Infrastructure v. Units in Emperor Level

[RandomNerd]

I normally play C3C games with Monarch, Standard Map, 8 random enemies, as any decent religious civ. My basic strategy is as follows: REXing until the late Ancient Age, when I build some swordsmen and attack a nearby enemy. Normally, most of my cities building units have a Barracks, Temple, Granary, and either a Marketplace or a Library. Then I switch to republic and go peaceful builder until the late Middle Ages, whereupon I use a cavalry rush. Then, I switch to Communism in the early Industrial Age and wait for tanks. I like to build a factory, hospital, bank, university, and cathedral along with the other buildings in every city before building units. This strat nearly always leads to a 1500s-1700s domination victory by the early modern age on Monarch, but I fall behind both militaristically and technologically on Emperor. On emperor, what buildings are necessary before producing units? Also, should I be warring more often/earlier?

 

[The Professor]

what buildings are necessary before producing units?

Well, technically, none, but I would recommend building a barracks in most of the cities that will be producing units. Most of your core cities will eventually get an aquaduct (if needed), a marketplace and a library, and a university will be useful in your core cities at monarch/emperor levels, where you do most or some of your own research. A lot of people get Domination victories with very little more than that...maybe a few courthouses in the outer edges of your core. This gives you more shields for producing units.

As for when to go to war, my answer would be whenever you A) have an objective (grab iron; remove enemies from your borders) B) and you have the military ready to achieve your objectives.

 

[Aabraxan]

What VC do you want? For military victories, it's not necessary to switch to Communism, nor to build temples and cathedrals. Republic is plenty durable for a conquest victory.

 

[RandomNerd]

I'm trying for a domination victory.

"For military victories, it's not necessary to switch to Communism"

I usually use Republic for the middle ages, but I always have huge swaths of completely corrupt cities. Although they make good specialist factories, I find that, upon switching to Communism, techs go from taking 5-6 turns to 7-8 turns, then quickly drop to 4-5 turns as I build libraries and universities in my former specialist farms. Additionally, Communism lets me support a much larger army. Also, being religious, I can switch with a minimum of fuss.

"nor to build temples and cathedrals"

I usually build temples for the culture, and cathedrals to keep my size 12+ cities from rioting. In republic it would seem especially hard, with no military police and war weariness. Is there another more efficient way to keep people happy?

 

[chrisman1]

I'm trying for a domination victory.
I usually build temples for the culture, and cathedrals to keep my size 12+ cities from rioting. In republic it would seem especially hard, with no military police and war weariness. Is there another more efficient way to keep people happy?

Luxuries and marketplaces. I always used to build cathedrals in all of my cities to prevent rioting. However, I just finished my first emperor level game and I only fought wars to obtain resources and found that with all the luxuries I had + marketplaces, I didn't need to build a single cathedral.

 

[Northen Wolf]

I am not pro emperor player, but Not bad either, sure I don't win every game, but what I've learned so far:

From Aabraxan and vmxa, thought me:
*Think what your empire needs: eg research - build library in places that could support it.

* Master the control of luxury slider -having it on 30% and switching it after couple of turns between 40% and 20% can be usual, just takes thinking and hiring few geeks/taxmen

* Temples can be useful for culture, but libraries ALSO give you research.
* Marketplaces instead of cathedrals give more benefits - they boost commerce but don't give culture.

----------------------------

My own notes:
* Luxuries become reason for war, like iron and horse on easier levels.
* Use veteran units instead of regulars(don't even build those).
* In republic fight wars on your own ground and with your own laws

* Attack enemy when its first offense is wiped out, go for sure victories only:
"I can take this town with 6 cavalries." - send 12, or atleast 9.
* Use 'mobile defense' instead of unit in every town - I use 4 fast moving good offense troops that can cover 9-12 towns within 1 turn.

* Core comes first, focus your workers around it, but keep few for connecting new cities or in early ages building roads for your units to retreat/advance.

 

[Aabraxan]

I'm trying for a domination victory.

"For military victories, it's not necessary to switch to Communism"

I usually use Republic for the middle ages, but I always have huge swaths of completely corrupt cities. Although they make good specialist factories, I find that, upon switching to Communism, techs go from taking 5-6 turns to 7-8 turns, then quickly drop to 4-5 turns as I build libraries and universities in my former specialist farms. Additionally, Communism lets me support a much larger army. Also, being religious, I can switch with a minimum of fuss.

Let me preface this with a caveat. I still have yet to play Communism. I rarely play religious, so switching to Communism is a big headache for me.

That said, I also wind up with lots of 90% corrupt cities. Those are my farmlands. I have put two games down in Stories & Tales: (a) The Unluckiest Lucky Start; and (b) Awn of an Ynasty. Both are Monarch-level games. The first (IIRC) ended in a domination victory and I'm shooting for conquest in the second. In both cases, I stayed in Republic the whole time.

In Unluckiest Lucky Start, I could have researched The Corporation in 5 turns at 0%. See Chapter 16. I did go ahead and bump research to 10% just to get it down to 4 turns.

In Awn of an Ynasty, I was able to research Sanitation (a tech that I almost never research) in 4 turns at 0%. See Chapter 16. (Wow. Up until now, I never realized that both of those events occurred in Chapter 16 and that, in both cases, I was researching 603 bpt.) I was also paying 0 gpt in unit costs in each case.

I say this, not to brag, but to point out that there's no need to switch to Communism (incurring anarchy) and expend shields on libraries and universities to keep up in tech. If I understand your post correctly, you're doing 5-6 turn research in Republic. In order to get Communism to turn research at a comparable rate, you've got to build more libraries & universities, and pay the attendant maintenance. I'd rather spend the shields and gold on artillery.

As for supporting a larger army, frankly, warfare in Republic is about fighting smarter, not harder.

"nor to build temples and cathedrals"

I usually build temples for the culture, and cathedrals to keep my size 12+ cities from rioting. In republic it would seem especially hard, with no military police and war weariness. Is there another more efficient way to keep people happy?

I'm going to hazard a guess here: I'm probably dead last in culture in most of my games. I don't usually go for culture victories. For me, domination games usually turn into an exercise in razing cities and planting settlers to capture tiles.

As for WW, as I said above, Republic is about fighting smarter, not harder. It's about managing losses by using terrain and artillery units, buying luxes, making the other guy DOW you (rather than the other way around), and fighting oscillating wars.

As chrisman1 said, "luxuries and marketplaces." They go a long way towards keeping people happy. I'd also add that I rarely have cities over size 12. Like I said, I rarely research Sanitation. I don't have to deal with as much crowding unhappiness and no pollution from overpopulation. On the other hand, with a more densely-packed core and large stretches of farmland, I usually wind up with lots of cities to manage.