Help! Am I Doomed to Stay at Noble Forever?

Arnesson

Warlord
Joined
Dec 26, 2005
Messages
158
Location
Kingston, ON Canada
In the Vanilla version, I had progressed past Prince and was about 50-50 at Monarch level. Then I installed Warlords. Played and won a few games at Noble and moved on to Prince. No matter what strategy I try (warmongering, SE, CE). I am usually competitive until about year 0, then I either watch my economy go down the toilet or get trounced by AI's (usually two declare war simultaneously). The attached are two examples of games that should be quite winnable, but I cannot seem to find the right way to achieve it. (There was a third example posted under a different thread earlier, but no one provided a solution that helped).
 

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The Mongol one looks pretty good. I don't know why the save is called Egypt.

I would peacefully expand to the east and grab that grassland. You have pryamids but great plains isn't too food heavy for the representation you're running. I'd stay with rep but build quite a few cottages on the grassland.

Hatty as you first victim, but I'd wait and go with maces or even grens. On Prince with cottages on all that grass you should be able to jump the AI one tech ahead.

Grab the iron and the furs for happiness. You could stay on 5 or 6 cities till it's time for war.
 
I took a quick look at your save of the mongols, and here are some observations:
- 3 cities for a total of 10 populations at almost 1 AD is not sufficient at all. You should prioritize more the economy techs (CoL and Currency, pottery if you go cottaging) and expand.
- Karakorum is not at all at its happy cap and is not growing. WTH? Bigger cities = more beakers/production/gold = better. Same for other cities, grow them both in size and in expansion (you can take a look at futurehermit's thread "horizontal and vertical expansion" aboutthis)
- It looks that you wanted to make from beshbalik your military city (iron, horses, river, hills... ok); then why build a library, and why run a scientist? A military city should pump units, not go to the science route
- Turfan looks really pathetic for a third city. A library will not be built before lots of time, you should build first a monument to get the special ressources and let it grow.
- You have stone nearby not hooked and built the great wall without it? Very dubious move
- You should exhange techs. You could have gotten a lot from it.
- You don't play your strength: you are Genghis, Aggressive and imperialist, you should both expand and go to war, and do nothing of this.
- your tech path: aggri ok (food special), AH ok (potential horses for UU), archery? You don't need archery at this moment, you just discovered horses. If it's for your UU, yuou have lots of time. Masonry? You hooked marble but could not use it at this moment, both in a city and for any construction, it's useless at this moment; Horseback riding why not if you want to prioritize your UU, but then go this way with everything! build units, not GW or library, build settlers, tech to economy to be able to keep cities! then BW, could have been much earlier for a production boost; pottery, but you didn't even built granaries at this moment nor built any usefull cottage, so you did not exploit it; writing ok if you want to scout ennemy territory, and go the alphabet/CoL route. Alphabet ok, but you did not even exploit it. Or actually, perhaps you exploited it, but it was 300 years after!

Basically, you lack focus. It really seems you don't have any plan which goes with your strengths. And also, you did not expand enough; you should have at least one more city right now (if not more) and much more population.
 
Your not specializing your cities well, your stagnating your cities when they have more population to grow, your science slider is to high if your running science specialists, you should have twice as many cities (especially considering your imperialistic), with that said it doesn't look like your playing to your leader/civs strengths at all, it looks like your in builder mode with one of the most aggressive leaders in the game, your expanding into the desert instead of into the grassland/hills, you have no open borders and no trade routes, and you should have three times as many units if not more.


.. and it looks like your duplicating buildings in different cities, you only need to put barracks/gers in production cities and libraries in commerce/science cities, granaries are mostly for whipping, I'll let you slide on the libraries since your running representation but I would of tech'd Code of Laws or used an oracle slingshot since you have marble and paired it up with caste system.

I'd say you should of been raping people with those Keshik but no one is really that close so.. you get off on that one too, but I may of done it just for the pillage, free gold is free gold.

:thumbsup:



.... and I hate the location of your stone city.


You asked.. :mischief: ... but I'm not expert.


Wait!.... one more.. why aren't you cottaging your capital? it's covered in farms and your stagnating it at the same time? In order to take advantage of bureaucracy you should be cottaging it or looking to move it somewhere else.

Ok.. done
 
By way of explanation: I normally make my Capital my Science city/GP Farm, hence the farms surrounding it. The GW was built to deal with the waves of Barbarians coming from the East. They have FOUR! cities back there pumping them out. Plus of course, the odd one or two wandering in from the other three directions every now and again. I gambled on the GW without stone to try to counter that, in the meantime populating my cities with Archers to defend them. When they send 3 Warriors or 2 Archers at a time, you pretty much have to have your own Archers there or lose the city. Later in that game I actually had a party of 3 Swordsmen come after a city outside the wall! Horsemen took care of that, but it took 4 of them (one backed off after suffering 2/3 damage). The same logic applies to why I haven't settled 6 cities instead of the three. Too busy building defensive units to find the time for Settlers and Workers. I built the Library in the other towns to compensate for my slider dropping drastically as my economy went into the toilet.

Perhaps what I should do is start over, forget about Science (Libraries and the GL) and just concentrate on Axes and Horses, then go pound on somebody while churning out Workers and Settlers to expand my empire, although I still think I'll need those Archers in my towns to defend them from the Barbars.
 
i don't like looking for my warlords cd.. heh

seriously just play to your leaders strengths. the reason you 'should' of built the great wall is because it has a good synergy with the imperialistic trait not for barbs.. units are better at that and you don't need archers really.. you should be killing them with a more aggressive unit so they don't get to pillage your land, but archers would be ok if you were gonna beeline to horseback riding but trying to take cities with just keshik is a bad idea, keshik pillage, harass, steal workers, grab any settlers etc. etc. let your aeman take cities, and when you get swords transition those in with a few shock aeman.

making your capital a gp farm is a no no, unless you move your capital to another location down the line.. your just throwing away a plus fifty percent commerce and hammer bonus.. makes no sense at all.

triple your units and double your cities and your good to go lol... and specialize your cities more.

... ok i grabbed my warlords cd again but i'm very upset about it

i took a look at the shaka game and as a shaka player myself i'm very upset with you lol ;)

once again your building the pyramids and without stone, your also building the temple of artemis.. your playing shaka.. you need to switch to a industrious leader and i think you'll do much better, you'll be able to play the style you seem to enjoy and you'll be getting an etra something like 600 more hammers for your start that is a lot of units,settlers,workers.

unlike the mongols you don't get to slide on the archery.. i see no reason for you to nab archery as shaka, none.

you should of grabbed copper before iron, meaning, there is a copper source near your location and you didn't grab it and instead wen't straight to iron working.. makes no sense, granted the copper is in a horrible location but sometimes you drop cities just to grab the resource, the only reason i'd grab iron working before i had a copper source hooked up is if there were jungles around my capital or i had no copper in the area..

you have no cottages going at all and again your capital is farmed up the wazoo :nono: you have absolutely no cottages at all, not even a city that would be capable of really running any, how do you epect to keep your economy going and your tech rate up..

again.. you have absolutely no units.. you should have like 6 times that many lol you could afford them if you put down some cottages ;)

you have barracks in every city again, it's ok bc of zulu ub but i don't think you quite need them in every city right now with such a small size, you also have barracks in every city but your not even utilizing them by producing units.. what is the point of building them if your not gonna pump out units.. just wasting hammers you could of put to something more useful.

there is a gold by your location that you haven't tapped at all.. one gold mine produces as much gold as your palace.. thats eight free gold coins, in the early stages of the game that is huuuuuuge, that can half your research time, with the added fact you have no cottages i can see why your economy is crashing lol

i think you should play as inca and leave your workers to auto

you need to build more cities, if your research isn't under 60 percent in the early game you can afford another.. well thats how i do it, i won't go under 60

you need to build massively more units.. like waaaaaaaaaay waaaaaaaay more units, this will keep the computer from attacking you and.. you just need that many more anyway.

your not cottaging your tiles... your not gonna be able to support research, cities, or units without commerce.

your not using the terrain well, if you see a gold mine.. grab it

do a little research into your leaders.. if your playing an aggressive, epansive leader do some looking in the pedia and think about how to best leverage those traits.. that is your edge over the other ais, use it well.

don't build wonders you don't need, unless it fits into your strategy for winning and try not to build them if you don't have the strategic resource available or are industrious.

stop farming your capital unless your going to move it or replace the farms with cottages once you hit your happy cap.

build more workers.. atleast twice as many, you can even stack them and make them one unit to double or triple there work times.

if i'm playing shaka i've usually killed someone by now ;) lol

don't take offense to anyone of my posting, i'm just kinda like that hehe

i do think inca would be a good leader for you, he's industrious so you can keep building your wonders and it'll be ok and he's financial so it'll help your economy.. also i'm not sure if the workers cottage spam in warlords (they do in bts) but if they do just leave them on auto for awhile.

if you want to keep using archers (which i highly recommend against) at least use qin shi huan or what not, hes protective so atleast they will get some free promotions and he's industrious so your saving 50 percent more hammers to spend on workers, settlers, military instead of just wasting it.

i also think you should stop building a bunch of wonders..

but i love you and sorry if i came off blunt.. also my keyboard is broke so that's why my post looks like i did it in crayola
 
(as a side note, I hope you forgive me to be frank with you, but i think it's for the best)

If I remember correctly your Genghis game, there was not one near except a poor egyptian. Considering he was far away, I see two options that you could have taken:
- let them be, but expand like crazy (you have lots of space)
- harass them

I would prefer the first option. But even if it's not war, I don't consider this as not playing your strength: Sure, you don't get great general points, but you exploir the other side of imperialistic, and can still go to war after. And in a way, you can still exploit the agressive trait: you can fight barbs, and you have good units to defend your cities. Finally, Keshiks are great for this option: they are not great city busters, but really good harassers/defenders. Against barbs at this time, they perform really great.

I also looked at your Shaka save and have other comments than those which have been said:
- 3 cities, size 6/3/3, by 525BC; better than before, but still not good.
- Wonder building: both wonders are a mistake. Pyramids because they are veeeery expensive and you have no stone, no industrious and no great engineer, and temple because I'm sure you only built it because you had marble. This is not a good reason, and you should have one.
- 20 beakers at 525 BC is really low; get pottery, get libraries ! get the science rolling!
- Military: what can I say more? With any warmongering AI near you, I feel you would already have been attacked, and this would have been bad (pyramids make really bad defenders)
- Founding hindhuism: Actually why not, but then play it! try to get a prophet, get missionaries to convert your neighbours! Don't let it be without doing anything. Otherwise, the beakers are wasted.
- on the improvements: this is really, really bad... On one hand, you have tons of useless irrigation in your capital. On the other hand, the two other cities are unimproved. At the beginning of the game, you should as much as you can ONLY work improved tiles. If you can't, that means you don't have enough workers (and this would be a shame for an expansive leader) (checked again: two woekrs. Not enough, consider at least one per city). But don't fall into the trap of building too much also. I forgot to check if you had enough here, but what I'm sure about is that you did not improve well. let's take a look:
* capital: useless irrigation; elephants just improved?? Pigs NOT IMPROVED ??? Pigs are one of the best tiles you can dream of at the beginning of the game (always with a +4 food surplus). Not improving it is really bad.
* second city: Cow not improved?? Cows are really good two, providing both food and production, you should have improved it ASAP. iron not worked? Because you don't have food obviously, but this is bad. Also, by improving the pig in the capital, you could have given the corn to the second city, thus allowing it to grow. This city seems really late also.
* third city: founded to gran calendar ressources it seems. Considering you will not have calendar before lots of time, that you do not fear that someone else would take the spot, and finally that you don't have any food to support the growth, this is a bad idea. You have plenty of better spots around, with food and good ressources (and Gold!)
- critical point the tech path... I assume by the date that you got mysticism from a hut but no other tech. Please correct me if it's not the case.
* myst: from hut, ok
* fishing: you will not be able to build any workboat before at least your second city; useless, even if you have clam in your BFC.
* polytheism: dubious move, but why not, you got the religion. See above about the religion.
* Mining: Finally!
* Archery: in Prince level, you should research for better units than archers, basically horses and metals bassed units, not archers. Also, archers don't get agressive bonus. Useless.
* The wheel: without any critical ressource to hook up at this moment, useless (at this moment)
* Bronze Working: finally! But I'm not sure you exploited this tech
* Masonry: uh? Only for marble? Then see the followings
* Iron working: unlike the previous poster, considering that the copper was in a pretty crappy location and that you will face jungle, I don't consider that as a better move. But it could have been much sooner.
* Animal Husbandry: FINALLY ! You have pigs in your BFC, AH should have been the first tech to get; and you begin with agriculture and hunting, making it cheap . Moreover, you have exactly the right tech to improve the land around you, let's take that opportunity!
* Writing: Wants to go for alphabet? Why not, but considering that your tech rate is really bad, you should have either teched pottery for cottages, or built libraries to hire scientists, before going to alphabet.
- Final point: exploration. You know lots of your neighbours, but you don't really know how is the land around you. This knowledge is lacking, even more considering you have plenty of ressources around you, you want to know where your future cities will be.

Once again, lack of focus, lack of plan, lack of playing your strengths. All your decisions should be thought before you take them, particularly for teching and long term things like building wonders.
 
There is some great advice here, so I would just paraphrase and say that on Monarch level you need to be a lot more focussed than on lower levels. Always work towards specific objectives and don't do anything that does not directly contribute to that objective.
 
i dont know if i agree with founding a religion as shaka, i didn't even notice that, i'm not gonna load up my warlords again but from that last post i believe i read that's the case..

where as it's nice to have a religion trying to do so without a civ that starts with myst is another nono.. you cannot do that past noble.. it will not work, maybe prince.. maybe..

monarch you'll miss it everytime.. and i mean everytime, unless you have a commerce tile or something like that.. maya and inca are great for it.

but when you do found one.. with your myst leader ;) he's right that you should maybe grab priesthood and run a temple to pop a prophet for your first great person and then build a shrine, think about turning your holy city into a super commerce city type of deal, wall street would be nice to throw in there since it adds 100 percent gold.

that is wall street right.. lol:smoke: :smoke:

there was another bronze to the south east he could of grabbed, so... naaaa, shaka is my soul mate anything but an early aeman rush with a couple impi thrown in first to go pillage and cut off resources is wasting him.. his entire synergy is focused to early rushing and slavery..

you don't even need swordsman, and maceman can build with copper lol iron working is just a distraction unless you need knights or crossbows.. i don;t even remember the last time i used swordsman that weren't praetorians lol
 
(as a side note, I hope you forgive me to be frank with you, but i think it's for the best)

If I remember correctly your Genghis game, there was not one near except a poor egyptian. Considering he was far away, I see two options that you could have taken:
- let them be, but expand like crazy (you have lots of space)
- harass them

I would prefer the first option. But even if it's not war, I don't consider this as not playing your strength: Sure, you don't get great general points, but you exploir the other side of imperialistic, and can still go to war after. And in a way, you can still exploit the agressive trait: you can fight barbs, and you have good units to defend your cities. Finally, Keshiks are great for this option: they are not great city busters, but really good harassers/defenders. Against barbs at this time, they perform really great.

I also looked at your Shaka save and have other comments than those which have been said:
- 3 cities, size 6/3/3, by 525BC; better than before, but still not good.
- Wonder building: both wonders are a mistake. Pyramids because they are veeeery expensive and you have no stone, no industrious and no great engineer, and temple because I'm sure you only built it because you had marble. This is not a good reason, and you should have one.
- 20 beakers at 525 BC is really low; get pottery, get libraries ! get the science rolling!
- Military: what can I say more? With any warmongering AI near you, I feel you would already have been attacked, and this would have been bad (pyramids make really bad defenders)
- Founding hindhuism: Actually why not, but then play it! try to get a prophet, get missionaries to convert your neighbours! Don't let it be without doing anything. Otherwise, the beakers are wasted.
- on the improvements: this is really, really bad... On one hand, you have tons of useless irrigation in your capital. On the other hand, the two other cities are unimproved. At the beginning of the game, you should as much as you can ONLY work improved tiles. If you can't, that means you don't have enough workers (and this would be a shame for an expansive leader) (checked again: two woekrs. Not enough, consider at least one per city). But don't fall into the trap of building too much also. I forgot to check if you had enough here, but what I'm sure about is that you did not improve well. let's take a look:
* capital: useless irrigation; elephants just improved?? Pigs NOT IMPROVED ??? Pigs are one of the best tiles you can dream of at the beginning of the game (always with a +4 food surplus). Not improving it is really bad.
* second city: Cow not improved?? Cows are really good two, providing both food and production, you should have improved it ASAP. iron not worked? Because you don't have food obviously, but this is bad. Also, by improving the pig in the capital, you could have given the corn to the second city, thus allowing it to grow. This city seems really late also.
* third city: founded to gran calendar ressources it seems. Considering you will not have calendar before lots of time, that you do not fear that someone else would take the spot, and finally that you don't have any food to support the growth, this is a bad idea. You have plenty of better spots around, with food and good ressources (and Gold!)
- critical point the tech path... I assume by the date that you got mysticism from a hut but no other tech. Please correct me if it's not the case.
* myst: from hut, ok
* fishing: you will not be able to build any workboat before at least your second city; useless, even if you have clam in your BFC.
* polytheism: dubious move, but why not, you got the religion. See above about the religion.
* Mining: Finally!
* Archery: in Prince level, you should research for better units than archers, basically horses and metals bassed units, not archers. Also, archers don't get agressive bonus. Useless.
* The wheel: without any critical ressource to hook up at this moment, useless (at this moment)
* Bronze Working: finally! But I'm not sure you exploited this tech
* Masonry: uh? Only for marble? Then see the followings
* Iron working: unlike the previous poster, considering that the copper was in a pretty crappy location and that you will face jungle, I don't consider that as a better move. But it could have been much sooner.
* Animal Husbandry: FINALLY ! You have pigs in your BFC, AH should have been the first tech to get; and you begin with agriculture and hunting, making it cheap . Moreover, you have exactly the right tech to improve the land around you, let's take that opportunity!
* Writing: Wants to go for alphabet? Why not, but considering that your tech rate is really bad, you should have either teched pottery for cottages, or built libraries to hire scientists, before going to alphabet.
- Final point: exploration. You know lots of your neighbours, but you don't really know how is the land around you. This knowledge is lacking, even more considering you have plenty of ressources around you, you want to know where your future cities will be.

Once again, lack of focus, lack of plan, lack of playing your strengths. All your decisions should be thought before you take them, particularly for teching and long term things like building wonders.

1. Population of cities low due to whipping, both for production and to reduce red and green faces.

2. Third worker was nabbed by a Barbarian Archer several turns earlier.

3. Just finished AH recently, which is why the pigs hadn't been grabbed yet.

4. Mysticism and Fishing were both popped from huts. I elected to grab Poly as a result (postponing AH), to found the religion, as well as because it is the precursor to Literature (for the Great Library and it's 2 Scientists, useful to compensate for the drop in the slider that inevitably happens when my civ starts to expand.

5. I always research the Wheel early, so that I can link my cities in order to ensure that, once I have Horses/Bronze/Iron, it is available to all of them.

6. I usually research Masonry if either Marble or Stone is nearby, if not for building Wonders, just to gain the hammers that it provides.

7. Egypt is definitely too distant to attempt an invasion, at least in the near future. I see harassing tham as counter-productive.

8. Alphabet to get the necessary religious techs via trade that I need to build and dispatch Missionaries, along with anything else on offer (Sailing, etc.)

9. I had a Scout checking out the area close by my cities, but he got wasted by a Barbarian some 10-12 turns earlier.

I agree that a lack of clear focus is my biggest problem. I tend to look at placement of cities based primarily on the resources surrounding it. Generally I prioritise based on proximity to fresh water (health bonus), access to Copper/Iron/Horses, and a maximum number of improveable tiles (Farms, Cottages, Mines). Plains tiles yielding 1 food, will always get a farm (immediately if close to water, later if not). Grass and Wetlands always get cottages, except around my GP city. I normally use my Capital for that, as it has the most hammers, and therefore is most likely to be able to grab the GL before the AIs do. Once those key three are in place, I will settle anywhere that provides 2 or more resource tiles, regardless of what they are. If I cannot exploit them early, I know that they will be useful later in the game. Again, I build Archers exclusively for defensive purposes, until I have either Axes, Swords or Chariots to fill that role.

For my Production city, I have tended to look for a BFC with at least 5 hills that will yield 4+ hammers and 5 tiles that will yield at least 2 food (either Farms or Cottages). I generally spam Cottages around any city except my GP farm and Production city, but try to ensure that each tile produces 2 food so that growth is not inhibited.

Clearly some of my strategies (which seemed to work just fine at Noble level) are no longer applicable with Prince. I just need to figure out which ones require change!
 
3. Just finished AH recently, which is why the pigs hadn't been grabbed yet.
This is a bad reason for the pigs actually. As I said, you should have researched AH much much earlier :)


4. Mysticism and Fishing were both popped from huts. I elected to grab Poly as a result (postponing AH), to found the religion, as well as because it is the precursor to Literature (for the Great Library and it's 2 Scientists, useful to compensate for the drop in the slider that inevitably happens when my civ starts to expand.
My bad for fishin. Poly is still a dubious move, and even if you make it, you should exploit it, which you did not do.
As for the GL, thinking of it as a way to up the science when the science slider goes down is a bad idea. After all, a simple libary can do almost the same for a much cheaper price, and so allow you to build more settlrs and units for more cities and more libaries in a way. Also, Pottery, Currency and CoL are better for the sake of expanding.

5. I always research the Wheel early, so that I can link my cities in order to ensure that, once I have Horses/Bronze/Iron, it is available to all of them.
Always researching early is bad. Always researching it when you need it is better. Needs some planning, but it's much better :)

6. I usually research Masonry if either Marble or Stone is nearby, if not for building Wonders, just to gain the hammers that it provides.
As noted, I did not really comment the discovery of masonry, but its discovery before much more important techs.

7. Egypt is definitely too distant to attempt an invasion, at least in the near future. I see harassing tham as counter-productive.
Yep, me too. But this could be an interesting alternative with fast keshiks :)

9. I had a Scout checking out the area close by my cities, but he got wasted by a Barbarian some 10-12 turns earlier.
Speaking for my case, I usually send the first warrior and at least, if not two, other scouts (I mean, lots of warrior scouts) later. In your case, why not having built another one? :rolleyes:

Good luck with prince. And Try to forget all about "I always do this". Knowing how to adapt and to choose the best decision instead of always doing the same is a great step in a CIVers life (which I did not completed I must say :mischief: ).
 
I was chastised by someone (forget who) for building libraries in production or commerce cities, so I stopped doing it in favour of the GL instead. So maybe that paradigm hs to be modified. Started a new game, same settings. This time I have closer neighbours. Founded 2 cities, raced to Iron Working and AH (both resources were easilt accessible). Built a stack of Swords and Numidian Cavalry and went to visit Mansa Musa. Took three cities from him before settling for a peace treaty (no Feudalism so couldn't make him a vassal, which would have been a good thing). Then took a couple of Barbarian towns to teh north of my Capital. Getting ready next to hammer Toku from Khazak. As you can see, I am way behind on research, since taking these cities has dropped my slider down into a range of 10-30 for the past 5 centuries. I don't expect to win this time, since eventually Louis or one of the other three will hit me with much more advanced units.
 

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Well, it seems I'm your chief advisor, so I will comment this one too :p

I took random notes as they were coming:
10 cities is good; pop 8-9 on average is less good, could be better.
You have happiness problems: you could trade for ressources with Capac; and you could have switched to Hereditary rule or representation since 1200 years! (capture of the pyramids)
you're at your health limit; in a food poor region of the world like this, this looks not good.
Cottaging plains is ok if you have food surplus, which lacks here. Irrigating plains is almost useless pre-biology.
You built every building everywhere; you need more to specialize your cities.
Tech is really bad at the present time... let's see this later.
Why go to war with Mansa? He was weak and did not have anything exceptionnal except the pyramids. With an almost-at-the-top power, you could have invaded to the east, to green land. Just look, the top 3 on the score board are all on the east, wonder why? Because it's green.
Your tech path:
Archery is still not necessary. considering that your UU is horse based, you should have gone straigth to AH and built chariot for defense. Also, AH would have helped a lot the growth of your capital.
HBR in 1920 BC is dubious (expensive) but understandable. But in this case, why not having exploited your UU straigth away?
No research between 725 BC and 500 AC? Are you kidding? No wonder why you are so far below actually; I don't know what you did, but you tanked your research for 1200 years, and this is one of the biggest mistake you could ever make.
Drama for exchange? No problem, but in this case check your foreign advisor, it's still useful.
Won't comment on the rest

Basically, once again, you lacked of a plan. In this precise case, you decided to invade. Understandable, because your land is really poor. But in this case, you badly chose your target... The east would have been a much netter plan imho. I don't know a lot about great plains strategies, but this seems the must to me in the current situation.
I think you could have:
- cottaged your capital to sustain expansion
- found 2 or 3 cities to pump units (Cows are great for this)
- expanded to the east
- get back your economy on its feet

I think your main chance here is to tech to maces as fast as possible and go to knock down some super powers to the east. You have a really big army, and this can make a big difference; but maces and longbows will be hard to overcome with only swords and cats... (even if cats are still great)
 
You are right! Focus is my main issue, and what is holding me back. Perhaps the game is just too complex for my poor, old brain to grasp the nuances that are required to succeed at the higher levels. For example, I tend to not apply a Civic automatically when it pops, but hold off until I can review how it will affect my current position. Then I forget to go back and implement it. thtrough the early part of the game. I tend to use Slavery to whip whenever I see red and/or green faces appear, which keeps my population down. I also turn on "Stop Growth" to control that, then forget to check back and toggle it back as often as I should. As previously mentioned, I usually employ my capital as my GP Farm, since that seems to the fastest track to developing the buildings and wonders that spawn them. I look for a spot that has 4-5 mineable hills to be my Unit Production city and a tile surrounded by green to cottage-up and be my Commerce city. The rest tend to be primarily resource-based or strategic (defence or cultural expansion). I build Libraries in all of my cities for the Science boost; Barracks and Stables in all of them so that they can build their own units for defence as well as contributing to my offensive strength; Markets, Banks, Grocers in all of them to help boost my economy (and keep the slider above zero!). I never seem to be able to manipulate Diplomacy the way that it is described in the threads I read here. Either they won't trade (or declare war on another AI) or they want more than I am prepared to offer. If I have th4e opportunity to found Himduism, I grab it, then try to pick up Priesthood so that I can send out Missionaries and convert the more powerful AI's. Trouble is that usually they end up founding a later Religion and convert, so I lose that advantage.

I almost always tend to be competitive until Renaissance, at which point my slider has dropped to between 0 and 30. The leaders the pull away and I find myself 5 or 6 techs behind before too long, and vulnerable to much more powerful units. Hard to fight Riflemen with Maces, Cavalry with Knights, Cannons with Cats, etc. There was one game where I managed to stay competitive right up until around 1300 AD. Then three AI's declared war on me (no Vassals either), two on one turn, a third on the next turn. I could have managed against any one of them, but the three together made it impossible to defend against them.

In this particular game, I went after Mansa Musa because (1) he was right next door (2) he always seems to out-tech me) and (3) because all of the threads I read seem to emphasise that warmongering early and often is the road to victory. I hadn't even managed to explore the "green pastures" to the east when I declared war on him. By the time I found those better regions, it was too late to challenge Louis, Freddy or Ceasar as they were too strongly entrenched (according to the Power graph).
 
I almost always tend to be competitive until Renaissance, at which point my slider has dropped to between 0 and 30.

I don't know what's going wrong for you, but I tend to play around Noble, and it's rare my science slider ever drops below 70% with a positive GPT (And that's WITH me building up Espionage points at around 20-30% in BTS, too)

I can't see Monarch being that much more impossible that you need to drop to 30% or below just to maintain positive GPT, so either you're stockpiling too much gold, or you've got a problem with infrastructure.

'course, I'm a Noble player, and I'm also something of a noob, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.
 
Yes, you are doomed to stay at Noble forever. DOOOOOOOOMMMMEEEEDD.

Ok, sorry. Just had to get that out of my system. That was fun.

On a serious note, there's no doom involved actually. You're getting good advice here. Just resist the urge to click rapidly through the early turns, or select your next tech for anything less than a well-considered reason. Work improved tiles, prioritize food in the early going, and deal with the financial problems of expanding by making courthouses and markets. Also, once it's an option, trade some extra resources for gold-per-turn instead of just other resources (esp. if you already have enough health or happiness). And when you notice that your trading partner has an extra 1 or 2 gold per turn sitting around, cancel the deal you have with him and then immediately renegotiate it so you get those 1-2 in addition to the amount you were getting previously. An early Great Prophet can help your monetary situation immensely too, whether you make a shrine with him (be sure to spread that religion a lot if you do) or settle him (5 gold per turn).
 
Yes, you are doomed to stay at Noble forever. DOOOOOOOOMMMMEEEEDD.

Ok, sorry. Just had to get that out of my system. That was fun.

On a serious note, there's no doom involved actually. You're getting good advice here. Just resist the urge to click rapidly through the early turns, or select your next tech for anything less than a well-considered reason. Work improved tiles, prioritize food in the early going, and deal with the financial problems of expanding by making courthouses and markets. Also, once it's an option, trade some extra resources for gold-per-turn instead of just other resources (esp. if you already have enough health or happiness). And when you notice that your trading partner has an extra 1 or 2 gold per turn sitting around, cancel the deal you have with him and then immediately renegotiate it so you get those 1-2 in addition to the amount you were getting previously. An early Great Prophet can help your monetary situation immensely too, whether you make a shrine with him (be sure to spread that religion a lot if you do) or settle him (5 gold per turn).

In my most recent game, I actually ended up founding 3 religions (Incas: Hinduism and Confucianism via research and then popped a GS for Taoism. My capital ended up with 8 priests, plus I had built all three shrines. I stayed with Hinduism since three AI's had converted to that religion. I prioritised farms for my capital and 2 largest cities, hung onto at least two forests for each, and cottaged up the other 5. Kept the slider around 70% until around 1400, and had at least a half-dozen units in each city (no Archers!). I was running 4th, about 300 behind Churchill, and on good terms with he and Roosevelt (the two leaders) but the Chinese were "cautious". Then the Aztecs declared war. I fended them off, razing one of their cities in the process (too far away and too badly resourced to be of any use to me). Decided that I had better build up my forces a bit, and watched the slider slowly drop to 50, then 40. I had Courthouses and Markets in every city. I had few extra resources for trade, so couldn't raise cash that way. Tried to sell techs to Hattie and Toku who were at the bottom of the board, but they weren't too flush with cash either. Then the Chinese decided that I was a prime target and they, along with their vassal (I forget who) wiped me out. Where did I go wrong? I have no idea. I was careful with my Civics, tried to specialise my cities to maximise their potential, and still ended up far behind (by the time the war with the Aztecs was over, I had dropped to 6th). Things just deteriorated from that point onwards, This time I did, at least, manage to get to the stage where I had Cavalry and Cannons, but that was far too weak to defend against Marines, SAMs and Artillery.
 
I don't know what's going wrong for you, but I tend to play around Noble, and it's rare my science slider ever drops below 70% with a positive GPT (And that's WITH me building up Espionage points at around 20-30% in BTS, too)

I can't see Monarch being that much more impossible that you need to drop to 30% or below just to maintain positive GPT, so either you're stockpiling too much gold, or you've got a problem with infrastructure.

'course, I'm a Noble player, and I'm also something of a noob, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

At Noble level. I can keep my slider around 70-80 until I have enough Scientists on board that I can safely drop it down into the 30-40 range without losing any research points (Great Library, University of Sankore, Oxford University and National Epic all in the one city, plus their Academy and 2 or 3 that I have recruited rather than pop for tech points). I NEVER go for Golden Ages, preferring to employ my Great People to either obtain tech, build wonders (GE) or improve the performance of my cities. I win pretty consistently at Noble, regardless of which leader I select (so long as I don't end up isolated).
 
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