Early Take on Strategies

[cairnsy44]

I am on my third game and have learned a lot. What I am curious is what strategic moves you have found most useful. I found, at least for my games, is this:
- It is a very good idea to make friends with IPs that are nearby. Getting them to give you units/money alone would be helpful. My second game, such a relationship proved a lifesaver. Friedrich of Rome snuck a force of 2 spears and an archer to the doorstep of my settlement. Oddly enough, I had my army ready to attack Roma but was waiting for the right moment, as I had my ballista en route. I certainly would have lost my town had I not been able to buy 2 or 3 units from my suzerained CS next door.
-get at least 3 cities going by midway through Antiquity. Especially if one of these is another capital!
-I have had to focus a lot on happiness. More in Game 3 for some reason. Love being near a natural wonder!
-don't snooze on getting a ship to look for useful island chains in Exploration. Have those settlers ready to go, even if you go over the settlement cap. You will need to get those treasure ships going. If you don't claim those resources, the AI certainly will.

That's all I have for now. Looking forward to seeing what you all have to share.

 

[King Flevance]

- IPs I look at placement. I take them out if they are in my way of my expansion strategy. If not, are you aligned with my legacy strategy, if so - you are worth influence. I try to use my influence on other leaders, and IPs are a 1 time purchase but it can feel expensive.

- I get 5 cities up as fast as I can and I try to pull in as many resources as I can. I will push for camels for trade if I can but otherwise any resource is good. Volcanos are pretty good too if you are willing to repair the landscape. I also learned to make sure I don't settle in a forest where I can't farm much.

- Happiness is great if you can afford to lean into it, something I often struggle with. I am usually so caught up pushing my science, food, and culture up that happiness keeps getting put on the back burner until late exploration phase before/during the crisis.

-Exploration Era - I am happy to discover you don't HAVE to prioritize the new world. Science is easier in the homeland. Culture/Relics can be pursued almost entirely in the homeland due to wonders and techs.
It would be nice if conquering wasn't quadrupled in the homeland for military, only double or single points. 0 points for founding new cities on homeland.

-Be sure to check the continents lens in exploration age. You can find chocolate, sugar, and spices on islands on your continent. So no treasure fleets. I have had a legit city in the new world with 4 resources and a fishing wharf produce 0 treasure fleets though. Probably a bug. Just remember to check this and get a fishing wharf.

-City planning is still an aspect I am working through. I have found scenarios with specialists where I actually chose NOT to build my unique district. I am still working through this though.

-If you plan to war on in the new world, Make sure you take 1 or 2 generals over there as early as you can. You can purchase units in the new world if you need access to an army w/o bothering to transport them. Just make sure you get gold production up relatively quick. (Economic leader helps here by starting the age off with economic endeavors with your friends.)

 

[GreyAlive]

-I have had to focus a lot on happiness. More in Game 3 for some reason. Love being near a natural wonder!
-don't snooze on getting a ship to look for useful island chains in Exploration. Have those settlers ready to go, even if you go over the settlement cap. You will need to get those treasure ships going. If you don't claim those resources, the AI certainly will.

Those 2 are a must for what I learned in the last week

 

[CoconutTank]

- Diplo influence is really useful! Sometimes I'm spending them asap to get IP suzerainty, but sometimes I might sit on diplo influence for a bit before I get into a war, so that I can give myself a bunch of war support and sabotage the opposing civ's military production.

- Gate of All Nations is quite nice to have and available early. Discipline awards a free General and Discipline 2 unlocks Gate of All Nations, so that's usually a early beeline for me.

- Writing 2 and Code of Laws 2 are important to get, b/c those techs/civics unlock tech stealing and civic stealing (and even if the target doesn't have a tech/civic to steal, one can still get science/culture). They're also available pretty early in the game!

- Building rural districts and urban districts requires some planning ahead. Urban districts have to start from the city center so if possible I want to leave inner tiles for urban districts, or else give half of the city tiles to urban districts, in order to minimize building over rural districts.

- At least for Econ or Military Victory in the Exploration era, it is really important to just send a ship east or west and find new land asap and start sending Settlers on the shortest path to any new land you can find. It'll feel terrible b/c of deep water damage and the potential randomness of whether or not the ship will actually find land, but letting all that land go to other civs will hurt even more later.

 

[King Flevance]

-Save spots near resources for science buildings. Ageless buildings should be placed away from coast, navigable rivers, resources, and mountains, (if you can) as these tiles are way more valuable to specialized buildings.
Unless this settlement is planned to be a farming/mining town all game. Obviously, this applies to future plans for urban development.

-Settlements with lakes tend to make better towns than cities as it is hard to develop urban areas around a lake, though not impossible. Any lake cities, I usually plan for them to be towns all game.

 

[Seek]

-Be sure to check the continents lens in exploration age. You can find chocolate, sugar, and spices on islands on your continent. So no treasure fleets. I have had a legit city in the new world with 4 resources and a fishing wharf produce 0 treasure fleets though. Probably a bug. Just remember to check this and get a fishing wharf.

It's the Fishing Quay you need.

 

[ColPaladin]

One thing that I do not prefer AT all is the number of settlements you need to win. After 3 playthroughs, I only did not come in last place when I spammed out settlements all over the place. And I think it was 17 max? I don't want to deal with more than 6 or 7. And growing tall does not seem to do diddley to help you obtain victory.

 

[Yzman]

One thing that I do not prefer AT all is the number of settlements you need to win. After 3 playthroughs, I only did not come in last place when I spammed out settlements all over the place. And I think it was 17 max? I don't want to deal with more than 6 or 7. And growing tall does not seem to do diddley to help you obtain victory.

I have won games with around 6 settlements no problem. What settings are you using? What difficulty and what win condition are you going for?

 

[sav]

I have won games with around 6 settlements no problem. What settings are you using? What difficulty and what win condition are you going for?

I've only completed one game so far, at the default 'governor' difficulty and I had close to 30 towns by the end... (a win, so I've gone up to viceroy)