[BTS] I'm looking to improve

[lymond]

Salad should die...you can vassal others later, but the closer cities are more of value to you

If you haven't created a super-medic yet, that would be the priority for me if you expect to continue warring a lot. Healing/XP as needed a very good choice for others. HE settle is an option - you are IMP - but that would probably be the last thing...are you even close or need HE at this point.

kudos on your improvement with each iteration

 

[as2w]

@Anysense @Pangaea I decided to finish off Saladin this time through. I do appreciate the information about the +1 in all of my cities. I'm at a point in the game that I don't know how to proceed. For the moment I am building wealth in a bunch of cities as I don't know what I should be focusing on now.

Zara offered to be my vassal and I took him up on it. Was this a good decision? Or will I regret it later? I'm new to this aspect of the game as I only played Vanilla before.

I am working on teching to guilds to get knights. Nobody will trade with me so I'll be self-teching each of them.

I used my GS to start a GA. I was able to convert to Bureaucracy without having a turn of anarchy. That was a nice bonus.

So how do I proceed from here? Do I scout out Justy? Do I get my HAs into stacks to move forward? What about production in my cities. I've been building a few longbows in order to have solid def in key cities.

I look forward to further input.

Spoiler Turn 137 :

 

[as2w]

@lymond I'm not anywhere close to HE, at least I don't think I am. Thanks for the encouragement. Like I mentioned in the post above, I'm not sure I know where to go from here. So I definitely am open to what the next steps could be.

 

[lymond]

Zara is a good peace vassal. I would definitely have taken him up on that. With high power and good relations, some AIs are more inclined to accept peace vassalization. Note, through the dialogue you can direct Zara's research. Also, don't be afraid to gift/trade him some techs to give him a boost - reasearch or military. You can bribe him to stop trading with AIs as well, but note that this is a diplo hit on those AIs, so do as what seems suitable.

Don't be afraid to raze crap cities. I'm only looking at the pic, but Kufah looks horrible...just a drain to keep those.

Forget what kinda map this is..appears you have 1 more AI to meet. If like Pangaea, a conquest/dom type game seem suitable. Knights are fine on lower levels - they lose efficacy on higher levels. So you could just go stomping the map.

What are you doing about great people? Great Merchants might be good here for money, but you would need a golden age and caste during it. Has Music been founded yet by anyone. Sorry, can't open the save.

Wealth is fine for now until you have a plan and goal.

(oh..just reread and saw you used a GS on a golden age..that is fine..but note that golden ages boost GPP, so a temp switch to CAst and specialists focus - scientists or merchants is good)

 

[as2w]

@lymond TBH, I didn't look closely at Kufah before or when it fell. Shortly after, I looked and thought, it has no food whatsoever. So yes, Kufah is a crap city and I missed it beforehand.

Thanks for the tips with Zara. I'll gift him some techs to get him going in a direction that helps me. He just traded to get currency. I'll see how I can direct him from here.

As far as great people, the only ones I have popped are GS and I have gotten only 2 GGs.

Next time I have a golden age, I'll look to switch to caste system and specialists focus.

 

[Pangaea]

If Kufah is crap and just a drain on your economy, you could just gift it away to Mehmed or whoever is over there (provided it's an option when you go into the diplo screen with him). When you go to war against him later, you can raze it.

Suppose it's too late to kill the map with HAs at this point, guess some are getting longbows? So then it makes sense like Lymond says and go for Knights. They're pretty good, at least before castles everywhere, and ignore first strikes, which reduce the power of longbows a bit. Mass produce them, and clear the map. The great thing with horses is that they move fast, so you can overpower the AI before they're able to whip out (enough) defenders - even at high levels.

Meanwhile, you may prepare by building Barracks and possibly Stables - depends a bit on what civics you are running (Vassalage?). Combat II promotions on a unit with quite high base strength give you more bang for the buck, so to speak. For a Knight, that takes their real strength from 10 to 12.

If up against spears or pikes, you can go with Combat I + Shock on a selection of Knights.

Also, you probably have a pile of well-promoted HAs now, so a Great Merchant for a trade mission or saving up some gold would be a good move - so you can upgrade those guys once you know Guilds. It'll be expensive with a big army.

 

[as2w]

@Pangaea That was a really clever idea to gift it to Justy. I gave it to him to offload it and then razed it rather quickly after I DoW'd him. Justy just capitulated and I got Aesthetics and a little gold as well. Elizabeth still doesn't have Feudalism so I can roll her with HAs. That pretty much will finish off my continent as Zara is a vassal already. I have finished Guilds so I can make knights if needed, but I think I may need to turn to sea going technologies soon. I don't think I will have enough percentage of the world by taking England in the south.

I am two turns from paper and I think I'll be able to trade maps with Mehmed. That may reveal the other civ for me. Might even get me enough to get the +1 movement bonus on the water. We'll see.

I'll move my HA's to the south along with my catapults. Won't need them but for London.

So what's next? I know I'm in a good position at this point. I just am unsure what I need to build and where. Looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks again for working with me as I work my way through this one.

Spoiler Turn 150 :

 

[Fish Man]

You have enough land to win space here. One option, if you don't want to war anymore, is tech communism, switch to SP/caste/free religion, spam workshops/watermills, and then sit back and just build the spaceship. Recommended tech order after that is printing press -> education -> communism -> assembly line -> electricity -> industrialization -> rocketry -> plastics for Three Gorges Dam -> superconductors -> fusion -> composites -> ecology.

PS if you decide to go this route looks like you'll need a lot of workers - 1.5 for every city at least. Also don't forget - most cities should be building wealth/research most of the time, not buildings and units; the only really necessary ones are forge, library, granary, and factory.

 

[Anysense]

PS if you decide to go this route looks like you'll need a lot of workers - 1.5 for every city at least. Also don't forget - most cities should be building wealth/research most of the time, not buildings and units; the only really necessary ones are forge, library, granary, and factory.

For that reason I prefer Biology right after Communism - whip buildings and build only wealth and research, this way both food and raw hammers are used more efficiently. It also provides large amounts of overflow that can be converted into failgold.
Edit: Another big advantage of early biology is that it turns poor cities into good or atleast decend ones.

 

[as2w]

Interesting idea for sure. I'm leaning more towards a domination victory at this point. I'll know more of this likelihood after trading world maps with Mehmed.