Hi i'm new and in need of some help!

[Vodkajay]

Hi I have recently conquered warlords level and have moved up to noble. I have won a couple of games on noble but usually I do not win! I have uploaded a save of my latest game....BTS, noble difficulty, pangaea map, darius persia, all winning conditions available. If you could take a look at my game and tell me:-

• 
  what i have done so far that is ok (if anything!!)
  what i should have done
  what i should now do and how to do it
  how i can improve my overall game

if you could help me i would be most grateful as i love this game and want to progress. thanks in advance

 

[Refar]

I dont see any blatant mistakes. You have a couple of mature cottages, The cites seem specizalized and you are doing fine research/power wise.

5 workers are a bit to few i think. There are some unimproved ressources, and you might want to strat roading a bit. While roading is skiped early as not important, midgame you should have enought workers for some roads. You will need them when you decide to go to war for example.

Also your civics. I guess you not want a state religion because of diplomacy. But you could run "Free Religion", as you have the Paya. You don't run SE so you probably not need Caste System. But you could allways Take Serfdom. (Well, i am sure beeing on this forums you already know how cool SLavery is - as Civic). Staying with tribalism is not that good.

Thats my 2 cent

 

[Vodkajay]

thank you for that i appreciate it, i dont really understand the civics that well and also don't like to use slavery lol. from reading the boards i did think i was a bit slack with workers so will address that.

 

[oyzar]

Build more workers... Get more workers earlier as it allows you to expand faster earlier...

 

[JujuLautre]

Well, one thing is clear: you're actually doing well in the tech departement. Even if I think you could do much better.

Some things that I saw:
- you play on a huge map with only 6 opponents. You are actually at 80% science and are organised. This means that you have both plenty of space and the economic backup to expand, what you should be doing. I fear that your opponents will do this better than you, making them surpass you in a few centuries. I can be wrong, but I'm not sure.
- you have no labor civic, no religion, and no religious civic; any reason?
- yuou seem to hav neglected your diplo. You basically have no friends actually. In your actual position it's perhaps ok, but it wont be in other games, or perhaps in the future of this one.
- your tech path: you made really strange choices. If I'm not wrong: archery (try to get strategic ressources more than bows), animal husbandry (good, it opens your UU, but you did not exploit it), fishing (you never used it), mysticism, meditation, priesthood (pursuing oracle, why not; I did not notice if you had marble), mining (much have been waaaaaay before, considering the awful lot of forests you had in your capital; you needed Bronze Working quickly), the Wheel (opens UU, but too late I fear), pottery (you're financial, it should have been a higher priority), monarchy from oracle (why not, but considering you are organised, I would have taken CoL), BW (cf before), writing, aesthetics (pursuing the great library?)... I will not continue from here because it's hard to tell anything.
- you seem to have forgotten about specializing your cities; or perhaps you don't know about it?
- you're working unimproved tiles: bad! bad! bad! I did not notice if you have enough workers
- compared to the other AI, you're a little bit boxed in; why not have planed to erase Ramses from the face of the earth, considering you have one of the best early UU of the game?
- building chitchen itza: considered by lots of fanatics to be the worst wonder of the game. I can't deny this fact I must say; cf specialization

Otherwise, you don't seem to have a plan; do you know which victory condition you are pursuing? At this point, you should know imho

 

[Vodkajay]

thank you very much for that reply. I have tried to specialise my cities but obviously not well enough!!! with regards to civics i dont really know much about them or how best to use them??? I researched archery for defence... was lucky i did as a stack of 4 barbarian archers attacked fairly early. I must admitt that teching is another weakness of mine. I have not chosen a religion as to not make any enimies. I did think about taken out Ramses but she has a religion shared with 2 others and thought that maybe they would declare war on me as well. anyway thank you for the help appreciate it

 

[vormuir]

thank you very much for that reply. I have tried to specialise my cities but obviously not well enough!!! with regards to civics i dont really know much about them or how best to use them???

Civics are important! Using them well will improve your game a lot.

Some civics are easy. Hereditary Rule, for instance -- +1 happy for every military unit in a city. Simple.

Other civics are more complicated. Slavery seems simple but is actually really tricky. Try playing with it, though, because it's really powerful. Whipping at the right time can give you a huge boost.

Watch the AIs. The AIs are not as good as a human player but they're not bad. You'll notice that they almost all switch to Slavery when they can!

I did think about taken out Ramses but she has a religion shared with 2 others and thought that maybe they would declare war on me as well.

This rarely happens. Usually attacking an AI civ just gets you a -1 "You declared war on our friend" diplomatic hit from any AI that was friendly with that civ. Other civs only join in automatically if they're vassals or have a Defensive Pact.

I say "rarely happens" because sometimes an AI will ask another civ to join them in a war. Sometimes the other civ is you; you've probably been visited by an AI leader asking you to join the crusade against those worthless Malinese, or whoever. The AIs also make these requests among themselves. However, the AIs are reluctant to get sucked into wars, so they usually won't join unless 1) they really like the asker, and 2) they're stronger than the other civ. A big bribe can help things, but they'll still be reluctant.

So, if you want to attack Ramses, compare your power standing (numbers in the lower right hand screen) to his friends. If you're more powerful than they are, jump in -- it will probably be impossible for Ramses to persuade them to join a war with you. If they are more powerful, though, think carefully... it might still be worth a war, but you're moving into calculated risk territory.

Waldo

 

[Vodkajay]

Vormuir i really appreciate that cheers.

 

[futurehermit]

Some general tips:

1) Don't overexpand your empire until you have currency and/or code of laws. These techs are vital to support your expansion

2) Watch your diplomacy. It is easier to fight a 2-on-1 war where you have an ally than vice versa

3) Build enough military. Most new players fail to build enough military. A strong military is essential to expanding your army and deterring invasions

4) City specialization: If a city can support 10 cottages and still grow prior to biology then make it a commerce city with as many cottages as you can lay down. Only build farms/windmills if necessary. These cities will have lots of grasslands and/or surplus food tiles. You need some strong production cities: 1-2 early and more as your empire expands. These cities should get farms/mines early and you can consider workshops/watermills/lumbermills later in the game. You should have at least 1 great person farm city where you build pretty much only farms with a few mines for production possibly. The goal in this city is to work as many specialists as you can to produce great people. Focus on building the buildings that let you assign specialists and remember that specialists don't produce any food so you need high food tiles to support them. Every city should ideally have some high-food tiles to grow quickly.

5) Land is power. There are different ways to play effectively, but for a beginner I think it is important to learn to expand your empire. Try to expand peacefully at first, but when the land runs out that means you must prepare for war. If you can eliminate 2 AIs this should be enough land from which to win a space race or else to support military production for a domination win.