I'm really getting frustrated with the game...

[Khal Drogo]

...which is completely my fault. I'm really into the game, but at some point I just realize that the AI is so much better than me. (And I'm playing at Prince difficulty, since I bought the game 3 days ago) So what basically happens is this:

• I settle somewhere
• Produce a scout
• Research whatever I require for my luxury resources
• Get my worker on it
• I realize it takes me like 100 turns to get wonders or anything else

So I don't know if the production is my only problem, but the AI's cities seem to grow so fast, while I don't make any progress on research, military or production. I play as Venice right now on the Earth Map and have started a new game 3 times now. Really frustrating. I hope you have some tips for me on how to lay the foundations for a prospering city.

 

[Bulugulu]

Civ is a multi-faceted game with many areas where you can improve and learn.. And obviously getting frustrated is pointless since there will always be a higher difficulty level (even players who beat deity regularly are bested by others in multiplayer).
My advice would be, try to follow one of the civilization-specific guides on the website. Each civilization is played differently and Venice is maybe not the most noob-friendly.
Obviously the website has guides covering everything you need to know about building your civ..
But to answer your question in a nutshell - early on in the game, to ensure growth you want to secure as many luxury resources as soon as possible so your happiness is up, and build farms/work food tiles (2+ food). In addition you want to build granaries in your main cities (early in your capital/later in other cities). And in BNW one of the best ways to grow a city is send a food caravan/cargo ship there (has to come out of a city with a granary).
Worst case, you can go down a difficulty level until you get better.

 

[Khal Drogo]

How does the tile improvement work exactly? If I chop down a forest I lose -1 production, but get 60 production in return. I don't quite get that for example. Also, is food a higher priority than production early on?

 

[George Abitbol]

Settle in pirority:

- on a river, then reach The Wheel, you'll be able to build watermill (+food and prod)
- if no river, on a hill, to get a production and defense bonus. You can settle on mining luxury (gems, copper, gold, silver, etc, but you'll get the benefits when tech is reached, exception being marble, see below)

The best is on a hill and along a river.
If you settle 2 tiles from a mountain, you'll be able to build wonders such MachuPicchu and This-Bavarian-Castle-I-can't-spell.
Settle next to a mountain tile, you'll be able to get observatory (extra science)

- grassland tiles provides you a lot of food (wich is good for pop growing)
- plains gives you less food but few production


.... About the marble: it provides a +15 % bonus for wonders. A city build on a marble tile can benefit of it even if masonry is not researched !! Combined with traditon policy for wonders (+15% ?), one of the pantheon beliefs and Ramsess trait, you can build wonder very easily.

 

[Fire0rb]

I can not emphasis enough that civ is not a wonder building game
Wonders are an embodiment of a huge economy. They cost a lot and need a lot of time.

So try a game without building ANY wonder and you will see how much you can build actually.
Then fit in some key wonders (still dont build a wonder which is ancient era)

If you are able to do better with your cities you can start building wonders (which is possible on the Prince difficulty) but you should not overdo it.

 

[Buccaneer]

I can not emphasis enough that civ is not a wonder building game
Wonders are an embodiment of a huge economy. They cost a lot and need a lot of time.

So try a game without building ANY wonder and you will see how much you can build actually.
Then fit in some key wonders (still dont build a wonder which is ancient era)

If you are able to do better with your cities you can start building wonders (which is possible on the Prince difficulty) but you should not overdo it.

This cannot be emphasized enough. No early wonders. But at Prince you can, whereas higher difficulties you cannot; however, you should get start getting off the wonders habit if you want to improve. Your first wonder could be Oracle or Pyramids, starting at turn 100 or so. Once when you have your economy up (3-4+ cities, all growing nicely, some trade routes) then you could start thinking about the Renaissance wonders (after building the National College, of course).

 

[George Abitbol]

I quite agree, but in Prince you can get few early wonders. But I learnt how to play without them.

I'm currently playing Empreror, and the only wonder I rush are the Pyramids, they are nice tool for expansion, sometimes Stomehenge for religious game. And I learned to build NC very fast (turn 70-90), before I used to build it in the renaissance !!

 

[rattlejaw]

Pyramids are potentially worth building early if you've got the production (and ideally if you've met other civs and see none of them going Liberty, which is a safe bet nowadays). They're one of relatively few wonders that are hammer-efficient, in that building Pyramids will cost you only a little more production than the two workers that come with them, and the worker speed boost pays off.

I wouldn't prioritize it, though. For one thing, workers cost maintenance, and for another, you're not going to have anything for them to do until you research appropriate techs. Finally, whether you build a wonder or not, you're still losing time. Getting beaten to the wonder is obviously worse than getting it, but even getting it means putting off more important things a lot of the time. Pyramids aren't so bad in that respect, mind you.

I'd say it'd be best to play with zero wonders until you're consistently winning, and then work a few into your game if the situation allows.

 

[Soronery]

Agreed with the people above. Do not build wonders at all (except national wonders and stuff like writers guild). Well they are all called "Wonders" but what people are actually talking about are "World wonders." Don't build those.

 

[DudewiththeFood]

If you get annoyed with waiting for things to start happening then go onto the advanced start and change your starting era. In the Medieval I think you get 2 settlers a worker and 3 spearmen. There might not be a worker but you can get that in 1 turn from policies. Try a game from then.

 

[paulcarri]

Regarding wonders, if playing a tiny islands game- is not TGL worth the early hammers?

 

[Fire0rb]

Regarding wonders, if playing a tiny islands game- is not TGL worth the early hammers?

On Emperor and below you definitely can go for a lot of early wonders which are very useful.
GL and Pyramids are always awesome, as is the Oracle (which is even possible on Deity) or ToA.

But my point was that you just play a game without them and see what you can do with your city. You would be amazed what you can do in the early game. Just try it

 

[CheryChocie]

I quite successfully manage to get Hanging Gardens which I really like on Emperor difficulty and sometimes if I get very lucky with production, I can get the Temple of Artemis which I find in combination with each other lead to a massive population bonus and a very strong capital. I don't really ever try and go for Great Library etc anymore, I've weined myself off of that practise but are Hanging Gardens really an insurmountable goal on higher levels of difficulty?

 

[Khal Drogo]

Thanks for all the help guys. But I've come to the conclusion that I made a dumb mistake. I set the game speed to marathon, which seems to make researches etc. longer. That's pretty obvious and makes a lot of sense if you think just one second about it. God, watching Let's Plays on YouTube and wondering why I am building so much slower with my game speed deserves a Darwin Award.

 

[Past Redemption]

I quite successfully manage to get Hanging Gardens which I really like on Emperor difficulty and sometimes if I get very lucky with production, I can get the Temple of Artemis which I find in combination with each other lead to a massive population bonus and a very strong capital. I don't really ever try and go for Great Library etc anymore, I've weined myself off of that practise but are Hanging Gardens really an insurmountable goal on higher levels of difficulty?

No, but the temple of Artemis is. note he said "ancient" wonders. ThG is a classical wonder, and not too hard to get if you really want it. You will get negative diplo for it, though, as almost all comps do tradition these days.

Pretty much, just don't Great library rush, and you're fine. God, noobs love that thing...

 

[paulcarri]

Its funny as someone coming from bts reading this though i must admit

so many strategies at emp+ were based around oracle slingshots, and on emp i certainly built certain wonders on certain maps (TGL on archi for example)

 

[George Abitbol]

just don't Great library rush, and you're fine. God, noobs love that thing...

When I started to play CiV, I always rushed it, I was happy if Ramsses was in the game and could beat him

 

[Chiatroll]

Start on a very low difficulty. It's a complicated game with a lot of things to learn one thing at a time. Eventually one step at a time you'll find a way you like to play and a difficulty you enjoy most. There is no shame in starting at chieftan and working your way up as you learn more and more nuances to how the game works.

You leave workers on automatic and your city on automatically assigning it's people at first and add more complexity to your process step by step.

Also, MadDjinn has a series beyond the monument. It doesn't have a lot of new BNW stuff but it is an extremely good watch for learning a lot of the basics.

No, but the temple of Artemis is. note he said "ancient" wonders. ThG is a classical wonder, and not too hard to get if you really want it. You will get negative diplo for it, though, as almost all comps do tradition these days.

Isn't it weird watching them go tradition but still ICS all up in your face.

 

[paulcarri]

Trouble with civ v ive noticed though is that say...to build a library is say 6 turns, but the great library only 15?

Im going off memory here, but i know the wonders seem a lot cheaper than other versions