Early/Mid Game Expansion Problems

[SmartMuffin]

So, I've started getting used to Civ4 by playing on Noble, Continents, Standard Size with only four other civs (I'll ratchet it up once I get better at the game).

But I seem to be running into the same problem in each and every game. Despite the changes that made concentrating on developing a few good cities rather than settler-rushing expansion crazy, the AI seems to still be way too expansive. And I mean all of the AIs, not just the ones with the right traits.

In the early/mid stages of the game, I have difficulty supporting 4-5 cities and maintaining a decent research rate. I'll be in a situation where I'm already losing 5-10 gold per turn (100% of my expenses from City Matintainence), but the AI Civs (the one that starts on my continent in particular) who is at the same level as me tech wise and has the same amount of gold seems to have no difficulty expanding until there is no land left at all. Which inevitably leads to me being surpassed by all the AIs, because they have more to work with than I do. By the time I actually have enough money to afford expansion, all the land left to expand on has already been taken.

Does anyone have any advice for me? I like the whole "concentrate on developing a few cities rather than just making millions of them everywhere" philosophy. I just don't like the fact that it only seems to apply to me, and not the AI

 

[BarbarianSlayer]

I've noticed the AI builds heavy on cottages in most of my games. It would seem like this would give them an edge to expand, but would hinder their production and individual city growth. This is one reason i do not automate my workers in Civ 4. Their is a huge benefit to building alot of towns, but i like to grow my individual cities with farms in balance with the cottages/towns i build.

 

[Heroes]

Does anyone have any advice for me? I like the whole "concentrate on developing a few cities rather than just making millions of them everywhere" philosophy. I just don't like the fact that it only seems to apply to me, and not the AI

So don't believe the philosophy, go to grab as much land as possible! Lower your science rate if necessary, but eventually you will get more productive tiles and beakers.

 

[Rustypipe]

If you think the comp is bad on Nobel just wait till you get to Diety
But here is some idea's that may help you:

First off don't worry as much about research in the beginning at higher difficulty levels as it will get impossible to keep up with the camp due to there handicap. The best thing you can do is plan your cities well and just get as many out as you can until the comp grabs the land. Then if you lack the resources or size you need take the key towns out you need or plan to take over the comp on your continent.

Second thing is to find a civ that fits your play style. Personaly espically on harder settings I find the following 3 traits the best. Financial, Philisophical, and Creative.

Finanical: adds an incrediable amount of income if played right by focusing more on cottages espically in key area's like rivers and anything near the coast.

Philisophical: gives you a great advantage in snatching up 2-3 of the early relgions in diff settings up to noble. Anything after noble you'll be lucky if you get 2 for the most part, of corse this is depending on how many comps you play. With 4 comps on nobel you should be able to snatch up all 3 early reglions which will give you a ton of gold. Remeber every city that has the reglion spread to it gives you +1 gold. So 3 relgions in 10 cities is 30 extra gold a turn. This helps expanding later on a lot.

Creative: is great if you find the comp is expanding to fast for you. Creative gives you a +2 culture boost instantly in every city, which means your boarders expand twice as fast meaning you need less cities to take up your land which means you have an easyer time securing resources .

With all that in mind pick a combo that you like from there what I would suggest is take off the option that allows for workers to over-write previous tile improvements and manually manage your important cities then automate the rest if your lazy later or just always keep a very close eye on your workers espically automated ones becuase the comp likes to go farm crazy when really cottages are just as good food wise as farms are in most cases if properly constructed.

Also the forest chop settle rush works very well on noble diff setting as well. Give that a whirl it will help you expand your first 3 cities as fast if not faster then your comp friends .

Good luck.