How to have an Empire by 1000AD

[Caveneau]

Hello, technically speaking I have been playing Civ since its beginning,
but I've never really put the time into studying all of the aspects in
depth. So with everyone's help, I will understand it better. Be warned, I have the tendency to type a lot. Thanks.

1. What's the best way to become science driven right away?
2. When starting, what's best to do when 2 other cultures
are spreading towards you fast?

All for now

 

[AdHHH]

Welcome to CFC

1. Pick a Scientific Civ, also, be the first to get Philosophy, which gets you a free advance (if you're the first to get it).
2. Move a settler right to where your enemies borders are, and settle there, thus preventing their advance. Alternatively, you could just wipe them out.

 

[Turner]

I recommend Bamspeedy's Deity Settlers and Cracker's opening plays as places to start.

Expand as quickly as you can, pump out settler after settler. road all your worked tiles, and make sure to trade techs with the AI.

 

[Caveneau]

Right now I'm Persia and I thought i was researching pretty fast
then 2 other cultures got them before me. So now I'm just increasing my culture by building temples and Libraries. At the same time I'm improving all of my city tiles. My military sucks because I'm focused on expanding and
researching. Any tips at this point?

 

[Caveneau]

No prob, the problem is that I spat out a ton of settlers in the beginning and now I've slowed in order to spread out building temples and libraries.

I was always worried about trading techs cause i have this paranoia that
they will become more powerful than myself. Stupid huh?

 

[Turner]

No, they won't get more powerful than you. This is, I think, a common misconception.

See, the Ai can and will pay an exhorberant sum for those techs. So they may have tech parity, but you'll have the gold. it works out.

 

[Caveneau]

Well, now that you have kindly eleviated my anxiety, thank you, I can
move on. Right now I'm confused as to what should be my next move.

My culture has expanded to kind of a sphere shape of about 15-20
citites (size 6 - 11) I'm trying to sneak in around 1 culture to my right-I want that shoreline.

Next i am trying to settle to the west but I detected the Americans and now
I'm just sizing up their boundaries and that's about where I'm at right now.
In between BBQ some meat and this post.

I will definitely need some help figuring out how to accurately interpret the
info in the city display window, that'll be my next study. I get it just enough to get by but when My civ starts getting past 50 cities I start to lose control.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I find that it is almost impossible to have the tech lead in the ancient era anyway (probably because the AI get so many goody huts and swap between themselves). On the higher levels it's not until sometime during the Medieval era that I usually catch up.

However, I can recommend one thing if you're trying to stay ahead - trade! And trade carefully at that. It is usually more beneficial (for me, at least) to buy a tech off an AI with gold than to do a tech swap (because my strategy involves getting plenty of gold early on, so I can afford it). On the lower levels you should never need to sell a tech to an AI (but on the higher levels you may need to do this).

Anyway it sounds like a good game you've got there. Keep fighting to get that coastline, as any civ is severely weakened without access to the sea.

 

[Caveneau]

When expanding, does it matter how far away you send settlers?
If your culture is high?

 

[Lord Parkin]

Actually I've found that if you send your settlers too far from your territory to set up a new city (on a luxury or something), it majorly weakens your empire and culture. (For a start, that city will have low production and a lot of corruption). By experimenting around, I've found the best medium is to build at least five or six cities in a rough circle around your capital before claiming the far-off lands. That way your high culture, high production cities close to your capital can compensate for the weak cities a long way off.

 

[Caveneau]

How about settling far away with a backup of 4 settlers to compensate the shape of you civ?
Would that work the same way?

plus, how long before another civ is 'annoyed' with you before they
declare war?

 

[Lord Parkin]

I don't quite get "a backup of four settlers". If you have four settlers, build the cities already! Settlers do cost money like any other unit, so keeping them without building cities is just a waste of gold!

About war, actually annoyance has nothing to do with it. A civ can be annoyed with you for hundreds of turns without declaring war. And yet a polite civ can suddenly turn on you. Trust me, the "emotion" of the leaders has almost nothing to do with their tendancy towards war.

 

[Caveneau]

What I meant was to have the settlers built and ready to be placed strategically. For expanding, to avoid leaving 1 built town on its own for a long period of time before it falls, that's what I'm working on. I have no gold because I've been pumping science at 90%. Everyone's happy for now, I'm just trying to escalate my tech really fast. Any ideas are welcome.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Actually what you could do is set your science rate to 10%, or even 0%. Then with all the cash you get you can just buy techs off the other players. (This works for the ancient era, but after that it's wise to research stuff yourself).

 

[DragonRunner]

I think I get what you want to do, Caveneau, but I think you should settle those settlers. If neccecary, you can disband weak cities. If they're size 2, they should create a settler, which you can use later to build another city.

 

[Caveneau]

Is it common for cities built on desert plains not to grow fast?

 

[Turner]

Pretty much, yeah. But if you don't settle there, the AI will, and you can miss out on Oil and Saltpeter.

 

[Caveneau]

So will cities built on deserts just generate commerce and shields?
Irrigating some tiles may just be a waste?

 

[Lord Parkin]

Large deserts don't really become usable until you get Steam Power for railroads... then each desert tile can produce 2 food, enough to grow to a metropolis and beyond.

 

[DS_Legionary]

Deserts are basically unusable until you get Steam Power, or if you are Agricultural you get an extra food if you irrigate the deserts. That brings the total food up to two making the city much more productive much earlier in the game.