How to start on emperor and above

[spiceant]

im playing on the emperor difficulty as the japanese (Agg/org wheels/fishing) on huge pangae maps with random climates and im hopefully needlessly to say running into ai's that are over twice my own size by the time i get a scout to their capitol through open borders.

main problem being the barbarians, they already appear around 2100 bc which really puts a strain on me. usually with an archer and a warrior with more coming from back there, i simply cant build enough archers to hold all of them back in time by the 2 known ways: killing & preventing, preventing being that you survey an area with a unit (usually on a hill).
my gripe with making scouts is that they cannot kill barbarians, my gripe with warriors is that they dont have a good chance to live unless hiding in the jungle and my gripe with archers is that if i build to many of them my rivals will be ahead of me by to much (and i got to research archery early). (like when the ai researches christianity when you'r just finishing iron working).

another problem is that i dont start with a worker (Which they do ).
how do i get to start off with a good early game in such a way i have some freedom of choice and a perspective toward the future?

 

[spiceant]

mommy im scared

 

[TheDuckOfFlanders]

Yes ,that is what happens on Emperor.By norm you have to face the fact that the first 50 turns youll never be as big as an Ai nation.But it's not impossible to catch up and go over them in the long run.

Ah the barbarians ,well i tend to go for Bronze working rater early ,and i make sure i can have a source early on.Then i usually build spearmen for defense and a few axes.Early conquest isn't nessecary but sure can be handy ,if you have an Ai closeby and ,even better ,he has a holy city ,then make plans on how to conquer him.

Forests are still pretty handy at emperor to try to catch up with the rest.

You need a worker bad early on.Well let youre city grow to size 3 and build one ,and by the time it's produced you should have bronze working so you can cut a few forests ,for a second worker and a settler.Repeat process with new founded city's and keep youre main city as settler and worker factory for some time.Unless you have a hughe forrest nearby or good acces to building materials like stone i'd say forget about wonders in the early phase.

Build a strong economy though ,lot's of cottage's early on ,make sure you have pottery soon after youre workers cleared some forrests.You have to work those cottages as soon as possible to get the growth soon ,and reap the benifits in techspeed.

Essentially it is possible to beat the AI in techspeed on emperor even if it has a (quite strong) head start.Granted you should make sure that you have a sufficiant defense force early on so you need a source of bronze or iron early ,so you can defend youre infrastructure especiall the cottage's that take time to grow.Size of naton ealy on matters less as long as you manage to aquire some strategic resources and luxury's.Relgions are very handy for happyness an diplomatic relations.Make sure that you manage the growth of youre city's and youre cottages well.

 

[countzero]

difficulty levels beyond monarch are really difficult to play. you have the aggressive trait so you should have an early war fare and wipe out your weakest neighbor. your special unit (samurai) is little bit high up the tech tree (feudalism or guilds I guess) you shouldn't wait until it. I say behive to iron working and jump into your weakest neighbor when you have 8-10 swordsman. a few catapults will also prove very useful. other than that, I don't think you have any chance to compete with them by peaceful means.

as for the start, build warriors (or scouts) until your city gets 4 or 5 population. then make your first worker and improve tiles which give food or production. then continue production of settlers.

if you don't want to do early war, pick an industrious or philosophical leader. discover meditation and writing, build the oracle, get alphabet, trade techs, spread your religion (especially to your neighbors). in mid ages, be sure to discover liberalism first, and get the most expensive tech as a bonus (possibly astronomy). later keep a couple of GP at hand, discover nationhood, build taj mahal, and start a golden age with the two GP you keep to get a 16 or 20 turn golden age. without using these bonuses the harder levels are impossibly difficult.

 

[Rhymes]

Four words: Worker chop/archer rush

 

[Draax]

Four words: Worker chop/archer rush

Does that work with warriors and an aggressive civ? I steamrolled 2 civs very early by chopping warriors and then swordsmen, but that was only on Noble diff. I think it's time to graduate hehe. Aggressive is rapidly becoming my favorite trait.

 

[Rhymes]

It worke for me on prince level, I had a nice starting location and research my first three tech : Bronze working, hunting, archery. By the time I had archery I had chopped myself a settler and had 2 good cities full of surrounding woods, I chop rushed about 15-20 archers and destroyed Saladin's 3 cities, giving me an early lead.

 

[spiceant]

there is a very big gap between prince and emperor

 

[Batvanio]

easy
just play inca
build quechas
steal workers and grab enemy cities before 3000 BC

this strategy has no balance so far

 

[LeSphinx]

You can play Inca and use your quechas ! But in a standard map or a small one ?
LeSphinx

 

[Dairuka]

You can steal their workers anyways. I usually do with my scout warrior.

You can declare peace on that civilization almost 5 turns afterwords, and they never counter attack unless they're directly next door. Even on Immortal difficulty.

I like to steal the worker from 3-4 different neighbours before I play it peaceful.

Makes the worker first strategy suck.

 

[Batvanio]

but with inca you not only take workers - you take the cities too and expand much faster in the start

I use inca in tiny , small and standard - never tried on bigger maps - no nerves for maps that big

 

[Yellowcactus]

Emporer, Huge map, 18 civs, terra map with no re-save has been quite a challenge. I've come the the conclusion that Large forests with rivers running through them are your best starting position. First, build a worker and shoot for Bronzeworking. For the next 2000 years you'll build only workers, settlers, and archers. Make sure you get that Copper!
This game is TOO addictive!

 

[Astax]

This game is TOO addictive!

You telling me!

I feel dared to try higher lvl now :/ Quechepa has proved overpowered agianst AI int he begining, heh. I put a woodsman quechepa on a forested hill outside AI capital. Idiot kept building archers and crashign them into him. Before long I got the medic upgrade on him. This kept the AI occupied, not usign his worker and not buildign much other than archers. Then my stack of quechepas arrieved. Buildign archers instead of walls doomed Julius, as I rolled his city

Now to try this on higher lvl.

 

[dh_epic]

I find at the higher levels, you need to take on a more militaristic strategy to stay competitive. You simply cannot outexpand, outproduce, or outresearch the AI. You need to get a small military advantage, and then press it to STEAL their advantage, and hold them down.

I find creative to be a vastly underrated trait. Actually, I only say that because I underrated it. I started playing with a "random civilization", and found that I often got killer starts from being creative. Having cities that quickly grab a resource nearby can be hugely useful, and also makes the likelihood of barbarians lower (by keeping more of the map under your control).

 

[Yellowcactus]

Yes!
Creative is the bomb. I'm enjoying Catherine with Creative/Financial. The Russians start with Mining and Hunting which helps jump on Bronze Working and Archery. Also, the Cosacks are 18 strength/2 movement/+50% vs. Mounted and Siege units.
-yc

 

[Sevster]

It is possible to compete as a builder on Emperor-Deity level!

This is a strategy that works on small and tiny maps with a large number of civs - there is almost no barbarians, and both you and AI is very limited in your expansion. Also, you need to have your capital in a land rich in resources.

Start as Ghandi, research Hinduism ASAP. Do not build worker or settler in Delhi, but rather leave it undefended and go for Stonehedge right away. Explore with your warrior, then bring it back into Delhi. After you found Hinduism, almost right away all your neighbours convert to that religion. Build worker after you have discovered Bronze Working (chop), cottage your land. Don't build any other units, just build wonders and buildings.

After you get a great prophet, things ease since you now get money from all your neighbouring civs (Shrine).

Don't worry about AI building cities on your borders, due to limited expansion space they will not grow a lot larger than you are. Besides by that time, Delhi should produce a lot of culture, and eventually you will get large territory and subvert those cities.

After you built all buildings at the moment, your territory should be fairy large, but by this time bordered by AI's from all sides. Look for a space to cram 1-2 more cities, but don't worry if the space isn't there, just build culture and the neighbouring cities will convert.

Shoot for gunpowder and infantry - if Delhi is in a good spot, you should be one of the first civs to get it. Now build nothing but musketeers and, with a few catapults, take out your neighbouring AI's (shouldn't be large 1-3 cities each).

Remain peaceful with all your neighbours until you declare war, if they ask for something, give it to them.

This strategy allows me regularly to finish 1-5 on Emperor and in the upper middle of the pack on Deity. I play small/tiny map, continents/terra, 18 AI's...

 

[alexti2]

Yep, something along those line works. It doesn't have to be Ghandi and founding a religion is not critical either. Just concentrate on building up the culture and trading with everybody. And to accelerate the conversion process, you can send some troops

 

[spiceant]

if you had managed to read you had read that i dont play custom games
custom games can be tempered with within the games own limits, the ai is not programmed to react to the stupidist of situations

edit: i didnt mention i play default games in this thread, it was another. i still refuse to play custom games.

 

[humbe]

This is basicly the problem with Civilization at higher difficulties..

The AI is immensily stupid, so to make it challenging for people who know the game, they have to cheat.

At the beginning of the game, the AI have made virtually no decisions it could manage to screw up, but it starts of cheating straight away.. Thus, if you manage to keep up with AI at the start, you're basicly playing on a too easy setting, cuz you'll then be far in front of the AI when it has to start making difficult/complex decisions.

So, playing at higher difficulties, expect AI to be ahead of you for quite a while. (I haven't really played Civ IV at high difficulties yet.. Though I see difficulties are still based on AI cheating, not AI intelligence.. Rounded Civ 3 on SID difficulty, and then I didn't manage to catch up with AI before the modern age.)

The one thing I hoped for in Civ4 was an intelligent AI.. But I see graphics were given priority instead, causing my machine to use 5 minutes to play a short turn with a few moves. Grmpf..