Help beating emperor

[mjg5591]

Hi all,

I win 95% of the time on monarch, but have been struggling with emperor. So I figured I would post a game in hopes of improving my play. Advice is welcome by all players and levels.

The settings: Huts and events on

Spoiler :

The chosen leader is Washington. Starts with fishing and agriculture. His traits are expansive and charismatic. +2 health, 25% worker builds, double speeds for granary and harbors, +1 happy, -25% unit promotions and Extra happy person for monument and brodcast tower. My favorite leader because of these traits. Happy and healty people. Nice early vertical growth with the monuments.

Spoiler :

His UU is a navy seal. Replacement for the marine. On my monarch games I hardly built many due to game being finished. But looks like a nice unit for amphibious warfare late.

Spoiler :

His UB is the mall. Replacement for supermarket with 20% eextra gold. I like this building when i get to build it. Again on monarch games are over by this time.

Spoiler :

The start:

Spoiler :

2 Clams, 1 plains cow, and 3 hills. Also looks like coast in the fog to the west. I would settle in place but I am open to suggestions. WB>worker start? Start teching AH?

I don't mind if people shadow the game, but I ask you put in spoilers and don't go past the date I have played. I'll be playing game about every other night using the tips i get in this thread.

My weaknesses are city placement. I specialize them pretty well but placing them I mostly use the blue circles. I know this is not optimal. But once cities are down I can specialize them OK. My mid-game is weak also. After early rushes I generally don't war until rifles. Again not optimal but it works on monarch.

So hopefully we can enjoy a victory in the end.

Here is the save. I'm using Bug 4.0 if that matters.

 

[Gumbolt]

Warrior 1NW or 1N and if nothing better settle in place. Lots of plains around down south as far as i can see. 2 clams and cow seems good. The hills will be useful for production. lots of forest to chop too.

Make sure to explore around capital for good city sites and other AI.

 

[DaveMcW]

Plains cow is better than a clam.

So worker and Animal Husbandry first.

 

[kossin]

Settle in place.

Going WB>Worker could work if you plan the wb to finish as you grow to 2...
Work the fp 31 until border pop, then switch to plains hill 3 for 2 turns then switch to 12 tile.
Techs: hunting>AH>Mining>BW

But, being Washington and with 3 tile available, what Dave said is the best way to go.

 

[mjg5591]

Plains cow is better than a clam.

So worker and Animal Husbandry first.

I planned on starting AH. Since I have fishing. I forgot to mention it in OP. I'll edit it in.

 

[mjg5591]

Warrior 1NW or 1N and if nothing better settle in place. Lots of plains around down south as far as i can see. 2 clams and cow seems good. The hills will be useful for production. lots of forest to chop too.

Make sure to explore around capital for good city sites and other AI.

Ah scouting another semi weakness for me. Thanks.

 

[mjg5591]

Ok so I played the first round and it was short.

I moved Warrior N and found nothing so I settled in place. Started with worker and teching AH. Also popped the hut for 121 gold.

Exporing west to see if what I saw was coast. It wasn't was a lake. But found Izzy really close in 3800BC.

Buddhism is founded by Izzy in 3725BC.

AH is in 3525BC and found horses inside capital's BFC.

I stopped here for advice. Future rounds will not be this short. I plan on rushing with chariots (seems obvious). I started researching mining to go BW to chop and whip army. But could also go wheel to open chariots. I have no beakers in any tech yet.

Worker pops next turn and plan on pasturing cows then horses. I plan going WB next. But after that another WB or barracks for the rush?

Lands:

Found phants in between my and Izzy. Should I rush to get this spot? Will Izzy beat me there even if I try?

Any advice or ideas I haven't thought of let me know. Also should I put my game in spoiler tags so others can play along and not know the land?

Thanks Mike

Save @ 3525BC

 

[DaveMcW]

You need The Wheel next to give your worker something to do until BW.

 

[City Raider]

If you go chariot rush, I wouldn't build a second city. Maintence will kill you and there is a good chance Izzy will have at least 2 cities by the time you get there, she might even have a third. I think the AI usually has its second city by turn 45-50.

The Wheel now will also allow immediate chariot building as soon as you hook up your horses.

I'd probably go barracks right after the worker. Then all chariots, the first few can kill barbs and animals to get you another promotion, then you can blitz Izzy. I usually go with 10-12 units.

Another bonus is Madrid will be a nice shrine/wall street city for you.

Edit:

Didn't realize the seafood was there, a workboat before the barracks isn't a bad idea.
With the hammer heavy start (cow + horses) you can probably get out both WBs in a short period of time.

 

[Bruin.Bound]

Agreed, I also would ignore a second city, pump out those chariots and you should be in good shape. Hopefully, no one else is close and you'll be able to grab those flood plains there.. or better yet, maybe she'll build some nice cities for you there herself.

 

[KeloGBites]

Agreeing with the rest here, Chariot rush Izzy. I'd go with about..8-10, promote with Combat probably, Withdrawal I gives very little bonus, you could go 1/2 withdrawal 1/2 combat. Not an expert on Chariot rushes, tend to use Axes.

 

[dualmaster]

Definitely wheel next to connect horses, open chariots, and give your worker something to do. Then mining>bw for chops. Any extra worker turns can be spent building a road toward Izzie. I'd probably go wb>Rax>chariots next. Make your second city Izzie's capital. When she's gone you'll be able to settle the rather nice land around you.

 

[Gliese 581]

Get The Wheel, hook up the horses and then start roading toward Izzy after irrigating the FP, use your warrior to protect him. After TW mining bw for chops and mines, you should get a second worker after building a WB, then barracks and chariot spam. Don't use the whip except perhaps for last chariot as you lack food.

 

[mjg5591]

Thanks for all the reply's. Seems like all are in favour of going TW>min>BW. Only question is if I build worker after WB or just go to barracks then chariots.

 

[Gliese 581]

Thanks for all the reply's. Seems like all are in favour of going TW>min>BW. Only question is if I build worker after WB or just go to barracks then chariots.

I think you have time for a 2nd worker since it's on emperor and you can get some roads going toward Izzy which will speed up the invasion a bit and help connect the captured city(ies) immediately. Though that wont be hard with the river..

 

[mjg5591]

OK Played next round to 1650BC

Started teching like other's suggested TW>min>BW

After worker in capital I went WB>Barracks to size 2 then switched to worker, then finished barracks, built 9-10 chariots.

3500BC Meet Joao II

3375BC Hindu FIDL

3325BC Meet Hindu founder HC.

2875BC Meet AC. Forgot screenshot.

2650BC Izzy founds Barcelona.

2625BC Izzy founds Judism in Barcelona. Looks like I'll have 2 holy cities. Shame they both aren't in Madrid.

1775BC Finally got 9 Chariots to declare on Izzy mostly built and chopped. I whipped the last chariot to defend Washington.

1700BC I went straight for Madrid. Barcelona had 2 archer's on a hill. Madrid had 3 archer's 40% culture. I attacked and only lost 2 chariots. I used half flanking1 and half combat1.

1650BC REady to attack Barcelona. Has 2 archer's on 20% hill. I lose 5 of the 7 chariots I took. Lost few @ 90+ odds. But I take Barcelona with last 2 chariots. Izzy is no more.

Lands. Not much scouting as I lost war early to barb warrior. I used all but 1 chariot to attack Izzy.

Tech path after BW was Myst, Pottery, Writing, ? (need to decide)

Build order in Washington after chariots was monument, chariot (current gonna use for scouting) I have granary and library in build order also need to get 2nd workboat out for clams. As for Madrid and Barcelona I'm gonna whip monument when they come out of revolt. Both have granaries. Barcelona will have copper when i get border pop.

I need to scout. I need to find other civ's.

Need to figure what to research. Aest for trade? Alphabet? No one has it yet. Hunting? for ivory happiness. Sailing? for lighthouses. Maybe IW or HBR if find another civ close.

If I find another civ close do we rush again? Or maybe just try to expand and get economy up and running.

Advice is really welcome good and bad. My games start going down hill around late bc's and early ad's on emperor.

Thanks Mike

Save 1650BC

 

[Gliese 581]

Good going on the rush, you're really unlucky to have HC with another early religion for neighbour or you could have converted them to your religion.
I think it's a good time to expand, you've got some great land to settle, I would concentrate on cottages for the FP region (get a city there) and claiming the gold to start with, scouting should be easy with chariots so get them a few of them out there.
I'd use Washington to get a first GS so chop/whip a lib there asap, after another WB, and run two scientists and have Barcelona concentrating on busting out workers and settlers once it comes out of revolt, try to maintain a 1.5 ratio of the former or better yet shoot for 2 workers per city with this huge land to develop.

I think you have the land, traits and techs to go pretty nuts on expansion so concentrate on that first of all. Another war can come later if you need it. That means any tech that helps development is good, Hunting for ivory, Sailing for trade routes once you find the other civs.
I'd probably go the Alphabet-> Currency-> COL-> CS line after that. You might backtrade for Sailing of course, depends on how fast you can connect to the others. Set research to 0% until you've finished lib in Washington then put it back on.

 

[KeloGBites]

Yeah you can lay off the wars for now, if you don't mind overlapping, you can probably get about..10 more cities in this area thats scouted now. I'd slightly alter Gliese's tech-path to go Alphabet (1 turn)-Aesthetics(trade bait, the 1 turn in Alphabet seems to just get the 1:1 with AI), trade Alph->from there it's the same as Gliese's. 2 workers per city will definitely be needed with such a huge amount of territory to develop. Find out where HC is and that should dictate your next invasions, moving closer and closer to him. Give him time to churn out a good amount of wonders, and then *yoink* take'm.

 

[Gliese 581]

Yeah you can lay off the wars for now, if you don't mind overlapping, you can probably get about..10 more cities in this area thats scouted now. I'd slightly alter Gliese's tech-path to go Alphabet (1 turn)-Aesthetics(trade bait, the 1 turn in Alphabet seems to just get the 1:1 with AI), trade Alph->from there it's the same as Gliese's. 2 workers per city will definitely be needed with such a huge amount of territory to develop. Find out where HC is and that should dictate your next invasions, moving closer and closer to him. Give him time to churn out a good amount of wonders, and then *yoink* take'm.

If this where deity I would agree with you on tech order but there's no guarantee with only two neighbours that one of them gets alphabet in a timely fashion here. Currency shouldn't be delayed on this map I think.
However, if one of the AIs get alphabet while he has research at 0% waiting for lib I'd switch to Aest and trade for it instead. In all likelihood there will be still be possible trades for IW and either a few small techs (maybe sailing+poly+med) or maths to trade for with Alha.

 

[KeloGBites]

Possible, though HC and Joao are usually quite competant techers...eh if you sink alot of turns into Alphabet you can probably get it+the backfilling techs with just Aesthetics. That and I just dislike trading Alphabet, it and rifling are the only techs I will hoard for as long as possible.