Help! Don't want to screw the perfect game.

[Ignorant Teacher]

I started playing this game with Ragnar, inspired by the strategy mariogreymist described on the Medieval Viking Rampage thread. The settings are: Fractal, Normal speed, high sea level, all the rest random. The thing is, when I got to Berserkers, I had such a comfortable position that I didn't feel the need to go to war. This has been my best Emperor game ever and I'm afraid I may screw it up, so I'd like to get some advice on what to do from here.

I won pretty much all the races: first to Music (used the Artist to start a GA and switch to CS), built Oxford soon (not 1000AD, but a while later), first to Liberalism, first to Communism, first to Physics, first to Economics, won the circumnavigation bonus and built the Taj Mahal. I didn't even try to build the Oracle so that doesn't count. I'm about to finish building the Statue of Liberty and have a very good chance of building the Kremlin as well.

I started by peacefully settling 6 cities (later I built a seventh), which took me to the first position in land (high sea level, remember?) and made me feel it was not necessary to go to war. Besides, almost all my neighbors were friendly with me so I had a free trade pass through most of the game. Only Hammurabi was uneasy toward me because he was Buddhist for a long time. Oh yeah, the AIs are Hammy, Ramesesses (is it spelled right?), Suleiman, Suryavarman, Alexander and Tokugawa.

I have attached some saves. The initial save, of course, and four more. The first one was right after I builbed Philosophy and founded Taoism. I was able to build the Parthenon in Uppsala and the Great Library in Nidaros. That was my only bulb of the game. In the other times I had a Great Scientist, there were no trade opportunities so I built a lot of Academies. (I think I'll go to space). Here are the pictures of my land, techs and the diplo glance in 100AD:

Spoiler :

Then there's my situation in 300AD (I stopped playing for a while there). I had just gotten the Music free GA and started researching CS. I used him for a GA and also to speed the construction of the Markets and to switch civics anarchy-free.

Spoiler :

Finally, this is where I am now. I've just won the circumnavigation bonus and found an island that's worth settling. I'm the only guy with Astro so I don't have to rush that much. But I think I should because the sooner these cities start working for me, the better. Anywho, my civics are US, Bureau (will switch to FS soon), Emancipation, Free Market and OR. I have the Economics GM and the Communism GSpy in Nidaros. I'm the AP resident. I think I'll try to build Sushi and, if I get a GE, Mining Inc. Current situation in 1380AD (I know either Suleiman or Suryavarman will attempt a Culture win, but that's alright. If it's necessary, I can buy my way into their oblivion.):

Spoiler :

What is the best way to go from here? I know I'm in a very good position, but I'd like to know what would take me as fast as possible to Alpha Centauri. I think the first thing would be "settle the new island", but what comes after it? Should I stick to the corps plan or switch to SP? My homeland is better suited to corps, but SP would allow me to transfer the heavy lifting to the new island. What is better in this case?

The thing is: I know I'm going to win this game, what I'd really like is if you could take a look at the saves and point me to what I'm still doing wrong. What I'm looking for at the moment is to improve my game, not to get applauses (which would be pointless because, come on, it's only Emperor). I'd really, really appreciate criticism of what I've done so far.

 

[GenerallyGreat]

I don't have anything helpful to say except that you could take over the world with infantry vs longbows! I know I wouldn't be able to resist.

 

[a0161613]

I play on Noble but I felt compelled to comment.

Your situation is great. I personally feel you need to expand on that great island and then go to war. You only have six cities and you're losing tiles to culture. You're in a Viking sandwich and if they weren't friendly you would have been targetted a while ago.

Use Beserkers to take that barb city and promote them. They keep Amphib right?

 

[CHEESE!]

Mein Gott! INFANTRY!

 

[Gumbolt]

Ackkk the Ai have so little room to expand. Still you seem to have the right idea. Vikings = cottages.

 

[cabert]

I tried playing it, and was not quite as successful.
It's 625AD, and I'm still trying for civil service...
OTOH, I've got 10 cities, 1 called Seoul, 1 called Athens...
War is still raging with Alex, but he's out of steam, and I'm just mopping up.
I have the pyramids and the great wall, but courtesy of alex, and the oracle (got metal casting) and the colossus by my own hands.
I could have the temple of salomon but :
- wang kong was slow getting it up
- I couldn't travel the great prophet all this road at the time I had him

I'm not teching correctly, and alex captured my main commerce city (and thus removed the library and other nice things). I got it back of course, but the damage was done.

edit: I played from your 4000 BC save, and just opened your 300 AD save.
Obviously it's not the same map...
Hard to tell anything useful now.

So I opened your 1380 AD save.
It seems hard to lose from there. There is room for 1 more coastal city with fish, settling on the southern tundra hill.
I don't see the point of settling the other island. Just kill em all.
One more thing : your workers are sleeping while there is work to be done (at least lumbermilling nidaros).

 

[Kadazzle]

I haven't opened your save but a size 10 city shouldn't be unhealthy that late in the game. Shop around resources with all the AIs.

If I were you I'd Infantry war vs. Suleiman and then Ramesses, then again vs. Hammy and Sury. You're in a great position, so just keep warring it out, a diplo win looks very easy from here if you can obtain 1-2 vassals.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

edit: I played from your 4000 BC save, and just opened your 300 AD save.
Obviously it's not the same map...
Hard to tell anything useful now.

I'm really sorry. I replaced it with the correct 4000BC now.

So I opened your 1380 AD save.
It seems hard to lose from there. There is room for 1 more coastal city with fish, settling on the southern tundra hill.
I don't see the point of settling the other island. Just kill em all.
One more thing : your workers are sleeping while there is work to be done (at least lumbermilling nidaros).

You're right about the workers. I forgot about them.

I don't think I want to go to war here, but to space. War would be too easy.

Your situation is great. I personally feel you need to expand on that great island and then go to war. You only have six cities and you're losing tiles to culture. You're in a Viking sandwich and if they weren't friendly you would have been targetted a while ago.

That's right. I'm trying to build Versailles then the Hermitage in my northern city to push Sury's culture away, but if it doesn't work, I'll have to go to war.

Use Beserkers to take that barb city and promote them. They keep Amphib right?

Yes, they do.

I haven't opened your save but a size 10 city shouldn't be unhealthy that late in the game. Shop around resources with all the AIs.

That city has completed the Moai Statues a while ago. It was useless until then. IIRC, they don't have anything to sell. I guess I'll have to build an Aqueduct and a Grocer there.


Do you think I should try playing on Immortal?

 

[Silu]

I actually laughed out loud when I checked the tech screen in that 1380AD save. Yes, you should try playing on Immortal.

There's no way you can fight back Sury's culture. Yasodharapura has 9 wonders, many of which are early ones (double culture). You'll probably end up nixing him just out of annoyance. Would also net you HG, UoS and AP along with some crappier ones.

EDIT: Having "just 6 cities" isn't much of a problem if you still are #1 in both land area and population. Everything is relative.
EDIT2 (aka minor nitpicks): You should fishboat resources for trading even when you're not working the tile. And explore sea by zig-zagging as it cover more ground (yeah I know, scraping the bottom of the whine-barrel here). You might also want to colonize the island for Wheat (health is scarce it seems) and an Oil that you don't need to scrap a Town for.

 

[JBossch]

Do you think I should try playing on Immortal?

Sure, but you should leave the sea-level alone. The AI is really handicapped by the inability to spread out.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

There's no way you can fight back Sury's culture. Yasodharapura has 9 wonders, many of which are early ones (double culture). You'll probably end up nixing him just out of annoyance. Would also net you HG, UoS and AP along with some crappier ones.

Yeah, I'll really have to assimilate the Khmer.

EDIT2 (aka minor nitpicks): You should fishboat resources for trading even when you're not working the tile. And explore sea by zig-zagging as it cover more ground (yeah I know, scraping the bottom of the whine-barrel here). You might also want to colonize the island for Wheat (health is scarce it seems) and an Oil that you don't need to scrap a Town for.

Totally forgot about the fish! Thanks for reminding me. About the ships: I wasn't exploring, I was trying to get the circumnavigation bonus. I'll start exploring now. Settling the island is a given.

Sure, but you should leave the sea-level alone. The AI is really handicapped by the inability to spread out.

Yeah, will do that. Is the Immortal AI significantly better than the Emperor one?



I still have one question, though: should I stick to the corps plan or go to SP?

 

[Kadazzle]

The Immortal AI just expands quicker. They usually get their first city out at around 2800 BC, and their second one out at 2200 BC. If you can get your first out at around 2300 BC and second one at around 2000 BC, you can easily out-expand the Immortal AI.

 

[JBossch]

Yeah, will do that. Is the Immortal AI significantly better than the Emperor one?

Its not that the AI is "better" or smarter, it just gets increasingly insane bonuses as the difficulty increases. I played on Emperor for a while before moving to immortal and I was on immortal even longer before being able to do anything on Deity.

 

[cabert]

@ ignorant teacher :
I don't think you can do anything if you don't get rid of the khmer.
I don't see a way of having a good production city if you don't capture one.
Corps with so little land won't help, and you can't afford a SP production city with only either coastal cities or culturally disputed tiles (or even cities!).
And if you go for the Khmer, you can just as well finish the game with war.
I did, and got a 1850 AD domination. And I obviously didn't go the fastest route since I took no vassal.
87k points for this.

I expect that after having taken a few more cities from your neighbours, you could get a space win in the early 20th century or in the late 19th if you're better than I am (no great feat.).

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

@ ignorant teacher :
I don't think you can do anything if you don't get rid of the khmer.
I don't see a way of having a good production city if you don't capture one.
Corps with so little land won't help, and you can't afford a SP production city with only either coastal cities or culturally disputed tiles (or even cities!).
And if you go for the Khmer, you can just as well finish the game with war.
I did, and got a 1850 AD domination. And I obviously didn't go the fastest route since I took no vassal.
87k points for this.

I expect that after having taken a few more cities from your neighbours, you could get a space win in the early 20th century or in the late 19th if you're better than I am (no great feat.).

Yeah, I'll have to attack the Khmer. I'm still going to space either way. I'll try them corps. I figure that, with Sushi, I can settle the island as a big sweatshop and still have enough food to run it well.

Thanks for the help!