Hi, I'm new and I need some help. Topic: population, culture etc.

[Nocturno14]

So... My name is Mark.. I've been a Civ player since Civ4. I've recently bought Civ 5 and I have some problems and I hope the fine gentlemen of this site will be of use

First of all... Before I start whining I need to explain how I'm playing Civ. I somehow think its not the pro way of playing... Well, It obviously isn't. Most of the time im just hitting ENTER and ending turns, waiting for something to get built... I'm an expansionist. My desire is to control a continent, develop it, and then invade another continent.. An epic saga of world conquest. Order filled out, soldiers marching everywhere, battleships controlling the water.. I don't use Autocracy since its non-compatible with some other civic.. (These things are not called civics I think).. Oh yes.. Social policies. Anyway, upon my attempt of the mentioned strategy there have been some issues. 1. Unhappiness.. because of the number of cities and population... But when I think of it, is there any way at all to get unhappiness from somewhere else ? War for example.. or is it just population and cities... hm..
Well... after 20 turns of agony I've brought happiness to the people.. U managed to get a great general, start a golden age and quickly make some coliseums. But there was another problem... 2. Debt My cities were making 160 gold, and my debt was 200 GPT... Meh...

Then I quit expansionism. F that... I desired a small empire and a cultural victory..
I started a s: Quick, m: Earth game with Germany. At first I thought I was on an Island.. I was surrounded by sea, and could see ice... I thought I was on Iceland.. but after I some exploring I realized I was on Alaska. It was perfect. 3 cities, behind a range of mountains. And as I developed those 3 cities... (BTW, is having a small empire really good for the utopia victory ?) ...I noticed that I've had 2 social policies while some other country had 5... How ?? I did my best to mass culture but I couldn't. And they were making wonders all the time.. and my wonders were to be completed in like 60 turns... That sucked.. Also... behind the earlier mentioned mountain range that separated my country from the evil other empires; there were hills.. ores.. resources... I had to expand, I couldn't just let some resources be next to me and not be collecting them... urgh.

I just want to lead a small empire, have massive culture and massive happiness, but yet again have an optimal army , good trade etc... Like today's small European countries. But I don't know how many cities are enough... Nor how to micromanage.please help me out.. I'm playing on lvl 4 difficulty

 

[Nunya]

For a small empire with massive hapiness try plying India and limit yourself to three cities.

India gets +100% unhapiness from number of cities (which works as +2 unhapiness from each city), but -50% unhapiness from number of citizens (that's only 1 unhapiness per 2 citizens). At size 4 the penalty and the bonus balance out and for every 2 citizens above size 4 you get +1 happiness compared to other civs.

For social policies go for a mix of Tradtion (get Arsitocracy for the wonder bonus and Oligarchy for the combat bonus in friendly lands) and Piety (great culture bonuses). Then get whatever you fancy on top of that.

Befriend Maritime city states, they'll make your cities grow like crazy.

 

[Nunya]

Sorry, double post.

 

[Nocturno14]

I'm playing with France now.. I'm in the jungles of Africa

http://www.eva-fund.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/africa_map.gif

I'm stretching from Nigeria across the DRO Congo.. I have 4 cities and I am booming... 40 gold per turn.. I've had 5 social policies so far.. The key was to send gold to cultural city states.. Finally I'm doing fine, and things are going as planned... I have no need to expand..yet.. If I come to any additional problems I will tell here... Anyway thanks for the tips, I will try that when I'm done with this

 

[grzybek]

Try reading some articles in Civ5 - Strategy Articles subforum (there are at least 2 which helped me a lot).

Go to Stories&Tales and watch how other people are playing. Try to see what you do wrong and fix it.