Help A Noob - Game #1: Kublai Khan

[HamTard]

Okay, so I'm pretty bad at this game. I played Civ2 years ago and never won a single game, but it was always fun. For Civ4, I've won a few Noble games, cultural and time victory, but never won a Prince game before. I suck at warmongering and city placement, and suck even more at specializing, so I'm asking you guys for input.

I was inspired by Sisiutil's All Leaders Challenge. I've read through the first thread, and bits of the second, and although I do believe I learned from them. After reading his Monty thread, and learning what chopping is, Noble stopped being a very big challenge. I still find Prince too difficult for me though. I am doing better at warmongering early, but I think I still have too many builder tendancies and don't know which cities to raze and which to keep.

I am picking Kublai because he is Agg/Cre and I think that's a nice, albeit mismatched combination. I just want creative because I sometimes miss Stonehenge and it takes forever to get obelisks built in every new city. Aggressive because I want to learn how to warmonger, and the free promotion seems like it'll help with that.

Part 1: 4000 B.C.

The settings:



and



The start location:



What do you all think about where I should settle?

All I can tell right now is that I'm above the equator based on the resource icon pointer (something I learned from the ALC thread). That probably puts me near the top of my continent. I want to do an early war, so after maybe my 2nd or 3rd city, I'll attack someone if I have the metals. If I don't get Copper or Iron, it'll probably be a doomed game unless you guys are majorly helpful, because whenever I go the route of the builder, I do worse than when I try to warmonger.

The stone means I should be able to get Stonehenge or the Pyramids or both. What tech should I go first? Masonry? Mining then Bronze Working? Am I correct to think the little river between where my Settler is standing, and where the Stone is, means if I settle in place and build a Quarry I won't need to connect them with road to get the stone working? I really hope there are more resources beyond those forests surrounding me.

For production, should I start with something like a Barracks so my population can grow to 2 before I get a Worker? Or should I go right for a worker since I could potentionally get Masonry and the Stone hooked up early, allowing me to go for Pyramids super early? I find that when I get too many wonders and religions early on and ignore military, and my score gets to the top, most of the AIs will declare war and cripple or destroy me. Is going for wonders at population 1 what gets me into that mess?

The starting spot doesn't look very juicy. Not a lot of hills, no flood plains, and no other visible resources. At least it is on a coast, but the coastal tiles show no resources so that is actually a bummer. Is this a bad starting spot? I would assume that coast is worse than plains or grasslands because you can't improve coast unless there is a resource (which I don't have).

I would appreciate any input you have to give me. Thank you in advance.

 

[JoeBlade]

What do you all think about where I should settle?

My gut feeling: settle on the spot. Moving further east would add a hill (good) but also 2 ocean tiles (bad).
If you want to be sure, move the scout 1 tile southwest (so just south of your settler) before founding your capital and see what it reveals. You can still move around first then.

All I can tell right now is that I'm above the equator based on the resource icon pointer (something I learned from the ALC thread). That probably puts me near the top of my continent. I want to do an early war, so after maybe my 2nd or 3rd city, I'll attack someone if I have the metals. If I don't get Copper or Iron, it'll probably be a doomed game unless you guys are majorly helpful, because whenever I go the route of the builder, I do worse than when I try to warmonger.

First a somewhat off-topic question: if you're fond of warmongering, why did you pick continents? Chances are you'll find yourself alone or with only one neighbour; not much war to be had there I'd say. Pangaean would be a better choice for a war-heavy scenario.

Anyhow, back on topic. Starts without metals can be hard indeed, but if you can secure horses you should still be ok though you'll need to research Horseback Riding ASAP... bit of shame since it's a "dead-end" tech, but HA's are so much better than archers. To boot, the Mongolian UU - the Keshik - is HA-based.

The stone means I should be able to get Stonehenge or the Pyramids or both.

I'd forget about Stonehenge. Kublai's Creative so you don't need SH for the culture yield. Since he's not Philosophical the great prophet points wouldn't be worth all that much to him either.
In fact, I tend to forget about religion alltogether with a leader such as Kublai: if all goes well you'll be conquering plenty of cities and those are bound to have religious precense.

Pyramids is a different matter; that one's always interesting. However, I generally only pursue that path if I either have stone+industrious or stone+major hammer city. Going by the image I doubt your capital will become a great production spot. I'm not the best of fog gazers but by the looks of the edges I doubt you'll even have a single hill within your fat cross (unless you don't settle on the spot, of course)
Assuming my fog reading isn't completely off the mark I would only aim for pyramids if you can secure a very hammer-rich second or third city. As always, make sure it also has enough food to work those hammers; hills alone are pointless.
The drawback would be that you'd need at least ANOTHER city to produce units then as the pyramid city will be preoccupied for quite a while. In other words: your second and third (or maybe fourth) city should both be decent production spots. That's an unlikely scenario in my experience, but you could get lucky on this one.

What tech should I go first? Masonry? Mining then Bronze Working? Am I correct to think the little river between where my Settler is standing, and where the Stone is, means if I settle in place and build a Quarry I won't need to connect them with road to get the stone working? I really hope there are more resources beyond those forests surrounding me.

You're right about the stone/river/city connection; roads will not be needed to hook it up. Masonry off the bat is not a good idea. Your city will not be able to effectively produce pyramids or other wonders for quite some time, those things require huge hammer injections. Focus on establishing 2-3 more cities and improving their tiles first.
BW would be a safe bet, esp. since you apparently have (at least) 5 forests in your fat cross. However, you don't start with mining so that's a rather long tech path.
I'd advise settling first regardless and seeing what is revealed. Depending on the resources either Farming or Animal Husbandry may become far more interesting.

For production, should I start with something like a Barracks so my population can grow to 2 before I get a Worker? Or should I go right for a worker since I could potentionally get Masonry and the Stone hooked up early, allowing me to go for Pyramids super early? I find that when I get too many wonders and religions early on and ignore military, and my score gets to the top, most of the AIs will declare war and cripple or destroy me. Is going for wonders at population 1 what gets me into that mess?

A worker right away doesn't seem all that useful. As Kublai I generally build an extra scout and maybe a warrior, or two warriors and only then move on to my first worker. The early scouting and the goodie huts that come with it usually pays off. That's just me though...

The starting spot doesn't look very juicy. Not a lot of hills, no flood plains, and no other visible resources. At least it is on a coast, but the coastal tiles show no resources so that is actually a bummer. Is this a bad starting spot? I would assume that coast is worse than plains or grasslands because you can't improve coast unless there is a resource (which I don't have).

Don't despair: there are 6 more tiles yet to be revealed and those could hold 2 or 3 resources for all you know. And even if your capital isn't all that hot your 2nd and 3rd city could very well be. By the look of things I reckon your capital could become a decent commerce city; I've certainly seen a lot worse than this start.

 

[pigswill]

IMHO If you're winning regular on noble and moving up to prince you ain't a noob.
In terms of starting position I tend to trust the blue circles in terms of nabbing resources. You got two choices for resources, where you are or 2 tiles E. You're on a river so I'd say where you are is likely best.
In terms of techs it depends on what resources you have immediately available. Initial build comes down to preference. I'd go for worker and research resource tech first (assuming one available) to kickstart city. Others would say scout first for early recon/hut-popping. No single right answer on that issue.
Pyramids is certainly a tempting wonder but strongly advisable to have a settler first or you'll be stuck building pyramids and not expanding and fall behind very early on.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

I am picking Kublai because he is Agg/Cre and I think that's a nice, albeit mismatched combination. I just want creative because I sometimes miss Stonehenge and it takes forever to get obelisks built in every new city. Aggressive because I want to learn how to warmonger, and the free promotion seems like it'll help with that.

I recommend Asoka for learning how to warmonger. Spiritual lets you swap civics around without slowing down, Organized keeps your costs down, the lack of a military uber unit gives you a clean picture of war in all ages. Essentially, it clears away all the dross, and lets you concentrate on the fighting.

But Kublai is a fine choice.

What do you all think about where I should settle?

Wrong question. Which way should you move the scout, so that it gives you more information about where you should settle?

If I don't get Copper or Iron, it'll probably be a doomed game....

Umm....

What tech should I go first? Masonry? Mining then Bronze Working?

Um....

For production, should I start with something like a Barracks so my population can grow to 2 before I get a Worker?

OK stop. There are four things you should be looking at when you start, and right now you are missing half of them

• Your traits
• The surrounding terrain
• Your starting techs
• Your unique unit

So review the starting techs. Wheel is pretty plain - you can hook things up if they aren't on the river, and you never have to worry about running out of things for your worker to do, because you can always build another road. But it really doesn't influence your opening very much.

Hunting sucks, to put it bluntly. It's a dead end corner of the tech tree, and camps aren't particularly good improvements; when deer and furs appear, they are usually on terrain you would rather avoid. It's hardly ever worth going back to get this tech; if you can use it to balance out a trade, fine, other wise I ignore it.... Oh, and it let's you build scouts, which are basically useless....

Except in the opening. If you get the scouts out fast, you can beat the AI to all the goodie huts, and get a good map of your continent before cultural borders start blocking your access to things. This is really the only value hunting has in the opening, so you really need a good reason not to take advantage of it. Off soapbox.

The unique unit of the Mongols is the Keshik (a horse archer substitute). Horse archers live right dead center of that corner of the tech tree Hunting opens up (Archery+Horseback Riding+horses). The wheel fits in with this idea beautifully, as (a) it allows you to hook up the horses as soon as you can see them, and (b) horses + wheels = chariots, which are a nice fast anti barb unit (also handy for stealing workers from your neighbors), especially when they are running along roads.

So it's not lack of copper or iron that would doom this game, but rather lack of horses, and wide open spaces to use them (doom here means "turn into a generic game, rather than a mongol game).

My feeling is that Animal Husbandry should be a big priority - not necessarily before your first worker comes out, but for sure before you start training your first settler. If you have pigs in your fat cross, I definitely jump on it.

If you were Genghis, it might make sense to try for an early Stonehenge, but playing Kublai I would probably ignore it, planning to research Masonry after Judaism is founded (it's cheaper to research the tech when someone else already has it), then worry about the pyramids (on the other hand, if you are war mongering, it's probably a better plan to capture the pyramids).

In terms of the initial opening moves, I would be temped by the possibility of settling on the stone. So my first play would be to run the scout up the hill to the east, to see what tiles I would gain by moving over. If those tiles are junk, I would settle in place, but if they look tempting I might dodge the settler southwest, to see what I would be giving up, then found the city on the next turn (either in the original position, or on the rocks). You are playing epic, so relatively speaking it does cost much to wait a turn before you get cozy.

 

[futurehermit]

i love playing kublai and feel his traits aren't mismatched at all. great combo for domination...only problem is lacking some $$.

when i play kublai the *only* ancient techs i research are: mining, bronze, agriculture, pottery, anhusbandry, archery, and writing. the only exception is fishing if i start with a fish-heavy capital. i wouldn't say you have that. since you have stone in your capital (why do i never get that when i play a non-creative civ, lol?) you may want to consider masonry when it's cheap.

i usually open with mining-archery-bronze-anhusb-ag-pottery while building 2nd scout-archer-worker-worker-settler-worker-settler. secure 2 cities, first one with copper, second one with horses (ideal). meanwhile your two scouts should have the map nicely explored, hopefully popping some of your techs from goodyhuts (warriors are ok too so you don't have to build additional archers right away). they will also have scouted out who is closest to you, and who will likely be victim of your axerush.

axerush: i usually go as low as 10% science with kublai while expanding my empire and then eventually work my way back up to 70%. i build libraries in my cities and rely on some cottages and scientists to keep my units from striking and my research at least slowly growing. suing for tech helps you not fall *too* far behind in tech. once you have the largest empire on your continent, and you make it back to 70% science with the most powerful army, you should be able to clear your continent and be ready to invade the next one.

the nice thing about keshiks is that they justify getting archery early and then you can build archers instead of warriors early on.

tip: don't forget to research alphabet after writing so that you can sue for tech after you take 2-3 of your first opponent's cities (try to get 2 techs at a time if you can).

tip: after you sue for peace with one civ, be prepared to launch an assault on your 2nd closest neighbour. try and make sure that there is at least one other civ on the continent that you can be friends with so you have one trading/war partner and not everyone hates you. for this reason i like to do custom continents with 2 continents so that you don't end up isolated or with only 1-2 other civs.

 

[HamTard]

Part 2: 4000 B.C. to 1750 B.C.

Well I moved my Scout below my Settler's starting position and saw Bananas so I figured I'd just settle on the spot. After settling, it revealed I had Cows too, but no hills. Does that mean I should make it a commerce city?



My scout found an area nearby with lots of hills and resources that looks like it could be my second city, or at least a backfill city later on.



Oh yes, I'm not alone! I was afraid of what JoeBlade said about how I could be alone on a continent and that would ruin my plan of warmongering. In my experience, Huayna Capac and I generally don't get along, and he usually falls behind the other AIs over time.



Here's another spot near my capital with a river and rich with resources. Does the tile on the right of the Scout on the hill count as being on the river? That spot would net 5 resources so if it is also a river spot then I would probably settle there in the future, or keep the city that Huayna Capac builds in that area. What do you guys think, is that a good or bad spot?



Another AI, and the continent I'm on looks to be pretty huge, spanning from above to below the equator. Peter is someone who's score is usually beating mine, as it is right now, so I might have to attack him first.



Okay, Animal Husbandry finished so I can work my Cows and look for Horses, and lucky me, the horses appear in the spot I was thinking would be a nice production city for my 2nd city. The spot diagonal to the Clams would make it an ocean city correct? If so, would that be the best spot to settle? It would let me get 2 health resources, Elephants for production and Horses for my UU and production. If I took the spot left of that, then I would be on the river and get the Bananas, but that river doesn't connect to my capital and I wouldn't be on the coast. The spot on the hill beside the Horses would definately be on the coast, and get the inital production and defense boost, although I wouldn't be able to later mine that hill for the extra hammer.



What ever spot I end up settling in the area, I've got an archer in the general area to keep an eye on it and eventually guard the new city.



This is what my continent looks like at the moment. Huayna is south of me, and has the Wheat (you can tell by the resource pointer being his colour) and Peter looks to be further southwest because that's where I met his Scout, but I haven't seen his borders yet. The continent is pretty big so there could be another AI in the far west, or maybe 2 of them.



Just to note, my first Scout found 2 gold huts and got a free Scout before a Bear mauled him to death. The free Scout died some time after that, and the Scout I made is wandering over to the west.

For tech, I started with The Wheel and Hunting and went Mining, Animal Husbandry, Bronze Working, and now Agriculture (for the Corn on the second city location I want). What's interesting to note is I haven't seen any Copper anywhere yet, definately not near me, but that doesn't mean Huayna and Peter don't have it deeper into their territory. I am thinking I should get Iron Working after Agriculture (or that I should've started Iron Working first, if I switch do I lose progress on Agriculture?) to figure out if I need to rush to Horseback Riding for my UU or if I can use Axemen. I have no religions, but Buddism and Hinduism have been founded. No wonders have been built, and I'm not horribly behind in score already so I guess my starting moves weren't too bad, but I suspect I could've done better.

My building went, Scout, Barracks, Worker, Archer, Archer, now Settler. I know that I probably should've waited on the Barracks, but I hate making units with 0 experience. Did going with the Barracks set me back? At the very least, it let my city grow to population 2 before I started my worker, and Barbarians haven't attacked my city yet but I do have an Archer with Garrison in my capital.

Let me know what you think about what I've done so far, and what I should do next. Thanks for the input.

 

[futurehermit]

i would settle where the bear is in the one pic.

also, how do you do the cool map that shows all the resources (i.e., get the resource arrows to show up)? that would be some handy info to know.

thx.

 

[JoeBlade]

Wow, just... wow on the resources I count multiple 4+ resource city spots in there and it's not as though you'll have to fight to settle them either (at least not for quite some time)
I'm usually happy when I get any cities with such amounts after I've revealed all types. I'm beginning to think the map generator's broken on my CIV here.

Not having copper revealed doesn't come as a surprise; in many of my games the stuff's even more rare than aluminium or marble.
I'm more concerned about the lack of horses. Fortunately, you do have a some close by; I'd recommend settling there sooner rather than later. Even if you don't plan on building Keshiks (though that would be a real shame) you'll still want some about by the time you discover Guilds (for knights) and later Military Tradition (= Cavalry)
You've also got Ivory there, which will enable War Elephants with Construction. I quite like those, they're pretty powerful in the - admittedly relatively short - timeframe before Macemen.

I'd definitely go IW next. Not only will it reveal Iron, which you very much need to make up for lack of copper, but it'll also allow you to chop down all that jungle.
You'll want to pick up pottery and fishing too. I think calendar should be a priority with all those resources about. Also, you'll be close to Construction and Currency in the tech-tree...

The spot your archer's at in the image looks rather sweet and could make a decent production site: 3 hills, cows (+2hammers /w pasture) horse (+3h /w pasture) and Ivory (+2h /w camp). It has plenty of food as well. Heck, it'd be great for anything I reckon, except a GP farm maybe.

I think you should be able to settle at least 3-4 more cities quietly before the other civs begin to interfere; I suggest you focus your effort on that for now. Early war seems unlikely anyhow: you don't have copper and the closest neighbour (HC) is quiet a stroll away.
I can't discern hills from flat tiles in the image but the Sugar/Dye area and the Gems cluster sure look yummy resource-wise. I'd try to settle near the Pigs and Rice too at some point, since there aren't all that many types of health resources readily available.

One more thing: since you started in the upper right corner of the continent you may want to move your capital in the not-too-distant future. Kublai's neither Financial or Organised so the shift would make a welcome early boost to your expansion finances.

 

[Araqiel]

Joe most of those spots seem to be in jungle. I've noticed that the map often makes jungles full of goodies, you just need to commit a lot of worker turns to those cities.

 

[JoeBlade]

also, how do you do the cool map that shows all the resources (i.e., get the resource arrows to show up)? that would be some handy info to know.

Click on the "reveal resources" (or whatever it's called) icon when zoomed out: it's the question mark in a circle thingy; the rightmost one on the icon bar.
It's the same icon as in non-zoomed view in fact, though you have to activate them separately for some strange reason. They tend to "override" one-another as well

 

[futurehermit]

eggzellent, thk you

 

[HamTard]

Part 3: 1750 B.C. to 500 A.D.

My trusty Scout wandered into Isabella, so this is probably the largest continent.



Huayna wasn't happy being at the bottom of the scoreboard so it appears he founded 2 new cities almost at once. One of them is the city I was going to build, so it looks like I'm taking it from him. The 2 cities he founded appear to be an attempt to box me into the corner as well, so I will have to kill him before his production and research bonus allows him to choke me.



Sweet, Iron near the capital. Axemen on the way. As you can see, I was just about to finish my 3rd Settler to take the Sugar and Dye area, but Huayna beat me to it.



As soon as my first Settler came out (before the one you see being produced), he headed for the production city southeast with the Horse. The city is already getting started, and the resources are all hooked up.



Many turns later, my stack of Axemen take out the crappier city. In hindsite, I probably should have kept that city since it had 5 resources but at the time I was just worried about the gold drain. I'll likely resettle there when the Incans are no more.



The second city I hit was the Sugar and Dye commerce town and I kept it. As you can see, I have a few Chariots. They were made during the time before the Iron getting hooked up, when I ran out of buildings to make. Yes, that is a serious problem, my tech is lagging heavily behind and I have nothing but units to build. My choice of Horseback Riding for the duration of the war was a bad one, I should've worked my way closer to Calender and Code of Laws instead.



Muahaha! After regrouping and healing, my stack made it's way to the Incan capital. The Axemen were quite experienced now and Huayna was probably crapping his pants as he fled.



I kept his capital since it had a large population and was quite developed, and it allows me to better seal off my empire from wandering Settlers. It only has 2 resources and 1 flood plain, so I guess none of the starting locations were as good as the spots in the jungle.



Since I had the Stone hooked up, and had more than an adequate number of Axemen being pumped out for my war, my capital spent it's time working on the Pyramids. I hadn't done any serious chopping before this, so I had plenty of forests around the capital when I decided to pursue this, and it paid off.



Huayna managed to run off and found one last city, but I wasn't about to let him survive to fight another day.



Burn baby burn!



Meanwhile, I remembered my sleeping 2nd Settler I built, and moved him over to the attractive Gem site. A river city, with 3 Gems, 1 Sugar, and 1 Banana should make a good commerce city.

 

[HamTard]

After a few turns of road building and tile improving, this is where I stand:

My first 2 cities are pretty well developed and there are tons of connecting roads.



My 2 captured cities are very well connected although there is still a lot of developing to do.



My newly founded city is alone and completely undeveloped. With Horseback Riding complete, I made a few Keshiks since I have no buildings to make in my first 2 cities.



I'm top of the Power chart it seems, but I doubt that will last long since my military tech is likely already behind.




I don't remember the exact number, but I captured at least 4 Workers during the war so tile improvement should go smoothly.

Due to poorly choosing to research Horseback Riding during the war, I have a lack of things to build in my first 2 cities, and I still don't have Calender to make use of my Sugar/Dye city and all the Bananas spread around my empire. I'm heading in that direction now by getting Mathematics, but my research is getting really slow and I'm bleeding gold pretty bad.

Usually my first war never goes this smoothly and I usually do a poor job of it. I usually have to take a break because I run out of men, usually because I start too late and don't make enough men. Due to pacing my play instead of rushing to finish a game, and knowing that my actions would be evaluated on this board, I think I put in a lot more thought than I normally would, and got to consider input from others to help me along. I was also lucky to be blessed with Iron and 2 inital cities that were pretty strong in production. Huayna had no metal within his grasp, except for the Iron that he didn't get a chance to mine in the city that I razed first.

With Huayna defeated in one swoop, and a gaping hole in my coin purse, this is where I need help the most. I find I always fall into a builder mode after my first war, no matter how it ended, and get stuck in that mode until I fall horribly behind all the AIs and get boxed in. I also forget to make more men or make updated men, so my power rating tends to drop to the bottom as well. What should I do to stem the gold drain until I can get either Code of Laws or Calender? Which should come first?

I'm thinking I need a lot of cottages, and that I should raze the 2 Barbarian cities that are on the edge of my empire for a cash infusion. The problem is that I'm still losing too much gold per turn and my research is horrible as a result. I'm already last in tech and if I take too long to recover, my armies will be outdated and useless. I also don't have Alphabet, so I can't extort any techs from my next victim (Peter, since he's score leader and I don't even know where Isabella is yet). With my research so slow, what can I do?

Also, another major problem I am running into which will get worse very soon is that I have very few buildings I can build. As a result, soon all my cities will be able to do nothing but make excessive armies of Axemen and Keshiks, which will only worsen my gold drain. How do I solve this problem? Should I move most of my soldiers towards Peter after razing out the 2 Barbarian towns, and raze 1 or 2 of his cities to slow him down and burn off soldiers? I'm beginning to think that keeping the Incan capital could've been a mistake, since it has the fewest resources of all my cities and is the 2nd furthest away from my capital. I probably also should've waited a few turns before founding that Gem city. I am thinking that maybe I could move my Palace to the more central Sugar/Dye city, but right now it has horrible production so that could take forever.

Anyways, any input would be great, thanks.

 

[jayron32]

After a few turns of road building and tile improving, this is where I stand:

With my research so slow, what can I do?

Also, another major problem I am running into which will get worse very soon is that I have very few buildings I can build. As a result, soon all my cities will be able to do nothing but make excessive armies of Axemen and Keshiks, which will only worsen my gold drain. How do I solve this problem? Should I move most of my soldiers towards Peter after razing out the 2 Barbarian towns, and raze 1 or 2 of his cities to slow him down and burn off soldiers? I'm beginning to think that keeping the Incan capital could've been a mistake, since it has the fewest resources of all my cities and is the 2nd furthest away from my capital. I probably also should've waited a few turns before founding that Gem city. I am thinking that maybe I could move my Palace to the more central Sugar/Dye city, but right now it has horrible production so that could take forever.

Anyways, any input would be great, thanks.

Well, I say stay at war and keep cranking out troops until you research some good building techs. I would head straight for 1) literature then education and 2) currency then banking. This will improve both your money and research problems. But until you get those, keep fighting. Just raze the cities. You don't need the extra maintenance cost right now. If you can eliminate the rest of your continent, leave a few troops around as Fog of War busters, and sit tight, expanding slowly via settlers once you get into a better financial situation.

 

[cabert]

nice start

Just a few questions : don't you have pottery?
If you do, where are your cottages?????
YOU MUST COTTAGE ALL THOSE JUNGLES!

Do you have Alphabet?
Did you trade techs yet?
Did you build libraries?
If you did, it's time to go for a Great Scientist.

My (military) guess is to jump on isabella. You've got plenty troops. Don't be shy...
I always jump on Isabella Isn't she cute?
Seriously, she buddhist, and you share indhouism with Peter. It's a no brainer!
Can you bribe Peter to go after her?

 

[cabert]

a few more hints :
- you have jumbos! that's a cry for more wars (need construction though)
- what are your current civics? i hope representation is in... (like i said time to build up a Great scientist or 2)
- do you know fishing/sailing? it's about time you find your other rivals, before they do. Maybe Isabella can learn it to you before she dies

 

[futurehermit]

if you're ahead in power and behind in tech you should be running the war machine, suing for tech, and trying to establish a nice sized empire. then you can go peace for awhile and build your infrastructure up until you hit 70% science. at that point you should begin to zoom past your opponents...

 

[Jarrod32]

The previous posts are right, in that you do need to keep the war machine moving. However, you do also need a bit of a breather to get your economy back under control.

In my opinion, you are correct in moving toward calendar...the bananas and sugar will give you a lot of food, which will allow you to run specialists. Get libraries built so you can run science specialists with representation to get your research up a bit. The dye will add commerce which will help this effort as well.

Some cottages will help as well, but you have a lot of food, so you could run a specialist based economy...at least for a while, particularly once you get to calendar...

That city next to all the sugar...I would make that my science city. With all that food, you can support a lot of science specialists.

With a library, eventually a university, and a handful of science specialists - along with the extra commerce from the dye - this can be a strong science city. You may be more focused on war, but in another style of play adding Oxford to that city, I could envision a 250+ beaker per turn science city there.

I've got another question, though...you have a bunch of axemen with the 'shock' promotion. Why not another City Raider promotion, or 'cover'? Most defenders are archers, and the axemen already have a bonus against melee units...

 

[cabert]

The previous posts are right, in that you do need to keep the war machine moving. However, you do also need a bit of a breather to get your economy back under control.

razing isabella (keep the shrine city!!) is going to give you an economic boost!
in the same time, your workers can start cottaging all those jungles (and chopping the jungle on the bananas/sugars/dyes/... to make the plantations faster afterwards)

Of course, you need to connect your cities too. Are you sure you've got enough workers?
I'm sure Isabella has a few to offer you

In my opinion, you are correct in moving toward calendar...the bananas and sugar will give you a lot of food, which will allow you to run specialists. Get libraries built so you can run science specialists with representation to get your research up a bit. The dye will add commerce which will help this effort as well.
Some cottages will help as well, but you have a lot of food, so you could run a specialist based economy...at least for a while, particularly once you get to calendar...

since you don't have cottages yet, you MUST go on representation and have scientists everywhere.
Once you'll have a GS, make an academy and continue with scientists. A few more academies in your wanabe science cities can do you a lot of good. The great library would help a lot,the national epic also...
Already decided where your GP farm would be?
I suggest using the pyramid city for a start. Nothing better to build than a wall? How about some happiness source? a temple, a colloseum, ...
it's high time to connect the gems, most of your cities have happiness problems (representation can help for this too!)

My 2 cents : put scientist in your unhappy cities will help you to get to calendar faster, will give you the GS i speak about, and will keep your growth rate lower (no need to have idle citizens)

That city next to all the sugar...I would make that my science city. With all that food, you can support a lot of science specialists.

With a library, eventually a university, and a handful of science specialists - along with the extra commerce from the dye - this can be a strong science city. You may be more focused on war, but in another style of play adding Oxford to that city, I could envision a 250+ beaker per turn science city there.

a warmonger can use science too !

I've got another question, though...you have a bunch of axemen with the 'shock' promotion. Why not another City Raider promotion, or 'cover'? Most defenders are archers, and the axemen already have a bonus against melee units...

didn't notice at first, but it's so true!
all your axemen have the same unusefull shock promotion!
That's not doing any good!
If you need to have a no-brainer promotion, take combat I, II, III, IV but not shock! This will make your next conquests much harder

 

[HamTard]

Ya, my Axemen all start with Combat I, and I gave them mostly City Raider I, but I usually stuck in a Shock as well. I was concerned about Barbarian Axemen and Huayna having Copper, but after destroying him I know he didn't have any. Usually by the time I start the war, my opponent has at least a couple Axemen (I'm usually too slow), so I got used to getting Shock so my Axemen wouldn't die en route to their target cities.

I'm not sure Shock will make attacking Peter or Isabella any harder, since by the time I walk over there they will have Axemen around.

Everyone is saying hit Isabella, but I don't even know where she is yet. My last Scout died some time during my war with Huayna, but I guess I can make more.

As for nothing better to build than Walls, the cities building Walls have no other buildings available to be built, and I don't want to overdo units and worsen my gold bleed. My captured and new cities will have plenty to build still, but it's my first 2 with nothing to build that have the highest production.

The main problem with going to war again is that the remaining opponents are so far away and it would take forever for my troops to walk through all that jungle. That plus I only roughly know where Peter is, have no idea where Isabella is, and don't know what they have.

I don't have Construction yet, and I don't believe I have Alphabet. Mathematics looks like it will take forever but I need it to get to Calender. I figure I'm going to get some more Cottages up, mine the Gems, move my Palace and raze the Barbarian cities in the immediate future to save my research slider from sliding even further.

Right now, there is a giant buffer of neutral land between myself and the remaining AIs and if I only had the money, I could grab a ton of nice fertile land.

So for the next war (which has to be soon from what you are all saying) should I just go for the closer Peter or should I try to find Isabella? I would've thought that I should go after Peter because he is the continent leader and is a bigger threat, but maybe he also has a much better defense.

If I don't already have it, should I get Alphabet before Calender to extort some techs out of the AIs when I raze a city or two?

Thanks for the input.