How to get better? Help wanted

[Psudude80]

I started playing civ3 when I was 8 years old and was terrible at it. As I grew older I got civ4 and was equally terrible at it, and before I stopped playing the game I reached warlord difficulty. Ive been playing a lot of civ5 due to summer vacation and I want to get better at the game. Although Ive been in civ for over 10 years I may as well be a noob because of my skill in the game.

I just won a domination victory using Japan on warlord difficulty. Now I realize most of the players on these forums use very high difficulties so take it easy on me. What can I do to get better at the game? I understand the basic concepts of the game, but I am awful at diplomacy. I am usually hated by most civs in my games.

For my next game I am turning up the difficulty to prince and Ill just see how it goes I guess. Any hints, tips, or strategies would be appreciated. Thanks everyone

 

[budweiser]

Welcome!

I think you should make sure you are building 1 or 2 workers for every city and that you are improving the tiles yourself, not setting it on automatic. After that, connect your cities together with roads and try selling your extra resources to the AI. Look on the demographics screen and make sure you are not last in army size. If you are, build more men!

 

[Lukasper]

In response to just your diplomacy issues I find that the hits on your diplomacy are lessened if you denounce the civ before you attack them. Furthermore look at the diplomacy overview and find which civs have been denounced by the other AI. If you denounce them you will gain positive relations with the other AI and less negative relations when you attack the civ everyone hates.

Another easy way to improve your diplomatic status with the AI is to liberate city states that have been conquered (if any) or liberate other civs cities (this will also make them vote for you at the world congress if you have BNW not sure about in earlier versions)

 

[Psudude80]

Welcome!

I think you should make sure you are building 1 or 2 workers for every city and that you are improving the tiles yourself, not setting it on automatic. After that, connect your cities together with roads and try selling your extra resources to the AI. Look on the demographics screen and make sure you are not last in army size. If you are, build more men!

Thanks for the tips! I do a good job of improving tiles and connecting cities to my trade network. Although I just found the demographics screen last game, it was mind blowing lol. I definitely learn something new every time I play the game or browse the forums.

 

[Psudude80]

In response to just your diplomacy issues I find that the hits on your diplomacy are lessened if you denounce the civ before you attack them. Furthermore look at the diplomacy overview and find which civs have been denounced by the other AI. If you denounce them you will gain positive relations with the other AI and less negative relations when you attack the civ everyone hates.

Another easy way to improve your diplomatic status with the AI is to liberate city states that have been conquered (if any) or liberate other civs cities (this will also make them vote for you at the world congress if you have BNW not sure about in earlier versions)

Thanks! I hate when I go to war with the civ that everyone hates and then 20 turns later they hate me too. Never made any sense to me. Ive also never liberated any cities, but I will try to next time I play to see the effects on my AI relations.

 

[kb27787]

Just one thing: don't expand more than 2-3 cities (keep it simple, stupid as they say).
There's a magic button in your town screen that grants you auto-win on emperor, or dare I say immortal and below. It's called food focus.

So check that box, feel free to automate your workers (they will build farms) every now and then sink some gold into city states that are called "mercantile" and "military", and you will win Emperor even.

Easy, right? Try it.

 

[budweiser]

Thanks for the tips! I do a good job of improving tiles and connecting cities to my trade network. Although I just found the demographics screen last game, it was mind blowing lol. I definitely learn something new every time I play the game or browse the forums.

Alright, if you are good at that already, the next thing you want to do is build up to about 6 decent cities (but not too fast) by mid game. This will give you enough ground and resources to put you over the top and beat the AI.

 

[pinkishkittny]

I can usually survive at Chieftain level and sometimes even have the highest score.

At warlord level by year 0 I am almost always 10th of 10 nations and the leading nations have more than twice as many victory points as me.

I have tried:
building wonders
not building wonders
concentrating on science
concentrating on population
building up to 6 units to conquer one city**
doing a lot of exploring
only exploring the immediate area

All these strategies are pretty much equally unsuccessful.

I always build 1 or 2 workers per city
I always place a high priority on building roads
I always try to sell as many resources as I can

But the thing is I don't think very particular advice like "build roads" is going to be enough to give me a chance against the AI - I think I need to be shown an utterly different way of playing the game!

One particular question I would appreciate the answer to is: roughly how many cities should I have by year 0. (whether I have 1, 2, 3 or 4 I am still the weakest civ in the game!)

There is so much I like about Civ 5: BNW that I don't want to give up on it but coming 10th of 10 all the time is too depressing! And only surviving at Chieftain level is humiliating!

**I have given up warfare - it seems to me you have to build such a vast army to conquer even one city that it can never be worth it can it? Certainly in the early game the cities are much too strong to be taken by the units available - but this makes it impossible to imitate early conquerors like the Assyrians.

My last attempt at warfare: I thought that with the Aztecs having their special unit at the start of the game I would go for a quick conquest. So I quickly built 4 jaguars and sent them against a size 2 Danish city where they got wiped out by an archery unit! In the meantime I had, of course, become 10th of 10!

 

[Fish Man]

Welcome to civfanatics! Fellow newbies like us have got to stick together, so I'll give you some tips which will greatly improve your victory times.

First, can you post a screenshot of ending save, post the ending save, and describe to us what specific problems you have?

Second, here are 10 things that somebody must know to play the game on higher difficulties:
1. Target writing, civil service, education, scientific theory, and plastics; get the appropriate science buildings, work science specialists full-time, and get plastics with Oxford/satellites with scientific revolution
2. Grow, grow, grow. All cities should be AT LEAST 20 pop by endgame, with cap close to/over 30. By mid/late game all cities should be producing 20+ food per turn.
3. Build a scout first, then monument, then worker. There are other BO's, but this is the works best for me in most situations
4. Take 4-city tradition, followed immediately by full rationalism (some patronage if you want more CSs) and then ideology.
5. Good city spots should have at least 3 of these 6 traits: a river, a mountain, 2 luxes, 8+ grassland/flood plains, some wheat/bananas, and good production.
6. By far the most important GP is the great scientist: plant the first two, then save the rest for bulbing after you've completed satellites.
7. Do not neglect culture: build artist/writing guilds by early Renaissance (don't build musicians') , and work them as much as your food will allow. Construct landmarks with archaeology, and ally with cultural CS's.
8. On the subject of CS's: get patronage opener, complete a quest for them, give a gift of 500, and send a spy to constantly rig elections for perma-ally. Do this for at least 25% of CSs on the map - most important are cultural, mercantile, and faith. Accumulate at least 1000 faith by endgame to get a GS/GE
9. Production is also very important. Unless your city needs farms, mine all hills and work them so that buildings take an average of 10 turns to produce and units 6 turns.
10. Try to DoF at least 2 civs for RAs. Use positive diplo modifiers such as denounce enemies, DoF friends, embassy, trade/trade routes, and WC to get these allies. This will also help you get lux/lump sum gold trades. If an AI is marching a large amount of units toward your city, they're in "war mode" - pay them to war someone else, or build 4 ranged units to defend.

 

[Fish Man]

I can usually survive at Chieftain level and sometimes even have the highest score.

At warlord level by year 0 I am almost always 10th of 10 nations and the leading nations have more than twice as many victory points as me.

I have tried:
building wonders
not building wonders
concentrating on science
concentrating on population
building up to 6 units to conquer one city**
doing a lot of exploring
only exploring the immediate area

All these strategies are pretty much equally unsuccessful.

I always build 1 or 2 workers per city
I always place a high priority on building roads
I always try to sell as many resources as I can

But the thing is I don't think very particular advice like "build roads" is going to be enough to give me a chance against the AI - I think I need to be shown an utterly different way of playing the game!

One particular question I would appreciate the answer to is: roughly how many cities should I have by year 0. (whether I have 1, 2, 3 or 4 I am still the weakest civ in the game!)

There is so much I like about Civ 5: BNW that I don't want to give up on it but coming 10th of 10 all the time is too depressing! And only surviving at Chieftain level is humiliating!

**I have given up warfare - it seems to me you have to build such a vast army to conquer even one city that it can never be worth it can it? Certainly in the early game the cities are much too strong to be taken by the units available - but this makes it impossible to imitate early conquerors like the Assyrians.

My last attempt at warfare: I thought that with the Aztecs having their special unit at the start of the game I would go for a quick conquest. So I quickly built 4 jaguars and sent them against a size 2 Danish city where they got wiped out by an archery unit! In the meantime I had, of course, become 10th of 10!

Don't war until you're fully developed, and you have lots of happiness, AND AI city is in really good spot AND close by. It's best to just go 4-city tradition. If you have to attack, fortify 1-2 melee units near city to soak up ranged attacks and fire away with 4-6 ranged units/siege units. When the city's health can be taken with one melee attack, take it with a melee unit parked nearby. Use common sense: if city's defense is 50 and you have crossbows, don't try to take it.

But follow my beginner's guide posted above for tips.

 

[The Pilgrim]

Welcome to CFC, guys!

From my experience, when someone struggles on anything below emperor, give or take, the problem lies simply in insufficient knowledge of game mechanics and one can fix it rather easily. I'd suggest taking a peek at Deity LP's or even live streams of top NQ group players. Strategy-wise multiplayer or deity can be pretty different from a typical prince game, but game mechanics and key principles are the same. And this way of learning is quite entertaining too, IMO.

Of course, you can always attach screenshots and/or save files to get a specific advice about specific situation, but that's where I'd start. Civ5 is a complex game and keeping in mind various aspects might be hard if you don't know about their existence.

 

[Memoryjar]

Just one thing: don't expand more than 2-3 cities (keep it simple, stupid as they say).
There's a magic button in your town screen that grants you auto-win on emperor, or dare I say immortal and below. It's called food focus.

So check that box, feel free to automate your workers (they will build farms) every now and then sink some gold into city states that are called "mercantile" and "military", and you will win Emperor even.

Easy, right? Try it.

So true, sometimes.

 

[Dave Hartwick]

Here's a few tips/tactics that have helped me along:

1. Scout early and aggressively, including with your starting warrior. This is more important on land heavy maps, of course.

2. Tradition is pretty good, especially if you have a nice capital site and a couple places to settle. Liberty is pretty good if you don't. Honor and Piety are harder.

3. Settling close to other civs means a greater chance for war.

4. Micromanage in the beginning, including the lock tiles and set city focus to production trick. You switch tiles to a food tile every time your city grows. When building settlers, lock all tiles to hills and other hammer tiles. Later in the game, micromanagement isn't so necessary, but you still want to cycle through your cities from time to time.

5. Caravans and cargo ships are important. They provide food, gold, and diplomatic bonuses. Later in the game, they can give hammers.

6. BNW punishes warmongers heavily. If you must take cities, only take them in peace deals only during the early going to avoid much of the hit. Avoid making friends with civs that you know will attack city states. When you notice a civ getting denounced, you can join in and get diplomatic bonuses. Generally, being a peacenik makes for an easier game. Diplomatic victories are the easiest kind, in my experience. I've yet to get a domination win.

7. Some of the new BNW civs are really powerful, like Poland and Shoshone. There's a couple good guides for playing them on this message board, although aimed at high difficulty levels. Incidentally, don't get bummed out if you don't do as well as the people posting guides. Nobody ever posted a guide demonstrating how they got crushed, even though I feel confident that everybody gets their ass beat from time to time, or at least used to while they learned the game.

Personally, I plan out a general strategy that I want to try in advance. For example, I used to be pretty keen on getting Desert Folklore and using all that faith to dominate the religious aspect in various ways. Lately I've been trying other faith or culture pantheons. This requires a lot of restarts, not because I'm looking for an awesome start so much as because I have a particular one in mind. Awesome starts are nice, though.

Replaying segments of the game is a good idea. Once I get the start I want, I might save it and if I don't like how things are going by the medieval period, I'll replay from the beginning to see if I can't do better. If I'm happy with how I'm going, I'll save it again so I can back up if things fall apart in the midgame. If it doesn't work out, I'll try again with the same civ and see if I can make the strategy work.

I improved a good deal at Civ IV by playing succession games. Unfortunately, Civ V doesn't seem to have a lot going on with succession games now. However, maybe some of the Warlord/Prince players reading this could get together and do a King or Emperor game. Usually you want to step up the difficulty in a succession game because strategy gets hammered out by the group and if somebody turns in a lackluster set, the next player will probably salvage it.

Link to the SG forum: http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=408

 

[Acken]

I can usually survive at Chieftain level and sometimes even have the highest score.

At warlord level by year 0 I am almost always 10th of 10 nations and the leading nations have more than twice as many victory points as me.

I have tried:
building wonders
not building wonders
concentrating on science
concentrating on population
building up to 6 units to conquer one city**
doing a lot of exploring
only exploring the immediate area

All these strategies are pretty much equally unsuccessful.

I always build 1 or 2 workers per city
I always place a high priority on building roads
I always try to sell as many resources as I can

But the thing is I don't think very particular advice like "build roads" is going to be enough to give me a chance against the AI - I think I need to be shown an utterly different way of playing the game!

One particular question I would appreciate the answer to is: roughly how many cities should I have by year 0. (whether I have 1, 2, 3 or 4 I am still the weakest civ in the game!)

There is so much I like about Civ 5: BNW that I don't want to give up on it but coming 10th of 10 all the time is too depressing! And only surviving at Chieftain level is humiliating!

**I have given up warfare - it seems to me you have to build such a vast army to conquer even one city that it can never be worth it can it? Certainly in the early game the cities are much too strong to be taken by the units available - but this makes it impossible to imitate early conquerors like the Assyrians.

My last attempt at warfare: I thought that with the Aztecs having their special unit at the start of the game I would go for a quick conquest. So I quickly built 4 jaguars and sent them against a size 2 Danish city where they got wiped out by an archery unit! In the meantime I had, of course, become 10th of 10!

In my experience providing some screenshots helps to give a few pointers for new players.

You need the bare minimum of 3 cities by year 0. Ideally you want between 3 and 6 depending on strategies and terrain by turn 100.

 

[TearsasLube]

Hi everyone

currently new to this game, had the original civ 5 for years and recently got the DLC. After been frustrated a few times now, my city has been starving, I use trade routes to supply my city with food but still that's sometime not enough.

Is there any tips on increasing food for the city? I have tried improving tiles but have no idea to do so, I may had improved 1 or 2 tiles before. But there's nothing to indicate on how improve tiles on the learn team basis.

Thanks

 

[Resipsa]

lots of advice has already been thrown out but here's mine; learn an early game BO (t0-t60) for lower difficulties Tanbark's 3 city BNW Tradition opener is easy enough on lower levels. Concentrate on SV at new difficulties first; they are the ones that have less interactions to do with other civs

 

[pinkishkittny]

Thanks very much guys for the encouraging advice.

I shall try and do it justice

 

[4N4C0ND4]

Thanks for the tips! I do a good job of improving tiles and connecting cities to my trade network. Although I just found the demographics screen last game, it was mind blowing lol. I definitely learn something new every time I play the game or browse the forums.

I play mostly immortale/deity and I don't even know where this button is ^^
I though it was a common mod or somehting.

For the OP, I think the most important thing in CIV is focus. The second being flexibility
Try to get you a goal: what victory are you aiming to get? Playing the game, right from the start is conditionned by this factor. The build order for a fast war rush is not the same than for a late cultural victory obiously. So it might be easier for us to know what victory/civ you usually go with.

The safest goal is usually science, since it's almost key for every victory.
Science = food so managing happiness, good city locations and food buildings.
Try to get a confortable happiness cushion (5-10), focus to develop farms, and begin to use science specialists when you feel that it doesn't hurt too much growth (10-15 max growth turns for me)

I might say a blasphemous thing but the automatic managment of citizen is not that bad. I turn it to manual to lock tiles but the deffault gestion is handy since it usually switch to food when empire is happy, then to gold(?) when unhappy. But always helpfull to manualy use production focus when needed.

 

[The Pilgrim]

Is there any tips on increasing food for the city? I have tried improving tiles but have no idea to do so, I may had improved 1 or 2 tiles before. But there's nothing to indicate on how improve tiles on the learn team basis.

Welcome!
Very basic and simplified guideline, but will work for now, I think:

1) Improve your resources first! Pastures, plantations, mines, farms, camps, quarries, fishing boats - whatever it takes.
2) Farm tiles with access to fresh water (riverside or adjacent to lakes).
3) Mine none riverside hills.
4) Chop forests to speed up production. If you city doesn't have a lot of hills, don't chop them but build lumbermill instead.

The rule of thumb - settle your cities in food rich areas - wheat, cows, deer, salt, citrus, fish - the more the better. Just make sure you have some hills as well. And you want to get your worker out asap. As your 2nd or 3rd build. You can start with something like scout - worker - shrine. Or scout - scout - worker. Also, stick to Tradition tree for now. It has great growth bonuses. Good luck!

 

[teqofc]

Great advice from all. For maximum fun play Aztecs on a lake map and try to find a good 4-5 size lake to start nearby. Build a floating garden and kaboom! Huge food growth without working a tile.

When I was doing a HoF attempt I had this insane start but unfortunately the expos were crap and I got lazy and didn't see or prepare for what my "friendly" neighbors had in mind for me.

This screenshot is all I have left of that game

Spoiler :

Here's a different game where I did survive till the end Missed out on a religion though so would have been even sweeter with the +15% growth from Swords into Plowshares

Spoiler :