I've been playing for several weeks now, and I am generally in the top 5-10 players at the end of the game, so I thought I would give a few comments on my experience.
(I haven't been collecting hard numbers on this the last couple days because of the "missing king" bug which is creating all kinds of havoc with era victories getting incorrectly credited, and some civs not being able to have a king. Once the bug is fixed, we can try to get actual numbers on fame points.)
The Resource Guide by punctuator is a fantastic guide to telling you how to get resources, but what are you doing with them? Having a bunch of stuff doesn't automatically get you fame points, and fame points are what you need to get up that player ladder.
Now, there's a bit of pushback about famewhoring, but remember, fame points are what the game is counting when it calculates the player list. So how to get fame?
1. Everyone in your civ gets some fame if your civ wins an era victory. Higher ranking civ members get more fame, though. So you need to focus on getting your rank up, and then winning an era victory while your rank is as high as possible.
2. Winning medals improves your rank. So does winning contests, but those are random, and give less fame than being a duke or princess when you win an era victory. Focus on getting rank, and grab your chances at the contests when they come up.
3. Promotion to king happens when you get 2 (or 3? reports differ) rank promotions in a row.
4. Ministries can change quite rapidly, so don't expect to stay a minister. The best combo is to combine a promotion with something that gets your team an era victory, so you get the maximum fame points. Eg, if you are MVP on an era victory tech, you will win the era as science minister, and get a nice chunk of fame.
It's a rare situation when you can get an era victory single-handed, so the other key element here is teamwork, which I think newer players are tending to overlook. Communicate with your team, and as a player, always check in when you are online to see what the team is working on and how you can contribute.
Financial era victory:
Keep an eye on what is needed for era victories. Eg - A lot of new players overlook financial victories particularly, and that's where a well-timed observation and comment can win an easy victory. If you are a few thousand gold under the target, ask people to sell stuff. Playing the market is key here, especially to make sure you've got commodities you can sell off to get some quick cash. Building the miniWonder Golden Age may also be worth it to get a financial win.
Financial victories also rely on a resource that people can't take away from you, unlike wonders, so in a game where there is a civ running away with Domination victories, they can help a weaker civ make up some ground. Losing a battle doesn't take any cash away from your civ.
Domination era victory:
Use spare production to build up armies so you can take advantage of the opportunity for a quick war. Battles need teamwork though, not least because you have to get a vote passed.
When going to war to grab wonders, remember that grabbing wonders OVER the number needed for a cultural victory will push the number required higher, so plan accordingly. (That is, if you need 6 wonders and you have 4, then win 3 in the war, the next era will require 8 wonders for a victory, not 7, and so on.)
Cultural era victory:
In general, it's better to get most of your wonders by war, rather than spending GP on them. Because any civ can grab a wonder away from you by re-building it, you can get into a cycle of putting more and more GP into a wonder and not getting to keep it. It's best to build them only if building one last wonder will get a victory, or if the wonder is about to go obsolete.
Obsolete wonders can still be grabbed in wars, don't forget.
Science era victory:
Mazes, mazes, mazes. Hoard your science until you have enough moves to finish a maze. This is often much more effective than just sitting in the era victory tech and contributing your little bit each time.
If there are 2 or more civs in a tech war, you might want to focus on setting up to grab the NEXT tech rather than playing catch up on the current one. Eg. In the early game, all the civs are going for Literacy, and my civ is a bit behind on that one, so we focus on grabbing Ceremonial Burial, which is the prerequisite for Warrior Code, which is the next era tech. This requires that you know the tech tree, I guess.
That's some ideas for starters.
(I haven't been collecting hard numbers on this the last couple days because of the "missing king" bug which is creating all kinds of havoc with era victories getting incorrectly credited, and some civs not being able to have a king. Once the bug is fixed, we can try to get actual numbers on fame points.)
The Resource Guide by punctuator is a fantastic guide to telling you how to get resources, but what are you doing with them? Having a bunch of stuff doesn't automatically get you fame points, and fame points are what you need to get up that player ladder.
Now, there's a bit of pushback about famewhoring, but remember, fame points are what the game is counting when it calculates the player list. So how to get fame?
1. Everyone in your civ gets some fame if your civ wins an era victory. Higher ranking civ members get more fame, though. So you need to focus on getting your rank up, and then winning an era victory while your rank is as high as possible.
2. Winning medals improves your rank. So does winning contests, but those are random, and give less fame than being a duke or princess when you win an era victory. Focus on getting rank, and grab your chances at the contests when they come up.
3. Promotion to king happens when you get 2 (or 3? reports differ) rank promotions in a row.
4. Ministries can change quite rapidly, so don't expect to stay a minister. The best combo is to combine a promotion with something that gets your team an era victory, so you get the maximum fame points. Eg, if you are MVP on an era victory tech, you will win the era as science minister, and get a nice chunk of fame.
It's a rare situation when you can get an era victory single-handed, so the other key element here is teamwork, which I think newer players are tending to overlook. Communicate with your team, and as a player, always check in when you are online to see what the team is working on and how you can contribute.
Financial era victory:
Keep an eye on what is needed for era victories. Eg - A lot of new players overlook financial victories particularly, and that's where a well-timed observation and comment can win an easy victory. If you are a few thousand gold under the target, ask people to sell stuff. Playing the market is key here, especially to make sure you've got commodities you can sell off to get some quick cash. Building the miniWonder Golden Age may also be worth it to get a financial win.
Financial victories also rely on a resource that people can't take away from you, unlike wonders, so in a game where there is a civ running away with Domination victories, they can help a weaker civ make up some ground. Losing a battle doesn't take any cash away from your civ.
Domination era victory:
Use spare production to build up armies so you can take advantage of the opportunity for a quick war. Battles need teamwork though, not least because you have to get a vote passed.
When going to war to grab wonders, remember that grabbing wonders OVER the number needed for a cultural victory will push the number required higher, so plan accordingly. (That is, if you need 6 wonders and you have 4, then win 3 in the war, the next era will require 8 wonders for a victory, not 7, and so on.)
Cultural era victory:
In general, it's better to get most of your wonders by war, rather than spending GP on them. Because any civ can grab a wonder away from you by re-building it, you can get into a cycle of putting more and more GP into a wonder and not getting to keep it. It's best to build them only if building one last wonder will get a victory, or if the wonder is about to go obsolete.
Obsolete wonders can still be grabbed in wars, don't forget.
Science era victory:
Mazes, mazes, mazes. Hoard your science until you have enough moves to finish a maze. This is often much more effective than just sitting in the era victory tech and contributing your little bit each time.
If there are 2 or more civs in a tech war, you might want to focus on setting up to grab the NEXT tech rather than playing catch up on the current one. Eg. In the early game, all the civs are going for Literacy, and my civ is a bit behind on that one, so we focus on grabbing Ceremonial Burial, which is the prerequisite for Warrior Code, which is the next era tech. This requires that you know the tech tree, I guess.
That's some ideas for starters.
