help with city specialization

Blunt_Axe

Chieftain
Joined
May 8, 2003
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New Zealand
hi everyone, i have recently just read most of the posts and tips on city specialization and playing at higher difficulty levels so i decided to try my hand on a noble game - this is my first serious attempt on noble... I really just want people to have a look at my game and give me tips on how i can improve in my city specialization... this game i only managed to settle 4 cities myself, stole 3 of the barbs, and another 2 off the egyptians before they entered into vassalage with brennus ending our little war, and then another two off augustus who i am still at war with... looking forward to hearing some feed back.

i am playing with warlords version 2.13

cheers ears.
 

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I took a peek, focusing my attention primarily on specialization.

First comment: not an easy map.

Second comment: Food Is Life. Take a look at Circassian (sp?) in the north. You can't work a mine that you cannot feed.

Third comment: you don't have any good production cities. Your best is earning 25 hammers per turn before bonuses, the second 21. When you are lucky, the map gives you an obvious production center (food, hills, river). Sometimes you have to compromise something else to get one. Sometimes you have to take one from a neighbor.

Fourth comment: Science cities. Well, you've kind of got two... but you aren't really treating them that way. You haven't built Oxford. You haven't built any science academies. You've got four religions lying around (which would help with your current happiness problems, by the way) but you don't seem to have noticed that a monastery would give you a 10% research bonus before it went obsolete.

Fifth comment: National wonders are a key part of specialization, but you don't seem to have given them much thought. Pairing the Epics is weird (the city that specializes in building military doesn't usually accumulate many great people points). Putting the Globe Theatre into the capital is probably an error (not that it cannot be a subtle and brilliant play under the right circumstances, but I don't see those circumstances here, and the rest of your play doesn't suggest that you are at that level of nuance yet).

End critique.

Suggestions for improving.

1) Start a new game.

2) Think about three basic types of cities (a science city, a military city, and a great person farm). Review the civlopedia, and carefully consider which buildings/wonders belong in each type of city. Think about what kind of terrain and improvements each of those cities wants to have around it.

3) Now, as you are scouting, look for locations that you think would be good for each of these types of cities. You should expect (on most maps) to find reasonable candidates for each no later than 2000BC.

4) As you are developing these cities, consult your domestic adviser (F2) regularly. If you can't tell by looking at the list of cities which ones are specialized, then the wheels are falling off. Stop, review your errors, and try again.
 
Here is my 2 bits worth.

You can get peace with Rome if you want it. Without a major attack force available, I'd be inclined to accept peace (and prepare for the next phase of the war, if that is your plan). In anycase I wouldn't look for a major shake up in my cities until the war was over.

For a science city, University + Oxford in Timbuktu would give ~135 more beakers. You would need 3 other universities - Illinois, Elephantine and Gao?

It would have been nice to have the National Epic in your GP farm which needs a good food surplus. Antium has 10 surplus and Bantu has 9 and could have more.

Djenne would have been a good candidate for Ironworks, but it already has 2 national wonders. Timbuktu might be next best, but I would choose Oxford as my second there. Kumbi Saleh?

The church of the Nativity in Kumbi Saleh (or Dai Miao in Bantu) would give you some more income, but you're a long way from any great person, let alone a prophet.

That leads to the question, where to put Wall Street - perhaps Bantu, but at the moment you can't build any Taoist missionaries.

RJM
 
sorry for the late reply, and thanks for the advice, i have taken this advice on board and it looks like i will be getting my very first win on noble very shorty :)
 
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