How do you use trade routes?

[DeAnno]

When I play Tradition I work my Artist about 95% of the time, but my Engineer and then Scientist are fallow more often. But working the Engineer to try to get to the GE is really good, it's just the yield is not so great. He's usually good to work when you're making a settler though.

Then after I founded in the past I usually had Apostolic and could work double infinity specialists in the capital and fill all my slots.

 

[CrazyG]

Well I'm currently maxing them out lol I've got the capital and four major cities maxing great people. The only thing I did different this run is I didn't start using them immediately. I took tradition and the initial two free citizens and spammed three settlers in a row. I kept the capital specialist free for a while making food production so that I could eventually use them as well as work the land

I meant use the artist in the early game. Late game yeah you always just have them all.

What civ were you playing? Taking tradition into 3 settlers seriously slows down culture and science.

 

[Bryan317]

I meant use the artist in the early game. Late game yeah you always just have them all.

What civ were you playing? Taking tradition into 3 settlers seriously slows down culture and science.

Rome. I haven't tried them in a while because I almost regard them as noob civ lol but I've been slowly working myself up to deity so I thought I'd give them a whirl again. And man are they great. I joke calling them a noob civ but they are great for beginners. I know I'll miss the automatic cover II that came with the Legions. I've never spammed 3 settlers before, but 2 was typically my strategy. I found lately in VP the AI doesn't bother you much in ancient times. You really don't need much of an army. However I'm probably getting lucky by my neighbors, if I was next to the Aztecs I'd probably wouldn't have been able to spam 3 settlers lol Next I went after my closest CS neighbor and puppeted that giving me five cities VERY early.

You're right about trailing behind in science and culture. I have been. But I'm now in second place in policies. Technology I think I'm in third

Also yes, I have tried to immediately to start maxing specialists. That was last games tactic and it worked well enough. Definitely the strategy for cultural victory. I feel I'm much better off this time with more citizens. I'd like to try one of the more peaceful victories next time. I always end up invading which kind of eliminates me from the cultural victory because I over expand

 

[Grassland Farm]

Forcing the Artist slot to be worked until you have your first Great Artist is something I find straight up mandatory. Without the culture per turn that the specialist (then the GW) grants, I feel like Tradition unlocks policies so slowly.

 

[jekke]

I run food trade routes if 1) playing tradition and my capitol needs food, or 2) my city (-ies) has such low-food terrain that a trade route can double the growth rate. Of course I run external trade routes if lagging very much behind in tech, if playing Morocco, and trade routes to city-states as Germany or with that Statecraft policy (+influence per turn). Maybe I forgot something but in most other cases, I run production trade routes to my low-hammer cities. Also, internal (land) trade routes are often safer, at least in the early-mid game.

 

[cpm4001]

A diplomatic victory is the one victory I've never gotten. And I've been playing this game since Civ 2 lol I just always end up finding war too much fun. But I eventually want to try it. So did you have to try to make sure everybody liked you throughout the course of the game??

It's mostly you need to lock down city-states (which is where trade routes + policies + spies is key), plus you need to be able to get enough people following your ideology (or choose a popular enough ideology) so you can pass that in the WC.