HRE on Emperor

[King Younk]

Having recently won 3 or 4 games on Emperor for the first time (twice an Hammurabi and once as Huayna Capac), I'm now looking to take on a more challenging leader, though my favorite historically - Charlemagne.

Here is the opening position - I settled in place and want to pursue fishing, though I have no idea how to play as Charlie otherwise.

What say you(s)?

 

[AcaMetis]

Cancel research for the first five turns and scout your immediate area before committing to something, I'd say. Whatever lies around your capitol will influence which tech you should go for, since you may need something specific to put down a decent second city.

 

[King Younk]

Cancel research for the first five turns and scout your immediate area before committing to something, I'd say. Whatever lies around your capitol will influence which tech you should go for, since you may need something specific to put down a decent second city.

Not fishing? I have three of those in my radius, and my population will grow as I build the work boats.

 

[King Younk]

Here's turn 6. Fishing is the best bet. I'll have an easily defended city to my southwest, and be able to expand from there.

Should I build a settler and then workboats, or vice versa?

 

[sampsa]

I think fishing first is a clear mistake. Pigs is the best food available and it's much better than clams. No idea what you've done in those first 6 turns, but you seem to have no idea how select/de-select works. Your slider should be at 100% and no tech chosen.

 

[AcaMetis]

What I meant with "cancel research" is selecting a research, than clicking on the research to cancel it, and not selecting a new one until turn 5. The game, for whatever reason, is programmed to not auto-assign a tech to research until the end of turn 5, and until than it'll just save up the beakers. It's useful to take advantage of this trick since the scouting information from those turns can get you a better idea of what tech to go for, and if you meet any AI you might get a discount on certain techs (though on Emperor that's mainly Hunting and Archery).

As for the first tech, I'm honestly not sure. Pigs is the best food source, but with Charly's D-tier starting techs your worker would have almost nothing to do if you got AH first. I'd probably go for Mining -> BW -> Fishing to start chopping out workboats, since you'll need a few, but I would not bet money on that being the optimal choice.

 

[King Younk]

I didn't realize that I could save up the beakers. I'll keep that in mind henceforth.

I think I'll do Mining/BW/Fishing, so that I can find Copper and produce more rapidly. That is Charlie's main problem - improving the land.

I'll build boats, then 2 settlers, then we'll see.

I can settle to the southwest without worrying about my defenses, so I think I'll do that first.

Should I pursue any wonders? GW synergizes well with Imperialistic, I know.

 

[King Younk]

One thing I'm rethinking - I'm not going to place my first city to the Southwest, since I'll want to box out the AI from taking that fertile land up there.

Can someone put a red dot on where they think I should settle my second and third cities?

 

[AcaMetis]

Should I pursue any wonders? GW synergizes well with Imperialistic, I know.

With that much water around you shouldn't need GW at all, and especially playing as Charly (especially on Marathon) that production is better spend towards workers and settlers to expand and improve your land. And some spawn busters, of course. No Stone/Marble also doesn't paint a great picture for future wonder building.

Can someone put a red dot on where they think I should settle my second and third cities?

Where to settle is difficult to say. Huge maps are tricky to settle since resources tend to be few and far between, and Marathon doesn't help since you really don't want to get bogged down for a large number of turns waiting for borders to pop, even when you're Creative. Let stand when you need to build a Monument for culture. Charly does at least start with Mysticism.

In this situation it's especially hard, since the land is so bad and/or bereft of resources. I think the best course of action is to actually settle the uncontested site SW of your capitol first, since after the capitol pops borders you can at least chop out a monument quickly, prepare boats in time to net the two fish when borders pop, and improve(/road?) the Ivory in the meantime. It's not an ideal spot, but that city is definitely in the best position to quickly contribute to your economy and expansion efforts.

 

[Jarno]

If any wonder you'd like to pursue here it would be the Great Lighthouse. Only viable city spots are coastal, and the capital has a lot of trees to chop. Don't know if the land across the water is a different land mass of connected through the inpassible peninsula. It's the only possible spot to share your capitals seafood, and if it is another landmass it will give you good trade routes.

 

[King Younk]

Alright, nevermind. I started over and beelined bw and fishing. I was also able to found Confucianism (I had a starting position that was isolated, but safe from barbarians, so was able to pursue Oracle).

Here I am now. My plan is to beeline Optics (so I can spread my religion), and then Astronomy to settle overseas/spread Confucianism. Then I think I will pursue Engineering and other middle ages weaponry so I can conquer my neighbors.

What think?

 

[King Younk]

Woops, here is.

I have the shrine for Conf. btw, and also have the Holy City for Taoism as well. Should I pursue the Taoist shrine?

 

[sampsa]

What is the purpose of these threads? You are blazing through games, not waiting for any input. You say you've learned a lot, which may be true to some extent, but you are making learning very hard for yourself by choosing marathon and spending 10 seconds per turn.

 

[Harv]

This map is perfect for ice archers!

 

[King Younk]

What is the purpose of these threads? You are blazing through games, not waiting for any input. You say you've learned a lot, which may be true to some extent, but you are making learning very hard for yourself by choosing marathon and spending 10 seconds per turn.

I'm not going to wait all day for responses - I'm going to play until I come to a point where I feel stuck. I am leading a religious block with Shrine, and getting ready to colonize new islands, but I'm still looking for input as to how I should proceed.

This map is perfect for ice archers!

What's an ice archer?

 

[Harv]

What's an ice archer?

The picture of your start made me think of it. You appeared to be on an island near the south pole and you had an incredible amount of ice and very little good spots to settle.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/attackos-ice-archers.318539/

 

[Zavior]

I'm not going to wait all day for responses - I'm going to play until I come to a point where I feel stuck.

At the point where you feel stuck is not where you are making the mistakes, so it is kinda pointless to try give advice. The mistakes are made way before you feel stuck, but you never wait with your games that anyone could point those out, so these threads play out the same way every time.

 

[Tobiyogi]

The picture of your start made me think of it. You appeared to be on an island near the south pole and you had an incredible amount of ice and very little good spots to settle.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/attackos-ice-archers.318539/

It's off-topic, but I recommend highly the BtS-Scenario Age of Ice A gloomy world full of frostlings, ogres, frost giants and a charismatic leader to beat the God of eternal Winter. I used to love it!

 

[Harv]

It's off-topic, but I recommend highly the BtS-Scenario Age of Ice A gloomy world full of frostlings, ogres, frost giants and a charismatic leader to beat the God of eternal Winter. I used to love it!

I have played a little bit with it, but never very far before my attention span elapsed. It is better now. I think what has been going on recently has changed that, for better or for worse.

There is a perfectionist streak where I think I have to reload, because there is something I could have done better 20 turns before, like move a worked square to get one more hammer. Then I think my game is ruined. It is like staring at the ground looking for pennies while a 20 dollar bill floats over my head.

I also played a bit of Fall from Heaven 2.

 

[Tobiyogi]

If the attention span is low, FFH 2 is certainly a huge challenge. Too many peoples, unique units, spells, etc... I was so overwhelmed by it that I couldn't play it no longer. It is also fairly unbalanced and it is normal that you simply cannot win, but this realization comes late and is not as obvious as in a BtS game.
Age of Ice - otoh - is very purpose-oriented, you are already settled, you have one folk, you have clear goals. It is like a little harbor in a world of unsecurity. I played it so often that I could eventually win on Immortal. A nice distraction from regular Civ.