Looking through these threads I can't help but wonder what strategies could be listed out and generally accepted by most. There is a lot of debate about a lot of things, but surely there are a few things that can be carved into stone to help newer players or players looking to improve.
Obviously there is the war academy which is a great resource, but it's outdated and more in depth than what some people want. I have something simpler in mind...like an enumerated list of simple strategies that most of us can agree on in just about every scenario.
Here are a few examples of things I THINK (that's a big think) we can agree on?
1. make a scout your first or second build unless you know you're on archipelago and do not auto-explore with your scouts
2. after pottery for religion, your first few techs should be those that allow you to improve your luxury resources
3. unless you morally object (it's a game) then stealing a worker from a city state or even another civ very early is a good idea
4. try to have at least one worker for each city
5. always sell/trade excess luxuries/resources or gift them to repair/improve relations
6. try to build the National College by turn 100 (standard speed)
7. the tradition tree is great for a tall empire, liberty is great for a wide empire, completing one of those trees quickly is usually best; while honor is fun it isn't as ideal as tradition or liberty
8. manually managing tiles in the city view is a pain but often necessary, do not assume that the game does a good job of managing anything without your input
9. among the many benefits of trade routes it is usually a step towards maintaining peace and building relations with neighbors
10. progressing to the higher difficulty levels requires among other things that you abandon building most early wonders, don't even try
11. an AI which moves units back and forth just outside your borders is on the verge of declaring war on you; take action by building up defenses OR get another AI to declare war on them first OR make a pre-emptive strike OR all of the above
12. pay close attention to the attitudes the different AI civs have with one another (info addict mod very good for this), making a declaration of friendship with a widely disliked civ will negatively impact your relationships, on the other hand, denouncing widely disliked civs will positively impact your relationships
13. pay close attention to city state quests, some are very easy to reach. also, some city state quests overlap with others', e.g. if a city state wants you to connect cotton then try to do a quest with another city state that has cotton
14. constructing an archeological site in an AI's land gives you a positive modifier with that civ and at the same time makes it so that they don't get a great work from the site, this is a great way to repair or improve relations; on the other hand you can take the great work for yourself but get a negative modifier with that civ
15. most all unique units are good and they maintain their abilities even after being promoted often making them the most powerful units you will have all game, it's a good idea to build several of these units even if you don't plan to play for a domination victory
So that's a start to what I think is a good idea, a community driven thread of generally accepted strategies. Maybe someone gathers all this stuff and puts it in the war academy?
Obviously there is the war academy which is a great resource, but it's outdated and more in depth than what some people want. I have something simpler in mind...like an enumerated list of simple strategies that most of us can agree on in just about every scenario.
Here are a few examples of things I THINK (that's a big think) we can agree on?
1. make a scout your first or second build unless you know you're on archipelago and do not auto-explore with your scouts
2. after pottery for religion, your first few techs should be those that allow you to improve your luxury resources
3. unless you morally object (it's a game) then stealing a worker from a city state or even another civ very early is a good idea
4. try to have at least one worker for each city
5. always sell/trade excess luxuries/resources or gift them to repair/improve relations
6. try to build the National College by turn 100 (standard speed)
7. the tradition tree is great for a tall empire, liberty is great for a wide empire, completing one of those trees quickly is usually best; while honor is fun it isn't as ideal as tradition or liberty
8. manually managing tiles in the city view is a pain but often necessary, do not assume that the game does a good job of managing anything without your input
9. among the many benefits of trade routes it is usually a step towards maintaining peace and building relations with neighbors
10. progressing to the higher difficulty levels requires among other things that you abandon building most early wonders, don't even try
11. an AI which moves units back and forth just outside your borders is on the verge of declaring war on you; take action by building up defenses OR get another AI to declare war on them first OR make a pre-emptive strike OR all of the above
12. pay close attention to the attitudes the different AI civs have with one another (info addict mod very good for this), making a declaration of friendship with a widely disliked civ will negatively impact your relationships, on the other hand, denouncing widely disliked civs will positively impact your relationships
13. pay close attention to city state quests, some are very easy to reach. also, some city state quests overlap with others', e.g. if a city state wants you to connect cotton then try to do a quest with another city state that has cotton
14. constructing an archeological site in an AI's land gives you a positive modifier with that civ and at the same time makes it so that they don't get a great work from the site, this is a great way to repair or improve relations; on the other hand you can take the great work for yourself but get a negative modifier with that civ
15. most all unique units are good and they maintain their abilities even after being promoted often making them the most powerful units you will have all game, it's a good idea to build several of these units even if you don't plan to play for a domination victory
So that's a start to what I think is a good idea, a community driven thread of generally accepted strategies. Maybe someone gathers all this stuff and puts it in the war academy?