I feel ashamed now...

[Darkshadows]

Stalin just owned me in classical era on chieftain difficulty

And this ain't the first time it happens, I am usually last in research, unit production and city settling.

It seems to me that the AI gets instant production to wonders and settlers seeing how fast they pump those out (by the time I have 2 cities 1 AI is usually dominating half of the continent without war )

I was wondering is there any way out of the situation, I was thinking to specialize cities on certain things (like research city, military city etc).

Oh and why do some AIs tend to ignore espionage

 

[lampshade]

stalin.
classical era.
chieftain.

dear. oh. dear.

follow one of the walkthrough games in the strategy forum. it will blow your mind.

 

[Bluestew0]

Start a new game at Chieftan, play through several turns. Post saves at certain points. We can look at your save files and give you constructive advice to improve your game.

I suspect your problem is building and tile use. Chieftan should be very simple for you so I'm guessing we could guide you to dominating on through Noble by viewing some of your save files.

 

[offworld]

On Chieftain?? Don't feel ashamed, getting owned on chieftain is actually quite an accomplishment.

Haha no just kidding, read up on the strategy guides for beginners, and don't bother with espionage just yet. Espionage is an advanced feature that should only be seriously invested in once you get the hang of the game. You can quite easily ignore espionage and not suffer for it.

 

[Joshua368]

How long does it take you to get your second city out? You should have the settler out by around 2500 B.C. on a standard game... the AI usually doesn't have the entire continent by then, expecially on low difficulty.

As people are saying, your approach is probably wrong... hosting a playthrough where people give advice should help.

 

[Charonicus]

I used to get owned on chieftain, now I just started my first game on prince. You've taken the best first step by coming here. ^^
It sounds like you're not utilizing chopping effectively. Try this?
Build a worker in your capital while your scout/warrior explores and research bronze working. From here, build a warrior while your worker hooks up say a farm or cows or whatever you have. Once that's done, build a settler, but have the worker chop a forest. It's an immediate boost to your settler production, bringing it out faster, send it off with your warrior while you build another to protect your capital. With a little practice you can try all sorts of opening moves. My current favourite is to have a worker chop out another worker, then have them both chop a settler.
Follow BlueStew's advice too. Providing periodic saves will let people see where you need improvement. Just be prepared for a scathing critique. You won't learn unless people point out your failings honestly. Good luck. ^^ With a little knowledge under your belt you should leave chieftain behind pretty fast.

As to your specific questions. Specializing your cities is the first major step! But it isn't easy, at least it wasn't for me. If you can get one or two focusing on production to build military, one or two more with lots of food for Great People and all the rest with cottages then you've got a solid empire. Practice makes perfect here.

Why do some AIs ignore espionage? It depends. Remember you're playing on chieftain, the AI gets a lot tougher on the other settings and will utilize that espionage. It's affected by many things. Naturally whoever builds the Great Wall will likely gain an early esp lead. Each AI has its own personality though and some may favour other tactics over espionage. There are many ways to tackle each game. You'll find plenty of reading here that will show you all sorts of different angles you can take to try and defeat your opponents.

 

[lampshade]

actually i don't think i was being very helpful.

definitely chop your people (settlers and workers) because while they're being built you aren't growing, and growth is important early on. chopping down forests makes a big difference to your early production.

don't worry too much about military units because the ai won't attack you early. walls are not massively important in a low level game until you get going or unless you're really close to an aggressive enemy. aqueducts are not a high priority either.

don't bother with culture in your capital early on - so no monument, it's a waste of time. in your second city, unless you're creative, i still wouldn't bother with a monument, i'd hang on until you can build a library.

a granary is a good investment - you'll grow a lot quicker - remember that each extra person works an extra tile - so if you have a food resource it can't be worked until someone is free to work it.

let the governor decide which tiles you work, it's easy to mess up if you try and sort that out yourself.

if you can get the hang of slavery you'll race through the early levels - i didn't start to use it until prince level because i didn't understand it.

slavery, monotheism and forges give you a massive cumulative production boost.

alphabet and the next one (the one that lets you trade, i forget) are important at low levels because you can trade techs with the other leaders.

settle your cities in places that have at least one food tile.

by the sounds of it you're doing something fundamentally wrong, once you discover what it is you'll be fine.

i generally build a worker first, then chop workboats (if you have seafood tiles), then a warrior or two, then a granary, then a settler. when i build my first new city i usually have it build a worker first, because your first worker will still be working on your capital, so the growth will be slow in the new city, so you may as well have it build a worker for it's first 18 or so turns.

if you have a worker working, seafood tiles that are working, and a granary, you'll grow your capital really quickly and you can then start to use slavery to use your unhappy citizens to build other stuff quicker.

don't bother with wonders unless you've got really good production or stone hooked up to your city. if it says a wonder is going to take 100+ turns and you've already got a city or 4 or 5 then it's not worth it.

if you can build wonders quite quickly, pyramids are good and so is the oracle because it gives you a free high tech tech which can give you a big advantage over the ai. not sure the others are really worth the investment early on.

so far as the leaders are concerned, creative leaders are good at low levels because you grab land quickly. financial and industrious are good too. the ones that give you a military bonus are not so important because hopefully you won't be warring until you're ready. remember to look at the power graph - roughly speaking, if you are less than two-thirds of everyone else then there's a good chance you'll get attacked.

hope that one of these is your mistake.

i'm not any kind of expert by the way.

 

[Pir Lan Tota]

don't bother with wonders unless you've got really good production or stone hooked up to your city. if it says a wonder is going to take 100+ turns and you've already got a city or 4 or 5 then it's not worth it.

I disagree with this bit, Stonehenge is perhaps the most important wonder to build immidiately.

Give this a shot on the research front
1. Research Mining
2. Research Bronze Working
3. Research Mystic

Give this a shot on the build front
1. If city has access to something that gives extra food, build warrior first and grow to 2 ppl. If not build worker
2. Build / Chop 2 more workers
3. Chop Stonehenge. You will want to time the completion of your 3rd worker with the discover of Stonehenge

After that research Road and Pottery. After that, what ever you need, Agriculture, Fishing, etc etc

But Pottery and Stonehenge are critical, gives you free culture building and cottages for eco.

Oh, and 1 more thing, play at Marathon speed, this will teach you how to best use all the ages

 

[TheMeInTeam]

don't bother with wonders unless you've got really good production or stone hooked up to your city. if it says a wonder is going to take 100+ turns and you've already got a city or 4 or 5 then it's not worth it.

I disagree with this bit, Stonehenge is perhaps the most important wonder to build immidiately.

Give this a shot on the research front
1. Research Mining
2. Research Bronze Working
3. Research Mystic

Give this a shot on the build front
1. If city has access to something that gives extra food, build warrior first and grow to 2 ppl. If not build worker
2. Build / Chop 2 more workers
3. Chop Stonehenge. You will want to time the completion of your 3rd worker with the discover of Stonehenge

After that research Road and Pottery. After that, what ever you need, Agriculture, Fishing, etc etc

But Pottery and Stonehenge are critical, gives you free culture building and cottages for eco.

Oh, and 1 more thing, play at Marathon speed, this will teach you how to best use all the ages

No. There are precisely zero wonders that you can say are important before even starting the game. Some are favored on certain maps, but ultimately, zero.

Marathon drastically affects the game balance and once you're used to it invariably makes the game easier (since both you and the AI essentially get a free heroic epic or so in each city, but the AI keeps the same unit/building distribution it has on other speeds). That doesn't mean it isn't fun to play, but keep that in mind!

Really just reading war academy articles and walkthrough games over on strategy and tips are the fastest way to learn (for me this was settler---->immortal in less than a year, despite barely playing earlier civs).

Snaaty's guide to emperor+ can be applied to other difficulties as well although the early barb/ai defense that guide affords isn't truly needed until emperor...it will certainly work.

Generally speaking, rare is the opening where you wouldn't start with a worker, research to improve the specials in the capitol, and build some warrior/scouting units while the city grows. Make sure you prioritize working improved tiles.

Stonehenge is certainly useful but it's nothing a chopped or whipped monument can't mimic. Or religion. Or a caste artist...etc. Often the cost of the wonder makes it not worthwhile (going for it may cost a city spot, another wonder such as great wall, etc etc). This is true even at lower levels. At higher levels like emp+, going bronze/SH and not having copper readily available is a death wish unless you turn barbs off.

 

[Roller123]

Turn barbs on, and get the great wall. A barbarian uprising turned all these AI settlers and cities of my neighbors to dust, but mine. Set them all decades back and allowed me to expand freely. I never play with barbs again.. That was on prince.

 

[Cashew]

I bet you're not making enough workers. No workers=> no improved tiles=> no growth=> crappy production.

You should always make a worker first (or a warrior if you absolutely have to) and usually make workers before building settlers so you can chop the settler and improve tiles while you're waiting.

 

[Infantry#14]

My advices:

City Build Order:
1.Warrior, continue untill 2 pop then build
2.Worker
3.Settler
4.Worker
5.Archer
6.Granary/Library and whip for completion, Chop those woods!

While building settler, get improvement techs like mining, agriculture, wheels (I think you get these 3 for free), animal husbandary and bronze working.

Forget about the religious techs and early wonders, you can steal the wonders later.
Second city should preferly build for either good production site (bronze or hills), or can generate commerce. Build those cottages and have your citizens work on them!
I cant stress enough of this. Have tons of commerce means you will be ahead in tech. Then you can just cruise through battles b/c you have more tech advance troops.

Early Wars
If you feel militaristic, get some axe (6 in the safe side, but at least 4) and take out the nearest neighbor. Use common sense. Look at the combat odds. Usually 2 axe = 1 archer (3 axe = 1 archer if on hill or wall). AI rarely build strong defenses in low diff.

 

[Justy]

Look, don't feel bad. Many people here have being playing Civ since it was an Avalon Hill game. So many have an innate knowledge of how to play; tried and true strategies. There's much to learn. But do not worry, you'll catch on. Just read the many helpful posts here and your game will improve. We are all learning new tricks or different strategies to try out.

Ultimately the balance is strength and trade. Once you learn when to apply the various factors you'll do fine.