So I am playing as Monty on the highland map at Emperor Level, managed to discover hinduism, then pretty focus on cottaging. But no matter how much I cottage spam, I can't keep with the AIs, and now I have nothing to trade, and falling behind at 10% science rate. I have about 6 cities, meanwhile, AIs have no problem affording 12-15 cities, and build large armies. Here are a couple of saves, any tips/advices would be appreciated.
Emperor on Highland, Help Me to Keep up in Tech
- Thread starter mutax2003
- Start date
Syndrome Zed
Wanna see my quad laser?
Just a quick thought without viewing the saves, but on a highlands map, you've got huge amounts of production and relatively low food resources, meaning smaller and/or slower growing cities. I don't cottage much on highlands - I farm any decent food source (or pasture) I can find, and as soon as possible farm whatever grasslands I can get in my fat cross. I mine one or two grassland hills if I can make up the food with farms, otherwise I don't develop much of the surrounding hills until I can windmill them. Ultimately though, instead of trying to get money via commerce, I usually try and crank up production as high as possible and keep one or at most two cities making units (depends who's nearby), one city converting production into wealth as soon as possible, and the rest converting their hammers into research. That and aggressive tech trading is the only way I've found to keep close.
Your other option might be to use production to grab as many "free specialist" wonders as you can, and stick to representation and free religion once most of your "research" multiplying buildings are up and running. I don't know if that'd work, but it'd be interesting to see how it goes. Especially if you have cities with a lot of peaks in them where you'll have enough food to work all the available tiles and more for "regular" specialists (not the freebies). You could almost run a Specialist Economy in one city, while the rest build research/units/wonders.
In your case, with 6 cities, get 5 going on building research
Your other option might be to use production to grab as many "free specialist" wonders as you can, and stick to representation and free religion once most of your "research" multiplying buildings are up and running. I don't know if that'd work, but it'd be interesting to see how it goes. Especially if you have cities with a lot of peaks in them where you'll have enough food to work all the available tiles and more for "regular" specialists (not the freebies). You could almost run a Specialist Economy in one city, while the rest build research/units/wonders.
In your case, with 6 cities, get 5 going on building research
Building research is definitely not the best way.
Your problem seems to be city placement. 5 cottages for 6 cities is a little bit too few, it seems like. I replayed your initial save from the beginning till 800AD.
I build 4 cities and got Iron Working and Monarchy early. While the nearest copper mines are in horsehockey places, the iron mine is in a good one, although far enough. The good news is that you don't need Iron for Jags, so with Jags and Chariots you have decent defenses.
I also moved the capital, it took a while, but now it's in a high-cottaged city, and with some production, too. I set up for researching Civil Service.
I skipped Alphabet since with that capital placement there seems to be no way you can compete with the AIs. However you still have some room for peaceful expansion, there is a good city spot near the Corn resource on the East. Also, I fortified a few units near the barb city on the West, waiting until it's size 2.
Once the cottages mature, the UBs are built, and some GS are generated for the Academies, things will be better. I expect to start tech trading after CS, it's very likely some of the AIs won't have it by that time.
Then get Construction and start building army.
Your problem seems to be city placement. 5 cottages for 6 cities is a little bit too few, it seems like. I replayed your initial save from the beginning till 800AD.
I build 4 cities and got Iron Working and Monarchy early. While the nearest copper mines are in horsehockey places, the iron mine is in a good one, although far enough. The good news is that you don't need Iron for Jags, so with Jags and Chariots you have decent defenses.
I also moved the capital, it took a while, but now it's in a high-cottaged city, and with some production, too. I set up for researching Civil Service.
I skipped Alphabet since with that capital placement there seems to be no way you can compete with the AIs. However you still have some room for peaceful expansion, there is a good city spot near the Corn resource on the East. Also, I fortified a few units near the barb city on the West, waiting until it's size 2.
Once the cottages mature, the UBs are built, and some GS are generated for the Academies, things will be better. I expect to start tech trading after CS, it's very likely some of the AIs won't have it by that time.
Then get Construction and start building army.
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