Having trouble with emperor

[Doctor Doom]

Hi I was wondering if I could have some help with Emperor.

I've only won a single game on emperor, a Sv as the Shoshone in less than acceptable time... I normally go for a science or diplomatic victory seeing as how I'm a more peaceful player. I've won on domination before (as Zulu and Spain) so I'm not awful at war but its not my strong suit! I normally bulb every GS after the first one so I can keep up the tech lead.

I normally open with Scout, worker (till pottery), shrine, finish the worker, settler, settler library. Then I move caravans or cargo ships to my other cities to send food to my capital.

Then in my 2nd and 3rd city Granary, library, then I build 3 archers as garrisons.

I try to take a worker or 2 from a near by CS.

I always try to build the NC as fast as possible at the most T90-100

Most of the time I beeline to science techs and use my spy to get the techs I missed or for city state allies.

I find I get unhappy at a lightning pace thanks to my massive growth so I'm constantly trying to fight it.

I go freedom unless I'm going domination then I go for autocracy

I try to get started on rationalism asap but most of the time point my 2 extra points into commerce.

I sign as many RA's as I can but its difficult to be friends with everyone

I try get as many GS points as possible while trying to avoid GE and GS

What can do to speed up my game or help me get by?


Thanks so much!

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Settle scientists until public schools. Take order for science victory, worker's faculties will give you more science than new deal. The growth from civil society is not a significant source of science, or growth for that matter.

 

[Doctor Doom]

Settle scientists until public schools. Take order for science victory, worker's faculties will give you more science than new deal. The growth from civil society is not a significant source of science, or growth for that matter.

How long should it take for me to catch up with the AI?

 

[kb27787]

Why did you fail to mention CV? :-? I love CV...
Still I see some flaw in your opening... it's too slow (unless you opened liberty and not tradition)... the worker usually takes 18 turns at that point.
1) Granary in cap, before any expanding, always... extra food give extra hammers to settler production
2) steal the worker(s) from AI or CS, and only build one when you can build it in around 5-8 turns; you don't need 3 workers early game
3) finish NC at 2, maybe 3 cities, or even delay settling until the NC goes up (your satellites usually take 10-20+ turns for a library)... so NC is late, but in my games this is around t50-60 if I remain on one city. I build settlers while researching philosophy and escort them to their destinations (so that I can found them if an AI threatens to take the land) but I don't settle until NC is done.

Your capitol's unhappiness is reduced by half from tradition's SP so if possible, prioritize the capitol. Found only 3 cities (for SV try to get mountains for observatories) if you want to take freedom unless your start is great and you don't expect to feel ideological pressure. 3 cities, tall, suffer only maybe 20 happiness pts at most from revolutionary wave (worst case). Nevermind, this is not deity... on emperor go ahead and found 5+ cities... the AI will be the one taking the pressure unless you've completely neglected wonders/tourism.

Steal techs until lvl 3 spy and coup, coup, coup!

Civil society is great but only when your capitol is very tall (might make a 15-turn growth into a 7-turn one) and is working 20 specialists or so. If anything else, grow your capitol as much as you can by food caravans/ships.

Don't neglect faith even if you didn't found a religion... look for CS and gain control of them. They are the equivalent of 2-3 GPs.

But really, on emperor, you get by with anything, even opening honor/piety first. Just have fun.
On emperor I catch up by classical or at latest, medieval. Depends... I sometimes pull the great library off and the super-early NC allows me to catch up pretty much immediately.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Renaissance is the time I do it on emperor. By Atomic era it's not even fun any more.

 

[cpm4001]

I recently moved up to Emperor myself, so I may not be the absolute best adviser out there, but here are five tips:
1) Follow Tabernak's 3-City Tradition Opening guide: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=502837
It's a very well-planned and well-written guide that can be put to good use easily. I rarely have problems when using it.
2) Always assume your AI neighbor (yes, even your "nice" AI neighbor) will try to kill you with a forklift, and make sure you have at least some sort of army built up in preparation for that.
3) Settle scientists before Scientific Theory, for the reasons others have given.
4) Don't neglect your culture and tourism, or you'll get nailed with massive ideological issues come the late-game (which hurts. A lot.)
5) Don't try for early-game wonders, because you can't get them unless you neglect the rest of your infrastructure. Go and capture the wonders later if you want 'em...

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Nooooo, you settle them until public schools, save them until plastics, then bulb 8 turns after finishing all your research labs.

 

[cpm4001]

Nooooo, you settle them until public schools, save them until plastics, then bulb 8 turns after finishing all your research labs.

Mixed research labs and public schools up! Silly me!

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

Renaissance is the time I do it on emperor. By Atomic era it's not even fun any more.

Well then I hope you're not playing on Emperor anymore!

 

[Doctor Doom]

I heard that saving oxford for artillery is a good plan, is this true?

 

[anthropophage]

It is if you're going for a domination victory. If you're chasing a science victory it can be quite good in a number of places, bulbing Navigation to gain access to Observatories, grabbing radio to make a quick jump out of industrial to pump up your city state bonuses and get an extra spy, researching Plastics to speed up your access to Research Labs, or even saving it for the endgame and using it on Nano Technology or Particle Physics.

 

[Memoryjar]

Well then I hope you're not playing on Emperor anymore!

Damned, it means I have to move to Deity.

To Dr Doom : I don't understand how you can loose with this gameplay. Do you really loose or just bored after T330 / Information Era ?

I never win on Emperor before T300, except for actual GOTM. I don't yet win a game before T300 on Immortal, despite this I win 2 of 3 games (loose is always before Rennaissance when I didn't manage correctly my close neighboors).

Try 2 cities NC, after NC3 or 4 cities. Watch tommynt strats. He use to build army to have tribute from CS. Fast cash in early game. It doesn't really work in Immortal (or I'm a dumber) but looks pretty effective on Emperor and below. Harass your neighboors, steal them workers and settlers.
Look at Game of the month 74 and look the differences (with screen picture) between harassing close neighboor and not.

Don't play full peaceful. Conquer capital of AI leader, It helps a lot (Don't care about warmonger penality after Rennaissance).
Always crush Alex or manage AI to crush it. Spend money, lux, share intriguites for push AI to fight together.

Assume Immortal, and I think Deity strategies are not full effective in Emperor. AI is weaker. So don't bother about fast end (thinks I did). Win and go to Immortal/Deity, there is where you'll learn how to win faster.

 

[Doctor Doom]

Every game I've finished on emperor I've won the problem is I normally quit or forget about the game. but my problem is my victory time is always around t350-360 and I feel I could do a lot better.

 

[joshua43214]

I heard that saving oxford for artillery is a good plan, is this true?

Only for a domination arty rush. Oxford is more commonly used on Radio, Plastics, or Sats in SV's. Economically, Radio is what works best for me.

 

[Memoryjar]

Move to Immortal.

 

[Doctor Doom]

Is there a better build order I should try?

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Are you finishing rationalism to buy GS with faith? I'm not sure if this is true, but I remember reading somewhere the policy that boosts research agreements also affects GS bulb and Jade Hall bulbs.

 

[Doctor Doom]

Are you finishing rationalism to buy GS with faith? I'm not sure if this is true, but I remember reading somewhere the policy that boosts research agreements also affects GS bulb and Jade Hall bulbs.

really? I normally get 2 or 3 policies in rationalism before I grab my ideology. Should I wait before I start working to get a level 3 tenet?

 

[joshua43214]

really? I normally get 2 or 3 policies in rationalism before I grab my ideology. Should I wait before I start working to get a level 3 tenet?

1 to 3 policies into rationalism is typical before you get an ideology. I usually bulb a tier 2 tenet with a GW then go back to filling out rationalism, and bulb the finisher with another GW for something like Plastics or sats depending on worlds fair etc, and spend any "extra" policies in my ideology. Other folks just take their ideology and go right back to rationalism. In general, being able to faith buy 2 - 4 GS's around atomic theory for the upper tech tree is better than bulbing the lower tech tree.

For Deity, getting rationalism all done quickly is important - you want the boosted RA's and you want boosted universities. For Immortal and below - the boosted RA's will still only give 1 turn, so getting boosted universities is important and finisher can be delayed a short bit.

 

[civdiv]

3) Settle scientists before Plastics, for the reasons others have given.

What do you mean by settle, just leave the GS idle until plastics then use them up to get quick research?
Should we be building academies with them?
----

In my capital city I also have population 20, and about 10-12 empty specialist slots (I am working University and public school).
The others slots are for merchant/engineer/writer.

Should I still be filling these up on my capital no matter what?
I thought I should but it's difficult to find a balance and if I remove some worked tiles to fill a specialist slot instead my production or food takes a big hit.
On my other cities its the same problem, only have the science specialist slots being worked and loads of empty ones.

This is on prince but I found the discussion above interesting.