Help With emperor

[MrFelony]

Okay, so I'm trying to make the move up to emperor focusing on a SE economy. I don't know why, but i've always preferred it (and honestly need to read up more on it). I've played monarch for a while and want to push myself a little harder and, following one of my friends Guitar Hero logic, you'll get better the harder you're pushed.

Setting: Pericles, Tropical standard hemispheres, everything set to random.

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so my (vague) strategy, take advantage of the philosophical trait and the imperialistic will help with health/worker production in the tropical setting early on.

To start the game, i discovered i had stone next to me, but just outside of cultural borders, so i rushed out a settler delaying all my wonders (which payed off). I was able to settle in a decent spot which, eventually popped iron as you can see. Since it was connected to the stone a while before my capital, i started to produce stonehenge there while my cap finished the wall (which i delayed until i got the stone to work on the oracle). whipped the wonders when it became available. I oracled alphabet, teched CoL. then moved to aesthetics/literature and am now going for construction (though now i'm thinking i need to stick to the lib beeline and trade for construction if i can).

I think one of my problems was i may have been too focused on infrastructure and not expansion. i got the 2 other cities pretty much one after the other (about 10-20 turns ago) in an attempt to form a border, but Hannibal sneaked his settler past to get that city beyond my borders just in time .

So how am I doing and what i should work on better + strategy? I was planning on getting the religious wonder (schwegda sp?) so i could work both Asoka and Hannibal, but with close borders (and hedging my bets defensively right now) I've switched to Buddhism (since he so kindly spread it to me). My biggest problem are all his border cities, what do you guys suggest? war? cultural flip? for war, should i try and trade or tech construction and elephantize him with some sword backup? the elephants i could eventually upgrade to cavs. Speaking of which, any tips for dealing with rushing to cavs in BtS?

and thanks a lot for the help! i came 4 turns away from winning my last emperor game via space race...i think i screwed up my beeline to Space Elevator (which was gotten by the AI who beat me in the race ).

Here's my capital and 2nd city

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[JujuLautre]

Pericles Phil/Imp + Moscow? Doh?

 

[MrFelony]

haha whoops, my bad. I was playing Pericles the game before. I mean Peter.

 

[Ruler]

I could've gone for CE instead of SE with that map and I don't think you really take advantage of the imperialistic trait only 4 cities. Personally I don't like this a little bit, too many wonders and why you are building lib in Rostov? and do you have any kind of army ready for upcoming war? He can probably sweep you in couple minutes.

 

[FrancisMarion]

The map is better suited for CE, but I'm a SE purist, so I run it whatever the map.

With the Gold in the Capital I would have gone for a Rapid Early Expansion (REX) i.e. building settlers instead of the wonders especially since that's the only real use of the imperalistic trait.

From there the wonders I'd go for would be Great Wall, Pyramids, and Oracle. I've generally found that if I get Pyramids, I don't get the Oracle, but sometimes the AI builds it very late.

The big problem seems to be you're addicted to wonders. Most of those hammers should be going towards soldiers. Since if I read the map right, you didn't have any copper, I would aim for construction and do a Elephant/cat attack against Hannibal absorbing most of his cities. You're running 100% science slider with only -4 per turn, which tells me
1) You haven't expanded enough
2) You don't have enough specialists to keep your science going without the slider, which is the aim of SE

You don't have to be a warmonger to run SE, but you do need land... and if Hannibals cities somehow ended up on your land, well...

So I guess my main tips would be,
1) Expand more either peacefully through early settlers or through war
2) Work on getting Specialists up ASAP. You shouldn't be relying on the slider for SE
3) Prioritize your wonder building

 

[MrFelony]

I've already played the next 100 turns (couldn't sleep) and i think things are going a lot better. i'll post on them later. but not expanding early and a lot was what hurt me. honestly, i now know how fast an emperor computer can expand

and i'm not running the science slider anymore lol. I only do that because i prefer the faster teching than surplus of money. I have a question about toggling back and forth between rep and US to buy buildings. should one only do that if they're spiritual? the 1 turn wait and then the 5 turns to switch back seem rather bothersome.

and i read someone else talking about them running only merchants outside of his cap, but i think he said he was doing a hybrid economy. I think i'll just find any write ups on SE and learn up on it. right now i guess i'm experimenting (emperor is a good level to experiment at right? lol)

lol, well i did start a form of that with my quick 1st expansion, but i got "wonder blind" and skipped out on expansion.

 

[MrFelony]

Okay, if anyone cares things are going much much better in the game. looking for a early 1900's space race win. I finally contacted the other civs and immediately became friends with napoleon. bureaucracy civ + other modifiers, so now i'm friends with the top 2 civs (it helps that i have asoka to constantly engage war with them). currently i'm going to get the dam and finish off the rest of the techs. here are some screen shots. and i'm currently the tech leader as well. I think all the constant warring the other civs are doing has helped with that . also, the continent with shaka and montezuma is horribly backwards lol, i wonder why

Here's the world

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GNP of me, Napolean, and Hannibal

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and finally the domestic advisor

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