general tips on medieval era starts?

KMadCandy

giggling permanoob
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Messages
4,002
Location
Peepsville
i'm looking for tips in general about starting in the medieval era. vanilla or warlords, i'd love ideas for either version. advice on what leaders to play wouldn't help my specific situation, since i have to play against 14 particular AIs and i can't play any of those leaders myself. but, feel free to include stuff about your favorites if you like, we all know that i often answer (if you can call it that) more than the original question in my own posts ;)

so what i'm looking for here is tactics, what to focus on at the beginning of the game, units/techs to prioritize, that sort of thing. i know i will not be isolated, not even close--large (highlands) map with 14 opponents.

i've only ever played ancient starts and a few future starts. i started a fake game and i know that we all begin with 2 settlers, 1 worker, 2 archers, and an explorer. some wonders nobody can ever build, and all civs know all techs up to and including, i forget now, CoL, construction, several things. we can all see where the copper, iron, and ponies are from the beginning. that's pretty much all that i know.

background about why i ask: i'm heavily leaning against trying G-Major 10 because it's Medieval Era, quick speed (which i'm also not used to), and time victory. it would be bizarroworld for me for so many reasons. then again, the deadline is a month away and i tend to change my mind a lot. i really really want a G-Major win one day and there are only 12 chances a year.

ps ignore the difficulty and victory type. having to win by time is a complication since i can't kill them all off, but i can sort that part out later if you guys help me enough with the first part *giggle*. i'm confident that with a month to refine strategy (if i'm having fun trying) that i can figure that part out if i learn how to get off to a strong enough start. and prince isn't a problem.
 
Some things to keep in mind about medieval start, is all religions except Christianity, Taoism, and Islam will be founded on turn 7, 425 B.C. You are guaranteed to get the Judaism holy city for some strange reason. I like to make sure my second city is the Holy city, so I can use the culture to block off as much land as possible. I settle it as far away as I can go inland by turn 6.

Also make sure to use the first worker to chop out a couple more workers, then use all those to chop 2 more settlers. you can expand a little faster than on ancient start due to having currency, Col, and mathematics.
 
I've only played medieval a few times, and that in MP. However, I've spent some time thinking about possible strategies and I have ideas for 3 leaders.

1) Wang - Protective archers to start with (they can be included in the hwach rush). Build hwachas (spelling) from turn 1 and destroy all in your path. If you must wait for machinery to rush, your crossbows will have drill 1.

Note that you can pretty much forget an early rush AGAINST wang, as those protective archers and instant hwachas preset a formidable defense.

2) Hannibal - Locate horses, build nums (you already have HBR), and go git em (with cats). You may want stables 1st, for shock nums, and a medic.

3) Qin - Chop a forge (cheap) and run an engineer while researcing machinery. Around the time you finish machinery, you should get a GE. Lightbulb engineering and charge with Cho/Trebs.

Ok, so it's a little on the warmonger side :)

I agree with chopping worker/settlers, except if you anticipate an early rush, then chops a cat for defence in each city. 1 cat will stop an early (very small, 1-3 troop) stack from killing your archer (especially if on a hill).

Btw, thanks for saying its ok to write about specific leaders, since I had little else to offer.
 
My guess about medieval is to pick a leader whose UU is
- good right at the beginning of the game (Wang kong = king kong here!)
- cheap or very strong for city taking

And go rushing. chop chop chop and enjoy 3 or 4 capitals :lol:
 
I tried the Qin strategy today (normal speed). It takes around 35 turns to research Machinery (you can begin right away) and the same amount of turns (with a little micromanagement) to get the GE. Thus, on about turn 35, Chos and trebs both become available (make sure you grabbed iron for Chos). I recommend researching Theo after machinery, as this tech will be finished while you are still producing war units, music has probably already been done by turn 35, and the other techs take twice as long - besides, this isn't a longbow based strategy. If you can survive 35 turns (this should be easy in SP), I think this is the strongest warmonger strategy for medieval start. Wang's hwaches cannot hold a candle to cover and drill2 promoted Chos (or even to trebs, for that matter). 35 turns is not long to wait, you will have them before anyone gets longbows - and even after someone gets fuedal, you crush.
 
if you're playing on noble/prince, you can just expand as fast as possible to grab as much land as you can. You will not get any early war declarations as there is more land to settle and the AI seems to prioritize that over declaring war.

I generally use Izzy when playing medieval starts because of spiritual (it really shines in the midgame) and because of conquistadors. Granted, her UU takes a few techs to come online but I normally research CS, then feudalism (trade for machinery)->guilds. After that, I go paper->education->liberalism, possibly nationalism/military tradition slingshot. After gunpowder comes in, you can then upgrade conquistadors into cavalry and continue warmongering.
 
hi all. This is my first time trying a GOTM event. I have been playing a couple test games and discover methods that work for me so far.

1. I put on No Barbarians. I am not certain whether this will lower my score, but this helps me for very early expansions as I just concentrate on building settler and knowing i probably wont have a horse around near my first 2 cities.

2. I choose someone financial (either Korea or Mali), which helps me with the early tech, b/c i believe an early advantage in tech will pay off. Note, you should not choose Carthe or Viking because their ub are naval-base building.

2.5 Dont pick industrious b/c all ai will get Great Engineers as their 1st GP. I also find aggressive a bit useless because they only have effect on melee units (at least in the early war) and not very efective. (people are welcome to disagree with me on this)

3. I choose Music as my first tech to get the Great Artist and then I lightbulb to Theology. Both gives me trading pwr in the beginning over the AI. (also screw over the ai who priortize music too :p )

4. O yeah, make sure you get the best possible starting location possible (no ice, tundra, mountains and desert). In most of my games, this proves to be the decisive factor for my wins.
 
3. I choose Music as my first tech to get the Great Artist and then I lightbulb to Theology. Both gives me trading pwr in the beginning over the AI. (also screw over the ai who priortize music too :p )

4. O yeah, make sure you get the best possible starting location possible (no ice, tundra, mountains and desert). In most of my games, this proves to be the decisive factor for my wins.

oh i hadn't realized that doing music would lead to theo, thanks!! and the med start definitely helps for picking a good starting location. in addition to knowing where iron and ponies are, i can see if i'm too far in a corner for my tastes.

thanks for the music tip :)
 
Back
Top Bottom