First Archipelago Game

[Raiju]

Yeah, by now i got a little more than 1 month of Civ gameplay, and i NEVER played a archipelago senario, this is my first try

The map is Small, 70% water, level Warlord, with all the Civs able

Iam William of the Netherlands, i started the game with a tech lead (early philosophy, and fast tech trade with AI{used the suicide technique}) but with a bad location, my island is thin and got only one bay and one strait that passes too close of my capital for my taste

I started very peaceful, but the Vikings started to threat me, to give'em my incense. I gave for the sake of my people (bad military), but i began to bulk up my forces pretty fast (nice half-aqueducts) and managed to conquer the Vikings in the middle ages 9 i was the first to achieve it, but i had NO IRON)

Which means i had to conquer'em with only archers (furthermore Longbows) and warriors against their swordsmans. I did it by pure numbers and siege engines (catapults, furthermore trebuchets)

With them conquered, i now have iron, which i used to quickly upgrade all the spearman into the Swiss Mercenary and all warrior into medieval infantry

I have a average ofensive ground force and a excellent defensive ground force, and an overrall average navy

I have a solid relationship with Spain but an annoyance with the English

Any tips to help me pass through my first time?

 

[Empiremaker]

First, a screenshot would be nice.

If your first war was sucessful, then you know how to war on Archipelageo maps. The AI is inept at naval attacks so don't worry too much about protecting your shores. Make sure you have defenders in every coastal city, but 2 should do it. It's best to foucus on one rival at a time. Air units are great aganist naval units.

I haven't played one for a while.

 

[DBear]

Archipelago maps play about a level lower than pangaea maps due to fewer contacts between the AIs. What the previous poster said, the AI is inept at naval invasions, so your homeland is fairly secure. Just take the war to the enemy. Don't send out 1-2 galleys at a time like the AI does, but build a huge force, then swamp 'em all at once. If you have artillery to bring along, those work wonderfully.

 

[Raiju]

thx guys, the problem is that the map is small with ALL civs, so, everyoen already knows everyone (except for the portugese and the french who still dunno each other)

but i managed to make the first contact with all and am the tech leader, one thing im hating about archipelago is that my island cities cant upgrade their spearmen to Swiss Mercenary (even with barracks)

Im thinking very much in making war with the English, they have half their territory in MY island and the other half in the Portugal island, maybe a military alliance?

 

[Bluemofia]

Archipelago games are a bit of an annoyance to me, becuase my RNG hates me.

I get pushed to a 5-10 tile island. Really annoying.

 

[Son_Of_Dido]

I've found that Archipelago 60% gives a good balance of large landmass broken up into several islands, and more often than not I get a respectable size landform to start on.

 

[thetrooper]

Archipelago games are a bit of an annoyance to me, becuase my RNG hates me.

I get pushed to a 5-10 tile island. Really annoying.

Then roll again.

 

[Raiju]

Do your coastal cities all have harbors? You will need a harbor to be able the get the resources on your other islands connected. Without a harbor, a city can only use the resources found on its own island. You will also need the advance Astronomy if there is not a path between the islands through coastal squares, Astronomy allows trade over sea squares. Likewise , you will need Magnetism or Navigation if the route needs to cross ocean squares also.

Granery and harbor are the 1st 2 improvements I build in coastal cities. If I conquer someone else's coastal city, I'll usually build a harbor 1st if they don't already have one. Harbors are cheap to build and they give an extra food in coastal squares which really can help out if you want to concentrate on production with the land squares.

Already solved the problem with Astronomy and Magnetism, and well, there were some who were lacking harbors

Im now ready to crush the English, ive built my ofensive ground force considerably (they are in the same island, half here, half in other island), but im afraid of their Men-o-War, and also that Portugal dont want to make an Milit Aliance

 

[Bluemofia]

Then roll again.

And nearly same annoying result.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

and bombard the man-o-wars before attacking. Problem with fighting man-o-wars is that they make new ones if they defeat you (which is why I like 'em when I am the english!)

definitely take out the english on your land! it's yours by right!

just keep 2-3 archers/longbowmen near your core cities, or be able to rush some, if someone else declares and pops a lone unit. Nothing worse than have a spearman pop up next to your capitol and you can't kill it. Keeping cities empty reduces the number of units you need to keep, but it *can* leave them vulnerable.