[R&F] I just bought R&F and trying to figure it out

[zxcvbob]

(I also bought Gathering Storm, but have it disabled for now) Is there a guide to using governors and civic centers effectively? Also the dark ages and golden ages, etc. I did manage to get an inquisition for basically free during a dark age, so they are not all bad... I'm playing as Shaka and there's nobody nearby to attack so this is not going to be a good game, but I should play it out to see how things work.

There's probably a FAQ or something but I haven't found it yet. Thanks.

 

[Victoria]

The fundamental concept of the game as usual is to do well and win one of the victory conditions.
To do well you need to

Play effectively
Use the best civics to get bonus for what you are doing
Make the most of the civ you have, the map you have and the CS/other civs on that map.

Shaka with no close enemies means being limited initially in how you can benefit with Shaka but there are all the other things you can still do and it can be a great game unless you are only playing to war.

There is no specific guide to governors. People often start with Magnus/provision so settlers do not reduce initial population or Pingala with science or culture promotion.. Amani is also good for early suze and golden chances. But there are other less general choices you can take.

no idea what you mean by civic centres unless you mean city centres. In which case monuments and granaries can both be great.

the key concept to the start is many cities by growth/conquest or both. You aim for 10 cities by T100 as a measure of that. Then it is folly easy. The mistake noobs make is building too many districts early before conquest/growth.

 

[zxcvbob]

Thanks. I think it's called a government center; it's a new district. Not sure if it's worth building. And yes, I build too many districts I try to get a campus up quickly in my capital or sometimes a holy site, and the other in my 2nd city. Then a harbor somewhere because I need another trade route. By now, an AI is usually settling cities right in my face so I start planning how to kill them (and that's in semi-peaceful science or culture games)

I abandoned Shaka because I was so far behind in science and I started a new game with Poundmaker.

Emergencies are interesting. In my Shaka game, I declared a formal war against France and captured a city she settled too close to me, then made peace. The very next turn I was back at war and didn't realize it right away (so I took another city but it rebelled.) In the Poundmaker game, I got an early religion and it spread pretty well organically, and my neighbor England had a religion with just one or two cities and they were getting pressure from mine. So I converted her holy city. Religious emergency time! I bought several missionaries and stationed them around London and kept zapping it until she ran out of missionaries to convert it back. That emergency is not over yet; I think I get a relic or something when it's finished. I guess if I'm eligible to declare an emergency, a popup will tell me about it.

ETA: I should have put a governor in that captured French city that was too far from my cities, right? Doesn't even matter which one?

 

[Vargas1]

Correct that if you have loyalty issues, putting a governor in the city will help. Any governor will add +8 loyalty as soon as you assign them (you don't have to wait for them to be established to get the loyalty), which may or may not be enough depending on how bad the loyalty issues are.

The Government Plaza is definitely worth building - it's cheaper than other districts, it gives you a governor title (as does each building in it), and the buildings can be super powerful, particularly the first tier of buildings. If you're playing peacefully, then Ancestral Hall can really help with expansion by letting you build settlers faster (and giving new cities a free builder), while if you're playing for war, the Warlord's Throne is very helpful (I recently had a game with Shaka where, once I started attacking, I basically had a permanent +20% boost to production across my empire thanks to Warlord's Throne).

 

[zxcvbob]

There is no specific guide to governors. People often start with Magnus/provision so settlers do not reduce initial population or Pingala with science or culture promotion.. Amani is also good for early suze and golden chances. But there are other less general choices you can take.

Starting to get the hang of it. Magnus doesn't get the settler promotion until pretty late, but he sure comes in handy building spaceship parts. I tend to use him and Amani a lot but haven't been able to get her to flip any AI cities for me; I think she has prevented some of my cities from flipping during a dark age.

 

[Victoria]

Magnus doesn't get the settler promotion until pretty late

One of the big secrets is pushing culture early. Ideally getting to PP by T50-55. One of the benefits in doing this is 2 governors.... or Magnus+provision. Now Magnus +provision with 50% settler production from EE is a great strategy if it feels safe to do so. Getting settlers out ASAP is the most important thing (as well as capturing cities). More cities = more production and science/culture. The idea is you will lag behind in science while doing so but by T100 you will be rocketing ahead of everyone. Combine this with the 50% chop of Magnus and you are getting an idea of how to play. At the bottom of this post is a chop example link, it’s a bit old but gives you the core strategy most good players use in one form or another.
Pingala x2 or 3 is a good strategy as is Amani if going golden because early CS suze gives +2 era points each.

haven't been able to get her to flip any AI cities for me;

She is but one small tool. Tend not to use that promotion unless I am building huge cities or have Eleanor.... or I am doing a special loyalty pillage game that takes some explaining. If you have that promotion and little else, it is best used where a city has started to flip and she speeds it up.

 

[C0nstantG@ming]

Starting to get the hang of it. Magnus doesn't get the settler promotion until pretty late, but he sure comes in handy building spaceship parts. I tend to use him and Amani a lot but haven't been able to get her to flip any AI cities for me; I think she has prevented some of my cities from flipping during a dark age.

I honestly believe that Magnus is probably the greatest of all when it comes to build spaceship parts in the most efficient manner.