stage.

As for boats - I'm usually building lots of galleys at this stage, but I'm still hung up on getting settlers, workers and the like built. Maybe I'll build one and stock it with a spearman and a settler and send it out.

Thanks again folks - for the advice.

 

[MAS]

You have WAAAAAY to few workers, and your cities are WAAAY to far apart.

Try to expand outward, settling the good sites near your capital first. these spots are less corrupt so you will progress faster.

You seem to have barbs off, and the AI is still very far away, I don't see why you would need defenses.

Aside from settling your first couple of cities so far away, why do you insist on settling them in the middle of places where they have a hard time growing? such as in the middle of the jungle, mountains, or forest, with hardly any food around?

What where you planning to do with all that gold you have been collecting?

I played your game for a while, to see what I could do with it.
The first thing I did was set SCI to 90% and lux to 10%.
Salamarc to library, then settlers non stop
Niagra Falls to settler, then workers and a few more settlers
Grand River to settler, pop-rushing, then workers, ans some more settlers.
St Regis to settler, pop-rushing, then workers.
Oil spring to settler, pop-rushing, then workers.
MM a few cities to get settlers in less turns and to deal with unhappiness. (didn't want to use the lux slider to keep corrupt cities happy, only the capital and some other core cities)

And this went on for a bit.

I made contact with india and china, and used some of your saved gold to make embassies.
running -6 gpt, but when I had 1 turn of research left I switched it down again, causing me to regain most of the lost gold. Been stuck at around 700 gold for a while this way.

After settling many new towns and building many new workers, about 15 turns before I made this screen-shot, I switched to republic, and changed many of the worker and settler builds to aquaducts, then libraries. the out-laying cities are still building settlers and workers, there is still more land to settle. I also disbanded a lot of units that where now useless.

UPDATE:
Some additional notes.
#1 Grand River could have been placed better, there is a spot nearby where 2 small towns could connect the inland sea with the ocean. This will cause major overlap with Grand River, so thats why. If you don't want to bother connecting the inland sea with the ocean, then why didn't you build a city next to the small lake? It would have removed the need for an aquaduct, and it would have placed the wheat plains inside its 2 tile radius.
#2 The value of the Great library depends on how many tech the AI is ahead of you. You where way ahead of the AI, and you still are. This wonder is next to useless on lower difficulty levels.


Now this is where it starts to look like something...

 

[Sweetchuck]

MAS - thanks, man - that's excellent.

Couple of things I was trying to do just to make sense:

1) Much of my area where resources/luxes were are surrounded by jungle. Since I didn't have any luxes linked, I wanted to get the cities around the luxes to get them faster and slow the rioting.

2) I did have a few northern cities building 4 or so workers to combat the terrain.

3) I noticed that I let the Republic slide a few turns before starting a revolt, forgot about it.

4) Good point on the gold, I didn't think about it. Sliding up on science is a good peice of advice, I'll do it.

Thanks again, this was tremendously helpful.

 

[MAS]

If you build settlers and workers, the cities will stay small. By the time your core starts to grow, the resources are hooked up.

If your first couple of cities have low corruption, they will produce additional settlers and workers that much faster, so you'll expand faster, earlier.

You seem to lack horses you definitely want them, as your UU need them.
Start building your military forces a bit before the unclaimed land starts to run out.
Your "defenses" should consist mostly of offensive units. Make them longbow, they are cheap, and hit as hard as knights, they also don't need resources.
They have only 1 def, so don't let them be attacked, instead, attack incoming enemy units with them. You should really be looking around for a source of horses somewhere, preferably near the coast.
Declare war over it, and claim it with a city (this one city warrants some defensive units such a pike-man) Then rush-buy a harbor to connect it to your trade network. You can nicely use your Ancient cavalry to do this small bit of conquest. You'll have to prepare a small fleet of galleys for this.

After hooking up the horses, switch all remaining longbow builds to Mounted warriors and build up a force of only those units. Don't research chivalry. Mounted warriors are better (they have one attack less, but cost less than half the shields) But do upgrade them to cavalry later on.

 

[Sweetchuck]

Alright, first - thanks again for taking the time to check this out.

I'm sure that I've probably not followed your instructions to the T, but I've worked in that direction.

What I did:

a) built more workers
b) built more cities
c) tried not to build too many units, but I'm building them on the outlying cities for now for defense
d) moved the slider to science for a few turns, but that tanked my gold
e) nixed the TOA and someone built the GW before I could get to it
f) building STT AOW, but the Indians have started it while I was 7 or so turns into it

What I'm concerned about:

a) bleeding gold, down to 400 or so and losing around 20 a turn - so much that I have some of my cities on wealth to stop it
b) still not enough defensive units maybe

How can I get my gold up and maybe stock some more military?

I'm just at Invention and I figure to research gunpowder next. I avoided chivalry since I don't have horses (didn't find them yet). I also didn't build the embassies since my gold dump has me concerned.

Here's a later save.

Thanks again for everyone's input.

Also, a dumb question - I've never played the Iriquois and I expected to research steam power somewhere along the way, it's not in my tech tree (last time I checked). Is that a no-no for my civ type?

 

[Sweetchuck]

I've since slid the science slider back to 40% and that got me above water, but should I go for Leonardo's Workshop?

 

[TimBentley]

Ouch, playing as the Iroquois and no horses in sight. Some random thoughts: You've still got plenty of room to build cities. Building settlers would be more cost-effective than wealth. I only build wealth in the Industrial or Modern Age when I'm going for a scientific/diplomatic victory and my cities have nothing better to do. (I seem to remember doing it once in the Ancient Age to avoid wasting shields, but that's an exception.) I only worry about having too little money when for example I've got 20g and -25gpt, unless I'm saving money for some reason (upgrades, a prospective trade, Wall Street, etc.). You have 17 more spearmen than I would at this point. I'd suggest building no more units in cities without barracks. Steam Power comes in the Industrial Age.

 

[Sweetchuck]

Yeah, you're right about the steam power (dohhh), I'm a little on edge and I'm finding out that I'm making some dumb mistakes here and there.

Anyway, I was able to get the ship under control and I have most of my cities in production and I'm just a shave above water on finances.

I lucked out and had saltpeter already roaded when it came up - so I get a good bump from them right into musketmen.

 

[Sweetchuck]

Alright, sorry to bore you guys with this stuff - and thanks for all your help.

I'm well into the game, got everything stabilized. I'm building a lot of cash even though I converted all of my spearmen to musketmen, I like to do that to avalanche a military later on when I'm ready to go on the offensive, which is soon.

Funny, I still needed horses - China was the closest civ with horses and they were a good march off. But right across the way from my capital city - a one-turn for a galley trip (that close) - there was horses and saltpeter. I found that later and the part of the island was unsettled, so I rushed two settlers there to get the horses (and the saltpeter - I already had it, but no sense in letting Egypt get it).

Here's the save if anyone wants to comment.

Thanks again for taking the time to check it out.