Help! How do you overcome the AIs?

[Strobe]

On the AI getting ahead later I find that is because they have more land, or more land developed. On Monarch the AI has quite an advantage so unless your empire is significantly larger you will struggle.

I find the AI is not bad at using its lands so any AI at peace a lot will zoom ahead of you in tech unless you have more land/production power.

Try pressing F9, go to demographics and check where you rate on gold and production, if you are low by mid game then you're in trouble. I assume the figures also don't take into accoutn AI bonus so you really need to be well ahead in the demographics to win.

 

[aelf]

Well, anyway, here's a save from what I consider to be a good point in my latest game.

I used that as a point of starting for a few experiments. The first try I followed my original plan of expanding to the rest of the continent slowly but surely, switching allies from Alexander to Gandhi and Victoria. I built of quite a sizeable army to prepare for this. But the war against Alexander turned ugly and, since some bastard was supplying him horses at some point, his endless supply of knights ran amok and pillaged and raped the women and children. The war was pointless and bloody costly.

I loaded this save and tried a different path. I tried remaining peaceful with Alexander, since he seemed to be so nice already and peacefully tech up to win the space race while hitting at Gandhi and Victoria to weaken them once I get Navy Seals. On the way, I even bagged almost every new wonder. Result: Gandhi made me seem like a backward idiot by the time I hit Modern Age.

Third attempt, I decided to specialize my cities more. This time I thought I'd hit at Genghis Khan (who was backward) and hopefully be able to expand my empire to enough size to compete. I made my coastal cities naval factories and improved my core cities. I seemed to be competing very well in the tech race this time. I built up a good gunpowder army (rifles, grenades, cavalry and cannons) and frigate-galleon navy. Took Beshebalik and bought an infantry straight away to help defend and upgraded my rifles and grenades to infantry after surviving the first turn. My frigates went to pillage and destroy Genghis' caravel navy. Campaign successful. Genghis eventually paid for peace with all his gold. Was building up another army (this time cavalry, artillery and infantry) to further eat into the Mongolian empire when the s.o.b Alexander backstabbed me. It was hopeless because I haven't buidling up my defenses, trusting in my longtime ally. And by then Gandhi had again totally out-teched me, even building the UN.

Now, here's the save I mentioned. What would you do from this point of the game? Tell me your strategies, comments, criticism and results. Thanks lots!

 

[Andrei_V]

Is there an optimum number of cities on standard map at which you can compete decently in the tech race?

If you are given a more or less equal landmass as your AI opponents (custom continents 1 per team), you can comfortably win the tech race at all difficulty levels up to Emperor. On Inmortal is more tricky but still possible, on Deity I don't know, I've had no success so far.

On normal size map you typically build some 8-10 cities, the number of "core" cities even less. Maybe 5 or 6. The rest are "marginal", like to get access to a resource.

 

[Smokey McDope]

I'm beginning to learn that Mao Zedong is one of the more awesome leaders especially for monarch+ difficulties. One super science city can usually keep me up to par in tech if I farm a lot of scientists, and organized is THE WIN. Its real nice to have a courthouse in every city in less than 10 turns after getting code of laws, among other things. Medieval abuse of the cho ku nu certainly helps.

 

[Strobe]

I checked out the save and the game does not seem too bad and should easily be winnable.

1. You need to take out alexander. Personally I would then go for spaceship as I cant be bothered with overseas wars unless you get started early.
2. Your land is not great but you do have it improved fairly well. I have begun to change some cottages to farms though to allow growth. There is a bit of a problem with production as well so further cities will need reconfiguration.
3. You need more specilisation of your cities in general and I have turned one of your cities into a GP farm in washington as an example. I wouldnt normally do it this late in the game but you get the idea.
4. You have not selected any civics. I immediately changes to free religion (better relations overseas + increase science), caste system(gp farm), universal suffrage (production), free speech (grow cottages). This put me into +ve cash and better production position.
5. You are equal in tech due to the cottage spam which is good and I think offers a route to get rid of alexander. I have decided to go for military tradition and take him out. This wont be easy as production is a little low for my liking.
6. I traded A LOT. Picked victoria as an ally for now and gave her some tech. You have loads of resources and after trading I have more health/happiness than I will need in this game. Picked up world map from Ghandi and no one is ahead to any great extent.
7. Researched gunpowder, nationalism in about 15 turns and now looking at military tradition. After this I may swicth science to 0 for a while and buy cavalry units.
8. I have built a couple of knights and begun mapping out alex cities and taking a peek at his army. Doesn't look too bad and we should have cavalry for quite some time before him.

I will let you know if I actually manage to kill alex off.

 

[aelf]

Thanks for the comments! You are right about the production and specialization stuff. I am beginning to learn these things as I go along. I am dominating my current game as Catherine, far out-teching anyone in the Industrial Era.

About the civics, though, I didn't choose free religion cause I was counting on staying friendly with Alexander (at least till I was ready in the first attempt), and I know that Victoria and Gandhi are easily soothed later on. I didn't want caste system cause I was unsure about the benefits it will give me for this game and I didn't want the upkeep to lower my science rate. And I think right after this save I switched to universal sufferage and free speech (just got Liberalism). Looking at these considerations, are my civics choices viable? And, btw, why didn't you choose mercantilism?

When you've started the showdown with Alexander, I'd like to know how you can fight him and not drag both the poverty ladder. His land is bigger (due to the AI advantage at expansion, as you might be able to see) and he can win a long war by geopolitics alone. Any strategem you've found that helps? And how do you keep him from pillaging half the land?

 

[Strobe]

I'm a monarch player myself so no expert, but I didn't want mercantilism as we are not set up to take advantage of the free specialists and the external trade routes should add up to more commerce, plus I was going for free market as soon as I could.

I have struggled to win the game though, taking care of alexander was okay but it was too little too late and Ghandi got the space win in 1955. I still think an expert could maybe win the game but you needed to have your continent secured earlier I think, or have concentrated more on infrastructure.

To take out alex I built about 20 cavalry and 15 catapults, first war took out 3 cities. 2nd war 10 ish turns later took 2 more. 3rd war I added cannon and infantry and took 2 more cities. This cost me a little in the tech race (3-4 techs) but not too bad given the extra land I gained, the problem is I am now only the size ghandi has been for quite sometime.

With war you need to be quick and decisive, I would have got no where without a lot of catapults.

With your cottage spam and partly because of your land your population is really low as well, look at ghandi's land and size of his cities compared to yours. If you want a save of the alex war let me know.

 

[aelf]

Thanks for all your advice. I just had a diplomatic victory on Monarch. Then I loaded to before winning and went for space race victory. Then I loaded before that win and had a time victory. Useful experience!