i am terrible at this game

i've never won before, even on the easiest level possible. ive tried diifferent strategies with different civs, and i just always fail. like, ive tried avoiding war and simply trying to expand by making my few cities very powerful, but that never works, so i tried attacking nearby cities early on and that didnt work either. im just completely awful at this game, and i really dont get why because i know what im doing and stuff, just nothing works out for some reason. what i need is like, a step by step guide as to what i should do when i first start up a game. i dont understand tactics at all, or anything like that. i just need some major advice

 

Before starting a game, make sure preferences is set to "always wait at end of the turn."

Start a pangea standard size map with 70% water, wet, temperate, 5 billion years old, no barbs.

First build 2 or 3 warriors to explore the map and make contact with as many other civ as soon as possible.
Then build a settler or granary and continue building settlers and settle as many cities as possible. Settle the cities about 2 tiles apart (city-tile-tile-city) but not at all cost. Varying the distance a bit is OK.
Let your cities build more workers and more settlers, with warriors in between in the event the city fills the production box faster than is grows. (since workers and settlers cost population)

Aim for about 1.5 times as many workers as you have cities. and use them to road every tile that is worked by a citizen first, and then just every tile. Improve easy to improve tiles first, and more difficult ones later.

Do not build wonders, do not build city improvements. Except for a granary in your capital, and maybe an aquaduct in your productive cities if they need one.

Once most of the freely available land is claimed (either by you or the other civ) build barracks in productive cities and start building fast moving offensive units (horseman) in those barrack cities and conquer one AI civ at a time. (at this point, you can start disbanding the regular warriors you've build during the expansion faze, they've served their purpose)
Keep units together in stacks (12 horseman in 1 stack for example) and attack enemy cities with all units in the stack at the same turn, do not send them in a few at a time. If you have losses, wait for replacements to arrive from the back before moving on. Do not stop building more units while you are at war.
Continue to also build settlers and workers to quickly fill up teh land you took from the AI, you can build them in the 90% corrupt towns far away from your capital, or build them in a city that is dedicated to pumping out settlers and workers.

Tech wise: Invent alphabet > writing > Code of law > philosophy > republic.
Then trade the more expensive tech you have for the cheap tech you skipped with the other civ (this is what early contact is important for) then go on and continue researching beyond what the AI have.

Once you've got this down, you can try to do better in your next game by building a couple of city improvements or even a wonder in a city here and there.
Return of investment is the keyword.

 

I advise you to try to play or at least follow a succession game : http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=67

You can even ask them for the starting game maybe to try and do the same.

 

Visit the War Academy. There are some excellent articles there, including but not limited to:

• Cracker's Opening Plays;
• Warmongering 101: A Tactical Primer; and
• Bamspeedy's Deity Settlers.

Visit the Succession Games forum. Look for Training Day Games (TDGs). Those usually have tons of discussion as to the hows and whys of the game. Even in games that are not TDGs, the discussions are usually very educational. Read the discussions and download some of the saves. That way, you can take an "inside look" at how other players are managing their empires.

 

If you want a tutorial, post your email address and I will send you one I made some time ago. do not post your address in a straight forward manner, but rather name AT sub_domains DOT domain. Like this vmxa AT cfl DOT rr DOT com.

Note that is not my address, so don't use to reach me.

 

Read this and you shall be enlightened.

 

Not sure what the value of reading about a game that is modified to be unlike a normal game. It has no corruption in it.Now if you want to read it for enjoyment, that is cool.

 

But the strategy is what counts, the lack of corruption simply makes it easier.

 

The lack of corruption is for all civs isn't it? No corruption makes the game harder on lower levels (cheiftain-regent) and easier on higher ones(monarch-sid).

 

No, it doesn't for a new player. A person has to learn the basics of an epic game before going on to modifications and exceptions. If the new player asked any of the rest of us a question, we wouldn't know how to answer him if he were using anything other than the basic ruleset. Most of us would assume he was playing a normal game and would advise accordingly.

Learning to manage corruption is one of the basics of the game, and leaning on a crutch would just make it more difficult later. Once he knows those basics, there are almost unlimited directions he can go.

 

I don't even know what the AI will do about no corruption, but I doubt it will handle properly. That is not the only modification either.

 

I'm playing a no corruption game right now, and the AI doesn't do anything to take advantage of it. It just builds its regular improvements and trains its regular units. I have an advantage since I'm playing on emperor and I can use it to build stuff faster and catch up.

 

Good point. You win.

 

Myth01 - Training Day - Regent is slowly getting underway. The starting save is posted and every player is encouraged to play 20 turns and then post their results for further discussion.

There is still an open slot; one person had to drop out.

I would strongly encourage you to join this Succession Game, or at least to lurk and watch what goes on.