Help me learn the basics by critiquing my game!

[Paprika]

Hi!

So I picked up CV in the steam sale. I've played the civ games since the first :O albeit never very seriously. I'm currently playing a game as Japan on a huge pangaea map, standard speed.

My start location was pretty decent: grasslands and river, two tiles of stone, a tile of gems, a tile of marble, a 2-horse tile, and cows reachable.

I started by researching mining and masonry and built a couple scouts and a worker and settler, then started going for philosophy. With the quarries coming online and marble at the cap, I thought I might be able to get the GL, but missed it by two turns D:. Very sad. I ended up having to rush-buy libraries in both of my cities. I did get the oracle after I built my NC though.

My settler went a little south and grabbed some land with spices while the Iroquois settled Osininki (their 2nd, I think?) just a little south of that. Unfortunately, finishing the research for ironworking revealed that the only iron for like 20 tiles in any direction were two spots with six each inside the borders of Osininka.

Any ground units would of course have gotten torn up by Mohawks, so I used the 6 horses I had and built chariot archers and horsemen and was able to take Osi, although I lost 3 units doing so.

Once I'd taken Osi, Hiawatha asked for peace and I agreed to it, even though he didn't offer anything for it.

As far as social policies I've maxed out honor and I'm considering either patronage (to make getting lux cheaper) or liberty (for happiness). I'm a little strapped for both happy and gold atm, but I do now have 12 iron, yaaay.

If people want, I can post screenshots once I get home (I work from 4pm-12pm).

Iroquois are the only civ anywhere near me, ocean to my cap's east and a broad expanse of open land with no new lux or iron to my west and north.

Should I wait for samurai and wipe out the Iroquois? Should I expand with settlers and try to get closer to another civ to attack them? How do I fix my happy? Sell some iron or keep it all for swords/sams?

 

[Kbo]

Screenshots would be nice Also which difficulty are you playing on?

As far as your happiness goes, liberty (Meritocracy) is very weak as far as policies are for helping it improve. If you've got a couple cities with horses build a circus or two, they dont cost maintenance which is awesome

Personally from a first glance you've crippled Hia, as it was his 2nd you took. I wouldn't settle anything you can't handle until the happiness issue is resolved, especially since you'll want his capital soon too. I'd beeline for education and then tech up to cannons/muskets and then finish him off, providing you make friends with other civs you should be able to RA your way ahead of Hia in tech...make PT your priority, grab ND if you can too! Goodluck and welcome to the forums

 

[Paprika]

Also which difficulty are you playing on?

Oh woops, meant to mention that: King difficulty. I'll probably max out as an emperor sort of player, I don't know that immortal/deity will ever appeal to me.

One of my cities that can have a circus already does, and I think the other is building one. Which will help - I'm not negative or anything, but it's also tough to build up the sort of 8+ excess happiness that you really need to settle new cities or conquer some. Although the puppet government predilection for building walls and castles should get me some.

So you'd suggest going back to war with Hiawatha basically as soon as the peace treaty is up? That does give me time to turn some of that iron into units, but I can only build swords atm.

Also - aren't samurai better than muskets in every way?

 

[Kbo]

Oh woops, meant to mention that: King difficulty. I'll probably max out as an emperor sort of player, I don't know that immortal/deity will ever appeal to me.

One of my cities that can have a circus already does, and I think the other is building one. Which will help - I'm not negative or anything, but it's also tough to build up the sort of 8+ excess happiness that you really need to settle new cities or conquer some. Although the puppet government predilection for building walls and castles should get me some.

So you'd suggest going back to war with Hiawatha basically as soon as the peace treaty is up? That does give me time to turn some of that iron into units, but I can only build swords atm.

Also - aren't samurai better than muskets in every way?

I find unless I build ND, I'm rarely in the 10+ happiness zone. Trading lux for doesn't work because the gold is needed for RA spamming to keep up and pass in tech. Operating in the negative when capping multiple cities is virtually unavoidable, but building a courthouse in his cap or other cities if they're solid is a good way to mitigate it. If you're in a good position to jump back into a war, great! If you're a little uneasy about your odds you'll have the edge to play peaceful until samurai can rock him.

Only benefit to muskets is that they dont need any special resource, you probably won't build any with the iron stash you found but its on the way to chemistry anyways Only other thing I can suggest is circus maximus if its not already built, or if your capital is big you can go tradition and get Monarchy (unless you're nearly finished liberty) looks like you're in a great spot though