Emperor Tactics

[Pauley]

Im no rookie, but Im certainly no expert so a few tips would be appreciated. I've played a few Emperor games pretty deep, but got a few teething problems.

In the early stages of the game I've been trying to keep the slider bar to a point where Im discovering new techs every 15-30 turns or whatever, to try to keep up, but on Maps where the AI start close to each other I frequently find myself 3-4 techs behind moving to the end of the 1st age.
Even worse not having having much cash can create problems. In my last game enemy units entered my territory, and I had to ask them to leave. War was declared, and as I had very little cash and no techs to offer any other civs for an alliance the AI civ got them all into an alliance against me, and I was royally screwed.
Is it better to just keep the slider bar to 10 percent, and just buy techs? I find though that If I do that the AI's charge ridicolous rates for their techs.

Also is it better to just be at the sob's from the start at the higher levels. Get a Granary in one city to pump out settlers, one or two for workers, and just throw the rest of the cities into pumping Military out. Is the constant war way the better way on higher levels?

 

[TheOverseer714]

How to stay within reach, tech-wise: Research carefully, avoiding low value techs. My typical research for trade strategy is the Republic Slingshot path. Every tech along the way is valuable trade bait if you get there first.
Alphabet=>Writing=>Code of Laws=>Philosophy=>Republic is my path 90% of the time. If on a Pangaea, you might skip CoL and research Philosophy ASAP, taking Literature as a freebie. Literature is a high trade value tech rarely researched by the AI. After that, I usually research Currency, then if you are lucky you can use that to trade into the MA.
Also, at higher levels, you either tolerate wandering troops or get into lots of wars that their numbers allow them to win.

 

[Gamemaster77]

Also when in higher levels of research always check to see if lower research would give you any loss in turns

 

[ecuwins]

Expand like mad is a given at first. If an AI is close by then contemplating war is typically wise. If there aren't any close by, expand like mad until one is.

Personally I have found that Emperor is the lowest level where you start to see a significant impact by managing waste. By waste I mean - wasted food, wasted shields, and wasted beakers. You know, that whole extra carryover is lost thing. Efficiency is your friend.

 

[Pauley]

How to stay within reach, tech-wise: Research carefully, avoiding low value techs. My typical research for trade strategy is the Republic Slingshot path. Every tech along the way is valuable trade bait if you get there first.
Alphabet=>Writing=>Code of Laws=>Philosophy=>Republic is my path 90% of the time. If on a Pangaea, you might skip CoL and research Philosophy ASAP, taking Literature as a freebie. Literature is a high trade value tech rarely researched by the AI. After that, I usually research Currency, then if you are lucky you can use that to trade into the MA.
Also, at higher levels, you either tolerate wandering troops or get into lots of wars that their numbers allow them to win.

Yup, worked quite well, though I got beaten to Philosphy. Helped that I only had 2 civs on my continent.

Another question is it better to wait until Marketplaces etc are up before changing to The Republic or to change to it as soon as you get The Republic?

 

[Optional]

Unless you're in some sort of emergency situation, always get out of Despotism as soon as possible.

Just to get back to your first post: try to meet other civs as soon as possible. If I'm seafaring, for example, I will always get that curragh out first, before anything else. I might not trade straight away with the first opportunity that comes up, but the more civs I know with a certain tech, the cheaper that tech becomes.
And what Overseer said is right. On higher levels it's not unusual to meet your first AI and to find out they're 4 or more techs ahead of you. Not to worry: the better you know the AI, the better you know which techs they're slow to research, and just to beat them to one of those techs can be enough to catch up through trading.
A utility like CivAssist2 is amost indispensable for keeping an eye on your trade options.

As for research, try to research either on minimum, or on max. Max to beat the AI to the techs, minimum to save money and to gamble on trades. Although on Emperor you can probably still get away with researching on 50% or so, on any higher difficulty level you really need to make a choice to stay in the market.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

I'm not the expert, but I feel the Despotism penalty is so bad that revolting to Republic or Monarchy ASAP is the best bet. I guess if you've acumulated a lot of war weariness while under depsotism, a switch to Republic could hurt, but even with a big milatary, the beter econiomy under Republic usually outweighs the reduced unit support.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Yeah, and MA research sucks in a despotism, you fall further and further behind the longer you stay despotic. Even Monarchy is better, but not much. Switching ASAP is usually the best policy, just expect a little pain at first. Getting a lean efficient military is usually a high priority, as is getting luxuries.

 

[dusters]

*Lately getting back to emperor to beat it with crappy starts (sometimes more fun than sitting there waiting for 2 bonus deity map), I notice that settler factory or two usually solves all the problems. *And just like in demi and deity, trade once per 5 turns or, in other words, very frequently.
*Micromanage eveything, a spare shield in your core city can beat rival Civ to GL or Lighthouse which can be key Wonders in game.