For my first game at Emperor, I set up a standard-size Continents map (large land option), hoping that I could use a despotic rush on a large continent to get a dominant position.
That was not what happened. The Germans and I were on one continent that could support about 20 cities, while the other 6 civs were all on a single gigantic continent. To my amazement, I was able to win a space race victory in about 1980. You might want to unzip the map and do the same. Here is the strategy and why it works.
1) The starting location has a river, access to a great food square (wheat) and a luxury (ivory). This means that your capital can crank out lots of settlers early without unhappiness problems. Without such a location, I suspect Emperor is almost impossible.
2) You can get the only horses on the island. Without a horse monopoly, you are not going to conquer the Germans, who share the island, who develop faster, and who keep getting their conquered cities back by "superior culture."
3) The Germans do good research. For the most part, stay at 100% gold, with one scientist somewhere so that you get an advance every 40 years. Buy tech from Bismarck.
4) Up to the early years AD, forget the rest of the world and wipe the Germans off the continent. Lots of horses and a couple of catapults will do it. The Babylonian special unit (bowman 2.2.1) is pretty useless. Don't bother chasing the Germans off nearby islands. When your victory is certain, make a peace treaty to get all the German technology. Then park horsemen outside of recently-captured cities, because they are going to revert to the Germans and you will need to retake them. Have Elite horsemen fight as often as possible so that you will get a leader. (I got two, but the first was killed on the turn when he was created.) Build the Forbidden Palace in a carefully-chosen location. Your goal is to get corruption down to 10% or so for the entire continent.
5) Sooner or later someone else will find your continent. Now switch to Republic and start trading like crazy. Build up your war-ravaged continent, using size-6 cities with 10 shields to crank out workers. As soon as you can get Military Tradition, upgrade Elite horses to cavalry.
6) Now go into pure builder mode. Get Democracy and switch to it, and build railroads everywhere. I had 75 workers for 20 cities. The AI will declare war on you from time to time, but they don't know how to invade; so with a few good cavalry units and a great transportation system you can retake any captured city. Later, they will send a dozen ironclads to bombard you. Just take the punishment. Your 75 workers can build back everything they destroy.
7) Don't build ships, don't build Great Wonders, and don't found colonies. Either because it's Emperor or because of the patch, the AI will not trade for your cities. (I even offered Berlin with no takers!) Eventually you will catch up to the AI in tech. At this point you are solidly in 4th place.
8) There is one location where you have both iron and coal. Build the Iron Works. This is the city that will build the Apollo Program, and you are heading for 120 shields in it.
9) When you get Industrialization, go back to 100% gold (remember to have one scientist to keep your 40-turn research going!) and build factories in every decent-size city. Someone will beat you to the Hoover Dam, so build hydro plants. Now you can build enough tanks and bombers so that the AI will not declare war on you. I never had a unit more advanced unit than cavalry fight a battle, but once my military advisor said "Compared to these guys, we have an average military," the invasions and blackmail almost stopped. One you have tanks, railroads, planes, artillery, and infantry, there is no way the AI is going to invade you successfully. In principle they could land 10 transports backed by 20 ships and 5 carriers and destroy your infrastructure, but they don't seem to know how.
10) Trade cleverly for luxuries so that you can keep your entertainment slider at zero. Build Wall Street and keep your gold at 1000 so that you get the full benefit of it.
11) In the modern era, research Computers first and build Research Labs everywhere. Build the SETI Program (your first Great Wonder) in the Iron Works city. Draft a few Mech Infantry to shore up your defenses, then disband all your obsolete units. Cut your workers back to what is needed to clean up pollution.
12) At this point you can research a technology every ten turns or so. The AI civs will stay communist and fight one another; so you can take over a clear tech lead. Once it seems safe, trade Computers for at least 4 luxuries. When your military is large enough, switch to Wealth in cities that are not building spaceship components.
13) When you get to the final technology for the spaceship, start building a Palace in the Iron Works city that will complete one turn after the technology. That way you can build the final component instantly. At this point you should third out of three on the score list and way behind in Culture, but you will have won!
No city changed hands in the last century of the game. I expected the AI to come after my capital in a desperate attempt to scuttle my spaceship, but that never happened. I disabled diplomatic victory, or I might have lost to the UN.
I doubt that this approcah will succeed at Deity.
That was not what happened. The Germans and I were on one continent that could support about 20 cities, while the other 6 civs were all on a single gigantic continent. To my amazement, I was able to win a space race victory in about 1980. You might want to unzip the map and do the same. Here is the strategy and why it works.
1) The starting location has a river, access to a great food square (wheat) and a luxury (ivory). This means that your capital can crank out lots of settlers early without unhappiness problems. Without such a location, I suspect Emperor is almost impossible.
2) You can get the only horses on the island. Without a horse monopoly, you are not going to conquer the Germans, who share the island, who develop faster, and who keep getting their conquered cities back by "superior culture."
3) The Germans do good research. For the most part, stay at 100% gold, with one scientist somewhere so that you get an advance every 40 years. Buy tech from Bismarck.
4) Up to the early years AD, forget the rest of the world and wipe the Germans off the continent. Lots of horses and a couple of catapults will do it. The Babylonian special unit (bowman 2.2.1) is pretty useless. Don't bother chasing the Germans off nearby islands. When your victory is certain, make a peace treaty to get all the German technology. Then park horsemen outside of recently-captured cities, because they are going to revert to the Germans and you will need to retake them. Have Elite horsemen fight as often as possible so that you will get a leader. (I got two, but the first was killed on the turn when he was created.) Build the Forbidden Palace in a carefully-chosen location. Your goal is to get corruption down to 10% or so for the entire continent.
5) Sooner or later someone else will find your continent. Now switch to Republic and start trading like crazy. Build up your war-ravaged continent, using size-6 cities with 10 shields to crank out workers. As soon as you can get Military Tradition, upgrade Elite horses to cavalry.
6) Now go into pure builder mode. Get Democracy and switch to it, and build railroads everywhere. I had 75 workers for 20 cities. The AI will declare war on you from time to time, but they don't know how to invade; so with a few good cavalry units and a great transportation system you can retake any captured city. Later, they will send a dozen ironclads to bombard you. Just take the punishment. Your 75 workers can build back everything they destroy.
7) Don't build ships, don't build Great Wonders, and don't found colonies. Either because it's Emperor or because of the patch, the AI will not trade for your cities. (I even offered Berlin with no takers!) Eventually you will catch up to the AI in tech. At this point you are solidly in 4th place.
8) There is one location where you have both iron and coal. Build the Iron Works. This is the city that will build the Apollo Program, and you are heading for 120 shields in it.
9) When you get Industrialization, go back to 100% gold (remember to have one scientist to keep your 40-turn research going!) and build factories in every decent-size city. Someone will beat you to the Hoover Dam, so build hydro plants. Now you can build enough tanks and bombers so that the AI will not declare war on you. I never had a unit more advanced unit than cavalry fight a battle, but once my military advisor said "Compared to these guys, we have an average military," the invasions and blackmail almost stopped. One you have tanks, railroads, planes, artillery, and infantry, there is no way the AI is going to invade you successfully. In principle they could land 10 transports backed by 20 ships and 5 carriers and destroy your infrastructure, but they don't seem to know how.
10) Trade cleverly for luxuries so that you can keep your entertainment slider at zero. Build Wall Street and keep your gold at 1000 so that you get the full benefit of it.
11) In the modern era, research Computers first and build Research Labs everywhere. Build the SETI Program (your first Great Wonder) in the Iron Works city. Draft a few Mech Infantry to shore up your defenses, then disband all your obsolete units. Cut your workers back to what is needed to clean up pollution.
12) At this point you can research a technology every ten turns or so. The AI civs will stay communist and fight one another; so you can take over a clear tech lead. Once it seems safe, trade Computers for at least 4 luxuries. When your military is large enough, switch to Wealth in cities that are not building spaceship components.
13) When you get to the final technology for the spaceship, start building a Palace in the Iron Works city that will complete one turn after the technology. That way you can build the final component instantly. At this point you should third out of three on the score list and way behind in Culture, but you will have won!
No city changed hands in the last century of the game. I expected the AI to come after my capital in a desperate attempt to scuttle my spaceship, but that never happened. I disabled diplomatic victory, or I might have lost to the UN.
I doubt that this approcah will succeed at Deity.
