How do you keep with the AI on King? I just can't seem to do it.

[CivAddict2013]

How are you supposed to keep up with the AI on King? I just can't do it.

I can rush the great library, use liberty to get a great scientist, get education first, have research agreements and the AI is still beating me to the Renaissance era. And if I try to have as many units early in the game as the AI I just go into debt.

How can the AI have so many units early in the game, while at the same time, maintain happiness, keep up with science and at the same time, build wonders and at the same time, have a huge army without going into debt? I just can't seem to keep up with them.

 

[Piobmhor]

How are you supposed to keep up with the AI on King? I just can't do it.

I can rush the great library, use liberty to get a great scientist, get education first, have research agreements and the AI is still beating me to the Renaissance era. And if I try to have as many units early in the game as the AI I just go into debt.

How can the AI have so many units early in the game, while at the same time, maintain happiness, keep up with science and at the same time, build wonders and at the same time, have a huge army without going into debt? I just can't seem to keep up with them.

The AI gets a happiness bonus on King.

If I could give you one simple trick how to keep up, stay away from building too many wonders. Read up which ones are the best ones to have for a particular victory. Most people who can't win on higher difficulties are addicted to wonder building and neglect essential components to keep up with the ai in other regards. You have to weigh what else you can build in that time. A proper infrastructure is more worth than one or two wonders.

 

[mrwho]

The AI cheats at King and above by getting certain bonuses the player doesn't. I don't think it should be too difficult to get to the AI before renaissance though. If you're building all the relevant science buildings as soon as you can the only thing I can think of is that you're not focussing on growth enough. Maybe you're doing stupid things. Something that I do all the time for example is putting a city on production focus (for a GL rush for example) and then forgetting to take it off so my capital city growth is abysmal. Try focussing on growth as much as you can.

If you're playing vanilla this doesn't a apply but once you buy Brave New World try to have as many trade routes (preferably cargo ships) as you can afford to give food to your other cities. If you're already doing this then you're doing all the right things and it'll just be a matter of time before you overtake the AI.

 

[CivAddict2013]

The AI gets a happiness bonus on King.

If I could give you one simple trick how to keep up, stay away from building too many wonders. Read up which ones are the best ones to have for a particular victory. Most people who can't win on higher difficulties are addicted to wonder building and neglect essential components to keep up with the ai in other regards. You have to weigh what else you can build in that time. A proper infrastructure is more worth than one or two wonders.

Ah, so I should try to build less wonders? I might try that on my next game.

 

[Piobmhor]

Ah, so I should try to build less wonders? I might try that on my next game.

I just recently switched to King, and it took me a while to change my game style. Many things you get away with on Prince will spell certain defeat on King. One of those things is building shiny wonders, while neglecting building other useful things. There are some good guides on this forum for every victory type, they usually say which wonder to build. I would say concentrate on 4-5 powerful wonders. Since I am not playing vanilla anymore I am not sure which wonders you have access to.

 

[VainoValkea]

Great Library in particular is one of those wonders you might want to ween yourself from picking. You can still get it on King, but on Emperor and above it's far too unreliable and more often than not you'll end up wasting the production and being behind in science. Build a regular library instead, and get National College as soon as possible!

 

[joncnunn]

AI gets a happiness bonus compared to the human even on Warlord. (AI plays on Chieftain in Vanilla and G&K; and on a new level on BNW which has the SETTLER level flat bonus and city & pop bonus slightly more than Warlord.)

One thing on King compared to Prince is unless going for (old) culture, don't build Amphitheaters before Marketplaces.

 

[megabearsfan]

The AI gets a happiness bonus on King.

If I could give you one simple trick how to keep up, stay away from building too many wonders. Read up which ones are the best ones to have for a particular victory. Most people who can't win on higher difficulties are addicted to wonder building and neglect essential components to keep up with the ai in other regards. You have to weigh what else you can build in that time. A proper infrastructure is more worth than one or two wonders.

Don't bother with the Great Library. Somebody WILL beat you to it (probably by 1 or 2 turns).

Other general tips:
- Make sure you build units early on. You'll need them for defense later, but early in the game, you can use them to explore and kill barbs for exp and gold from encampments and make CS friends.
- Use your gold wisely.
- Build Libraries ASAP!

 

[mintcandy]

Ah, so I should try to build less wonders?

Absolutely.

World Wonder Whoring is one of the hardest habits to break in Civilization, but curbing it is the most straightforward way to succeed on harder difficulties.

 

[Walter R]

This must be true, I've been a lot more restrained recently and it is better to build granaries and markets etc. Besides you can get them later if you're minded to - in current game I watched Austria build lots of wonders, but thanks to my SOTL they're all mine now.

 

[ledfranklin]

I just managed to get GL on King the second time I played on King. I teched pottery-> writing obviously and built scout->monument->GL. I was only able to do it because I was playing as Askia and used the gold from clearing barbarian camps to buy the other stuff I needed. It's actually going well for me, I'm at turn 450 (in marathon) with two large cities, plenty of gold, and a decent army.

 

[TractorBoy]

Great Library in particular is one of those wonders you might want to ween yourself from picking. You can still get it on King, but on Emperor and above it's far too unreliable and more often than not you'll end up wasting the production and being behind in science. Build a regular library instead, and get National College as soon as possible!

If I take Tradition - Aristocracy, then I get the Great Library almost every time even on Emperor level, also the National College is constructed a lot faster. What ever type of victory condition I decide to play for, this is an essential part of my game strategy.

 

[forestlaw]

CivAddict2013

Like already mentioned above.
Beeline National College > Education > Scientific Theory > Plastics.

Food is important. River farms on grassland or floodplains combined with Civil Service on your National College city is really strong en becomes a monster science city.
Send food with a caravan to the National College city.
Buying a science buildings especially on your biggest city.

Dont be fooled if your not the number 1 @ literacy.
Just beeline the core science techs.
Sometimes the ai have more smaller techs.

Military wise i usually have 6 to 8 units defending my empire. I only upgrade them if needed for war. I never bother with the melee line. Archers > Composite Bowman >
Crossbowman > Gattling gun etc. And after that air units if u have oil.

All my science victories are with 2,3 or 4 tall cities tradition opening.
From there defend and conquer those who attacked you.
Just some tips from a average emperor player.

Hope u win on king ! Good luck!

 

[Past Redemption]

CivAddict2013

Like already mentioned above.
Beeline National College > Education > Scientific Theory > Plastics.

Food is important. River farms on grassland or floodplains combined with Civil Service on your National College city is really strong en becomes a monster science city.
Send food with a caravan to the National College city.
Buying a science buildings especially on your biggest city.

Dont be fooled if your not the number 1 @ literacy.
Just beeline the core science techs.
Sometimes the ai have more smaller techs.

Military wise i usually have 6 to 8 units defending my empire. I only upgrade them if needed for war. I never bother with the melee line. Archers > Composite Bowman >
Crossbowman > Gattling gun etc. And after that air units if u have oil.

All my science victories are with 2,3 or 4 tall cities tradition opening.
From there defend and conquer those who attacked you.
Just some tips from a average emperor player.

Hope u win on king ! Good luck!

This used to be the standard on Emp+ in G&K, but I'm not so sure anymore with the overhauled AI. I find myself able to get away with much slower tech starts then before on Emp/Imm thanks to less of a focus on early military technology. In general, though, at least the first part of this is standard for any higher difficulty. You absolutely must get NC as fast as possible, and Uni's are great for the researcher slots. Labs actually are not at all necessary, and I'd say you only need to really focus on getting to the Uni's and NC unless you're Babylon or something and actually -want- a science victory (Freedom tree made it too easy, imo)

 

[rondiggity]

On King, Great Library will be gone by turn 50 or so, so unless you can beat that, I wouldn't bother. As others have stated, it's doable on King but not viable on higher difficulties.

With regards to science, if you get an early GS, use it to build an Academy. If you spring for the one-time boost, you'll get, say 750 whereas an Academy will you give you +10 per turn, and your game will last much longer than 75 turns.

 

[joncnunn]

whereas an Academy will you give you +10 per turn, and your game will last much longer than 75 turns.

This is G&K and BNW specific:

initially 6 are raw beakers; chances are said city it's going to be worked in already has the NC and a University, so add 83% to that raw 6 = 4.98 for a total 11 bpt to start with.

Which is just the beginning, the raw tile yield will peak at 12 (Atomic Theory) Same city will eventually have all science buildings as well for even higher yield. There are polices that also increase percentage science yield.

In Vanilla, the yield is much less though; and pretty much requires you be Babylon.