Going from Noble tooo ....?

[reljanovic]

I actually took a lot of your advices.

I started a new game and lol'ed when I saw that Arabia was yet again close. This time I made quick work of their 3 warriors, plus I got me a second worker from him. The rest of the game progressed really well, but the start of the end game, around 15-1600AD I had one economic, one science and one military metropolis, the other cities weren't quite so specialized but they were still great cities. One thing I took notice of, was how significant the maintence cost got above Noble.

Anyway, after Arabia I closed De Gaulle in, on his tiny peninsula thus stopping him from any advancements, no own strategic resources and so forth. And after that I took all the land that was available to me before the Dutch settled me into one third of the continent. After that - no more expansion but a lot of specializing and building milita.
In the end the AI had to go for only one advanced tech to have something I didn't.

I.e. Boudica grabbed communism but hadn't researched like 5, 6 other significant techs that I had. And by this time I researched techs in no more than 6, absolute the most 7 turns, and sometimes the cheaper ones took me only 1 turn. Even tho I could NOT get my research spending above 30-40% without going minus. Which I felt was weird since I had both SE and CE. About three cities stood for the SE and the rest had a lot of towns, no joke.

In the end I lost tho, I didn't pay attention to Boudicas lust for a Apostolic victory and had no say if she were to win or not. But all and all I think I did good. Should I post the game for you to evaluate? I feel as if you've helped me a GREAT deal in my playing. And also; should I keep playing on Prince? Or move up to monarch? I'm not sure of any of this so... Thx in advance!

 

[lymond]

Prince is not a big step up from Noble, but I would get comfortable first. It sounds like you still need to get a few things down. Monarch really starts to ramp things up and AIs start with archers. It's really not that hard, but can be difficult if you are inexperienced.

AP is always something you have to be wary of. Always note what is going on with it as it can come back to bite you. Sounds like you were well on your way to winning...I assume space. As for AP, look at who owns, who runs it, and who their friends are. If you get the AP religion spread, spread it around your empire. The hammer bonus from religious buildings is very nice anyway, but it gives you more voting power. Abstain from Diplo Votes and the leader usually can't get the votes. However, look at the Members screen on the Victory menus to see what there chances are. Note if they have any vassals are strong friends that are not in the religion. Vassals are auto-votes and friends will vote for the leader, if not up for the win themselves (You have to be in the religion to qualify for Diplo victory vote...then it goes by population) If you think an AI will cheese his way to an AP diplo win, kill him or use diplo/bribes to get him/her in wars with their friends. Usually AP is never an issue for me.

Yep, the whole slider thing really throws off new players. It's misleading to think that you have to be at 100% all the time and certainly not feasible. (Wait to you hit the higher levels) What is more important is your beakers per turn, which is increase as your empire grows regardless of slider because of a) trade route commerce b)specialists c) more commerce in general d) wealth/research building. Definitely a good idea to build wealth at times to raise your slider to push out key techs. As your empire grows, you can start dedicating more hammer cities to building wealth as opposed to useless buildings. (Newer players always think that they have to build all the buildings and wonders). Later, you can learn about binary research.

Certainly post your games for review. Early the better. Another popular and effective option is to post a shadow/learner game. Start a new thread. Roll a standard settings map (leader does not matter). Post the start save and screenshot with thoughts about what you would like to achieve. Get feedback before playing each round of say 20 to 25 turns. Consolidate feedback and play turnset. Post new save and summary. Post your thoughts as well at that point, even if more experienced players may disagree. Keep to the short turnsets. Rinse/Repeat. This is the best way to learn outside reading strat articles an practicing. (Many folks will play along with you and post their own reports for you to compare) Also, play Noble's Club and some of the other forum games here and follow the other many shadow games going on in this forum all the time.

Lastly, keep practicing the whipping I mentioned above. You need to master it more and more as you move up levels.

 

[lymond]

...........

 

[mtr12]

Even if your micro sucks like mine does, you can get through Emperor by strategic thinking alone.

As I found out, that's not so true on Immortal.