Help me get better on Emperor!

[Bibor]

This might require early alphabet to get any tech trades here. Not sure how early on you are talking about tech trades.

Not sure if Emperor AI has anything meaningful for trade this early, at least that's my experience. They usually rack up on religious techs and monarchy, which is "meh" on this map. I opted to go Currency instead. Besides, if nobody has Alpha, they can't demand techs, just resources

 

[Gumbolt]

Gave this a 2nd run to n450bc.

Spoiler 450bc :

So settled on marble this time. Early hammers were clearly missing from my last start.
Corn as second city!
Primary focus after BW was ag/Ah and getting pottery/writing.
I needed early workers so I went looking for Spanish workers. Managed to steal her worker on the ivory. Plus a second one later on.

I focused heavily on science. Getting academy super early was important. Also getting library in 3rd city.

I have produced much more workers this game and focused on getting trade routes with Greeks. Should of explored coast much sooner.

With a slow expanding Spanish I have grabbed a lot of land.

Managed to grab CS with Oracle. Nearly up to 13 cities. 2 enroute. Need to keep rexxing.

AI refused to tech monarchy so I have had to self tech this. Quite frustrating!! Worker stealing from Spanish would not of helped.

Extra early worker here really has helped my cottaging of most river tiles.

Not yet in HR. 289 beakers per turn at 100% science so this is a big improvement on my last run.

May need to switch civics soon before anarchy is 2 turns.

 

[Gumbolt]

So 1ad and focusing more on science 550 beaker science at 100%. Running very little wealth here. 2 AI still lack monarchy. Case of when I go war mode here.

 

[Fish Man]

So 1ad and focusing more on science 550 beaker science at 100%. Running very little wealth here. 2 AI still lack monarchy. Case of when I go war mode here.

Oh, so you're gonna war to see how fast you can get domination space? Cool!

I'd say the sooner the better. Trebuphants + some maces should net you 0 losses if you're careful. I wouldn't feel bad about reloading to get perfect combats; seems like OP set up the save to specifically allow for that, if I'm not mistaken (why else would you want new random seed except to cheese fights?).

 

[Gumbolt]

Oh already played on from there. Mainly went trebs and phants. Capitulated the Spanish after taking her main cities. (Mainly archers and melee) Then moved on to Zara who had LB/phants which was annoying. Didn't build enough pikes so phants were big issues. Taken his main cities but he has 5 annoying cities left.Including one on coast I may skip.

In Mean time Greeks took the free Gart from Music. Bit annoying. So skipped that chain completely. Churning around 1440 beakers at 100% science at 840ad. Albeit I seem to be building too many units.

As I went war sooner I was 3-4 turns behind you on state property. 1 of those turns due to limitation on civic changes.

Compared to the peaceful game I am circa 500 beakers ahead at this point. Really need those Greek cities. Stealing 2 workers at start really kick starts your game. That and having more land.

 

[Fish Man]

Oh already played on from there. Mainly went trebs and phants. Capitulated the Spanish after taking her main cities. (Mainly archers and melee) Then moved on to Zara who had LB/phants which was annoying. Didn't build enough pikes so phants were big issues. Taken his main cities but he has 5 annoying cities left.Including one on coast I may skip.

In Mean time Greeks took the free Gart from Music. Bit annoying. So skipped that chain completely. Churning around 1440 beakers at 100% science at 840ad. Albeit I seem to be building too many units.

As I went war sooner I was 3-4 turns behind you on state property. 1 of those turns due to limitation on civic changes.

Compared to the peaceful game I am circa 500 beakers ahead at this point. Really need those Greek cities. Stealing 2 workers at start really kick starts your game. That and having more land.

>Workerstealing

I feel like that pretty much explains the gap in tech pace...the other thing being I didn't whip settlers aggressively enough. Workerstealing gets you SO far ahead it's not even funny (didn't think of it since on emp + above they're usually guarded by archers, I think?). It saves you essentially either 60 food or 2 pop per worker, which is huge in the early game.

 

[Gumbolt]

I think I also got cottages, academy and library city up much sooner. My expansion was quicker but I had ample workers too. So I had plenty of cottages up and running as well. So I improved on a lot of areas here.

The other big difference was settling on Marble. I had my second city ready super early. Size one settlers with chops makes a huge difference.

I can't remember a game having over 550 beakers by 1ad.

Really need to focus on my space game now. I think factories are next key stage for production.

Would also help to meet China.. That is for another day.

I made a few mistakes here. Hopefully the OP is learning something.

 

[Fish Man]

I think I also got cottages, academy and library city up much sooner. My expansion was quicker but I had ample workers too. So I had plenty of cottages up and running as well. So I improved on a lot of areas here.

The other big difference was settling on Marble. I had my second city ready super early. Size one settlers with chops makes a huge difference.

I can't remember a game having over 550 beakers by 1ad.

Really need to focus on my space game now. I think factories are next key stage for production.

Would also help to meet China.. That is for another day.

I made a few mistakes here. Hopefully the OP is learning something.

I settled on marble and got a size one settler too. Workerturns are a major shortage early game, and 2 free workers basically means much earlier cottages and you can spend whip(s) on libraries instead - feel like that was a major factor.

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay 1120ad. All 3 local AI capitulated. Could of maybe captured 1-2 more cities with remaining troops. Issue is I am getting closer and closer to wining by domination on land and pop based. Still not met China. Took golden age from TM.

Spamming factories. Took Lit/260 gold and 2gpt for peace. Then traded optics.

I have no GE for TGD. Which is a shame. Is their value building coal plants for them to be replaced by a wonder? 1750 hammers is a lot of turns. Puzzle. Still a long way off tech wise for that.

Not going to be able to play this on for 1-2 days.

 

[Fish Man]

Okay 1120ad. All 3 local AI capitulated. Could of maybe captured 1-2 more cities with remaining troops. Issue is I am getting closer and closer to wining by domination on land and pop based. Still not met China. Took golden age from TM.

Spamming factories. Took Lit/260 gold and 2gpt for peace. Then traded optics.

I have no GE for TGD. Which is a shame. Is their value building coal plants for them to be replaced by a wonder? 1750 hammers is a lot of turns. Puzzle. Still a long way off tech wise for that.

Not going to be able to play this on for 1-2 days.

You want TGD because it saves you a massive amount of hammers and health. Coal plants are 2 extra per city so with 30 cities TGD gives you an extra 60/turn, essentially. Also, 30 coal plants is 4500 hammers, while TGD is only 1750. That's a saving of almost 3000 hammers - an entire tech, basically.

 

[Gumbolt]

Need to play this on more. Not really had a chance to play this on this week. Distractions? See what I can do.

 

[Gumbolt]

Up to 1240ad and time for a break. Plastics 4 turns off.

Used a few bulbs here. Astronomy and physicsx2. Hoping to get GE in mycenae. See what happens. Zara's old capital looks to be a great power house. The bulbs helped push me ahead by 7500 beakers. Just over 2500 each so I should not write off great people yet as they can reduce science by 1 turn a bulb.

 

[Gumbolt]

Got a bit slack to end with micro. Didn't plan for final golden age. I was short of 1 great person to do it. Forgot final 10 turns were needed for spaceship arrival. Should of used more OF to complete builds.

Also need to remember labds require obs first. Really need to do more space games. Albeit this game was never really about the AI threat. Probably could of squeezed domination too. I was only 3% off land wise.

 

[Fish Man]

Got a bit slack to end with micro. Didn't plan for final golden age. I was short of 1 great person to do it. Forgot final 10 turns were needed for spaceship arrival. Should of used more OF to complete builds.

Also need to remember labds require obs first. Really need to do more space games. Albeit this game was never really about the AI threat. Probably could of squeezed domination too. I was only 3% off land wise.

I find your lack of watermills...disturbing .
In all seriousness though you could've def benefited from some. They're the single strongest "standard" improvement in the game after rep parts, SP, and electricity. Bulldoze farms and consider bulldozing everything else except for towns (and villages in your capital BFC) for them, because it's worth it.

Nice finish date tho! HOF-esque space wins are certainly another fun aspect of the civ experience that a lot of people miss out on.

 

[Gumbolt]

I don't really do many games to modern era.

Why are watermills so strong compared to workshops? They add food and commerce and some hammers? I guess stronger with levees. I probably should of bulldozed more cottages. I did for Zara's capital.

 

[Fish Man]

I don't really do many games to modern era.

Why are watermills so strong compared to workshops? They add food and commerce and some hammers? I guess stronger with levees. I probably should of bulldozed more cottages. I did for Zara's capital.

Their total yield is greater (1F2P3C if you're fin). And, they're the only source of food available besides specials and farms. However farms are crap before bio (which you get really late, ideally), and even then they're just +2f which is meh compared to everything else (the opportunity cost of that is 4h). So watermills are actually the best source of food in the game after SP, and they outshine workshops by about 20% in terms of pure yields (35% if you're fin). They're especially useful in a plains cities where you wanna workshop everything but also don't really have enough food to do so unless you get some more from an external source (like Seville).

 

[zoiks]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread. It's been beneficial for me, and hopefully others.

I also hope that everyone who tried the map had fun with it, despite some initial scepticism.