How to REX well?

[georgel123]

What is the standard procedure to REX well, while balancing military and building the Pyramids and the Great Library?

 

[strijder20]

Well, you don't REX and build the Mids and the GL.
Although it might be possible on lower levels. As always, use the chop and the whip for extra hammers.

 

[Akbarthegreat]

Just played a K-Mod game as Cathy, in which I rexed a lot. Moscow had a whole lot of forests, so I chopped the Great Wall. Then I just chopped 4-5 settlers[without military, as I had got 3 scouts from huts, so I used them to escort the settlers]. Then I focused on some archers, and beelined to Construction and took Suleiman out with elephants and cats. Right now I'm crushing Ragnar's muskets with my Rifles and Cossacks.
Tips:
1)You can rebuilding your economy in relatively short period of time with wise usage of the whip and chop. Libraries are much cheaper with creative, so scientists can keep your research afloat. And you can grab a lot of land quickly too.
2)The only wonders I built till now are the Great Wall and the Angkor Wat. Though I did chop and leave a couple of wonders for the money. So don't concentrate on wonders.
BTW, what difficulty were you talking about?

 

[Um the Muse]

I believe standard OP is to march an army into the lands of the poor fool who built you the wonders.

 

[noto2]

OP - Civ is a game of choices. You can REX, OR you can build a mighty army, OR you can build the wonders of the world. Get it? Maybe you play on settler difficulty and do all 3 at the same time, but I don't think that's how the game was intended to be enjoyed. Anyway, assuming you want to actually REX hard and make that your priority, and you're playing on a difficulty where it matters (monarch and up), I'll give you some pointers.
Basically there are a few things you can do to expand very rapidly and not go bankrupt and have your units go on strike.
1) tiles that provide commerce are your friends. Any furs, gold, silver, gems, even seafood tiles are high priority. Settle those sites early and work those tiles early
2) plan your commerce output carefully and early. Ideally for a REX your capital would be a commerce capital with plenty of cottages, but this isn't always possible. If your capital won't have cottages you will need to heavily cottage your 2nd and possibly 3rd cities. Remember, you don't necessarily need to work TONS of cottages, but you need to work a few right away. Don't fall into the trap of working farms and mines first and then planning on working cottages later, for every city. No, you need to figure out which cities will have cottages (which should be many of them) and then work at least 2-3 cottage tiles right away, before working any farms/mines, the only exception being those high commerce tiles I just mentioned earlier.
3) specialists are your friends. Get libraries up early, with whips/chops, and hire scientists right away. You can do this in as many cities as you like but do it in at least 2.
4) connect your cities to trade routes with roads or sailing
5) finally, if you are really REXing hard, all of the above points will save your bacon to an extent, but the only true step you can take to guarantee that your economy will not crash is to research currency. Therefore if you are truly REXing and grabbing as much land as possible with tons and tons of cities I say it is a basic requirement to beeline currency, that means not going for hereditary rule or aesthetics or calendar - but actually gunning it to currency. Once you have currency you're fine, you can build wealth or you can build markets in your developed cities.

 

[Um the Muse]

^^ Generally agree, but don't build markets. Markets are more expensive than SH, for goodness sakes. If you're that poor, build libraries. Depend on a few scientists to carry you through while your slider is on 100% gold. Either that, or acquire CoL somehow for unlimited scientists/ merchants without the upfront hammer cost.

Edit: Actually, I forgot to mention one of the best recovery methods from a hard REX, trading resources. I would trade resources to everybody at this point. Yes, even if it's your only source of copper. Just make sure that that Civ isn't gunning for you or at least already has iron.

 

[TheWilltoAct]

^^ Generally agree, but don't build markets. Markets are more expensive than SH, for goodness sakes. If you're that poor, build libraries. Depend on a few scientists to carry you through while your slider is on 100% gold. Either that, or acquire CoL somehow for unlimited scientists/ merchants without the upfront hammer cost.

Edit: Actually, I forgot to mention one of the best recovery methods from a hard REX, trading resources. I would trade resources to everybody at this point. Yes, even if it's your only source of copper. Just make sure that that Civ isn't gunning for you or at least already has iron.

Flexibility is the name of the game, and no avenue should be categorically discouraged. Markets are another way into happiness; their generation can be considered bonus if you can manage 2 or preferably 3 of the applicable happy resources. And the two merchant slots give you some liberty to run civics other than Caste System.

If a civ is gunning for you and has Iron (but no Copper), you might consider pillaging rather than giving them spare metals.

 

[bhavv]

Its very difficult to build wonders and rex at the same time, though it can be pulled of up to Emperor difficulty with lots of chopping. But normally you have to choose a specific strategy. By skipping Pyramids and Great Library to focus on more cities, workers and economic buildings instead, you should end up prioritizing Libraries ASAP and getting the cities farmed to be able to support two Scientists. If a city cant support 2 scientists with healthy growth at size 6, it generally shouldnt have been built unless its a coastal spam city for GLH.

Markets are always a complete waste of time and barely do anything to help a rex for the hammer investment. Granary > Library (fill scientist slots asap) > whipped Courthouse > Research / Wealth is usually the quickest way to recover from a rex. And the more commerce tiles you have, the better.

 

[Um the Muse]

One wonder can really help your early expansion: The Great Lighthouse. On the right map, it can seem OP. It's an expensive wonder, but if you can settle at least two island cities, the GLH will give you 3 per city per turn. It's like getting a free hamlet in every city. A third island city is worth a free village That should be enough commerce that you can ignore the threat of strike.

 

[shakabrade]

One wonder can really help your early expansion: The Great Lighthouse. On the right map, it can seem OP. It's an expensive wonder, but if you can settle at least two island cities, the GLH will give you 3 per city per turn. It's like getting a free hamlet in every city. A third island city is worth a free village That should be enough commerce that you can ignore the threat of strike.

It's the weapon of choice on isolated maps.

Not to mention, if not isolated, if you manage to get open borders with someone early. Add another per trade route.

 

[Um the Muse]

Talking about isolated maps, I would say the colossus is even better unless you have islands nearby. Three per sea square is equivalent to a riverside hamlet, but without the build-up time or wasted worker turns. Since it'll be awhile before you can get more than that, the colossus will help you dig yourself out of a hole quickly.

Then again, if you've built the colossus, you haven't been REXing hard. So, this only applies for this topic when you build the colossus and then REX hard (iso start or semi-iso with a largish map).

 

[shakabrade]

AI tends to get MC really early, it has copper bonus, and it is too much all eggs in one basket move, I am talking about deity. The Great Lighthouse doesn't have bonuses from any resource and if you fail, you can still rex with the fail gold, and in isolation, sailing is much more useful than MC. So I almost never gamble on Colossus if I want to win a random map. You can also fogbust much better with TGL. But Colossus really is a strong wonder I like to capture.

Answer to best rex: no wonders, libraries, currency, chops, Imperialistic trait as already stated somewhere above. You also need to know why you REX. You rex so AI doesn't. If you have very much land for yourself, don't overexpand.

 

[bhavv]

Heres an Immortal level REX with Gilgamesh including construction of the Great Wall, I was mostly helped out by having a high food + production start, plus lots of commerce tiles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZHtyDexkzo

I needed to tech Iron Working before Writing to clear 3 Jungle Gems so my Tech ended up stagnating at the end of the video until that was done due to building one too many cities.

Normally I would tech Mining > BW > Masonry (chop Great Wall) > Pottery > Writing > Mysticism > Polytheism > Priesthood > Monarchy > Maths > Currency, with AH / Iron Working only if I need those techs to improve resources.

 

[A_Hamster]

You rex so AI doesn't. If you have very much land for yourself, don't overexpand.

So how far is too far when claiming land in the early game? The decision is easy when there are natural chokepoints, but what if the terrain between you and the AI(s) is wide open and placing enough blocking cities would kill your economy? What would be a reasonable distance to claim prime sites realizing the AI will end-run around you can claim anything left over? [Settings: Noble, Standard]

 

[digitalcraft]

Your best bet is to beat somebody up or become somebody's . Then nobody will mess with you.

What were we talking about?

Oh right. But honestly, the best thing ever is if you are on an edge of a continent with a relatively weak neighbor. Go slap them down hard, but don't take their capital, just get what you can rush. Their capital is probably on a hill defended by 35 city defender 6 archers anyways. Not worth the time. Then backfill between what you took and your territory. Don't expand like crazy until you have your initial pile of units to slap the guy down with.

1) this leaves that guy weak, even though he hates your guts he probably won't bother you too much. and 2) other more powerful neighbors are going to go after him for being weak, and probably waste time taking the 35 archer defended capital so you can sneak by with your weak army.

Sometimes it works.

 

[Cort Haus]

Markets are always a complete waste of time and barely do anything to help a rex for the hammer investment.

I've found that in a well-cottaged capital, with the slider on 80-90% tax, a marketplace can pay off quite nicely.

 

[shakabrade]

So how far is too far when claiming land in the early game? The decision is easy when there are natural chokepoints, but what if the terrain between you and the AI(s) is wide open and placing enough blocking cities would kill your economy? What would be a reasonable distance to claim prime sites realizing the AI will end-run around you can claim anything left over? [Settings: Noble, Standard]

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I played below immortal, so I don't know how AI behaves there. But, I think you can afford a great deal of rexing there. Make sure to get the commerce resources city first, gold for example makes me go for it very far. Also, if your neighbour is a tough defender like sitting bull, you REX, and if he's a weakling, like Pacal, you rather let him have some sites and build an army and then take the improved cities from him and workers. If you build 5 settlers, and lets say 5 workers for them, it is 160 x 5 potential army. You would also like to research currency, and CoL and build courthouses, libraries (and run specialists), and even wealth, if needed. Balancing and evaluating all this is generally all about experience, cause every game is different. The main reason why rookies fail to rex is the obsession to build every wonder in the game, so don't do that. This one is coming from personal experience.

 

[A_Hamster]

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I played below immortal, so I don't know how AI behaves there. But, I think you can afford a great deal of rexing there. Make sure to get the commerce resources city first, gold for example makes me go for it very far. Also, if your neighbour is a tough defender like sitting bull, you REX, and if he's a weakling, like Pacal, you rather let him have some sites and build an army and then take the improved cities from him and workers. If you build 5 settlers, and lets say 5 workers for them, it is 160 x 5 potential army. You would also like to research currency, and CoL and build courthouses, libraries (and run specialists), and even wealth, if needed. Balancing and evaluating all this is generally all about experience, cause every game is different. The main reason why rookies fail to rex is the obsession to build every wonder in the game, so don't do that. This one is coming from personal experience.

While I suspect at Noble one can REX more than at Immortal, it is not as much as you might think, which is why I'm trying to find the balance.

Once I built a city 20+ tiles away from my capital and other cities because it was the only source of Ivory on the continent, and I didn't want the two AIs who shared the continent with me to get it. The site was claimed and held, but until I got both IW and CoL, that city was a drag on the economy. Based on that and some less extreme experiences, I'm guessing that trying to screen off the southern part of a turnip-shaped continent with about 5 cities 10-15 tiles away from my capital before Currency will cost me the game by putting the economy in a deep hole.

As for evaluation, I'm sure you're right. My current game started with an Egyptian War Chariot rush against Hannibal, but focusing on Carthage let Mansa Musa snap up a bunch of prime sites. A REX might have worked better since I could have built the GW and then stolen lots of techs from Mansa (it's been a long time since I last started next to Mali and was an IND leader with Stone), and getting the sites before Mansa. So that was a misevaluation.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Mylene]

Best way is to not REX
It's so rarely a good strategy, late built cities are far behind, bulb mechanics in Civ4 almost always make it possible to aim for good war techs and take more land from AIs instead.

 

[bhavv]

I've found that in a well-cottaged capital, with the slider on 80-90% tax, a marketplace can pay off quite nicely.

Its worth building them once a city has enough production to get them built quickly, but early on in the game when you have just teched currency, they take far too long to build to use as a rex recovery method compared to the standard Granary, Library, Courthouse and then research or wealth.