I hate the early game, how to cope with it?

[Gilgameshuggah]

Starting usually on Emperor, I don't want to play Sumeria or Nubia all the time

Other than that, unless I customize a very specific game like England on a small land mass archipelago, the game turns into quick restart or frustrating struggle way too often, especially on pangaea or larger continents.

Surprise DoW's (when on the other front with my army) wiping me out, barbarians dragging down my early war army until it's too late, too many too aggressive neighbors right next door if I play peacefully and I don't really feel like going into early wars to get snowballing with Sweden, Korea or Canada, feels kinda wrong. Without early (warrior, archer) non resource using UU's the ealy war success is too random. Because of the combat boosts/penalties, the tree (or four) archer + warrior army is too situational and the whole game can be ruined by a barbarian camp spamming horsemen or AI having too many too good units when I finally make it there. Or just terrain features preventing easily getting all three archers to fire upon the enemy city.

I wonder if there is a mod to scale the difficulty more towards the later game? I'd like to see advanced civ's in my game, maybe do some later wars without totally dominating with superior units while getting more starts going nicely. As it is now, generally if I survive the start, there's nothing stopping my victory.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I find the early game the most exciting and interesting, but obviously not if I get swamped and killed. (For some reason, Rome is the one AI I always have problems with as an early neighbor. He and I always end up tussling. )

As it is now, generally if I survive the start, there's nothing stopping my victory.

So this is the key. Don't worry about doing well in the early game, relative to other civs. Concentrate instead on building a foundation to pass them later. This means an army and Settlers.

Right away, you want to build an army. I mean, right away. Don't build a Monument. Don't build a Granary. Don't build a Builder or a Settler or a Scout. Give serious consideration to Archery as your first 2nd-tier technology - or at least research it halfway, so that if a war starts you'll get the Inspiration Bonus in the course of things and can upgrade shortly thereafter. You may need to get Spearmen quickly too, if one of the aggressive cavalry Civs or Barbarian Horsemen show up at your door. It's crucial less often than Archery, but keep your eyes open. (I should add that if you can't wipe the floor with the AI in a war, using a slightly inferior force, you should learn how to do that even if you're not interested in being a warmonger. Being able to crush the AI like an empty beer can, anything that isn't an overwhelming tsunami of force against you, should be considered a basic skill at Emperor and above, like navigating the Tech Tree. If warfare isn't so easy that it's almost boring, you might continue to struggle at Emperor. Once you're able to brush aside the AI like an NBA/Premiere League player in the local public park, you can start building the early Monument, Scout, or Builder.)

fwiw, the value of a large army in the early game isn't strictly about making war on other civs, if making war isn't your bag. I start every game by building 2 Warriors. Most games, I'll build 3 or 4 Warriors before anything else. Exploring your immediate surroundings is paramount. You get early bonuses for finding a Natural Wonder, for discovering another Continent, for being the first to meet a City-State, for capturing villages and for clearing out Barbarian camps. I like to plot out good locations for 3-4 cities before I even establish my second city. You can't even really know what you ought to build if you haven't even looked around first, and that first Warrior by itself isn't sufficient.

Also, remember that harder isn't necessarily better. The difficulty levels for Civ aren't badges of excellence, they're just different kinds of games. I play on Emperor myself, but not because Immortal or Deity are too hard for me, it's because those games swerve in directions that I don't care for. I do play on Immortal or Deity once in a blue moon, just to change it up once in a while. "Difficulty level" is like another game setting, like playing a different Civ or playing on a different kind of map.

All that said, there are some ways to tune the difficulty besides Difficulty (ymmv, of course):

• Longer games are easier and larger maps are easier. I usually play on Epic. I find Marathon kind of tedious, but give it a try.
  
• Maps with more water are easier at the beginning, which is just easier, period (e.g. play on Continents or Continents and Islands instead of Pangaea).
  
• Get the mod that gives all City-States Ancient Walls for free, which dramatically slows down early-era warmongers. I also just like having CSes around, 'cause I think it makes the game more interesting.

Also, getting a Religion of your own makes the early game harder, because you have to get started on it right away, during the game's most tenuous era. Every other Victory Condition can be achieved from the middle of the game. I also feel like there are more random variables that have to come together to found a Religion: finding a Natural Wonder fast; being the first to meet a Religious City-State; finding a Relic in a village; getting early Suzerainty of a Religious CS purely from quests, before you've earned enough Envoys to just buy them. You don't need all of these things to fall into place, but you a few of them help get you or it'll be too late. So just completely conceding getting your own religion makes the game easier.

 

[Jkchart]

I find the early game the most exciting and interesting, but obviously not if I get swamped and killed. (For some reason, Rome is the one AI I always have problems with as an early neighbor. He and I always end up tussling. )

Trajan is a traitorious fiend

 

[Scaramanga]

Yeah I like Emperor too but the AI is merciless. Barbarian attacks will serve as an early reminder to be vigilant and prepared. Anyone settling strategic places (resources, fresh water, too darn close to you) will need to be dealt with swiftly. Don't build wonders early unless you're China.

 

[RohirrimElf]

Really? I find the early game the most interesting. Your actions are most meaningfull. Building a holy site/shrine, settler or quick rush will have impacts for a very long time.

 

[Gilgameshuggah]

Really? I find the early game the most interesting. Your actions are most meaningfull. Building a holy site/shrine, settler or quick rush will have impacts for a very long time.

That's maybe part of what I dislike. I start game, say with Zulu and plan in my head to dominate with Impi when I have tech and civics to push them out as corps or armies or whatever. And then I find that I was basically crippled or already unstoppable by the time I get there. Put out an early army and take out close neighbor, why not take two? After that it makes zero sense to stop until you hit ocean. You are undeniably snowballing with military and everyone has denounced you by then.

I have a feeling that if I want an army, I must build it early. Tech advances shouldn't be a negative but sometimes they are. Since you can't gold rush to completion, building lower tech units and upgrading is so much easier than building advanced units. And when you have them units early, you should use them...

I also feel that in VI you must go wide, at least to some extent. Playing a peaceful civ is quite depedent on the start situation. OCC is probably unwinnable and just getting four good cities rarely does it. Without unit stacking defending them alone can be hard.

 

[Vandlys]

What I STRONGLY dislike about every single game on Emperor on higher is that I always have to start by building an army. Sometimes I sneak in a monument or a scout, but mostly it's slingers, walls, and settlers, expand my empire until I have about five to seven cities (I play tall, and peaceful) and then I just have to play the defense until I surpass the others in science and everything.

I wish there were options, besides the map advantages like islands, to just have a peaceful neighbour or something (by coincidence). Hey, we met, we didn't fight, we immediately exchanged diplomats, you're sending me a trader, let's band together to have a strong foundation.
But to be fair, the diplomacy in this game isn't too strong..

 

[Gilgameshuggah]

What I STRONGLY dislike about every single game on Emperor on higher is that I always have to start by building an army. Sometimes I sneak in a monument or a scout, but mostly it's slingers, walls, and settlers, expand my empire until I have about five to seven cities (I play tall, and peaceful) and then I just have to play the defense until I surpass the others in science and everything.

And building army just to not be early DoW'd and ran over is a huge handicap when the army could be used to gain something too. Handpicking AI civs feels like cheating but I'd like not to have ones next to me who just want war when trying to play peaceful.

 

[Tech Osen]

What I STRONGLY dislike about every single game on Emperor on higher is that I always have to start by building an army. Sometimes I sneak in a monument or a scout, but mostly it's slingers, walls, and settlers, expand my empire until I have about five to seven cities (I play tall, and peaceful) and then I just have to play the defense until I surpass the others in science and everything.

I wish there were options, besides the map advantages like islands, to just have a peaceful neighbour or something (by coincidence). Hey, we met, we didn't fight, we immediately exchanged diplomats, you're sending me a trader, let's band together to have a strong foundation.
But to be fair, the diplomacy in this game isn't too strong..

I always play on Emperor (continents and islands) and I never start with building an army. Always scout, builder, slinger.
Sometimes I get overrun but usually it works just fine. Even with founding a religion. Rather surprised some of you have so much trouble. I don't consider myself an expert player or anything, never even tried the higher difficulties.

 

[Gilgameshuggah]

I always play on Emperor (continents and islands) and I never start with building an army. Always scout, builder, slinger.
Sometimes I get overrun but usually it works just fine. Even with founding a religion. Rather surprised some of you have so much trouble. I don't consider myself an expert player or anything, never even tried the higher difficulties.

Scout and slinger won't save you if horsemen and chariots appear on your borders. My problem is not so much the survival but a habit to build army that may or may not make any progress (and while at it, decide the outcome of the game) or be wasted (compared to warmongers) as nothing but a guarantee of some level of peace.

 

[Tech Osen]

Scout and slinger won't save you if horsemen and chariots appear on your borders

No of course not, but you make it sound like that happens every game and that's just not my experience.

 

[AntSou]

I've been playing Deity ever since my first game, which was on Emperor, and I never build an army early.

I often prioritise the scout to get all those free envoys and early boosts, and also know exactly where to send my settler. I'll immediately know how dangerous the surroundings are too. Slinger is often a second choice. But if fairly quite I'll risk a monument. I often use the money to buy granaries.

I'm often on my first settler as third choice, but it depends. If too dangerous, it must wait.

Two warriors and a slinger is usually all I need in the beginning. Then I'll start making more slingers/archers for defense. Warriors if I need to clear camps.

The one time I got seriously ravaged by barbarian horsemen, I got so many boosts and promotions from it that I turned it around by conquering all of the dutch cities.

 

[Gilgameshuggah]

I just had a short game with Mansa Musa on king where I tweaked the world into hot, old, wet and abundant to have easier start (on second thought old might not be so good but at least I had desert hills). I went scout, settler, holy site path and my capitol was wiped out by barbs by the time I had gold to buy a single builder. I hadn't met a single civ, and only one CS by then. My scout was killed by quadrireme when fleeing barb warriors (I don't like reloading autosaves when I blindly stumble into something). There was a village on three sides of me close by and I had three warriors, archer, slinger and three scouts on me. I can't see how I could have survived with the production limitations. Stopping barb scouts is futile if I don't have another unit to surround them from behind. Barbs off and mod to give city walls to CS's is my next step when trying to play peaceful.

It would be great to have a quick start option similar to some older games in series. Something to instantly put me into the situation where the coin toss of getting a feasible start is already favorable to me without having a snowballing army taking out all the neighbours.

 

[AntSou]

Stopping barb scouts is futile if I don't have another unit to surround them from behind.

It's really not that hard, especially since you already know they are coming, so you don't need to keep your own units waiting within your borders.

The first barbarian scout usually dies against my own scout and warrior unit. My own scout goes behind him, preventing him from running away.

I'll keep a slinger outside my borders as well, in a different direction. It's enough to deal with a second barbarian scout as long as you keep it at least two tiles away from your borders. It also stops barbarian camps from spawning close to your territory (camps only seem to spawn in fog of war).

If one barbarian scout manages to slip away, usually my strategy is to immediately rush the camp with about three units, if the camp is not too far. I only do this if I don't have archers and walls yet. Best case scenario you clear the camp. Worst case scenario they spawn units faster than you can clear them, but you can still slow them down and go for smart trades. If there are no smart trades, position your units in the best defensive spots. Usually that's mountains with forests or across rivers. Look at how much xp you need to be able to promote your units. You want those units to take enough damage so that you're able to promote them (and therefore also heal them), but not so much that they would die obviously. Sometimes you'll need to commit sacrifices.

This all gives you time.

But killing those scouts is the key. No wonder you're struggling if they slip away often.

 

[konokono]

But killing those scouts is the key. No wonder you're struggling if they slip away often.

Pretty much the biggest spike in my play came when I realized how Barb scouts work. If they have an exclamation mark on their head DONT LET THEM GET BACK TO CAMP.

Sometimes you can't prevent it, like if they come from a direction where you have no vision. But if you're playing smart, this should only happen in the first few turns, because a major priority is to get enough units to have vision around your capital, 1-2 hexes out, so that you can spot and kill/chase off Barb scouts before they see your capital.

That being said, I agree with the OP that the difficulty is weighted way too much to the beginning, and that's coz you're facing opponents that don't play by the rules (AI with bonus units & barbs). Once barbs become a non issue and the AI plays by the rules, they can't compete. Sad

 

[Gilgameshuggah]

The whole dealing with barbarians playing peaceful civ is yet more early micromanagement I could do without. Everything matters too much in early game to my taste. Sped up start would be great.

 

[bbbt]

Sped up start would be great.

Have you tried the later era starts in the advanced options? That's basically what they are.

 

[Gilgameshuggah]

Have you tried the later era starts in the advanced options? That's basically what they are.

Actually I've overlooked that completely. I have to try but instead of small AI built civ to play with from later stage I'd actually like to have just 2-3 settlers, couple of builders and few military units.

 

[Naktis]

You hate the best part of the game :/

 

[bbbt]

Actually I've overlooked that completely. I have to try but instead of small AI built civ to play with from later stage I'd actually like to have just 2-3 settlers, couple of builders and few military units.

That's exactly what it does. You get a couple settlers (depending on the era), builders (that appear on city settling), and military units. Your first couple districts get built in one turn. You start with all techs/civics from previous eras unlocked and the corresponding governor tiles to assign. Only negative is you can't build all the earlier wonders.

Honestly I think a lot of people overlook it. I feel like that should move it to the main set up screen as an option.