Difficult question for advanced players

[morchuflex]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

@Arathorn:

I certainly do not build many units, but when you are in Republic and your cities are still below pop 7, your military inevitably exceeds what little free support you are granted: even with only one unit per city, I still have many workers, that do count as units to maintain, and of course some galleys exploring the world.
Recently, I have tried something original: when I'm alone on an island and I'm absolutely sure noone can reach me before Astronomy, just after switching to Republic, I just disband all my warriors, leaving every city totally undefended. This saves up to 50 gold per turn, which at this point is huge. However, there's a major drawback: the other civs know you are weak, and so tend to declare war on you even though they can't reach you. This badly hampers trade, which is not completely compensated by war happiness.

You're probably right about Sistine and Bach. I'm still being conditioned by my looooooong Civ1 and Civ2 experience. I can't imagine not building these two.

As for short-rushing, I abstain from it, because I find it exploitive. Maybe I'll think differently when I try Demigod...

Finally, you're right saying some cities can suffer a little, but I'm a perfectionnist... I'd want every city to have everything.

@ Roland:

I'm not sure about your calculations. Of course, if I pay 300 to rush a MP that will give the city 4 more gold, I'll need 75 turns just to break even. But, as soon as I have rushed the MP, the city can start working on another project! Don't you think this is worth considering?

 

[Roland Johansen]

@ Roland:

I'm not sure about your calculations. Of course, if I pay 300 to rush a MP that will give the city 4 more gold, I'll need 75 turns just to break even. But, as soon as I have rushed the MP, the city can start working on another project! Don't you think this is worth considering?

Yes of course you can start something else after you've rushed the project. But if you just completely skipped the building, you could also start something else. It takes (using your example here) 75 turns to earn back your money. There's probably a better investment for your money available (technology, upgrading units, etc).

 

[Arathorn]

A couple notes....

when I'm alone on an island and I'm absolutely sure noone can reach me before Astronomy, just after switching to Republic, I just disband all my warriors, leaving every city totally undefended

I'll disband a lot of my regular warriors once I get into Republic on ANY map. They serve only barely marginal military value. They don't keep people happy as MP anymore. My internal cities are almost always empty when I'm in Republic. That might be another Civ2 habit to break. I don't sign RoPs, so no AI can reach my internal cities without getting through my thicker external guard (humans can coordinate settler pushes and blitzes, so that's different). Why are you keeping regular warriors around once you're in Republic? Fewer, better units are what you need now.

Note...I use my weak-appearing but strong-in-practice military to encourage people to fight me, so I can go "bonk some heads". To discourage war, you might actually need a few more units than I have around, but keep them intelligently placed and you should be fine.

As for short-rushing, I abstain from it, because I find it exploitive

To each his own. Ignore that portion of the advice, then.

I'm a perfectionnist... I'd want every city to have everything.

Changing this will probably significantly help your gameplay. Not every city needs (or deserves) everything, and definitely not right away. If you want to play a perfectionist game and win, you'll probably struggle to do so consistently above emperor. Peaceful builder games can be won up through (and including) deity "easily" (not sure about Sid), but only if you make some trade-offs vs. the perfectionist attitude. I'm not here to tell you how to have fun, just to give you some comments (that is, if perfectionist and emperor is still lots of fun, why change? But if you feel the need for more challenge and want to beat demigod/deity, here's how to go about it while still being a builder...(from my perspective, at least)).

Arathorn

 

[barbu1977]

One thing I haven't seen, but helped my game alot:
When you get into republic, make sure you have enough Lux to keep most of your people happy. The extra commerce produced is very valuable. You may gain more $ with 20% lux than 0%. The sheild(s) produced will also enable you to get those makets and library mutch more quickly.