I'm in trouble

[obsolete]

Going to resume a game soon. I'm Roman, and my most advanced unit now is the Pike-man. Cyrus already has muskets and Cavalry. Dohhh.. I got more terrain, but had some problems getting it. And then I still have Isabella to get rid of on my continent. Good news is I totaly axed Peter.

Now my tech slider is almost at 0. I have LOTS of units, just science hurting, and this army is costing a fortune. Rapidly becoming obsolete, but I'm still pumping out pikemen (and lots of them ), with a lot of catapuls and macemen. I am hoping to take out another couple cities as soon as the next peace term is up.

Then to throw that off, Ghandi is off on another continent growing exponentialy powerfull. At least Japan has just declared war on him, may slow him down, but we shall see.

It may take me a miracle to win this one. Monarch.

 

[Galileo44]

Rapidly becoming obsolete, but I'm still pumping out pikemen (and lots of them ), with a lot of catapuls and macemen.

I found this hilarious simply because of your name.

However to offer some advice: It seems that you have more than enough land. Do not build more units, sign peace, disband uneccessary units and build up your territory. Cottaging the cities will bring you up to speed faster than you would think.

Side note, why are you building so many pikemen? Do the AIs have lots of cavalry? If not, your hammers are much better spent on more maces and cats.

 

[Warspite2]

Maybe you should try to get peace and end the war for a while. Then let your science catch up and trade for as many techs as you can get if possible. All the while plan for another attack and move you units into position.

 

[Uncle E]

Build a round of workers and some tech improvements like libraries or try to spread your religion for shrine income to offset your mounting army costs ... real life budgeting there for ya!

 

[obsolete]

I took 2 more cities, and that was all. Stopped waring and tried to build science etc, but no go. Ghandi was on another continent and Japan only attacked him onece, not even taking a damn city. So to make a long story short, Ghandi built the apollo program and was making engines before I even got a chance to get out of pike-men units!

GG Better luck next time...

 

[mutax2003]

Could you post a save from earlier, maybe from around 1000 AD? We can try and see whether the game can be salvaged.

 

[harusame]

imo, there is no way you can catch up AI once you fall back. Their military will be stronger than yours, so you can only sit duck and wait they launch ship
once you fall back too far in tech, just give up all and go straight to cultural victory


you can produce lots missionary and spread your religion to all, build a shrine and ask them to convert to yours, so you can live peacefully until AI get free religion
then you spam temples for cathedrals at all your captured/founded cities

focus all at GA birth and just stop research and convert all commerce/hammer to culture
at monarch, AI will not launch before 1900 AD

 

[Galileo44]

imo, there is no way you can catch up AI once you fall back. Their military will be stronger than yours, so you can only sit duck and wait they launch ship

(My bold)


This is totally, absolutely wrong. On any difficulty above Monarch, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to start out with a tech lead. Therefore, to win you must catch up to the AI. Any person who plays on Emperor or above will tell you the same thing, high difficulty is playing catchup all game long.

 

[harusame]

(My bold)


This is totally, absolutely wrong. On any difficulty above Monarch, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to start out with a tech lead. Therefore, to win you must catch up to the AI. Any person who plays on Emperor or above will tell you the same thing, high difficulty is playing catchup all game long.

the only way to catch up is by tech trading again and again by researching different techs than AI's techs
so what will you do if you have no more tech to trade?

you should look at his situation
pikemen = civil service and AI has already military tradition+gunpowder
and obviously also paper-->etc (AI ALWAYS get paper)
which means he will have no more tech to trade

in my opinion, the easiest way to win at difficulty up from emperor is cultural victory, since you basically dont need to research anymore after liberalism

 

[Mr. Civtastic]

(My bold)


This is totally, absolutely wrong. On any difficulty above Monarch, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to start out with a tech lead. Therefore, to win you must catch up to the AI. Any person who plays on Emperor or above will tell you the same thing, high difficulty is playing catchup all game long.

I dont know about totally absolutely wrong. It depends on how far back he is. If I go to the trade screen and Im six-seven techs back and I know the ai has more but I just dont have the pre-reqs to see what else...then its probably game over unless cultural or diplo win. Yeah, youre right its hard to keep a tech lead, much less get one on monarch and up. But there is a huge difference in being behind a couple techs with the occasional catch-up...as opposed to pikemen against cavalry.

 

[Snaaty]

"This is totally, absolutely wrong. On any difficulty above Monarch, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to start out with a tech lead."



When you are playing agressive, yes.


When you are playing peaceful, not true.

Simply specialise in researching the right techs early (alphabet, codes of law, philosophy (lightbulbed)) and use more lightbulbing to get to liberalism first (or directly to nationalism, whatever you prefere). Then you can stay competitive (or even a little ahead in tech) even on deity (see 2. deity challange)

 

[Galileo44]

To clarify what I meant. I meant that in almost all circumstances on higher levels, except cultural victory, a tech lead is important to get. However, due to the starting bonuses of the AI it is very hard to begin with a tech lead. Whether by pointy-stick diplomacy, lightbulbing, trading, or warring, it is about gaining a tech lead.

The exceptions are cultural and any fast warring victory ie before 1500AD

 

[Dirk1302]

imo, there is no way you can catch up AI once you fall back. Their military will be stronger than yours, so you can only sit duck and wait they launch ship

This is not true up to emperor 2.08. I was once researching Education when i was informed that Egypt had converted to state property (communism) she must have been some 10-15 techs ahead. I still won the space race eventually. Generally you can do a lot of catch up by trading. Also look at Aelf's emc games. 1 or 2 of them have been real catch up games.

 

[harusame]

This is not true up to emperor 2.08. I was once researching Education when i was informed that Egypt had converted to state property (communism) she must have been some 10-15 techs ahead. I still won the space race eventually. Generally you can do a lot of catch up by trading. Also look at Aelf's emc games. 1 or 2 of them have been real catch up games.

that is because education and communism are in the same tech branch
you still can catch up if you research the nationalism or the gunpowder branches, you will still eventually be able to trade and catch up

now once again look his situation
he is still at civil service (pikemen)
while AI has already at least gunpowder, military tradition and Paper for sure
which means all existing techtrees have been occupied
he can only catch up a bit if there is another AI which is slower than him, but this is uncommon in difficulties up from emperor
but however this is not a very good way

IF you want to catch up tech, Do it early with war, especially when you get your special unit.

Falling back in research at higher difficulties (i play usually at immortal) usually means: go for culture victory

so far the only victory i can obtain at immortal difficulty, pangea, standard map (vanilla 1.61) is cultural victory