Help me, i'm addicted to improvement building...

[El-Shaddai]

Seeriously, it's a bad habit and about 50% of the time i'm always invaded or I quit because I have now army. I'm the kind of player that wants to get everything out of the way before I build military, so I always end up getting invaded by my neighbors early, only to defend with a couple of spearman. The only time I catch up and start to win is in the post medieval age, where I start to actually build my military... how do you guys balance out military/ building? I need some advice

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

It sounds to me you already know the answer. Take time to build some units early and let the improvements wait.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

F3 is a decent barometer, where your dude tells you who is strong or weak vs you and keeps you in touch with that. I take it you play builder's style, so you usually want to be average to the average nations.

Build a lot of offensive units, and keep only but a few defensive units along your border. Move them as your border moves. That's the only place they can be useful anyways, is it not?

One way I found to keep up with that is that I often find myself in an improvement hollow gap between granaries/settlers and marketplaces/libraries. I fill in that gap with more military (swords and horses) production. Afterwards, give some military boosts to your build when you hit knigthts, cavalries, infantries, tanks and modern armors.

Don't overbuild temples/cathedrals/wonders: 2 or 3 in your whole empire is an overbuild, and some would say 1 at all is a waste.

 

[vmxa]

El-Shaddai waiting until you are attacked is too late as you have seen. even at Warlord, playing as you mentioned will probably not be able to come back, waiting for IA or later.

As a training lession, play a variant that you ar enot allowed to build anything more than a temple in a city, until you had at least 3 wars. No pretend wrs, were you declare and never have any action and not against an AI on another island/contient.

Once you have seen the power of troops and the fact that you do not need structures all that much, you are ready to choose a middle ground.

Oh granaries and barracks are always allowed. No temples in towns, only a city. No wonders until your have switched governments and are in the Middle Ages.

These are not rules for a great game, only to break a bad habit.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Set up a tiny pangaea as the Aztecs and don't build anything but Jaguar Warriors and Settlers till you've conquered the world.

 

[gmaharriet]

I'm the kind of player that wants to get everything out of the way before I build military,

That would be my preference also. It's sometimes possible to manage that by playing a seafaring civ on an 80% water archipeligo against non-seafaring opponents. You can get the advantages of trading by using boats, but have little other contact until you're pretty well built up. Only problem is, you have to contrive the set-up yourself, and it isn't very representative of a normal game.

I've had to force myself to learn to build up a good military, but even then I don't want to use it until I'm attacked. Then I get angry and go on a rampage of revenge.

 

[Soter]

El Shaddai, I always try to create a small but highly skilled, experienced and mobile military force. I build warriors only if I really, really have to, my units invariably come out of barracks and I have a lot of workers building roads so my military can respond quickly to any threat, especially if they're mounted.

Whenever I'm fortunate enough to be near Ivory I go for the Temple of Zeus great wonder. It gives me an Ancient Cavalry (3-2-2, a Swordsman on a horse) every 5 turns until the end of the Middle Ages. This wonder might be right down your street.

 

[brennan]

I like to build a barracks in my 2nd city and churn out spears for defence/upgrade the warriors that my cities build for mp's. at some point I always find that another city has nothing to build so I give it a barracks and switch military production to there for a while. Any time a city has all possible imps build military, but in the early game you have to set a city aside for military only.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

You have to balance improvements with building your military. Unless of course you are intending to annihilate the enemy in an early game rush, which I have done with great relish on many occasions.

Expand, expand, expand. Get as many cities as you can, then you can alternate between working on improvements and building up your military on a city by city basis.

focusing strictly on improvements makes you a sitting duck

 

[Own]

No, improvements before military is good. Make AI agression lower, pick less agressive civs, and buy stuff for gpt. I always play games where I have no military for a while, and never get attacked. You must be having bad luck.

 

[JMK]

Train a few standard warriors at the begining of the game for scouting and police.
Until you have access to horses, build only warriors. If you do not foresee an early war, you won't even need to build Veteran warriors, so barrack can be built later.

Then, just try (as far as you have the right ressources) to build one or two horsemen, Knight or Cavalry after each improvement. Sure you will need a barrack in every productive cities but don't build defensive units.
Should you need/want to fight a defensive war, then build a few Catapult/trebuchet/canon in city without barracks, and you will be safe.

 

[Bob1475]

I suffered from the same disease. While it is not the optimum method I did do various things on the way to conquering the disease -

1. Set build lists which alternate between units and improvements (everyone will tell you this is wrong which it is but it is a good way to get some balance and help you in gradual withdrawl.

2. Set build lists which have multiple units between improvments. I still do this sometimes. Use a turn base of like 20. If it takes 4 turns to build an archer then set up for five archers and then one improvement. Better than the first suggestion above. It will comfort you to know that an improvement is coming but it will get a military built up.

Try these - it is not a cure but a way to get balance in your game. Good luck!

 

[Zelda's Man]

Build a few defensive units to protect outer cities. Leave inner cities undefended (except for MPs in despotism). Have one or two cities with barracks that churn out nothing but offensive units to station near borders like B-eL-F said. Cathedrals will only be needed in core cities that will be reaching size 10-12. Colesiums are only needed in cities larger than 12 (after hospitals). Cities that are completely corrupted, ie only one shield per turn, use to build workers or bombardment units. Improvements are wasted in these cities.

Of course, this could change if you are going for a peaceful cultural victory in which case the sooner you build the cultural buildings, the better.

 

[Luthor_Saxburg]

I had games where I had little military (sometimes jumping from spearman to infantry) and was not attacked.

Keep the AI happy:
- Trade with them often;
- Give away to ALL their demands;
- Give them gifts if their attitude is getting bad;
- If you are attacked get MA's with the countries that are between you and that Civ.