I am playing JC, BTS, Pangea, High Seas, Tropical, Solid coast, with Lizzie, Gandhi, Roo, and Lincoln as opponents.
Tropical does slow down the AI Civs that started in jungle, but doesn't affect the AI Civs that started in floodplains much. Also, there will be far fewer Forests to chop in conquered Cities.
I´m typically building 3-4 workers and then chopping like mad. I only build one city (assuming that iron is in the fat cross). I only build a second city if I need it to grab the iron.
Building 3 Workers to start seems fine. You will capture many more.
I´ve tried 10-15 times (tweaking the approach each time), but with more or less the same result each time. I´m building stacks of praets, but I always seem to run out of steam around 300-100 BC when I seem to come up against bigger stacks of axemen in hill cities. If I´m lucky and my first opponent only has archers/chariots some time the games run on to 500 AD etc, when longbowmen/macemen start appearing.
When practical attack AI Civ Capitals first. You should have CR3 Praetorians before trying to attack Hill Cities with Def 40 or greater or Cities with Def 60 or greater. Also, Catapults will help a lot when Longbows and Macemen appear.
I´d like some pointers if you´d be kind enough to help.
a) Do you just build praets, or do you throw in a few axemen to leven the mix?
I build Axemen only for Great General Medics.
When you encounter Axemen, promote Praetorians with Combat 1 and Shock. A Praetorian's strength of 8 is already a match for Axeman 5 +50% = 7.5 roughly.
b) How many units do you leave behind to defend cities that you have captured?
Usually only one unit, unless there is a significant chance of a counter-attack. For high risk cities, build Walls.
c) Do you build a barracks in the capital city?
Yes. You want to promote Praetorians with CR1 usually right from the start. You should complete this Barracks before Iron is connected.
d) Do you build barracks in captured cities?
Build Barracks in all heavy Hammer Cities, Cities with many Forests to chop and Cities with Great Military Instructors.
In all other Cities, just Pop rush Praetorians without Barracks for use as Suicide units when you don't want to risk losing a highly promoted Praetorian.
e) What do you do with captured cities i.e. churn out more praets or try to develop them for commerce etc?
Since Julius' Organized trait allows cheap Courthouses, I usually build those first, usually via Pop rushing Angry Citizens away.
After a Courthouse, I usually build a Barracks followed by more Praetorians or build Spys and even Missionaries (to spread the Theocracy bonus to heavy Hammer/Great Military Instructor Cities).
f) What do you do with your great generals?
The first Great General is always settled into the Capital as a Great Military Instructor. Second, Third _or_ Fourth becomes an Axeman Super Medic (Combat 1, Medic 1, Medic 2, and Medic 3). I usually don't waste a Great General on a second Super Medic. For ancillary stacks, I just use a normal Medic (Combat 1 and Medic 1) or Area Medic (Combat 1, Medic 1 and Medic 2) or Woodsman III (Woodsman 1, Woodsman 2, Woodsman 3). All Great Generals except the one for the Super Medic are settled into Heavy Hammer Cities and Cities with many Forests.
g) How do you get to construction. I´m not refering to the research path but rather whether you build a library and run scientists, or whether you simply research using your ill gotten gains from captured cities.
I build a Library, run two Scientists until a Great Scientist is generated and use him to build an Academy in the Capital. Once the Academy is built, Construction will be completed very quickly. However, if you plan to stop at Construction, building a Library and Academy is probably not worthwhile.
h) Is it worth researching Monarchy/Feudalism?
After, completing Construction, Feudalism is a good goal to enable Vassalage, not just for the Civ wide +2 Experience per military unit built it provides, but more importantly for the free maintenance it provides for as many as 20 more units (20 Gpt less paid).
i) I´m running map finder, and typically looking for something with freshwater corn and at least 7 Hills (of different types). What should I be looking for in a start position?
I'd say two different Food Resources, at least two different Mines (Gems and Gold), and up to four Grassland Hills and up to two Plains Hills. When these different Resources are connected, you will be able to support 1 more Population.
You need the two Commerce Mines to boost Research initially and Wealth later on.
j) How do you deal with macemen? They make mincemeat of my praets?
Drill Catapult versus a Maceman in the field. City Raider Catapult when the Maceman is in a City.
Otherwise, use at least twice as many Praetorians with appropriate Promotions than when Macemen are not present.
k) How do you use your cats? Do you reduce the city defences, or do you go for collateral damage. If the former, how many turns are you prepared to sit reducing the defences? (I´m finding that enemy cats are busy making mincemeat of my stacks whilst I attempt to reduce the city defences). How many cats should I have in my stack?
Another option is building Spys and place a Spy or two there a few turns before your stack gets there. When your Catapults are ready to attack, use the Spy to support a City Revolt. If successful, the City goes into disorder for 1 turn and Cultural/Walls/Castle Defense goes to 00.
Normal Catapult Bombardment reduces the Cultural Defense by 8. When there are Walls, this reduction is downsized by -50% to 4. When there is a Castle, the reduction is downsized by an additional -25% (-75% including Walls) to 2. For example, it would take 15 Catapults to reduce a City with Walls, from a Cultural Defense of 60 down to 00 in a single turn.
That´s rather a long list I know; but I´m going to need every bit of help (and luck) to get a win out of this one
Please ask more questions, if anything isn't perfectly clear.
Sun Tzu Wu
