I just started playing this game recently. This is the first TBS game I've played since MoM over 10 years ago. I like it, but I seem to be having some problems.
Some background info. I'm playing almost exclusively on Chieftain. I'm effectively a TBS noob, so I want to start from the beginning. For leaders, I've been playing mostly HC (for the traits), Mansa (I like Africa), or Elizabeth (I like her, too) for leaders.
One of my biggest problems is that I'm getting trounced in the land grab every time. I'm lucky if I can get three cities out, and the other civs are always way ahead of me on both land ownership and development. Considering I'm playing on a low difficulty, the AI shouldn't be cheating. But even on maps where I spawn in a perfect spot for my settlers and emphasize growth from the start, by the time I discover other civs, they are way ahead of me in both territory and number of cities. The only place in which I seem to have an edge is with research.
Anyway, I suspect that the main problem I'm having is with city growth. Larger cities mean more production and faster builds, right? However, I find I'm often lacking in food for decent growth (even if I spawn with a couple of decent farming resources nearby). Or, I'm doing ok on food, but falling behind on happiness and/or health. I've found very few ways to increase that other than with a couple of buildings (minor effect) or using the hereditary rule civic (early on). However the latter isn't all that helpful as I have one military unit at the most in any city as I'm neglecting military for economy.
In any event, I'm not sure why I'm not getting a better land control since that's what I'm working towards the most. Can anyone advise?
Some background info. I'm playing almost exclusively on Chieftain. I'm effectively a TBS noob, so I want to start from the beginning. For leaders, I've been playing mostly HC (for the traits), Mansa (I like Africa), or Elizabeth (I like her, too) for leaders.
One of my biggest problems is that I'm getting trounced in the land grab every time. I'm lucky if I can get three cities out, and the other civs are always way ahead of me on both land ownership and development. Considering I'm playing on a low difficulty, the AI shouldn't be cheating. But even on maps where I spawn in a perfect spot for my settlers and emphasize growth from the start, by the time I discover other civs, they are way ahead of me in both territory and number of cities. The only place in which I seem to have an edge is with research.
Anyway, I suspect that the main problem I'm having is with city growth. Larger cities mean more production and faster builds, right? However, I find I'm often lacking in food for decent growth (even if I spawn with a couple of decent farming resources nearby). Or, I'm doing ok on food, but falling behind on happiness and/or health. I've found very few ways to increase that other than with a couple of buildings (minor effect) or using the hereditary rule civic (early on). However the latter isn't all that helpful as I have one military unit at the most in any city as I'm neglecting military for economy.
In any event, I'm not sure why I'm not getting a better land control since that's what I'm working towards the most. Can anyone advise?