Getting You First Win on Prince: A Guide and Tips

[slimpikuns]

wow... i just switched from noble and man what a difference. I like the challenge though. And find state property to be essential in late game "tech support." What a boost to the economy for warmongering expansionists such as myself. Even with this added boost though I still almost always just squeeze by a space race victory.-until next time
by the way this is my very first post on a helluva good website

 

[EDaddy]

I'm getting to the point now where Prince is even too easy for me (although it is hard to compete for tech superiority if you're non-financial -- try competing against Huyna or Washington in the tech race -- both of them kicked my tails at tech in a Prince game -- especially Washington).

But nevertheless in my most recent games my score is way higher than my competition. I'm not ready to go to Monarch yet though -- and anyways the AI gets a free worker in Monarch and that scares me a little bit.

 

[Jonezee]

Well I tried Prince again last night with a Huge Map, Marathon, Temperate, Continents, etc...

I ended up with 5 other Civs on my Continent. Was able to to get Hinduism and Judaism first. I was able to get Judaism to spread quickly through the other Civs...VERY fast in fact since no one on this continent had discovered Buddhism. one Civ did actually convert to Hinduism but thankfully I was on good relations just prior, got open borders and was able to spread Judaism to 3 cities thus he ended up switching.

Over all I did well but failing to get Stonehenge or Oracle right away (because I was messing around) did hurt me in the long run because the Great Prophet I would have gotten to put up a shrine would have been some serious cash (having 2 shrines would have been the nail in the coffin for the AI). Not doing this put my maintenance too high even with Cottages. There were just not enough people to work them and keep up with production as of yet. Even though I think I could recover some what now that I have advance to cover my costs....I think I am too far behind the leaders to ever catch up.

i.e. Building cottages is ok but unless you have people to work them...you are SOL. ...though I will take another look to see how I can maximize those. I figure I must be doing something wrong.

This a big part of what wars are for.

Anytime an AI is at war, their tech spending drops considerably. You don't need to actually fight the war yourself, just try to keep your rivals on a war footing as much as possible.

 

[Chillaxation]

I got my first win on Prince tonight, by domination, on a standard map. I took the advice of the people here. I drew the Romans randomly, and although I'm very glad to have gotten a win with them, their UU seems sick overpowered.

The key: aggression, aggression, aggression. Out of the gate, I searched for copper, chop-rushed 4 axemen, and took out the German capital. On the banks of the Tiber, they say, Romulus killed Remus. Clearly the AIs were expanding like crazy and I had little room. I only ended up founding three cities!

Frederick down, and no sooner had the banns been read between the Hohenstaufens and the Gracchi that Mao declared. A longer war, that, against the greatest power on the continent, but our glorious legions prevailed.

Thirteen city-states, and much of the home continent now under our heel, we set out to make our citizens happy and pull them through the medieval era. It was only seven hundred years later that our legionnaires, now armed with rifles - but keeping their expertise at wreaking havoc in cities - took on the Malinese for total control of the continent. It was building up to this that was hardest: when to attack is subjective, but I feel a guideline is that I'll never start a new war on Prince if I'm not breaking even at 70% research.

Mali was tasty, and we had accepted Saladin's demands to convert to Buddhism. But by this time the world was truly a globe, and Isabella hated us for heathens. She attempted to put us to the sword, but our riflemen had now become infantrymen. Her enormous invasion force, sent with - I shudder - galleons became mincemeat on the shores. Eventually we built iron clads to protect the coast, then came the refitting of the navy to destroyers to dominate the sea.

From there it was a long build up to infantry and tank warfare, and the domination win in 1904.

It was really satisfying, and I owe you guys thanks. I don't think I would have been half as aggressive if you all hadn't counseled beatdown from the start.

 

[DraconisRex]

I just play it the same way as Monarch. Don't have a problem.

One thing I do though is to turn off tech trading in the game though (no matter the level). It just feels like the AI is cheating me and trading favorably with other Civilizations while refusing to trade equitably with mine.

 

[Chillaxation]

I just play it the same way as Monarch. Don't have a problem.

One thing I do though is to turn off tech trading in the game though (no matter the level). It just feels like the AI is cheating me and trading favorably with other Civilizations while refusing to trade equitably with mine.

I'd love to see some stats worked out for whether the AIs have a tech hive mind. It's certainly not the "If you're as advanced and can pay, you got it" hive mind of Civ III.

 

[Jonezee]

Just to note, I've posted my first revision of the guide, streamlining it and incorporating more strategy.

 

[EDaddy]

Well, I won my first Domination victory on Price level (Pangaea, Small map, 5 civs). I chose Napoleon for the job. I took advantage of his traits (Aggressive & Industrious) and built lots of units & wonders.

I built only 5 cities, but took over two barbarian citites as well before Germany can get their grubby hands on them. I had access to copper in Paris, so I took Jonzee's advice and skipped Archery and went directly to building Axemen.

When the Classical Era began, Bismarck demanded that I teach him Code of Laws. I rejected thinking he would forgive me. I was wrong -- he immediately declared war!!! I was ready though and immediately took Frankfurt away from him. Germany tried to go after Rhiems (a city heavily focused on commerence), but failed.

Later the Spanish declared war (I hate the fact that you have to have the same religion as the Spanish to get along) and almost managed to take Frankfurt away from me. I them declared peace on Germany and eventually Spain and peace reigned in the game for a while.

I then went after the Spanish as they hate my guts. Spain delared war on England and Elizabeth gave me an invitation to join which I gladly accepted. It took three tries, but in the early Industrial Era, I took every city away from Spain.

I then signed a Permanent Alliance with Elizabeth and went after my biggest competitior in the whole game -- the Incas who had a tech lead most of the game but didn't focus heavily on military!!! I used a spy on one of his cities and decided to declare war!!! Germany eventually joined and I wasn't too thrilled about that as he took the Incan Capital. Anyways, after taking every city excpt the islands, Elizabeth & I managed to get a Domination victory in the 1930s and on top of that got the title of Augustus Caesar!

 

[Barruk]

Thanks a lot Jonezee: I just won my first Prince game (cultural/Elizabeth) last night and much of my improved strategy was thanks to your article. I went for the early bronze/forest chop, then did Pyramids and Stonehenge, and built new cities at a controlled pace until I had around 10. Catherine tried a sneak attack at my capital around 500AD, and Montezuma and Roosevelt both did a mad rush at me shortly before victory, but I really particular about upgrading my troops and was able to deflect anything they could throw at me. Here were some of my impressions:

1. Keep your neighbors broke! Even though I was going for cultural, I was ahead in techs up until the Industrial age and kept on selling my neighbors worthless technologies so that I could keep my commerce to gold at 0%. As a result, when the Aztecs and Americans at my borders did declare war on me (as was inevitable), I had my units all upgraded to infantry and calvary, and they were still using knights and grenadiers. No comparison.

2. Barbarian surge? In this game and the other prince games I've tried, I get a massive surge of barbarians coming at my cities from about 500BC to 500AD. Has anyone else noticed this, and is there any way to prevent it?

3. First religion: I got into the religion business with Phil/Taoism; which worked out well because I could get the Phil/Pacifism bonus for GPs (unfortunately the AI beat me to the puch with Parthenon). This allowed me time to important techs like Alphabet and Drama (for culture) without spending critical early research time trying to get ahead on religion. Any thoughts on when or if you should go for first religion?

Again, great article. Next game, I'm going warmongering for the Dom victory. I'll try out the rest of your reccomendations then....

 

[Chillaxation]

2. Barbarian surge? In this game and the other prince games I've tried, I get a massive surge of barbarians coming at my cities from about 500BC to 500AD. Has anyone else noticed this, and is there any way to prevent it?

Best way since SMAC to prevent random hostile generation is to post sentries along your borders (hit S rather than F, you're likely going to have to choose to engage the enemy in another tile anyway). Array these so that you have a as long a "frontier" as possible that forms a continuous space with your lands. Barbarians cannot generate in places that are under observation by any civ - even AI. Some say that barbarian cities save you settlers, but since barbarian settlements seem to show up randomly rather than in the ordered way a civilized tribe would settle, the cities are usually picked more poorly. Combine this with the fact that you have to wait until they get a second pop point and then massacre the garrison the second pop point will churn out, and I'd really rather just keep them from spawning. Your mileage may vary, but I find I have much less trouble with savages that way.

But on Prince they definitely can be extreme. I can't imagine taking Prince + raging at this point, since it seems like barbarian settlements can sometimes gather enough to send combined arms forces of 5 units complete with axemen and swordsmen, even without raging. I might do it before I jump to Monarch, just to make sure I'm fully ready for the bonus unit mojo that Monarch will be throwing at me. I somehow doubt that with raging barbarians you can use sentries as easily; I have a feeling that raging barbarians would eat isolated units for breakfast.

 

[EDaddy]

Did anybody play the OCC (One-City Challenge) on Prince yet? OCC is tough on Prince -- by the 21st century, Japan had learned every tech and kicked Mali & my tails!!! And I couldn't convert to any of the Japanese religions, because they didn't reach my city! So I had to settle for making friends with the Mali. Golly, I hate playing against Japan and I cringe every time Japan is in a game, because I always know that they will pull something.

 

[EDaddy]

Best way since SMAC to prevent random hostile generation is to post sentries along your borders (hit S rather than F, you're likely going to have to choose to engage the enemy in another tile anyway). Array these so that you have a as long a "frontier" as possible that forms a continuous space with your lands. Barbarians cannot generate in places that are under observation by any civ - even AI. Some say that barbarian cities save you settlers, but since barbarian settlements seem to show up randomly rather than in the ordered way a civilized tribe would settle, the cities are usually picked more poorly. Combine this with the fact that you have to wait until they get a second pop point and then massacre the garrison the second pop point will churn out, and I'd really rather just keep them from spawning. Your mileage may vary, but I find I have much less trouble with savages that way.

But on Prince they definitely can be extreme. I can't imagine taking Prince + raging at this point, since it seems like barbarian settlements can sometimes gather enough to send combined arms forces of 5 units complete with axemen and swordsmen, even without raging. I might do it before I jump to Monarch, just to make sure I'm fully ready for the bonus unit mojo that Monarch will be throwing at me. I somehow doubt that with raging barbarians you can use sentries as easily; I have a feeling that raging barbarians would eat isolated units for breakfast.

According to the manual, the only bonus unit the AI gets on Monarch is a worker (which is a big bonus anyways!) On Deity, the AI gets a free settler!!!

 

[Ghan]

Finally got around to registering so I could post to this thread.

I just finished my first full Prince game. I lost with 4 turns left... beaten in the space race.

This is how it went down:
I played Gandhi, on a standard (Continents, temp, etc) map. I began with securing Hinduism (it would only be fitting, right?) and scouting like mad. Then the typical BronzeWorking/Pottery/Alphabet lineup. I hadnt met anyone by the time I began research on Writing, so I figured there was noone on my continent. Panic struck. From my experiences with Civ3, being alone meant no early tech trade and falling irrevocably behind.

So I focused my wonder/building production and research towards tech/commerce, with an emphasis on getting to Caravel quickly. When I found the other civs (who were all on the same continent), we had researched different enough techs to make trade very lucrative. And since I was the new guy, I acted as the tech merchant.

My peachy setup came crashing to the ground when I realized that I had neglected my military for too long. I had slowly began increasing defense in my cities when I found the first civ, but it wasn't fast enough. Julius Caesar came and took the jewel of my eastern cities. But after a few turns and researching Gunpowder, I booted him off.

The mid-game was spent desperately keeping up with tech and building a navy. This was working well for me, though my military efforts were purely for defense, since by this point I figured the best shot was a Space Victory.

Well I thought I had it until the late game. The 1990s and 21st century were spent battling almost every civ. They all spontaneously began attacking me, and I was mired in building SS Components. At that point, I fell behind in tech and Mao beat me to that last SS piece.

So I lost. And I learned the importance of a navy. And being aggressive on Prince. And don't trust Julius, and Mao will never trade anything.

I have a few questions though. Whenever I woke the sleeping giant and began militarizing, I would fall behind scientifically. And this would often spell my demise. What tricks do you use to keep up scientifically while still churning out units in your cities. Please be as specific and detailed as possible, though I am a devout Civ fan since Civ2, I'm still not up on all the lingo.

Danke

 

[EDaddy]

Specialization. Focus 1 or 2 cities on building military (a city with a lot of hills/forest plains will do nicely). Have some commerece cities (at least three) and build cottages on all of the radius' plot squares as early as possible. Later, they'll develop into towns and produce a mean commerence. Anyways, you'll want to build libraries, universities, observatories, laboratories, & monasteraies in your commerence cities as they all increase your science rate. Once Oxford is unlocked, build it in the city with the highest science rate (press F1). And use your great scientists to buid academies (50% science rate). If you learn to specialize, the game will become much easier.

 

[Jonezee]

One of the best ways to keep yourself from falling behind militarily is to never start. Once you can start churning out axemen and chariots, do so until you have a healthy military. Don't forget to add the occasional archer and spearman in too. Early game units, when combined with catapults can hold their own against everything up to macemen and knights. Macemen and knights combined with catapults can in turn hold their own up to riflemen.

Once you have your military, then go after city improvements. Once a city has a granary, barracks and forge I build units until I feel I have enough. When you need to upgrade, slide your science spending down to zero for a few turns so you can afford it.

So in essence, build your military from the get go. Hope that helps.

 

[Sisiutil]

Bump.

I just moved up from Noble to Prince and have been getting my butt sorely kicked, so finding this thread was like manna from heaven. Most players elsewhere on the forum seem to be in either Monarch and above or Noble and below. Nice to find some others playing in the first of the AI-advantaged levels, and achieving success.

What I find as I move up through the levels is that each time, I have to pay more and more attention to some additional, finer points of gameplay. Things I could be sloppy about on lower levels, I must give greater focus on the next one up. In Noble, for example, I found myself paying a lot more attention to unit promotions and seige weapons in warfare, and to fine-tuning city specialization by more carefully allocating National Wonders.

On Prince, I'm finding that early-game land grab to be cruicial. I've read through this and other threads for additional hints, and I'm reassessing the potential value of things I neglected previously, like watermills, State Property, Stonehenge for a non-cultural civ, Persia, converting rather than founding a religion, bribing other civs to war on each other, and so on. I've been a little too addicted to making every city coastal as well. And yes, aggression, aggression, aggression.

Thanks, and when I finally win on Prince I'll be back to brag.

 

[bushido]

This guid sounds very well.

I have still some questions :

1. in the part A: The Early Game, it is written
   "Start building a warrior... I went warrior-worker-building/wonder."
   I suppose this list is dedicated for the capital, isn't it? What is your standard list for the first cities settled?
   
   
   
2. What if the map is not Pangea with high seas levels?
   The chockpoints are infrequents with other maps. Do you think this method is adaptable for other map type?

 

[Daked Derb]

Well, I just played my first game on Prince today, and was able to come away with a domination victory in the 1600's. I was kind of surprised, I was expecting the AI to be a little more difficult than they were. Standard Pangaea, I think 6 other civs. I guess it might have been a little easier because I turned off barbarians. Makes it a little easier to explore and expand in the early game without them.

I played as Qin, for the Chinese UU. I was lucky and had copper in my capital's borders as soon as I discovered bronze working. My build order in my capital was something like Worker>Worker>Settler>barracks>warrior>warrior. After which I started building the Oracle. In my second city I went straight to barracks and started producing axemen. I looked over and saw my closest neighbor, the Mongolians, only had two warriors and an archer in the city they had just founded, which was in a pretty good location close to my borders. Once I had 5 axemen I declared war and easily took the city. After I took over all 3 of his cities, I was number 1 in score and never lost it the rest of the game. Took out Toku and Ghandi with Cho-ko-Nu, then finished off Napolean with cavalry. I was building theatres in the cities and I had just captured when I hit the domination limit

 

[bonbons]

I just played and won my first game on prince using this guide. Thanks a lot!

 

[actionmedia]

Here is my strategy slightly improoved after reading some posts on this forum.
The golas are:
1. Make 2 great cityies in early game
1.a. Found at least 1 religion in early game
1.b. Build at least 3 wanders in the early game
2. Keep up with the AIs in science
a. Go for tech with bonuses, such as liberalism, Phisics and so on.
b. Go for tech necesary for the space race.
3. Win the space race.

If you manage to fulfill all those goals, step by step, you can win the game with random civilization, no matter the speed, no matter the size or the type of the map, not being agresive (no need to declare war).

But how can you achieve those goals?

1. Make 2 great cities in early game.
First, usual place the fisrt city right on the spot. Usulay there is the best place to build. The ideal first city wold have around it either flood plains or oasis or other tiles that can provide 3 food and some gold from the beginig of the game. If you don't have the ideal city, no problem, you can catch up later.
What would you build first, depends on the surroundings and the techs you start with. If I start with huntig, I build the second scout. If I start with fishing, and I have a costal city and probably some sea resouces nearby a build workboat firs, but most of the time I end up building warrior.
If I have "the ideal city position", it will grow very fast to size 3. Than I start to build the settler. If is not ideal, I start to build a worker at size 2. And do some research needed to improove some bonus tiles around.
The first tech for reserch depends of the civ you play with, and of the general conditons. If I start with Misticism as starting tech, I go straight to Politheism, if not I start reasearch Misticism first then researching Politheism. It is possible, this way to found the Hiduism. If I don't have a spiritual leader, I don't convert to that religion just yet. Depending on conditions you may need to research some worker techs (agriculture, hunting, animal husbandry) or fishing. But I always head for Monotheism. It is the 3d religion that can be found and usualy the AIs don't rush for it. There is 99% chance that you will found that religion.
While the city grows and the research is done, I explore the surroundings and I am looking for at least one of the vital resources (stone and/or marble) if it is not already within 3 tiles from mi city. If you can't find neither stone or marble, this strategy will not work and sould find something else
Next thing I am looking for are other civs and the best place for my second city. Ofcourse goodie huts are a good chance to get some free techs or units, or at least money. That is why I prefer to train second scout if it is possible insted of warior.
When the city is size 3 I start building the settler. If I have allready spoted de good place for the second city, I prepare the path to get to it.
By the time it is being built set the research for monotheism but be careful to finish this research only after the second city is built. When the research on Monoteism is finished the Judaism will be founded in the second city, giving it a cultural boost. Definitely convert to that religion.
By the time you do all that, you have figured out if you are alone or note on that continet (island), or who are your neighbours. Knowing that you can decide what to research next, a military tech or priesthood. If I don't see an iminent threat I go for priesthood (to be able to buid the oracle). If you go for military, go for BW, to chop forests, that is imperative if you don't have acces to stones.
In the first city, after the settler you may whant to build some defence (if is not already there). Build an warior and then go for the piramids, but be sure you have at least one worker.
After secured the second city, start building Stonehenge there. Be sure you build a quarry on stone tile and connect it to the capital. If no stone, don't build quarry on marble, go for choping trees.
You mai fail building Stonehenge, but try not to fail the Piramids, it is vitale in this strategy.
Finished one, start the another wonder. Parthenon is a good option for the capital and the oracle for the second city.
If you have both marble and stone in your city radius it is a good chance to build all 4 early wanders, if not, you will probably build only 3. From now on you have to concetrate on exploiting your leader skils.

2. Keep up with the AIs in science

To do that you need to expand your borders and to maximaze your commerce and science. Trading technologies with other civs is a must so researching alphabet should be a piority.
Having early 2 wonder cities is very helpfull. Try to maximize the great persons production. If the leader is Philosofical, this should be the main focus.
Don't bother to build large armies. At this point it would be suicidal to go with an aggresive war. Concentrate on defensive units. Build some offensive units for the barbarian cities if necesary. Keep in mind that wile the AIs build and stack their units you can keep building some cities. Make friends, if is possible, by spreading your religion. Keep good communications betwin cities and be preapared for eventual defensive war.
Actualy, a defensive war may be profitable, after a wile, the civ that declared war would be willing to negociate the peace, be sure you take all techs available and some cities too, but don't be greedy, just 1 or 2 cities would be enogh.
Keep your economy on track, build courhouse, and Forbinden Palace. Build everiting that helps making more money or more research.
Go for Liberalism when possible and get the free tech Nationalism or Astronomy depending on the situation. Always check the progress of the other civs and just keep up.
Keep building wonders whenever it is possible.
Use diplomacy often. Trade resouces, and techs. Try to make friends and try to make the other civs to declare war to eachother, this will slow their research and building, as they will keep building only military, and research military, and the upkeep will keep growing

3. Win the space race.

To do that you must haveat least 4-5 cities with high production and you need to start early. Forget about techs that don't help you with this goal. If you need them, you can consider building the internet. But is better to concentrate on space race tech. Keep trading with other civs and, keep the diplomacy. Keep waching the others progress. If some civ is dangerously close to space vicory, you may rather consider make them declare war to others, or others declare war to them. All AIs have some enemies, and mot probaly you are friend with one of them. No matter the cost. Just make them beat each other. This will give you the chance to fhinish your space ship first.