regeneration64
Warlord
EDIT: PLEASE SEE POST #35 as the OP only refers to my first game on Emperor (pre-G&K) which has already been discussed
As the thread title suggests, I am having trouble with the transition from King to Emperor.
I've found that Emperor is good in that it is the first difficulty level to offer a real challenge but I'm clearly making some mistakes and struggling to get off the ground.
Here's the story from my latest game (a save file is also attached):
Set-up info: England, Standard map and time, Continents Plus, 5 random AI.
I was on a large continent with the Inca as my neighbours and Persia not too far away. I started out as usual, taking Liberty and just having two cities taking a peaceful builder strategy and constructing a few wonders. After some exploration I decided that it was time to takeover my continent, starting with my closest neighbours, the Inca so I beelined for Iron Working.
The Inca's capital was not a challenge (even with the unfortune of only having two iron). However, my new neighbour, Persia, was expanding rapidly from the outset and I was becoming incresingly concerned of their presence as I was no match for them. I had a 'pretend' friendship with Darius but after they took out the rest of Pachacuti's cities I knew I was next. I upped my defences around Manchester (Pachacuti's old capital) but as you can see from the screenshot/save file there was no way I was going to be a match for Darius' military.
The DoW came (the save file is this turn) and I held out as long as I could. 3 turns was all it took to wipe out my units and take the city. I knew that Nottingham was next and wasn't worth defending and it was only a matter of time before London and York were taken too so I admitted defeat.
On reflection this is where I think I went wrong:
1. I was too slow to build up my defences. This is likely from being used to King where it is possible to adopt a peaceful builder strategy and defend against a few units that the AI throws at you.
2. I shouldn't have bothered with wonders at all and taken them from the AI later. Most games (again, on King) I am a wonder whore from the outset and it is only in the late industrial era where I build up a strong military for defence/waging war.
3. I should have targeted Darius first.
4. I should have concentrated on London and York (and perhaps settled a third city nearby) and not worried about my neighbours until they bothered me. I considered this but i am accutely aware that the longer you leave a problem (my neighbours in this case) the worse that problem gets and I didn't fancy getting bogged down in a war of attrition whilst Egpyt and Spain became runaways on the other continent.
5. Some bad luck as Darius clearly had some crazy bonuses to enable him to sustain that many cities and a military of that size! (Although I understand that the bonuses are a feature of Emperor).
I would have liked to have just beelined for ironworking from the outset and then straight onto Machinery but I am not content with being aggressive from Turn 1. Although this appears to be the only option in many game on Emperor. The best form of defence is offense as it were. My problem then would likely be money though as it is tough financing a large enough military as well as signing RAs and building buildings that cost GPT.
Any constructive advice would be most welcome.
EDIT: From the screenshot, my capital and York are to the north, Nottingham is to the North-West and Persia is to the West.
As the thread title suggests, I am having trouble with the transition from King to Emperor.
I've found that Emperor is good in that it is the first difficulty level to offer a real challenge but I'm clearly making some mistakes and struggling to get off the ground.
Here's the story from my latest game (a save file is also attached):
Set-up info: England, Standard map and time, Continents Plus, 5 random AI.
I was on a large continent with the Inca as my neighbours and Persia not too far away. I started out as usual, taking Liberty and just having two cities taking a peaceful builder strategy and constructing a few wonders. After some exploration I decided that it was time to takeover my continent, starting with my closest neighbours, the Inca so I beelined for Iron Working.
The Inca's capital was not a challenge (even with the unfortune of only having two iron). However, my new neighbour, Persia, was expanding rapidly from the outset and I was becoming incresingly concerned of their presence as I was no match for them. I had a 'pretend' friendship with Darius but after they took out the rest of Pachacuti's cities I knew I was next. I upped my defences around Manchester (Pachacuti's old capital) but as you can see from the screenshot/save file there was no way I was going to be a match for Darius' military.
The DoW came (the save file is this turn) and I held out as long as I could. 3 turns was all it took to wipe out my units and take the city. I knew that Nottingham was next and wasn't worth defending and it was only a matter of time before London and York were taken too so I admitted defeat.
On reflection this is where I think I went wrong:
1. I was too slow to build up my defences. This is likely from being used to King where it is possible to adopt a peaceful builder strategy and defend against a few units that the AI throws at you.
2. I shouldn't have bothered with wonders at all and taken them from the AI later. Most games (again, on King) I am a wonder whore from the outset and it is only in the late industrial era where I build up a strong military for defence/waging war.
3. I should have targeted Darius first.
4. I should have concentrated on London and York (and perhaps settled a third city nearby) and not worried about my neighbours until they bothered me. I considered this but i am accutely aware that the longer you leave a problem (my neighbours in this case) the worse that problem gets and I didn't fancy getting bogged down in a war of attrition whilst Egpyt and Spain became runaways on the other continent.
5. Some bad luck as Darius clearly had some crazy bonuses to enable him to sustain that many cities and a military of that size! (Although I understand that the bonuses are a feature of Emperor).
I would have liked to have just beelined for ironworking from the outset and then straight onto Machinery but I am not content with being aggressive from Turn 1. Although this appears to be the only option in many game on Emperor. The best form of defence is offense as it were. My problem then would likely be money though as it is tough financing a large enough military as well as signing RAs and building buildings that cost GPT.
Any constructive advice would be most welcome.
EDIT: From the screenshot, my capital and York are to the north, Nottingham is to the North-West and Persia is to the West.