Gabethebabe
Chieftain
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2010
- Messages
- 4
I´m quite new to this forum and would like to make my first contribution.
So I read a couple of OCC guides on winning by space race. Be sure to read them before reading this:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=158675
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=185305
I would like to provide a guide to OCC strategy winning by conquest.
Building wonders is cool, warring is cool, OCC is cool. So we´re gonna by like three little fonzies in this game.
LEADER:
Bismarck. Industrious & Expansive are two good OCC traits. Since we´re going to wonderwhore early game, more than recommended in other OCC strategies, it is my preferred leader. Of course Peter (Philosophical & Expansive) is pretty good a well.
DIFFICULTY
I have played this strategy on Monarch and Prince. Prince was really a cakewalk. Monarch wasn´t that hard. I haven´t tried Emperor or higher yet.
MAP
The map we play will be small. Play a map type that reduce the likelihood of being isolated or with just one AI. Like any OCC, lots of food and health resources is what you want. Since we are going to conquer the world, we need to be coastal, but with not too many water squares, because these are not really productive.
Marble or Stone in the BFC or just outside of the BFC is AWESOME. Happy resources are so-so. Reroll until your map is fit for the challenge.
GENERAL GAME PLAN:
Be friends with everyone, build lotsa wonders, win liberalism race, get Astronomy, abuse Privateers, start WW3 and smash AI to smithereens.
EARLY GAME - Build Wonders
We will start building a worker and X+1 workboats, depending on our amount of sea resources. One workboat is going to explore the world. With a little luck you can even prove the roundness of the world. We chop/whip a second worker and this will be enough workers for the entire game.
We improve our best food squares and beeline masonry and start building the pyramids. We help its construction by chopping, starting with everything outside the BFC.
Diplomatics: we be nice to all AIs and make friends everywhere and give in to their wishes and demands, if needed. Don´t worry, this will change. Check out the favorite civics of the AIs and be a smart diplomat.
The Pyramids start our wonder mongering, after that will follow Great Lighthouse, Temple of Artemis, Hanging Gardens, Great Library and more. See more details in the Wonder section.
MIDGAME - savagely outtech AI
Your tech rate is going to improve significantly when you get to Code of Laws (for Caste) and when you get to Education. So prioritize them.
You should win the liberalism race quite, quite easy. Education should be a top priority, for a University and Oxford. Grab Astronomy with Liberalism, tech to Chemistry and build a fleet of privateers.
Check out this thread to know how to handle Privateers.
Attack the strongest and most advanced opponent, which should still be quite some techs away from getting Privateers as well. Attack everything in sight with your privateers, while blocking trade routes. You want to generate a GG ASAP, so you can start producing 5xp armies and prepare for a war that is never going to stop until the last AI exhales its last breath.
LATE GAME - neverending WAR.
Try and attack the strongest AI with the best tech rate. They are the ones that will catch up with you the soonest. The earlier you take them out, the easier. When you declare, hit hard. Use Transports+Marines and Destroyers/Battleships for bombardments to take at least two of the biggest coastal cities in the first turn of the war. In wars on your continent get to their best cities first and don´t bother too much about their bad cities, even if they are close by. When you capture a city and move on, leave a couple of (wounded) units behind you can miss, to pillage (gaining you hundreds, if not thousands of gold), to heal and to protect the land from being settled again (barbarians may settle though, no problem with that).
TECHING
Research/beeline in the following order (more or less).
Early game:
Worker techs- Bronze Working-Mysticism-Masonry-Pottery-(Writing/Sailing in your preferred order, make sure you can start the Great Lighthouse directly after finishing the Pyramids)-Metal Casting-Mathematics - Literature
Midgame:
Compass (or later, if you do not need the health boost yet) -Drama-Code of Laws-Philosophy/Civil Service-Paper-Education-Machinery-Optics (you want to win the circumvention race)-Liberalism (pick Astronomy, make sure you have traded for Calendar)-Gunpowder-Chemistry
Get Biology ASAP and now research all relevant military techs. Steel for Cannons, Military Tradition (if you have Horses) for mounted units, Rifling for Rifles, Assembly line for Infantry, Industrialization for Marines, Combustion for Tanks, Artillery for Artillery. Make sure you pick up all the relevant Great Persons (GM for Economy, GS from Physics. GG from Fascism and GSpy from Communism are less important. It is more important to maintain at least one level, but preferably two tech levels of difference between your and AI military (your Rifles vs their Longbow, your Tanks/Marines vs their Rifles, etc).
If you do not have oil, beeline Industrialism first for Marines and beeline Plastics for Standard Ethanol (save a GS to found it) to get oil, while building land units.
The following techs are not high priority and only needed if they are on a beeline path. Try and trade for them, if possible:
Meditation, Iron Working, Monotheism, Priesthood, Horseback Riding (only if you have horses), Alphabet, Monarchy, Currency, Feudalism, Calendar, Construction, Engineering.
Techs that are not needed: Military Science, Theology, Divine Right. Constitution, Democracy, Flight. Add Military Tradition and Horseback Riding if you lack horses.
WONDERS
Pyramids - Great Lighthouse - Temple of Artemis - Hanging Gardens - Great Library are the first five in that order.
Parthenon - National Epic - Globe Theatre in more or less this order. Not having Marble means you might skip Parthenon.
Parthenon is not as bad as people think though. You will generate 7 in stead of 6 GPs with Bismarck (assuming Pacifism, National Epic) and 9 instead of 8 with Peter. That is an increase of 16.67 and 12.5% respectively and Parthenon will not increase the probability of generating a Great Artist by that much.
About the Oracle: I think it is less important than the Great Lighthouse/ToA combination and since the AI likes the Oracle, it is kind of risky to try for it, you might lose it and after that the Temple of Artemis as well.
Later in the game come the University of Sankore (not THAT important), followed by Oxford University (VERY important). Taj Mahal is dubious, maybe if you plan a civic change to Free Market and you have Marble. National Park is a no-brainer. Pentagon is worth it, if you are at a moment of peace. Three Gorges Dam is not worth it, better build a Hydroplant. There are no other wonders really interesting, because their effect is too small and/or they produce mostly GPP points that you do not want. Also they become available when you are warring and prefer to produce military units.
The fifth National wonder is up for debate. Globe Theater, National Epic, Oxford and National Park are obvious. If you have Iron, the fifth will be Ironworks. Without Iron you may go for West Point (since you will need to attach a GG to a unit, this wonder does not produce 4xp/unit, but 2xp/unit + 1 GG unit). Without Horses, West Point is probably not worth it, because Military Tradition will contribute few. Heroic Epic is not needed. Wall Street is unlikely to be needed. Red Cross is good, but comes too late probably. Moai Statues are not terrible, you can build them when you find out that Iron is lacking and they comes much earlier.
INFRASTRUCTURE
High priority: Barracks - Granary - Library/Lighthouse (in your preferred order) - Forge - Aqueduct - Harbor - Theatre - Monasteries - University -- Grocer.
Low priority: Courthouse, Market, Bank, Walls+Castle (for the trade route), Stable (obv only if you have Horses)
Do not build: Colosseum, Monument, Temples&Cathedrals (unless you have University of Sankore)
More improvements will come later in the game, these are rather obvious builds (Factory, Observatory, Levee, Industrial Park, Hydro Plant, Supermarket.
Don´t worry about espionage buildings - you will suck at espionage either way.
CIVICS
Slavery - Representation - Caste - Bureaucracy - Adopt State Religion - Pacifism is more or less the order to follow. I haven´t figured out what is better: first Philosophy or first Civil Service.
I have never bothered with Organized Religion, although theoretically it is interesting. Monotheism is not on my preferred tech path and it requires two revolutions to implement. It boosts my hammers from 125% to 150% (I have a Forge), equivalent to a 20% increase in production. Means it takes 10 turns to recuperate the hammers I lose during anarchy and we have not considered the research I lost in two turns.
Avoid Mercantilism. Free Market is useful, but Communism is unlikely to be useful. I doubt Free Market is worth the turn of anarchy, though.
Late-late game you might even consider Theocracy to produce 17xp units instead of 15 xp units.
GREAT PERSONS
Your first Great Scientist will build an Academy. The rest of the GPs will be settled. No rushing of techs or wonders, please. Contrary to what other people state, in this type of OCC Great Prophets and Merchants are not bad. They are a necessary evil to support/upgrade your army. Still, Great Scientists/Engineers are what you prefer. Great spies you will never generate. Great Artists kinda suck, but still 4 beakers under Representation.
If you have horses, Military Tradition is nice for mounted units, so in that case be sure to pick up the GA from Music. If you do not have Horses, picking up the GA can still be interesting to generate a Golden Age during which you can adopt a state religion, adopt Bureaucracy and Pacifism (start the GA right after researching Philosophy or Civil Service and research the other one during the Golden Age), saving you 2-3 turns of anarchy.
MICROMANAGAMENT
With only one city, you can micromanage. The OCC is the best type of game to start getting used to micromanagement, because you only have to pay attention to one city, two workers and a limited amount of units. If you do not micromanage well in an OCC, you will MM terrible in a normal game, meaning you will hardly ever move up in levels.
- There is no excuse for not working the best tiles or working unimproved tiles
- When starting an important build, see if replacing some Scientist Specialists for Engineers shaves off a turn and is worth the beakers.
- Workers are always doing something. Prechop a forest. Put a Fort on Oil/Wine/Calendar resource out of the BFC, but within cultural borders
- Whip when whipping anger has worn off. Growing to happy cap and staying there is pretty bad. As long as you are under Slavery, you must abuse it as much as possible. Only for infrastructure with overflow into wonders, "Never" finish a wonder with a whip.
- The most usual micro with workers is if you have to move two squares over flatland to a square that requires an improvement. In that case, move only one square, build a road/something else, cancel the build and the next turn move to the square that requires improvement and start improving it. This wins you a worker turn, because the game remembers the prebuilt improvement.
- When you are producing 1 unit/turn you can probably afford to replace mines with Windmills to gain food and commerce at the cost of production you hardly need.
CHOPPING/TERRAIN IMPROVEMENTS
Chop hard. Chop fast. Chop after Mathematics, if possible. Start chopping outside the BFC while you still can (when forests are within cultural borders of an AI, they are no longer choppable for you). Mainly chop for wonders, infrastructure should be mostly whipped.
Resources get their specific improvement, the rest will be mined and farmed. Not a single cottage. Late game Forest Preserves if you have forests left. Late game Windmills on hills. Workshops are unlikely to be necessary, Farms are better than Watermills. This is not a space race, where production is vital. You need just enough production to produce 1 military unit/turn.
In almost all OCC threads I see that it is recommended to maintain forests within your BFC for National Park. This is not required in an aggressive OCC game.
Forest on grassland: chop it, means early production and post biology 4F/turn (=2F+1specialist). Forest Preserve means 2F/1H + 1 specialist. At the cost of early game hammers, you win 1/2 health point and one hpt late game, when hammers are less relevant (you are pooping 1 unit - any unit - per turn anyway).
Forest on Plains: the same as Grassland. You win 1 hpt post biology preserving the forest.
Forests on hills: a forested hill is one hammer less than a mined hill. Until Biology, you lose a significant 1hpt and a chop for maintaining this forest, to win a specialist after National Park.
Note that for riverside squares, you also lose 1commerce per turn. Improved riverside squares generate 1cpt, while riverside forested squares do not.
If you can afford to keep some forests, it will be most likely be non-riverside plains forests, because these are the least productive tiles anyway and it will take time before you want to work them.
But don´t feel bad to chop all trees if you have to and you don´t really need their health boost.
One final note: don´t put roads on unimproved deforested squares. It increases the probability of a new forest to grow.
WHIPPING
See micromanagement. Whip ASAP after the anger from the previous whip has disappeared. Whip infrastructure and units.
TRADING
Trade techs as usual. Try to get 2-for-1. Avoid diplomatic consequences by trading to a worst enemy while you are still weak.
Resource trading: highest priority are Wheat, Corn and Rice. After that seafood. After that Banana. After that Cows, Sheep, Pig and Deer. After that Wine, Spice, Sugar.
Well, if you can trade for a strategic or building resource, by all means do so. But don´t depend on it, as during wartime you will lose the resource.
Trade resources to AIs for gold and diplomatic points. After getting Globe Theatre, trade away all happiness. After getting to National park, you are independent of health resources as well.
You can either keep them all for yourself, to not help the AI, or trade them away for cash.
RANDOMNESS
- If you do not know what to build in the early mid game, build armies and a couple of spies. You are going to be pretty bad in the spy points department and probably will be affected a couple of times by enemy spies. Keep at least 1 spy in your capital and perform counterespionage (if you have the EP to pay it) with surplus spies when needed. Maybe you are lucky and can revolt a city.
- When Privateering, consider not to pillage seafood that is being traded to you by your victim. You might lose 2health in your capital. Just block it from being worked.
You should end up with a city of at least size 30 and not less than 20 settled great persons (including GGenerals). Awesome city, lotsa specialists and wonders and smash your opponents with superior armies. What more do you want?
So I read a couple of OCC guides on winning by space race. Be sure to read them before reading this:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=158675
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=185305
I would like to provide a guide to OCC strategy winning by conquest.
Building wonders is cool, warring is cool, OCC is cool. So we´re gonna by like three little fonzies in this game.
LEADER:
Bismarck. Industrious & Expansive are two good OCC traits. Since we´re going to wonderwhore early game, more than recommended in other OCC strategies, it is my preferred leader. Of course Peter (Philosophical & Expansive) is pretty good a well.
DIFFICULTY
I have played this strategy on Monarch and Prince. Prince was really a cakewalk. Monarch wasn´t that hard. I haven´t tried Emperor or higher yet.
MAP
The map we play will be small. Play a map type that reduce the likelihood of being isolated or with just one AI. Like any OCC, lots of food and health resources is what you want. Since we are going to conquer the world, we need to be coastal, but with not too many water squares, because these are not really productive.
Marble or Stone in the BFC or just outside of the BFC is AWESOME. Happy resources are so-so. Reroll until your map is fit for the challenge.
GENERAL GAME PLAN:
Be friends with everyone, build lotsa wonders, win liberalism race, get Astronomy, abuse Privateers, start WW3 and smash AI to smithereens.
EARLY GAME - Build Wonders
We will start building a worker and X+1 workboats, depending on our amount of sea resources. One workboat is going to explore the world. With a little luck you can even prove the roundness of the world. We chop/whip a second worker and this will be enough workers for the entire game.
We improve our best food squares and beeline masonry and start building the pyramids. We help its construction by chopping, starting with everything outside the BFC.
Diplomatics: we be nice to all AIs and make friends everywhere and give in to their wishes and demands, if needed. Don´t worry, this will change. Check out the favorite civics of the AIs and be a smart diplomat.
The Pyramids start our wonder mongering, after that will follow Great Lighthouse, Temple of Artemis, Hanging Gardens, Great Library and more. See more details in the Wonder section.
MIDGAME - savagely outtech AI
Your tech rate is going to improve significantly when you get to Code of Laws (for Caste) and when you get to Education. So prioritize them.
You should win the liberalism race quite, quite easy. Education should be a top priority, for a University and Oxford. Grab Astronomy with Liberalism, tech to Chemistry and build a fleet of privateers.
Check out this thread to know how to handle Privateers.
Attack the strongest and most advanced opponent, which should still be quite some techs away from getting Privateers as well. Attack everything in sight with your privateers, while blocking trade routes. You want to generate a GG ASAP, so you can start producing 5xp armies and prepare for a war that is never going to stop until the last AI exhales its last breath.
LATE GAME - neverending WAR.
Try and attack the strongest AI with the best tech rate. They are the ones that will catch up with you the soonest. The earlier you take them out, the easier. When you declare, hit hard. Use Transports+Marines and Destroyers/Battleships for bombardments to take at least two of the biggest coastal cities in the first turn of the war. In wars on your continent get to their best cities first and don´t bother too much about their bad cities, even if they are close by. When you capture a city and move on, leave a couple of (wounded) units behind you can miss, to pillage (gaining you hundreds, if not thousands of gold), to heal and to protect the land from being settled again (barbarians may settle though, no problem with that).
TECHING
Research/beeline in the following order (more or less).
Early game:
Worker techs- Bronze Working-Mysticism-Masonry-Pottery-(Writing/Sailing in your preferred order, make sure you can start the Great Lighthouse directly after finishing the Pyramids)-Metal Casting-Mathematics - Literature
Midgame:
Compass (or later, if you do not need the health boost yet) -Drama-Code of Laws-Philosophy/Civil Service-Paper-Education-Machinery-Optics (you want to win the circumvention race)-Liberalism (pick Astronomy, make sure you have traded for Calendar)-Gunpowder-Chemistry
Get Biology ASAP and now research all relevant military techs. Steel for Cannons, Military Tradition (if you have Horses) for mounted units, Rifling for Rifles, Assembly line for Infantry, Industrialization for Marines, Combustion for Tanks, Artillery for Artillery. Make sure you pick up all the relevant Great Persons (GM for Economy, GS from Physics. GG from Fascism and GSpy from Communism are less important. It is more important to maintain at least one level, but preferably two tech levels of difference between your and AI military (your Rifles vs their Longbow, your Tanks/Marines vs their Rifles, etc).
If you do not have oil, beeline Industrialism first for Marines and beeline Plastics for Standard Ethanol (save a GS to found it) to get oil, while building land units.
The following techs are not high priority and only needed if they are on a beeline path. Try and trade for them, if possible:
Meditation, Iron Working, Monotheism, Priesthood, Horseback Riding (only if you have horses), Alphabet, Monarchy, Currency, Feudalism, Calendar, Construction, Engineering.
Techs that are not needed: Military Science, Theology, Divine Right. Constitution, Democracy, Flight. Add Military Tradition and Horseback Riding if you lack horses.
WONDERS
Pyramids - Great Lighthouse - Temple of Artemis - Hanging Gardens - Great Library are the first five in that order.
Parthenon - National Epic - Globe Theatre in more or less this order. Not having Marble means you might skip Parthenon.
Parthenon is not as bad as people think though. You will generate 7 in stead of 6 GPs with Bismarck (assuming Pacifism, National Epic) and 9 instead of 8 with Peter. That is an increase of 16.67 and 12.5% respectively and Parthenon will not increase the probability of generating a Great Artist by that much.
About the Oracle: I think it is less important than the Great Lighthouse/ToA combination and since the AI likes the Oracle, it is kind of risky to try for it, you might lose it and after that the Temple of Artemis as well.
Later in the game come the University of Sankore (not THAT important), followed by Oxford University (VERY important). Taj Mahal is dubious, maybe if you plan a civic change to Free Market and you have Marble. National Park is a no-brainer. Pentagon is worth it, if you are at a moment of peace. Three Gorges Dam is not worth it, better build a Hydroplant. There are no other wonders really interesting, because their effect is too small and/or they produce mostly GPP points that you do not want. Also they become available when you are warring and prefer to produce military units.
The fifth National wonder is up for debate. Globe Theater, National Epic, Oxford and National Park are obvious. If you have Iron, the fifth will be Ironworks. Without Iron you may go for West Point (since you will need to attach a GG to a unit, this wonder does not produce 4xp/unit, but 2xp/unit + 1 GG unit). Without Horses, West Point is probably not worth it, because Military Tradition will contribute few. Heroic Epic is not needed. Wall Street is unlikely to be needed. Red Cross is good, but comes too late probably. Moai Statues are not terrible, you can build them when you find out that Iron is lacking and they comes much earlier.
INFRASTRUCTURE
High priority: Barracks - Granary - Library/Lighthouse (in your preferred order) - Forge - Aqueduct - Harbor - Theatre - Monasteries - University -- Grocer.
Low priority: Courthouse, Market, Bank, Walls+Castle (for the trade route), Stable (obv only if you have Horses)
Do not build: Colosseum, Monument, Temples&Cathedrals (unless you have University of Sankore)
More improvements will come later in the game, these are rather obvious builds (Factory, Observatory, Levee, Industrial Park, Hydro Plant, Supermarket.
Don´t worry about espionage buildings - you will suck at espionage either way.
CIVICS
Slavery - Representation - Caste - Bureaucracy - Adopt State Religion - Pacifism is more or less the order to follow. I haven´t figured out what is better: first Philosophy or first Civil Service.
I have never bothered with Organized Religion, although theoretically it is interesting. Monotheism is not on my preferred tech path and it requires two revolutions to implement. It boosts my hammers from 125% to 150% (I have a Forge), equivalent to a 20% increase in production. Means it takes 10 turns to recuperate the hammers I lose during anarchy and we have not considered the research I lost in two turns.
Avoid Mercantilism. Free Market is useful, but Communism is unlikely to be useful. I doubt Free Market is worth the turn of anarchy, though.
Late-late game you might even consider Theocracy to produce 17xp units instead of 15 xp units.
GREAT PERSONS
Your first Great Scientist will build an Academy. The rest of the GPs will be settled. No rushing of techs or wonders, please. Contrary to what other people state, in this type of OCC Great Prophets and Merchants are not bad. They are a necessary evil to support/upgrade your army. Still, Great Scientists/Engineers are what you prefer. Great spies you will never generate. Great Artists kinda suck, but still 4 beakers under Representation.
If you have horses, Military Tradition is nice for mounted units, so in that case be sure to pick up the GA from Music. If you do not have Horses, picking up the GA can still be interesting to generate a Golden Age during which you can adopt a state religion, adopt Bureaucracy and Pacifism (start the GA right after researching Philosophy or Civil Service and research the other one during the Golden Age), saving you 2-3 turns of anarchy.
MICROMANAGAMENT
With only one city, you can micromanage. The OCC is the best type of game to start getting used to micromanagement, because you only have to pay attention to one city, two workers and a limited amount of units. If you do not micromanage well in an OCC, you will MM terrible in a normal game, meaning you will hardly ever move up in levels.
- There is no excuse for not working the best tiles or working unimproved tiles
- When starting an important build, see if replacing some Scientist Specialists for Engineers shaves off a turn and is worth the beakers.
- Workers are always doing something. Prechop a forest. Put a Fort on Oil/Wine/Calendar resource out of the BFC, but within cultural borders
- Whip when whipping anger has worn off. Growing to happy cap and staying there is pretty bad. As long as you are under Slavery, you must abuse it as much as possible. Only for infrastructure with overflow into wonders, "Never" finish a wonder with a whip.
- The most usual micro with workers is if you have to move two squares over flatland to a square that requires an improvement. In that case, move only one square, build a road/something else, cancel the build and the next turn move to the square that requires improvement and start improving it. This wins you a worker turn, because the game remembers the prebuilt improvement.
- When you are producing 1 unit/turn you can probably afford to replace mines with Windmills to gain food and commerce at the cost of production you hardly need.
CHOPPING/TERRAIN IMPROVEMENTS
Chop hard. Chop fast. Chop after Mathematics, if possible. Start chopping outside the BFC while you still can (when forests are within cultural borders of an AI, they are no longer choppable for you). Mainly chop for wonders, infrastructure should be mostly whipped.
Resources get their specific improvement, the rest will be mined and farmed. Not a single cottage. Late game Forest Preserves if you have forests left. Late game Windmills on hills. Workshops are unlikely to be necessary, Farms are better than Watermills. This is not a space race, where production is vital. You need just enough production to produce 1 military unit/turn.
In almost all OCC threads I see that it is recommended to maintain forests within your BFC for National Park. This is not required in an aggressive OCC game.
Forest on grassland: chop it, means early production and post biology 4F/turn (=2F+1specialist). Forest Preserve means 2F/1H + 1 specialist. At the cost of early game hammers, you win 1/2 health point and one hpt late game, when hammers are less relevant (you are pooping 1 unit - any unit - per turn anyway).
Forest on Plains: the same as Grassland. You win 1 hpt post biology preserving the forest.
Forests on hills: a forested hill is one hammer less than a mined hill. Until Biology, you lose a significant 1hpt and a chop for maintaining this forest, to win a specialist after National Park.
Note that for riverside squares, you also lose 1commerce per turn. Improved riverside squares generate 1cpt, while riverside forested squares do not.
If you can afford to keep some forests, it will be most likely be non-riverside plains forests, because these are the least productive tiles anyway and it will take time before you want to work them.
But don´t feel bad to chop all trees if you have to and you don´t really need their health boost.
One final note: don´t put roads on unimproved deforested squares. It increases the probability of a new forest to grow.
WHIPPING
See micromanagement. Whip ASAP after the anger from the previous whip has disappeared. Whip infrastructure and units.
TRADING
Trade techs as usual. Try to get 2-for-1. Avoid diplomatic consequences by trading to a worst enemy while you are still weak.
Resource trading: highest priority are Wheat, Corn and Rice. After that seafood. After that Banana. After that Cows, Sheep, Pig and Deer. After that Wine, Spice, Sugar.
Well, if you can trade for a strategic or building resource, by all means do so. But don´t depend on it, as during wartime you will lose the resource.
Trade resources to AIs for gold and diplomatic points. After getting Globe Theatre, trade away all happiness. After getting to National park, you are independent of health resources as well.
You can either keep them all for yourself, to not help the AI, or trade them away for cash.
RANDOMNESS
- If you do not know what to build in the early mid game, build armies and a couple of spies. You are going to be pretty bad in the spy points department and probably will be affected a couple of times by enemy spies. Keep at least 1 spy in your capital and perform counterespionage (if you have the EP to pay it) with surplus spies when needed. Maybe you are lucky and can revolt a city.
- When Privateering, consider not to pillage seafood that is being traded to you by your victim. You might lose 2health in your capital. Just block it from being worked.
You should end up with a city of at least size 30 and not less than 20 settled great persons (including GGenerals). Awesome city, lotsa specialists and wonders and smash your opponents with superior armies. What more do you want?
