Getting Started

One thing under discussion before you left is aircraft are very AI-friendly. They don't clog the map, don't have to worry about complicated tactical maneuvers, and can always stop to heal. I shifted late-game AI priorities towards aircraft to make the late game more challenging in war, and especially avoid map clogging. The number of aircraft is limited by aluminum, however, so there's an upper bound on how many planes a person can have.

The air power shift probably coincided with my own shift to warmongering, so I never noticed it - but again, I like it... especially with the aluminum cap. That cap wouldn't affect a civ with lots of resources and that Autocracy 2X policy - but that particualr AI has earned it!
 
It just means that the AI's have finally talked to Col Santiago.

Air Power rests at the apex of the first triad of victory...for it combines mobility, flexibility, and initiative.
 
Has anyone else had trouble w/ getting some technology maybe too early? In a game I'm playing, I had trouble once I unlocked Machinery, when my cities were not yet ready for the Hammers needed to produce Longbowmen viably. By that, I mean I'd rather be building Archers then upgrade them to Longbowmen, than build the upgraded unit from the start. It just felt kinda wrong for me to want to hold progress on the higher tech. Is there quite a good reason for unit obsolescence? How do we assess the length of time needed to make a certain unit obsolete?

I started playing as England (Epic Emperor Small map) with a domination victory goal with the idea of trying to use Longbowmen. I found myself in a good starting position w/ 2 cotton 1 pearl + 4 cattle in close proximity on a coastal/grassland terrain.

After exploration I found 2 great spots for expansions-the first one had 1 dyes and Cerro de Potosi and the second one had 3 silver, 1 marble and later on turned out to also have Iron. I then rushed to get both expansions up by buying settlers using gold from trading and the boost from Cerro de Potosi. From there, I've secured a very good flow of Gold, which I planned to use for upgrades later on while gaining units, and boosting culture and growth for the time being in order to set up the war machine.

I also figured that since my plan of using Longbows will set my warmongering somewhat in the middle game, I should try to build Libraries and possibly NC and possibly Stonehenge, and then build up on units once the third expansion (w/c had a lot of possible Hammers) kicks in. The second expansion could give some help too having some plains around. Btw, the terrain on the Capital was kinda short on hammers so I thought I'd find better use of it for other things rather than using it to build units, until maybe the sole forest/lumber mill and production buildings could help.

Then, I actually managed to get all 3 Libraries, NC (on the capital even) and Stonehenge (plus Monuments, Granaries and Lighthouses built or bought) which felt like an awesome start thinking that the earlier I could get Machinery the earlier I'm ready for any opportunity for war.

Just before I researched Machinery, I think I was set to produce an archer every 12/13 turns, and smoothly move to 6/7 by the time my investment in food kicks in and allow more Mines to be worked, but when I got Machinery, unit production just plummeted to one every 38/39 turns.

I felt couldn't get units out quickly enough early enough and find good use of my Gold rather than buy units at a much higher price (gold/hammer ratio). I started to get tech beyond what I really needed which also affected what was supposed to be my supply of spearmen/horsemen, and basically the plan was ruined.

From this experience, I think Longbowmen (or Crossbowmen) making Archers obsolete so quickly is kinda iffy. In this game too, my civ was actually behind the other civs in Science output even if no one has produced Great Library yet, so I think wasn't really that fast in getting Machinery. Maybe this could be a case for Archers getting obsolete some other time later than Machinery? Or maybe Science is still too fast to research? Or maybe citizen growth is too slow? What do you guys think?
 
Sounds like you had some land with very poor production, but a lot of gold. Commerce is perfect for that kind of start. With the -25% purchasing costs and +1 gold to villages, gold based production becomes almost as powerful as hammer based production (Big Ben's extra -15% cost helps further). Hammers still tend to be more efficient, but purchasing still has two huge benefits: it's instant, and you can pool resources from across your empire, which is especially beneficial if you are building a lot of units.
 
Units obsolescence is inconsistent. I haven't really analyzed how Firaxis decided to organize it.

Early libraries and a NC are generally going to accelerate your tech faster than production can keep up. For militaristic games, I typically get Temples and a National Epic instead (for culture to fill out liberty+honor+commerce), then churn out a few great engineers from the national epic to boost my military city's production. I build farms+mines for my capital and military city, but spam villages everywhere else to go towards a gold focused economy. Gold is much more powerful than production for an expansionist player. New cities have very low production, but we can instantly purchase anything we want in that city if we have the cash, quickly getting it up to speed with the rest of the empire.

There's a decent 2 1/2 era gap between archers and machinery. When playing China or England I usually have enough time to get out 5-10 archers before Machinery, then upgrade them with professional army's cost reduction.
 
Early libraries and a NC are generally going to accelerate your tech faster than production can keep up. For militaristic games, I typically get Temples and a National Epic instead (for culture to fill out liberty+honor+commerce), then churn out a few great engineers from the national epic to boost my military city's production. I build farms+mines for my capital and military city, but spam villages everywhere else to go towards a gold focused economy. Gold is much more powerful than production for an expansionist player. New cities have very low production, but we can instantly purchase anything we want in that city if we have the cash, quickly getting it up to speed with the rest of the empire.

This is really interesting - I'll try the non-NC route in my next warmongering game this weekend. In effect you're saying you build manufactories for your two big cities?

At first I wondered how you get growth in your "village" cities," but figure that to some degree you don't care, and to some degree Maritimes carry the ball.

Now all that said... what about science? If your pop isn't exploding, and you don't have the NC, and you don't start conquering until early Renaissance, how do you catch up to the one or two whiz kids in the game?
 
I conquer them. :goodjob:

It's harder when all the peaceful leaders are on another continent, but with a large enough empire, science rate eventually surpasses DoF-happy leaders... if nothing else because their trading partners are killed off.

I only drop Manufactories around my military city. There's not much point in getting too much production for the capital on high difficulty levels because the AIs seem to always beat us to world wonders.

In a conquest-heavy game happiness usually limits growth more than food supply, so I find farms are mostly wasted for this victory type. I rely on food from several sources:

  • Coastlines (3:c5food:1:c5gold:)
  • Bonus resources
  • Granary/watermill
Sometimes I'll build a farm or two if it's a landlocked city surrounded by hostile terrain and no bonus resources. The map generation system typically places enough resources in hostile terrain to grow without farms, though.
 
I conquer them.

I only drop Manufactories around my military city. There's not much point in getting too much production for the capital on high difficulty levels because the AIs seem to always beat us to world wonders.

1. Great answer!

2. Since you have a "military" city, and the capital is not focused on Wonder, is it mainly a high-growth science center.
 
I do build national wonders at the capital, which is the reason for a farm+mine mix. I swap citizens to mines when building NWs. The rest of the time I focus my capital on science and great person generation, since high population helps both. :)

I usually do engineers in early game for manufactories, then artists in late game for their longer golden ages.
 
While playing as the ottomans i have noticed that the artist specialist produces one food instead of one culture point. Is that working as intended?
 
While playing as the ottomans i have noticed that the artist specialist produces one food instead of one culture point. Is that working as intended?

Yes and no. Since culture isn't classified as an actual "yield" in the game's code, it's not possible to give the artist specialist the correct boost here, so the +1 food is a substitute.
 
But that means that after reinassance with the correct policy every artist are free to maintain
 
Yes, I would change the Ottoman artist bonus to gold or science, not food. Specialists should not be able to provide food.
 
Why does a cultural victory take 6 trees, not 5? In vanilla it's 5, right?
I know it was changed to 6 when the system was added where you got a free policy per era, but I thought it was supposed to be reverted to 5 when these free policies were removed?
6 full trees (36 policies!) takes a loooong time.
 
Why does a cultural victory take 6 trees, not 5? In vanilla it's 5, right?
I know it was changed to 6 when the system was added where you got a free policy per era, but I thought it was supposed to be reverted to 5 when these free policies were removed?
6 full trees (36 policies!) takes a loooong time.

I think the idea is supposed to be that policies are easier to get with TBC, so 6 works out right. Sometimes I've wondered if the mod should hew closer to vanilla - be it with regard to cultural victories, difficulty level, or building names - but TBC has pretty much become its own beast now.
 
This is kind of related (at least to game timing) but for TBC games do you have a recommended game speed? I just switched to epic games on Gedemon's TSL earth map and I'm wondering if I'd like marathon next. would it make a difference with TBC? Or is it just a matter of user preference? What speed do most TBC players play at?
 
This is kind of related (at least to game timing) but for TBC games do you have a recommended game speed? I just switched to epic games on Gedemon's TSL earth map and I'm wondering if I'd like marathon next. would it make a difference with TBC? Or is it just a matter of user preference? What speed do most TBC players play at?

I think Thal has suggested that TBC (and vanilla) are best played when you match standard with standard, large with epic, huge with marathon (and presumably small with quick). My sense is most people here play standard or epic.
 
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