First Game on Noble

[AthenaMaria]

So I have finally had the courage to move up from Warlord to Noble level.

Don't laugh all you Civ Veterans

Anyway in my first game at this level it has been a real struggle, and I can see what some folks meant by a more balanced game.

Achieving that balance has been a big difficulty for me and maybe I need to learn more about economies but I just tend to glaze over reading the tutorials. believe me I have tried, but there are quite a lot of things that have still to sink in although I will keep trying. I guess I am looking for a more "plain english" tutorial about economy if one exists.

In this game I am ahead on points by about 700 , and just reached flight, I have the most territory, more vassals by number, (I liberated all the territory I had gained on the second continent, in order to keep by economy and research moving forward)

I also have the best culture overall on points but I have struggled to make wonders in the middle game and I am behind on the tech tree. I also only have the 2nd most powerful military. I am trying to figure out what my "end game" should be here. 2 other cultures have reached the Apollo programme several turns ahead of me, and my cities have not all grown enough.

I am playing as England by the way, Victoria, because I like to play an expansive game.

Problems: My capital city is only up to 12, and not growing quickly. I think it was not in a good place to start with although I thought it was.

I have conquered a couple of cities of 20, but they are too far away to be helpful, although they are on the same continent. Portugal is my biggest rival, and although we share the same religion, and are on friendly terms, he will not form an alliance with me.

Should I (a) Build up my military and conquer Portugal? (b) Retain peaceful relations with them and hope something changes, but they will probably beat me to the space race, try to beat them on some other way (c) Try and take on the second rival, the Babylonians? (d) Stay peaceful and try and work really hard to get my economy and research to improve?

Suggestions would be helpful although I am probably going to try a few different options to win the game and go back to the save if it doesn't work out just so I can learn.

Thoughts please?

 

[Gwynnja]

By this point in the game you should have decided how you want to win. Without seeing a save game or screenshot, it's difficult to give concise advice. If you're planning on winning via domination/conquest, by all means, kill portugal. if you're going for space/diplomacy/culture then peace is probably the way to go.

 

[Sam_Yeager]

For future use you may find the following link useful. It has links to Orion's earlier games.

As Gwynnja said you probably should have decided what type of victory condition you were aiming towards by now. By the sound of it you were doing well on the military front so why didn't you make the most of that at the time and head for domination/conquest? You could have switched off research to pay for the captured cities (and/or razed the more worthless cities) whilst building courthouses if necessary.

Alternatively you could have taken over most, if not all, of your own continent and beelined for space. As long as you had a respectable power rating the other continent would probably left you alone.

Quite often posters will get additional assistance if they attach their latest save as it is easier to see the current state of the game.

 

[AthenaMaria]

Thanks for the responses so far and giving me plenty to think about. It is true I could have done certain things differently, but it was just the way it panned out.

When you say I could have stopped researching... is that wise? Could you give me a bit more info about what you mean, for how many turns etc?

I was thinking of going for a space race victory, although I have to admit choosing the right kind of victory is not something I am always confident about, oftentimes on the warrior level, I would often find that a domination victory suited my game play and I could usually get most of the wonders that matter to me in the later game to that end. I do look at the victory conditions screen, but it is not always obvious to me which one I would be better off going for.

In this game, I have played a bit more since the initial post trying the peaceful method and I was hoping to get the space race victory but I still can't seem to catch up on the tech tree or get to build the wonders before my rivals.

If it goes wrong I will go back to the save and try a different method, as I said it is really about the learning curve. I know I have much to learn, but it is fun trying anyway. I will post some screenshots later.

Joao of Portugual is 2nd on points and has built one of the thrusters. I have built the life support and am on my way to building thrusters.

I am still ahead on points and it is increasing. Joao doesn't seem to have flight or certainly isn't building any planes, I was a bit confused about that but he must have beelined to rocketry? I have overtaken him militarily (on the power graph) but he still looks strong and has mobile anti aircraft.

The Babylonians are in 3rd on points, but they have the strongest military. I think it would be foolish to try and take them on at this stage but I have reasonably friendly relations with them. I am struggling to try and catch them up militarily while keeping an eye on Joao who is either going for a cultural or space race victory (I think)

Looking at the victory conditions, it would be difficult to get a domination victory although I am ahead. Can't remember numbers right now but I will take some screenshots for next time and find out where to put them.

Most of the map has now been colonised, although there is still an option to try and conquer one or more of the weaker nations?

By the way it is a large terra map. Just the way I like to play mostly.

It's basically a steeper learning curve now, and space race is the one I am trying to go for. Does this mean then I should stop trying to build up the military? I thought I needed to try and keep up just in case.

Also I was wondering, since my capital is not grown to the full amount, should I build a palace in another (bigger) city? Or is it too late in the game for that?

I will check back again later, and post those screenshots... if I can just find out how. I am assuming I would need to host them on imageshack or something? I'll go and search for the thread about it.

thanks very much for helping me learn.

 

[Sam_Yeager]

When you say I could have stopped researching... is that wise? Could you give me a bit more info about what you mean, for how many turns etc?

My comment about switching off research was in relation to the bits you mentioned about vassals and giving back territory. There are a couple of different scenarios here. If you have a comfortable military tech lead and are beating the AI fairly easily then you don't really need to research anymore. You just carry on capturing cities until you get a domination/conquest victory. The money you save from setting research to zero pays for the cities. If necessary you build/whip some courthouses to reduce your maintenanec costs. OTOH if you're not that far ahead in tech and/or struggling to defeat the AI then you could switch off research for a while so that you don't go bust. Once you've captured the cities you were targeting and built/whipped couthouses then you resume research.

I was thinking of going for a space race victory, although I have to admit choosing the right kind of victory is not something I am always confident about, oftentimes on the warrior level, I would often find that a domination victory suited my game play and I could usually get most of the wonders that matter to me in the later game to that end. I do look at the victory conditions screen, but it is not always obvious to me which one I would be better off going for.

Although you can't be expected to decide on a victory condition as soon as you start the game it does help to have a rough idea of what you're looking for. For instance if you're thinking of heading for space then you don't particularly want to waste more time than necessary fighting wars. In the early game it's quite likely that you will want/need to go to war to get a decent amount of land and resources. However after that it's more a case of having a strong enough power rating to discourage any attacks whilst teching towards space and trading with the AI.

It's basically a steeper learning curve now, and space race is the one I am trying to go for. Does this mean then I should stop trying to build up the military? I thought I needed to try and keep up just in case.

If you're heading for space then you just need to keep your military at a reasonable power rating.

Also I was wondering, since my capital is not grown to the full amount, should I build a palace in another (bigger) city? Or is it too late in the game for that?

If you're in a race to build space components first then now is defintely not the time to waste hammers moving the palace.

This guide may also help for future games. Remember that wonder addiction can waste a lot of time.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

As you move up in difficulty, the specialist economy becomes more appealing. Read up on it! You don't need to start using it on noble though.

Is Babylon on the same continent? How close is space race? You can use spies to sabotage space ship components on the ground.

 

[AthenaMaria]

thanks for the tips again. I played the game some more, kept up (reasonably) with the space race but I'm just behind. Joao has a tech lead on me again, and I think he is probably favourite to win at this point. I had a short war with Ghengis Khan just a show of force and he (very reluctantly) became a vassal. I'm still going for the space race, although diplomacy is also a possibility but even more an outsider. Taking on Joao militarily is less of an option as the game goes on, but there are some useful tips about the spies and things I could have done better. Thanks again. I wouldn't have thought of reducing the research like that, but once I read it back it makes perfect sense!

I didn't move my palace by the way! I am a few years on and I really should post some screenshots. Not sure I am going to win this game despite being ahead on points, but it has been so much more fun to share and learn. Also the links are great and I will be sure to read them.

(Well I already have read the first few pages already before I jumped back in)

 

[Eclipse-X010]

You could devote your lesser cities 2 building spies and sabotaging Jao's spaceship components (like Sam_Yeager said) If you are very desperate you could make war with Jao and destroy (or capture) all his cities with enough production to produce spaceship parts quickly. As for the strategy of stoping your research this means that you set your research to 0% and by new techs with your surplus gold. (of course if you do this you must be friends with the leader in technology, i.e. Jao) And yes, a screenshot would help ALOT!!!

 

[viperjo]

Well, you mentioned that you got most of the wonders. This tells me that you spent a lot of time trying to get a benefit that will eventually go away. When you start to build a wonder, think of what you want to pair it with or how you can use the benefit. For example, if I get the pyramids I will usually forgo all other wonders and shoot straight for the great library to combine representation with the two free scientists greatly boosting your research potential. Another consideration is to use the great wall and use that to jack up your territory size with a city explosion.

Large nations live and die based on courthouses. If you expand too quickly without getting those courts up then you stick a branch in your spokes jacking yourself up for a good bit. Personally I find using mercantilism, representation, and if you can manage to get the sistine chapel a killer combo. Priests become the end all specialist and merchants offer a two fold benefit to your economy and research at the same time. Micromanage those specialists whenever you get a chance to get whatever your empire needs.

If you want to boost a particular cities pop quickly you need a granary and you need to click the focus on growth button for the city. You can go from having an 8 turn growth to 3 turn growth with enough farms and food tiles.