early teching

[stuttrboy]

OK, I have gotten the hang of early rushes and warmongering. My main problem is becoming economics. I can consistently get liberalism between 1100-1200 AD on Emperor, but I've seen posts of people getting it as early as 1 AD.

WTH? HOW?

typical settings:
standard size
epic speed
9-12 AI, but I've been trying to use default lately of 7
fractal or big/small

I usually REx to about 6 cities(hopefully blocking off a little extra to build a few more later in the game) or conquer a close neighbor, but unless I'm playing with 13-15 civs on a standard sized map the AI typically gets 8-12 cities compared to my 6. I usually beef up my units and run specialists and high commerce tiles to tech my economic techs CoL Currency Monarchy, and I usually go down Aesthetics branch for trech trade bait and GL. Obviously this depends on traits and land, I tend to prefer high food sites early in the game even if playing a financial civ since running a few scientists is usually better for teching than a cottage until I can get my science slider boosted up and infrastructure in place. I make liberal use of the whip, using it mostly for buildings or getting rid of unhapiness. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Gooblah]

Usually on Marathon is when they'll hit Liberalism that early. (Worldbuilding helps ) It requires you to set aside 2-4 cities for pure science/commerce, plus a Wealth City to fund your military conquests. High-end specialization of cities and improvements is the way to go, combined with aggressive military tactics of burning every city until the capital is left, and then sueing for peace and getting all the techs..... At least, that's what i do!

 

[stuttrboy]

123 hits and only 1 reply? What nobody else has suggestions on economics?

I get the city specialization bit and I do that. I lay a few high food tiles then cottage everything playing a CE or many high food cities with 1-2 cottaged ones for cash though sometimes I just run merchants and don't build cottages at all. I usually hybrid the palace with commerce and hammers to use CS bonuses. I have usually have a secondary production city as well and a GP farm with lots of food and some hammers for when I need to build stuff if playing CE.

How do you go about growing your cities? what do you prioritize in building? I whip in hapiness buildins as they reach their happy cap, I whip in their multipliers. Every city gets a library granary and forge(with happy resources and make use of what hemmers they do have and whipping), science cities get the science buildings gold cities get get gold buildings production cities get the production buildings. In a CE alot of times I will put science and gold buildings in the highest cottaged cities though since there's no way to seperate the cities independently.

Someone has to have some other ideas?

 

[DaveMcW]

I can consistently get liberalism between 1100-1200 AD on Emperor, but I've seen posts of people getting it as early as 1 AD.

Your problem is upkeep. Paying military expenses and civics upkeep and city mainenence can eat up 50% or more of your commerce.

Possible solutions:
1. Never build settlers or capture any cities.
2. Disband all military except city defenders.
3. Play a difficulty level with lower upkeep and tech costs.
4. Crush that wimpy Liberalism OCC like a bug.

 

[Indiansmoke]

How early you get Liberialism is irelevant. Usually it is better to get it later so you can reaserch things like guilds & banking before. You have to watch the competition and unless someone is threatening to get it first take your time to reasearch what you actually need at the time.

In the beggining I tend to focus on production & growth and leave cottages for a bit later. Wipping in my opinion is not always good. I prefer to stay with 1-2 unhappy citizens which I know are going to be happpy soon, rather than whip and wait to regrow. Wipping is effective very early and with high food cities only.

 

[stuttrboy]

How early you get Liberialism is irelevant. Usually it is better to get it later so you can reaserch things like guilds & banking before. You have to watch the competition and unless someone is threatening to get it first take your time to reasearch what you actually need at the time.
QUOTE]
Oh I get that. I'm just using that as a benchmark. I will usually get liberalism to 1 turn and then research other stuff to get astro or Mil Tradition or something like that. I think Steam power was the biggest I've gotten with liberalism. but even if I beelined Liberalism I can't see how someone could get it at 1AD. I didn't read the thread that this happened I just read about someone refferring to it.

Your problem is upkeep. Paying military expenses and civics upkeep and city mainenence can eat up 50% or more of your commerce.

Possible solutions:
1. Never build settlers or capture any cities.
2. Disband all military except city defenders.
3. Play a difficulty level with lower upkeep and tech costs.
4. Crush that wimpy Liberalism OCC like a bug.

lol, so the 1AD liberalism was an OCC? I feel a little better about this then, but I'd still like better ideas on how to manage my economy I've seen plenty of games with people getting Liberalism around 800 AD, while growing and warring etc. I don't know what I'm missing. Do I need to micro more? what tricks do you use to get that little extra? Do you need to build science early?

Maybe I need to post a game, but my graphics card is on the fritz so I wouldn't be able to do that for a few days at least.

 

[DaveMcW]

Use great scientists on Philosophy and Education to cut your Liberalism date by a couple hundred years.

But if you are comfortably beating the AIs to Liberalism, you can get a bigger long-term benefit using GS's for academies or settling in Oxford.