Ingame Decision Delimma

Viralvoid

Warlord
Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Messages
200
Location
From the Slums of Manila
Once again, Hello everyone,

I play on emperor, but weirdly, on some games, I do fall behind, I rage quit from foreign invaders, an AI snowballs (Tech snowball from an AI is not a problem though, Policy and military does for me). My population is always meh, cause I focuses on production. I really like building buildings, and improving improvements hehe. All of these could be the reasons for the losing of my games. I have full trust on AI citizen management :)

Therefore, I wanted to ask a few questions regarding on "micromanaging" and delimmas

1. Do you micromanage?, If does, Is it really necessary in "all" game?
2. Is there a formula for excess food when constructing a settler?,
I focused on hammers, and from 10 turns, became 12 turns. I read the tooltip, which has something to do with "excess food".
3. Do you balance food, production, culture, faith, etc. when micromanaging? or only focuses on improved resources, UI, or specialists? or depends on the phase (era, population)

4. These are based on my observations, any opinion :(
*I neglect building granary, aqueduct, grocers, I only build them as city-state quests, or no building is available.
*I focus on building monuments, shrines, then well or watermill, council.
*I neglect building workshop until industrial era, as a prerequisite for building Factories
*As soon as windmill is possible, I built them asap
*The arena combo is a focus on the classical era.
*I never build banks until I have caravansary and custom house
*Circus is for one-time culture boost only. (when I want to rush a game changing policy)
*My bath combo is only amphitheaters and temples. Garden comes fairly late, If bath is unavailable, I neglect building temples even I've founded a religion.
*I never build units until I have barracks, then If armory is available, I will never build a unit until an armory is erected and so on.
*If stonework is available, I will build it asap
*I never build wonders on the early game, I only build them when: totally necessary (Himeji) and if I'm leading in technology.
*Herbalists only on heavily forested/jungle cities.
*I depend my city distance on my ancient Policy, I minimize distance on progress, and pack as much cities on a small area huehue. Maximized on tradition, because each city could posses a large chunk of land.
*I don't build constabulary even though a spy is reported on that city.

5. How many city-states allies threshold before you build a chancery? do you build them even with 0? 1? or greater?
6. Usually, I neglect spies, I don't know how to maximize its efficiency. So, where do you usually use them?
Thief? Spies? Coup?
7. Inca? mountains produces food or gold? sorry out of place question, btw I'm using 3uc/4uc.

Sorry for asking too many questions. I just wanted to know much for a better gameplay :)
And I hoped to make a hotspot of opinions from different players.
 
1. Do you micromanage?, If does, Is it really necessary in "all" game?
Not enough... More seriously, citizen tile assignement is usually quite good when not bugged. Specialist is the main thing to micromanage.
I micromanage workers as long as there is "dilemas" on what to improve first. They are automatized in mid-end games.
I do not make "micro exploit" with workers to have improvements one turn in advance.
2. Is there a formula for excess food when constructing a settler?,
I focused on hammers, and from 10 turns, became 12 turns. I read the tooltip, which has something to do with "excess food".
Yes, I believe it is half of the food into prod. You can look at the tooltip of production when building a settler.
3. Do you balance food, production, culture, faith, etc. when micromanaging? or only focuses on improved resources, UI, or specialists? or depends on the phase (era, population)
Main factor for me is "tradition/progress/authority". How many instant food you get in the city is an important point to the micromanagement.
4. These are based on my observations, any opinion :(
*I neglect building granary, aqueduct, grocers, I only build them as city-state quests, or no building is available.
*I focus on building monuments, shrines, then well or watermill, council.
*I neglect building workshop until industrial era, as a prerequisite for building Factories
*As soon as windmill is possible, I built them asap
*The arena combo is a focus on the classical era.
*I never build banks until I have caravansary and custom house
*Circus is for one-time culture boost only. (when I want to rush a game changing policy)
*My bath combo is only amphitheaters and temples. Garden comes fairly late, If bath is unavailable, I neglect building temples even I've founded a religion.
*I never build units until I have barracks, then If armory is available, I will never build a unit until an armory is erected and so on.
*If stonework is available, I will build it asap
*I never build wonders on the early game, I only build them when: totally necessary (Himeji) and if I'm leading in technology.
*Herbalists only on heavily forested/jungle cities.
*I don't build constabulary even though a spy is reported on that city.
Are you playing tall ? You seems to delay most of the happiness buildings (aqueduct, grocers, constabularies, ...), which is reasonable if you don't have happiness problems.
I usually build banks quite early if I have the econnomy to invest in most buildings.
*I depend my city distance on my ancient Policy, I minimize distance on progress, and pack as much cities on a small area huehue. Maximized on tradition, because each city could posses a large chunk of land.
This is debatable, and I tend to do the exact contrary. A tradition capital will not work its tiles, but you will most likely improved them anyway in the early game, so have secondary cities at (almost) minimal distances allow them to take advantage of those good tiles. Moreover, tradition is short on gold in early game, so less road tiles is good. As long as you have enough luxuries for your initial monopoly, and some strategic ressources, you don't need much more, you will not have any happiness problem anyway.
At the contrary, on progress, I tend to claim as much place I peacefully can.
5. How many city-states allies threshold before you build a chancery? do you build them even with 0? 1? or greater?
Don't know
6. Usually, I neglect spies, I don't know how to maximize its efficiency. So, where do you usually use them?
Thief? Spies? Coup?
Level up as diplomats.
Then Spies if I'm behind in techs, and coup in other cases.
7. Inca? mountains produces food or gold? sorry out of place question, btw I'm using 3uc/4uc.
Settle as much cities as you can on montain. your initial tile will be far superior to any other terrain. I don't remember the yields of montains since it keep changing every 2 monthes. Last time I've played them it was science and faith but I'm sure it changed since then.
Sorry for asking too many questions. I just wanted to know much for a better gameplay :)
And I hoped to make a hotspot of opinions from different players.
No problems
 
I don't micromanage even from the start.

I prefer to lower the difficulty and switch my brain off, let the game take care of itself, until I get into war which is the most fun part.

I know others disagree but for me it is the most fun way to play.
 
Once again, Hello everyone,

I play on emperor, but weirdly, on some games, I do fall behind, I rage quit from foreign invaders, an AI snowballs (Tech snowball from an AI is not a problem though, Policy and military does for me). My population is always meh, cause I focuses on production. I really like building buildings, and improving improvements hehe. All of these could be the reasons for the losing of my games. I have full trust on AI citizen management :)

Therefore, I wanted to ask a few questions regarding on "micromanaging" and delimmas

I play on King, epic speed, mainly pangea plus, authority or progress, heavy warmonger style, with raging barbarians, no huts, no bad events.
Take that into consideration when looking at my answers.


1. Do you micromanage?, If does, Is it really necessary in "all" game?

Yes, a lot, I enjoy it, with that said I am maybe not micromanaging correct.
It is vital when you are close to happiness 0.
It is good (and probably vital) to keep up in science and food.

3. Do you balance food, production, culture, faith, etc. when micromanaging? or only focuses on improved resources, UI, or specialists? or depends on the phase (era, population)
Yes, I've yet rarely have faith issues main importance have been culture, food, and production, I'm trying to improve my food game, been focusing maybe too much on building but I'm not sure.

4. These are based on my observations, any opinion :(
*I neglect building granary, aqueduct, grocers, I only build them as city-state quests, or no building is available.
I think these are very important, I skip granary for quite a while if I dont get any bonuses from it (no deer, wheat etc).

*I focus on building monuments, shrines, then well or watermill, council.
Yes they are base facilities that you need, if I have enough faith I put shrine in lower priority in newer cities.

*I neglect building workshop until industrial era, as a prerequisite for building Factories
*As soon as windmill is possible, I built them asap
Yes, it can be difficult to fit the production buildings in.

*The arena combo is a focus on the classical era.
*I never build banks until I have caravansary and custom house
*Circus is for one-time culture boost only. (when I want to rush a game changing policy)
Similar problems like production stuff, and I think banks can be skipped entirely in a lot of cities.

*My bath combo is only amphitheaters and temples. Garden comes fairly late, If bath is unavailable, I neglect building temples even I've founded a religion.
Yes baths are good but and culture is important, I tend to prioritise it a lot early on and then probably skimping a bit later, more culture is probably as important as science because of how good policys are.

*I never build units until I have barracks, then If armory is available, I will never build a unit until an armory is erected and so on.
I rarely build units, I try to buy units and go with the free authority ones, when I do it's probably a siege unit or two.
This free up building a lot of other things.

*If stonework is available, I will build it asap
Stonework and stables are really good for production IF its production that the city really needs, I tend to build those without thinking of the needs.

*I never build wonders on the early game, I only build them when: totally necessary (Himeji) and if I'm leading in technology.
I wonder spam, some are really good (ex great library, cathedral of st basil), some are safety measures (ex great wall) others I could probably do without but sometimes end up building anyway (ex colossus).

*Herbalists only on heavily forested/jungle cities.
I prioritise it in cities that have more than one plantation/camp for the extra production and in really jungle/forest heavy cities.

*I depend my city distance on my ancient Policy, I minimize distance on progress, and pack as much cities on a small area huehue. Maximized on tradition, because each city could posses a large chunk of land.
I try keep them at max distance, I play mostly authority warmonger.

*I don't build constabulary even though a spy is reported on that city.
I try to prioritise them, usually very good to keep crime down.

5. How many city-states allies threshold before you build a chancery? do you build them even with 0? 1? or greater?
6. Usually, I neglect spies, I don't know how to maximize its efficiency. So, where do you usually use them?
Thief? Spies? Coup?
7. Inca? mountains produces food or gold? sorry out of place question, btw I'm using 3uc/4uc.
I'm bad at the citystate game. Mainly put spy in cap. havent played inca yet.
 
I hate micromanagement. I try to avoid it by all means. Therefor I'm stuck at Emperor :)
I just micromanage worker units at the early game, but that's just because I like to choose where to work next and planning road layouts.

Growing cities is really important. You should let your cities grow if you are not having happiness issues. But it also depends on how many available good working places there are. Having more people is always good, but there's also an opportunity cost if you are missing other important stuff like Amphitheaters (if getting new policies faster would give even more yields), for example.

The way happiness work, you have to balance tech progression with population growth. You can't do both and stay happy for long. I ignore the other needs and produce only what I think it's more useful for the whole empire.

I still have to improve my building priorities, but I usually go for production and growth, then culture and gold, and science last. It depends on many factors, though, so I might prioritize science or faith in some cases.
 
1) Micromanagement is really important, specially in higher difficulties. I like to micromanage everything, from military unit movements every single turn, city tile assignations, worker units, road layouts, two buildings in building list always. You don't need to micromanage too much, specially city tiles, but i think having 1 worker (with progress), or 1.5 worker per city. and planning road layouts for maximixing the ammount of villages, makes a lot of difference.

I think it's a good idea to open a thread about micromanagement.

2) Ye, 1food = 0.5 production when building settlers, i like to spam settlers (5 or 6) if i'm playing progress, after getting 3 or 4 population in capital, and building shrine - rushing monument.

3) Focus on religion early game, (faith), production and growth after faith, science and culture, , then focus on councils and the arena combo, then library.

* About granaries and aqueducts, you don't need them if you pick mandir in your religion, a really very good building, and the ai doesn't pick it. But it's always fine to build granaries and aqueducts in cities with deers / lakes. And don't underestimate the % bonus to people generation from gardens, it normally makes a lot of difference late - game, if you have a city with a aqueduct, build a garden asap

* (shrine first in every single city, then monument -> walls normally, or market -> shrine -> monument, herbalist -> shrine -> monument , barracks -> shrine -> monument, depending the pantheon)

* About workshops... it's a good building, and you will have to build it anyways, better sooner than later, try to don't chop all forests, chopping forest is fine, but don't chop a forest without a reason, if you're unable to build a village or a mine in the forest, and you can't use a triangle farm using that forest tile, leave the tile.

* About windmills, best to delay them in your military unit production city if you're focusing on getting land / naval units.

* Bank is not about the passive yield, it's about the 20% science when purchasing. Get banks in no-developed cities, then invest in production buildings, the city will develop really quick (specially if you're going for forge or chancery first), If you're trying to get the entire combo, custom house -> bank -> caravansory is the best way to do it, normally.

* I like to rush circus asap if Fealty is my second tree (100% of the time, btw), it's nice to rush them to grab a culture generator policy)

* About temples,the shrine -> temple -> grand temple combo is really important if you have a religion, (temple gives +5 faith +2 culture after grand temple, and gives religious pressure), i normally only build amphiteaters in the cities with writer guilds, in the other cities i only build them for opera houses, (+5f, +2c > +2c, +2g for me)

* You can wait for armories to build units, you don't need to wait for arsenals to build units

* Stonework is a very important building, even with only one stone, it's good to use some early trade routes with production, normally your neighbour don't have a lot of science advantage, so each trade route is only giving you +8 gold early game, you can get +6 production or +8 production early game, and if you plan your road layouts well, you can boost your villages using internal trade routes, giving you (+8 base production, +12 production from villages, +12 gold from villages) if you do it well. (Same for granaries, but i don't like to do it with food trade routes)

* We have a thread about wonders, if you can, (specially if you're going progress), try to get terracotta army or great wall, wonders can give you a lot of advantages, it's fine to get some wonders, it's bad to spam them like some players do.

* Herbalists... well, they boost plantations too, it's nice to build them if you have three plantations in a city.

* With progress you want to grab a lot of land, because working specialist early game is going to slow your growth a lot, it's best to grab a lot of land going progress, and then maximize yields in every city working the best tiles, then focus on specialists late game, with tradition you're always working specialists, you don't need a lot of tiles, unless you're India. (But i never play tall so, don't take me seriously)

* Constabularies are a key building for fighting crime, normally it's best to build constabularies and only build arsenals -> military academies in military unit production cities

5) 2 city states alliances is enough for me.

6) Spy in the leader, diplomat in the warmonger guys, you can level up some spies really quick if you're sending to warmongers, because of sneaky attacks and complots

7) Science right now

Edit:

Some more useful tips: Always build roads to city states if you have "free workers", you can save some missionaries with trade routes -> roads in your near city states.
Having at least one vassal is very useful, try to war in some point of the game, even if you aren't going for a domination victory.
Unless you want to neglect passive bonus in spreading from other religions, or you have a bonus from spreading, try to only share your religion in nearby city states and your vassal, then a inoffensive neightbour.
Player made religions are normally really strong, but you don't want to spread it to everyone if you're not getting a advantage from it
 
Last edited:
Sorry for replying quite late on my own thread. I'm very interested on every details provided, so I tried each of them on different games.

Not enough... More seriously, citizen tile assignement is usually quite good when not bugged. Specialist is the main thing to micromanage.
I micromanage workers as long as there is "dilemas" on what to improve first. They are automatized in mid-end games.
I do not make "micro exploit" with workers to have improvements one turn in advance.

I tried micromanaging specialists myself. In the early phase (classical-renaissance) of the game, It somehow helped me managing global happiness. I also realized that If I want to rush something, It could be useful. As my empire grows when happiness is no longer a problem, I remove the assignment thingy, and let the AI assign the specialists.

Main factor for me is "tradition/progress/authority". How many instant food you get in the city is an important point to the micromanagement.
Are you playing tall ? You seems to delay most of the happiness buildings (aqueduct, grocers, constabularies, ...), which is reasonable if you don't have happiness problems.
I usually build banks quite early if I have the econnomy to invest in most buildings.

When I started playing VP, I realized that playing tall is.. boring for me :/
I applied that concept on my games, now, I have realized and formed an abstract for the proceeding games. Thanks. Since,most culture and production were based on infrastructures, I started balancing yields from policy choices and tiles.
In my current game, I focused on growth on the early phase, which provides me enough citizen to work on production tiles. Well, game changing eureka for me lels.
Unhappiness is not much a problem in my games. Free happiness from religion and choosing progress is always helpful.

Okay. I think I'll try the science yield from banks. I actually, don't mind it.

This is debatable, and I tend to do the exact contrary. A tradition capital will not work its tiles, but you will most likely improved them anyway in the early game, so have secondary cities at (almost) minimal distances allow them to take advantage of those good tiles. Moreover, tradition is short on gold in early game, so less road tiles is good. As long as you have enough luxuries for your initial monopoly, and some strategic ressources, you don't need much more, you will not have any happiness problem anyway.
At the contrary, on progress, I tend to claim as much place I peacefully can.
Then Spies if I'm behind in techs, and coup in other cases.

I'll reconsider that idea on tradition, since I really don't like tradition, and I always fall behind in the early game. I'm having happiness problem on tradition, therefore, I'm playing it wrong lels.

Yes, I've yet rarely have faith issues main importance have been culture, food, and production, I'm trying to improve my food game, been focusing maybe too much on building but I'm not sure.

I think these are very important, I skip granary for quite a while if I dont get any bonuses from it (no deer, wheat etc).

Yes they are base facilities that you need, if I have enough faith I put shrine in lower priority in newer cities.

I wanted to found a religion in every game. It was not that hard for me, my first priority is always shrine. If I failed to do so, I'll cry for 5 seconds, then rage quit.
In my current game, I decided to "not ignore granaries", and yielded a better gameplay, or maybe, I'm just lucky in this game, I can't conclude yet though.

Similar problems like production stuff, and I think banks can be skipped entirely in a lot of cities.

Yes baths are good but and culture is important, I tend to prioritise it a lot early on and then probably skimping a bit later, more culture is probably as important as science because of how good policys are.

I rarely build units, I try to buy units and go with the free authority ones, when I do it's probably a siege unit or two.
This free up building a lot of other things.

Okay. I also tend to ignore banks. But, If I'm having money problems, or If I chose industry, I will build it, and again, I'm underestimating the science when investing/buying.
Baths provide culture right?. I think, culture is more important than science. Snowballing science reduces my happiness and military supply.
Hmmmm... do you disable half xp when purchasing units?, or it is fine to you?

I wonder spam, some are really good (ex great library, cathedral of st basil), some are safety measures (ex great wall) others I could probably do without but sometimes end up building anyway (ex colossus).

I prioritise it in cities that have more than one plantation/camp for the extra production and in really jungle/forest heavy cities.

I try keep them at max distance, I play mostly authority warmonger.

I try to prioritise them, usually very good to keep crime down.

I don't really like early wonders, well, it still depends. If I have neighbors, then It would be a city-spamming game to claim all possible land, and forward settle, until he/she has no more room to expand. If I'm alone, or has a huge chunk of land, I'll reconsider building wonders.
I wanted to save the production cost for late game wonders, since they will become expensive overtime.

When taking authority, I really like that idea, since roads were cheaper, and transport could be easier.

Yuh, I read that it reduces crime, which is almost or more effective than arsenal (correct me lel).

I hate micromanagement. I try to avoid it by all means. Therefor I'm stuck at Emperor :)
I just micromanage worker units at the early game, but that's just because I like to choose where to work next and planning road layouts.

Same, but I always micromanage workers. Weird, because everytime I try to autowork my workers, the game exits or crash :( ram problems? lol.
I don't hate micromanaging, I just don't have the proper ideas how to, or the correct judgement which could be better.

Growing cities is really important. You should let your cities grow if you are not having happiness issues. But it also depends on how many available good working places there are. Having more people is always good, but there's also an opportunity cost if you are missing other important stuff like Amphitheaters (if getting new policies faster would give even more yields), for example.

The way happiness work, you have to balance tech progression with population growth. You can't do both and stay happy for long. I ignore the other needs and produce only what I think it's more useful for the whole empire.

I still have to improve my building priorities, but I usually go for production and growth, then culture and gold, and science last. It depends on many factors, though, so I might prioritize science or faith in some cases.

In my current game, I realized that growing cities is good, since it also provide production :)
I have no idea with "balance tech progression with population growth".
That sounds nice, I'll use that as a paradigm for all my cities on all games. If I've found a better pattern, I would be glad, so far, this is the best :)

1) Micromanagement is really important, specially in higher difficulties. I like to micromanage everything, from military unit movements every single turn, city tile assignations, worker units, road layouts, two buildings in building list always. You don't need to micromanage too much, specially city tiles, but i think having 1 worker (with progress), or 1.5 worker per city. and planning road layouts for maximixing the ammount of villages, makes a lot of difference.

I think it's a good idea to open a thread about micromanagement.

2) Ye, 1food = 0.5 production when building settlers, i like to spam settlers (5 or 6) if i'm playing progress, after getting 3 or 4 population in capital, and building shrine - rushing monument.

3) Focus on religion early game, (faith), production and growth after faith, science and culture, , then focus on councils and the arena combo, then library.

I really think it is, but I'm content with Emperor. I really love layouts :)
If food is enough, 3 population- settler- military unit until 4th population (extra science boost) then another (2-3 settlers) another growth and so on.
Because, techs became more expensive with more cities, so I'm using the extra science boost for a small purpose.
If growth is a meme, I'll simply spam settlers and build shrines on them. I don't build council, if culture is scarce. The science from city connection is really good, where I have to skip council for a while.

* About granaries and aqueducts, you don't need them if you pick mandir in your religion, a really very good building, and the ai doesn't pick it. But it's always fine to build granaries and aqueducts in cities with deers / lakes. And don't underestimate the % bonus to people generation from gardens, it normally makes a lot of difference late - game, if you have a city with a aqueduct, build a garden asap

* About workshops... it's a good building, and you will have to build it anyways, better sooner than later, try to don't chop all forests, chopping forest is fine, but don't chop a forest without a reason, if you're unable to build a village or a mine in the forest, and you can't use a triangle farm using that forest tile, leave the tile.

* About windmills, best to delay them in your military unit production city if you're focusing on getting land / naval units.

* Bank is not about the passive yield, it's about the 20% science when purchasing. Get banks in no-developed cities, then invest in production buildings, the city will develop really quick (specially if you're going for forge or chancery first), If you're trying to get the entire combo, custom house -> bank -> caravansory is the best way to do it, normally.

* I like to rush circus asap if Fealty is my second tree (100% of the time, btw), it's nice to rush them to grab a culture generator policy)

* About temples,the shrine -> temple -> grand temple combo is really important if you have a religion, (temple gives +5 faith +2 culture after grand temple, and gives religious pressure), i normally only build amphiteaters in the cities with writer guilds, in the other cities i only build them for opera houses, (+5f, +2c > +2c, +2g for me)

* You can wait for armories to build units, you don't need to wait for arsenals to build units

* Stonework is a very important building, even with only one stone, it's good to use some early trade routes with production, normally your neighbour don't have a lot of science advantage, so each trade route is only giving you +8 gold early game, you can get +6 production or +8 production early game, and if you plan your road layouts well, you can boost your villages using internal trade routes, giving you (+8 base production, +12 production from villages, +12 gold from villages) if you do it well. (Same for granaries, but i don't like to do it with food trade routes)

* We have a thread about wonders, if you can, (specially if you're going progress), try to get terracotta army or great wall, wonders can give you a lot of advantages, it's fine to get some wonders, it's bad to spam them like some players do.

* Herbalists... well, they boost plantations too, it's nice to build them if you have three plantations in a city.

* With progress you want to grab a lot of land, because working specialist early game is going to slow your growth a lot, it's best to grab a lot of land going progress, and then maximize yields in every city working the best tiles, then focus on specialists late game, with tradition you're always working specialists, you don't need a lot of tiles, unless you're India. (But i never play tall so, don't take me seriously)

* Constabularies are a key building for fighting crime, normally it's best to build constabularies and only build arsenals -> military academies in military unit production cities

Hmmm. The 25% gp generation is really that good?, I'll try it next time.
Bonus resources in my map is plentiful, so I changed my opinion about granaries. And about aqueducts, I'll really look closer for its importance as a building, and not as a prerequisite for grocers and *garden* (when completing my baths combo lol)

Is workshop that good? I still think that stables and stoneworks were better. Lumbermills are not my favourite, so I usually cut forests/jungle for farms lol. If I'll take industry, lumbermills were good, or I'm playing as Maya. I wanted to add University and Zoos as my least preferred buildings.

On windmills, Okay, I'm glad with that idea, thanks.
Oh yeah, the science bonus on bank, I'll try than on my next game :)
It really does works, I really like the grand temple bonus on other temples, It was quite game changing :) thanks.
I really don't like internal trade routes. But I like the idea with caravan can provide production on villages :) thanks. I started to hate cargo ship, because It was hard to maintain when war progressed. Caravans were safer.

5) 2 city states alliances is enough for me.

6) Spy in the leader, diplomat in the warmonger guys, you can level up some spies really quick if you're sending to warmongers, because of sneaky attacks and complots

Hmmm.. okay, +4 production seems weird on other weaker cities. So, do you build them as a prerequisite for other diplomatic buildings? for civil servants? or for purchasing diplomatic units?
Thanks for that idea, It was really good. I placed them on Gao, Attila's Court and other most hated civ, It was an instant level 3 diplomat :)

Some more useful tips: Always build roads to city states if you have "free workers", you can save some missionaries with trade routes -> roads in your near city states.
Having at least one vassal is very useful, try to war in some point of the game, even if you aren't going for a domination victory.
Unless you want to neglect passive bonus in spreading from other religions, or you have a bonus from spreading, try to only share your religion in nearby city states and your vassal, then a inoffensive neightbour.
Player made religions are normally really strong, but you don't want to spread it to everyone if you're not getting a advantage from it

I prefer active spreading using missionaries. I really don't like managing excess faith :(
I always choose the transcendence, I have lot of cities (my own), nearby city-states, and nearby civ that hasn't found a religion. I really like the food boost when entering a new era.


Thanks everyone. I've learned a lot of things from you guys. This made my VP experience more memorable huehue.
My own mistakes that I wanted to correct.
*Underestimating other buildings power (bank's science, aqueduct (?), garden's 25% gpp)
*lot more
 
I really think it is, but I'm content with Emperor. I really love layouts :)
If food is enough, 3 population- settler- military unit until 4th population (extra science boost) then another (2-3 settlers) another growth and so on.
Because, techs became more expensive with more cities, so I'm using the extra science boost for a small purpose.
If growth is a meme, I'll simply spam settlers and build shrines on them. I don't build council, if culture is scarce. The science from city connection is really good, where I have to skip council for a while.

Useful trick from the user workerspam. You can get additional culture if you don't complete a technology until you get progress opener. For example, you can leave pottery one turn away, then change to another technology. It's a little cheesy, because the ai can't do it. And you need to wait a lot to get some key information (horse location). But if you like to wait until 4 population to spam settlers, you can just go with shrine first -> monument invest second -> 2 - 3 warriors -> settler spam. You will get a lot of early game culture doing that, enough to get the policy to get culture from buildings.

If you rush monument, you probably will unlock progress opener before getting 4 population. But you need to rush monument or go with monument first if you want to do the trick. It's a small price to pay.

Hmmm. The 25% gp generation is really that good?, I'll try it next time.
Bonus resources in my map is plentiful, so I changed my opinion about granaries. And about aqueducts, I'll really look closer for its importance as a building, and not as a prerequisite for grocers and *garden* (when completing my baths combo lol)
Well, about gardens it's a nice sinergy with leaning tower. And 15% food after growing is a lot, as long as you balance growth with production.

Is workshop that good? I still think that stables and stoneworks were better. Lumbermills are not my favourite, so I usually cut forests/jungle for farms lol. If I'll take industry, lumbermills were good, or I'm playing as Maya. I wanted to add University and Zoos as my least preferred buildings.

On windmills, Okay, I'm glad with that idea, thanks.
Oh yeah, the science bonus on bank, I'll try than on my next game :)
It really does works, I really like the grand temple bonus on other temples, It was quite game changing :) thanks.
I really don't like internal trade routes. But I like the idea with caravan can provide production on villages :) thanks. I started to hate cargo ship, because It was hard to maintain when war progressed. Caravans were safer.

Workshop can give you +7p, +2gold with just 2 lumbermills. But stables and stoneworks are always priority.

You can do the caravan trick about villages with nearby city states too, but you need to build a road in classical era to the city state if you're going for a longer road layout to maximize the ammount of villages.

Hmmm.. okay, +4 production seems weird on other weaker cities. So, do you build them as a prerequisite for other diplomatic buildings? for civil servants? or for purchasing diplomatic units?
Thanks for that idea, It was really good. I placed them on Gao, Attila's Court and other most hated civ, It was an instant level 3 diplomat :)

I like to get 3 - 4 allies late-game, then rush wire service in every city, but it's just my playstyle. Chanceries need 250 production. With two allies, one friend or three allies. After 50 - 40 turns they pay themselves. Same for workshops, they pay themselves in like 30 turns.
 
1. Do you micromanage?, If does, Is it really necessary in "all" game?
Yes. Pretty much throughout the whole game. But that depends on circumstances. The easiest way is to lock best tiles that you want to work for sure, than start to manually increase amount of specialists and pay attention to what tiles you loose to work every next specialist. This way you can easily compare next specialist that you can assign to next tile that you will loose to get this specialist and see whether you want this specialist or not. Then check this city again when it gets new citizen.
2. Is there a formula for excess food when constructing a settler?,
I focused on hammers, and from 10 turns, became 12 turns. I read the tooltip, which has something to do with "excess food".
There is some, but i do not remember it. One thing that you need to know is that city don't starve when building Settlers, so you can work hills only and have zero food.
3. Do you balance food, production, culture, faith, etc. when micromanaging? or only focuses on improved resources, UI, or specialists? or depends on the phase (era, population)
This depends on situation a lot. You need to balance them to maintain happiness, but then it depends on your game plan. You can try to win Tourism via many Great Prophets and this means that you need to maximize your faith. Or maybe you aim at Scientific Victory - than rush Universities.
*I neglect building granary, aqueduct, grocers, I only build them as city-state quests, or no building is available.
This is bad, they speed up growth a lot. Also this depends on what resources you have. Aqueduct gives huge bonus on Lakes and Granary is very important if you have Deers or Wheat.
*I focus on building monuments, shrines, then well or watermill, council.
In my Capital i always build shrine first. Later depends on circumstances again, sometimes Monument, sometimes Worker, sometimes even Warrior. If i want a religion - i build Shrines in all cities first. 2nd usually Monument, sometimes Worker. It is VERY important to have 1 Worker per city asap, so Worker in every city should be among first 3 things you build (but ofcourse sometimes you can build 2 workers in a city with lots of production and focus on buildings in city with less hammers. Well should be prioritized if available. Also Market and Barracks are very important
Also Capital build Settlers one after another once it reaches 4 population. Sometimes even 3.
*I neglect building workshop until industrial era, as a prerequisite for building Factories
I do not. It gives quite a lot of production, especially in Forest-heavy cities.
*As soon as windmill is possible, I built them asap
This is 100% right
*The arena combo is a focus on the classical era.
This is 100% right, usually i build it asap after Libraries. I also save money to invest into all Forges.
*I never build banks until I have caravansary and custom house
Do not get how does bank depend on Custom house or Caravansary. Though Bank is a low-priority building. But worth building if you feel that you are swimming in gold and invest into lots of buildings. It actually provides significant amount of science
*Circus is for one-time culture boost only. (when I want to rush a game changing policy)
Almost never build them unless i have heavy Boredoom. Also worth building to get WLTKD when resource is not available and you bank on WLTKD (Founder, Synagogues, China, etc)
*My bath combo is only amphitheaters and temples. Garden comes fairly late, If bath is unavailable, I neglect building temples even I've founded a religion.
Temples are really important if you bank on your Religion. Do not forget that Temples get huge buff from Great Temple and it is something that definitely worth building for the Golden Age. Gardens are useless in cities that are not focused on great people, but should be build asap in cities with Guilds if you play Tourism.
*I never build units until I have barracks, then If armory is available, I will never build a unit until an armory is erected and so on.
I almost never build Armories at all, they are almost useless. Or at least when they are available - you have plenty of other stuff to build. Usually i build them to fight crime only. Sometimes you need to build units before Barracks, Barracks take too much time to build, you can build Horseman instead of Barracks and make a timing attack. Timing attacks are the only way to win a war on Deity.
*If stonework is available, I will build it asap
I never build stonework if i have less than 2 resources that it improves. it takes too much time for it to pay for itself. And production Trade Routes on Deity are useless cause you get +15 science and culture from international
*I never build wonders on the early game, I only build them when: totally necessary (Himeji) and if I'm leading in technology.
Himeji is necessary? I think it is one of the most useless wonders in the game. There are some earlygame wonders that can be very important depending on you civ and your starting location and game plan. E.g. Gardens for Tourism play, Petra for Portugal (if you have desert), Pyramids for Venice (if you play Tradition), Mausoleum if you start of resources with Quarries etc.
*Herbalists only on heavily forested/jungle cities.
It buffs plantations also.
*I depend my city distance on my ancient Policy, I minimize distance on progress, and pack as much cities on a small area huehue. Maximized on tradition, because each city could posses a large chunk of land.
This is right.
*I don't build constabulary even though a spy is reported on that city.
Worth building if you play Statecraft and around middle of Industrial era to fight crime
5. How many city-states allies threshold before you build a chancery? do you build them even with 0? 1? or greater?
for me - usually 2
6. Usually, I neglect spies, I don't know how to maximize its efficiency. So, where do you usually use them?
Thief? Spies? Coup?
Place it in AI's capital with most potential, but not to the AI that you do not want to piss of (i.e. if Askia is a tech leader, but he is your neighbour, it is bad to steal techs from him, you're gonna die). Also coups are good once tech stealing becomes impossible (usually once AIs build Constabularies)
7. Inca? mountains produces food or gold? sorry out of place question, btw I'm using 3uc/4uc.
Never tried 3uc/4uc, it is very imbalanced, but Inca is the strongest civ in the game if it gets a lucky start. Key is to build cities on top of the mountains.
 
Interesting, i'm struggling in Inmortal so, some things can change in Deity but:

This is 100% right, usually i build it asap after Libraries. I also save money to invest into all Forges.

About libraries, they're worth 5 science early game if you're working the specialist (+2 normally), but sometimes your secondary cities don't have enough population to work the specialist, grow and have a nice production.

Forge -> Barracks gives +2s and helps fight crime. It's worth to consider build both of them, then rush libraries. I like to only build a library in my capital early game, but focus in forge barrack first in secondary cities. Or maybe only forge first. Sometimes i pull of the entire combo in secondary cities before getting a library for them.

I almost never build Armories at all, they are almost useless. Or at least when they are available - you have plenty of other stuff to build. Usually i build them to fight crime only. Sometimes you need to build units before Barracks, Barracks take too much time to build, you can build Horseman instead of Barracks and make a timing attack. Timing attacks are the only way to win a war on Deity.

Armories are nice to build if you're going with fealty, really cheap building.

I never build stonework if i have less than 2 resources that it improves. it takes too much time for it to pay for itself. And production Trade Routes on Deity are useless cause you get +15 science and culture from international

Is that true in early game on Deity?, I normally can manage to just be a little behind in science (4 - 3 technologies behind) in classical era going for production - culture first. So, i normally focus on production routes early game, then international trade routes later.

Himeji is necessary? I think it is one of the most useless wonders in the game. There are some early game wonders that can be very important depending on you civ and your starting location and game plan. E.g. Gardens for Tourism play, Petra for Portugal (if you have desert), Pyramids for Venice (if you play Tradition), Mausoleum if you start of resources with Quarries etc.
I think It's important if you're planning on having some war weariness from risky tactics, like constantly fliping a city, and you have a big army.

My case for example: I'm America, i have 10 cities, 4 of them are building courthouses because i was fighting my neighbour Denmark in land to expand. Even with armories in my 6 initial cities, my supply cap was really short after taking 3 cities (i flipped a city two - three times to speed up the war). My great engineer was free, and i'm planning to make a naval army in the near future (the leader was building leaning tower so...)

Sure, i can maintain a army with my actual supply cap, but a high supply cap allows you to ignore war weariness effects in supply cap for some time.
 
Yes, I've yet rarely have faith issues main importance have been culture, food, and production, I'm trying to improve my food game, been focusing maybe too much on building but I'm not sure.
I think these are very important, I skip granary for quite a while if I dont get any bonuses from it (no deer, wheat etc).
Yes they are base facilities that you need, if I have enough faith I put shrine in lower priority in newer cities.

I wanted to found a religion in every game. It was not that hard for me, my first priority is always shrine. If I failed to do so, I'll cry for 5 seconds, then rage quit.
Yes it's sometimes a bit too close and I probably need to swap to shrine -> monument if I want to go up in difficulty and get a religion.

In my current game, I decided to "not ignore granaries", and yielded a better gameplay, or maybe, I'm just lucky in this game, I can't conclude yet though.
The granary carry over is strong (stacks with grocer and aqueduct), what I meant is if I dont have a resource that gain flat increase from it I often wait with it until I've taken care of other early buildings, again this could be a bad choice of mine so I can't say its neccessarily right or wrong.


Similar problems like production stuff, and I think banks can be skipped entirely in a lot of cities.
Yes baths are good but and culture is important, I tend to prioritise it a lot early on and then probably skimping a bit later, more culture is probably as important as science because of how good policys are.
I rarely build units, I try to buy units and go with the free authority ones, when I do it's probably a siege unit or two.
This free up building a lot of other things.

Okay. I also tend to ignore banks. But, If I'm having money problems, or If I chose industry, I will build it, and again, I'm underestimating the science when investing/buying.
Baths provide culture right?. I think, culture is more important than science. Snowballing science reduces my happiness and military supply.
Hmmmm... do you disable half xp when purchasing units?, or it is fine to you?

I get money from merchant specialists, possibly thrift (religion), mandir (well reduce poverty) and working a lot of villages.
Yes baths provide culture (and boosts Temples, Amphitheaters, and Gardens), what I mean is not all cities can build them so I try to make it somewhat a priority where I can but as you see theres so many things to build.
In hindsight I think I go monument/shrine/granary/well -> wall/barracks/council/armory/castle as high priority buildings -> more science/food buildings.
Yes less exp for purchasing is ok for me, also here I realise I do build some for certain pushes, mainly siege.

I wonder spam, some are really good (ex great library, cathedral of st basil), some are safety measures (ex great wall) others I could probably do without but sometimes end up building anyway (ex colossus).
I prioritise it in cities that have more than one plantation/camp for the extra production and in really jungle/forest heavy cities.
I try keep them at max distance, I play mostly authority warmonger.
I try to prioritise them, usually very good to keep crime down.

I don't really like early wonders, well, it still depends. If I have neighbors, then It would be a city-spamming game to claim all possible land, and forward settle, until he/she has no more room to expand. If I'm alone, or has a huge chunk of land, I'll reconsider building wonders.
I wanted to save the production cost for late game wonders, since they will become expensive overtime.
When taking authority, I really like that idea, since roads were cheaper, and transport could be easier.
Yuh, I read that it reduces crime, which is almost or more effective than arsenal (correct me lel).

I build wonders in capital with boost from council of elders, it has been nerfed but still very helpful, again the higher difficulty you go the more problematic certain pre though strats get so I try to choose them with care but sometimes I get a bit too greedy.
I guess heavy warmongering leads to quicker (as in ingame years) games and late game wonders doesnt come that much into effect.
Constabulary reduce crime 50% (ie a lot) for 500 hammers (renaissance era tech).
Arsenal is increased defence and hp for city which reduce crime indirectly but for a whopping 1000 hammers (industrial era tech).
Compared to castle which you can build for half price if you go Fealty there are no rebates for arsenal.
 
About libraries, they're worth 5 science early game if you're working the specialist (+2 normally), but sometimes your secondary cities don't have enough population to work the specialist, grow and have a nice production.

Forge -> Barracks gives +2s and helps fight crime. It's worth to consider build both of them, then rush libraries. I like to only build a library in my capital early game, but focus in forge barrack first in secondary cities. Or maybe only forge first. Sometimes i pull of the entire combo in secondary cities before getting a library for them.
Usually you do not work Scientist in Library, this is right. But those +2 science are important, especially after Barrack were nerfed. Though i usually build Barracks before Libraries. SCience in the early game is quite slow nowdays, so i frequently run out of useful stuff to build, so imo Libraries shoould go first. Then Forge+Arena for sure.

Is that true in early game on Deity?, I normally can manage to just be a little behind in science (4 - 3 technologies behind) in classical era going for production - culture first. So, i normally focus on production routes early game, then international trade routes later.
In two of my last games i was 10 techs and 2-3 policies behind the leader in the middle of Classical. So ye, Trade Routes worth 8-15 science and culture

Armories are nice to build if you're going with fealty, really cheap building.
Maybe, but there is always something more useful. I might consider building Armories if i plan to war around early Renaissance (e.g. India with their Elephants, they are awesome and will definitely benefit from Armories because of timing)

I think It's important if you're planning on having some war weariness from risky tactics, like constantly fliping a city, and you have a big army.
Problem with Himeji on deity is that it is in a crappy tech that you really do not want to research, so usually it is built when i have to research 7 techs to get it (you really need that Astronomy, than Acoustics, Sistine is one of the best wonders in the game, worth 3 Himeji Castles at least)
 
Useful trick from the user workerspam. You can get additional culture if you don't complete a technology until you get progress opener. For example, you can leave pottery one turn away, then change to another technology. It's a little cheesy, because the ai can't do it. And you need to wait a lot to get some key information (horse location). But if you like to wait until 4 population to spam settlers, you can just go with shrine first -> monument invest second -> 2 - 3 warriors -> settler spam. You will get a lot of early game culture doing that, enough to get the policy to get culture from buildings.

Workshop can give you +7p, +2gold with just 2 lumbermills. But stables and stoneworks are always priority.

You can do the caravan trick about villages with nearby city states too, but you need to build a road in classical era to the city state if you're going for a longer road layout to maximize the ammount of villages.

I like to get 3 - 4 allies late-game, then rush wire service in every city, but it's just my playstyle. Chanceries need 250 production. With two allies, one friend or three allies. After 50 - 40 turns they pay themselves. Same for workshops, they pay themselves in like 30 turns.

Wow, Nice trick, lol, I'll try that on my next games, since progress is my favorite ancient policy.
Ok. I think I'll mind the base yields provided by each buildings, instead of solely focusing on the other effects.
What do you mean? Are you referring on the path of the caravan? or the yield increased added when connecting 2 cities? I thought, that it would only work on owned cities.

Yes. Pretty much throughout the whole game. But that depends on circumstances. The easiest way is to lock best tiles that you want to work for sure, than start to manually increase amount of specialists and pay attention to what tiles you loose to work every next specialist. This way you can easily compare next specialist that you can assign to next tile that you will loose to get this specialist and see whether you want this specialist or not. Then check this city again when it gets new citizen.

This is bad, they speed up growth a lot. Also this depends on what resources you have. Aqueduct gives huge bonus on Lakes and Granary is very important if you have Deers or Wheat.

In my Capital i always build shrine first. Later depends on circumstances again, sometimes Monument, sometimes Worker, sometimes even Warrior. If i want a religion - i build Shrines in all cities first. 2nd usually Monument, sometimes Worker. It is VERY important to have 1 Worker per city asap, so Worker in every city should be among first 3 things you build (but ofcourse sometimes you can build 2 workers in a city with lots of production and focus on buildings in city with less hammers. Well should be prioritized if available. Also Market and Barracks are very important
Also Capital build Settlers one after another once it reaches 4 population. Sometimes even 3.

I do not. It gives quite a lot of production, especially in Forest-heavy cities.

Do not get how does bank depend on Custom house or Caravansary. Though Bank is a low-priority building. But worth building if you feel that you are swimming in gold and invest into lots of buildings. It actually provides significant amount of science

Almost never build them unless i have heavy Boredoom. Also worth building to get WLTKD when resource is not available and you bank on WLTKD (Founder, Synagogues, China, etc)

Temples are really important if you bank on your Religion. Do not forget that Temples get huge buff from Great Temple and it is something that definitely worth building for the Golden Age. Gardens are useless in cities that are not focused on great people, but should be build asap in cities with Guilds if you play Tourism.

I almost never build Armories at all, they are almost useless. Or at least when they are available - you have plenty of other stuff to build. Usually i build them to fight crime only. Sometimes you need to build units before Barracks, Barracks take too much time to build, you can build Horseman instead of Barracks and make a timing attack. Timing attacks are the only way to win a war on Deity.

I never build stonework if i have less than 2 resources that it improves. it takes too much time for it to pay for itself. And production Trade Routes on Deity are useless cause you get +15 science and culture from international

Himeji is necessary? I think it is one of the most useless wonders in the game. There are some earlygame wonders that can be very important depending on you civ and your starting location and game plan. E.g. Gardens for Tourism play, Petra for Portugal (if you have desert), Pyramids for Venice (if you play Tradition), Mausoleum if you start of resources with Quarries etc.

*Ok. I like the idea of locking good tiles, I might try it.
*I realized that growth is very important, especially on the early game. Got traumatized on Civ5 vanilla happiness system. I realized the reason why my happiness ranges from 50+, it is because my population is always low.
*I don't actually mind the WLTKD given by circus, but if it is that important, I'll take that into consideration.
*Ok, so I have to prevent building gardens on cities with low population or no guilds or specialists or whatever. I also like the buff of grand temple toward temples, so I realized that it was a nice culture+faith building.
*Hmmm... Ok, I thought stonework is a good production building.
*Himeji is bad? I thought it was a nice wonder because of the supply cap, but if the reason for being bad is not the wonder itself, but the technology, my opinion won't change. Actually, I like building the Pyramids with progress (not venice).


The granary carry over is strong (stacks with grocer and aqueduct), what I meant is if I dont have a resource that gain flat increase from it I often wait with it until I've taken care of other early buildings, again this could be a bad choice of mine so I can't say its neccessarily right or wrong.

I get money from merchant specialists, possibly thrift (religion), mandir (well reduce poverty) and working a lot of villages.
Yes baths provide culture (and boosts Temples, Amphitheaters, and Gardens), what I mean is not all cities can build them so I try to make it somewhat a priority where I can but as you see theres so many things to build.

Yes less exp for purchasing is ok for me, also here I realise I do build some for certain pushes, mainly siege.

I build wonders in capital with boost from council of elders, it has been nerfed but still very helpful, again the higher difficulty you go the more problematic certain pre though strats get so I try to choose them with care but sometimes I get a bit too greedy.
I guess heavy warmongering leads to quicker (as in ingame years) games and late game wonders doesnt come that much into effect.
Constabulary reduce crime 50% (ie a lot) for 500 hammers (renaissance era tech).
Arsenal is increased defence and hp for city which reduce crime indirectly but for a whopping 1000 hammers (industrial era tech).
Compared to castle which you can build for half price if you go Fealty there are no rebates for arsenal.

*Ok... I never thought of carry over growth could be that important. I realized that it saves a lot of food, and yields food, nice, I'm loving population growth.
*Ok, there were many ways of acquiring gold, so building banks is not the best way to solve it. Nice idea.
*I tried that on other games, but I'm not that satisfied on council of elders, snowballing science hurts the weaker cities on my empire :(
*Ok. Experience is obtainable in battle :( since my army is always passive, for defensive battles only, I never placed my thought on it. interesting, lol
*yuh, 50% is really high... It was really important on well established cities.
*I really don't like arsenals.
 
*Ok. I like the idea of locking good tiles, I might try it.
*I realized that growth is very important, especially on the early game. Got traumatized on Civ5 vanilla happiness system. I realized the reason why my happiness ranges from 50+, it is because my population is always low.
*I don't actually mind the WLTKD given by circus, but if it is that important, I'll take that into consideration.
*Ok, so I have to prevent building gardens on cities with low population or no guilds or specialists or whatever. I also like the buff of grand temple toward temples, so I realized that it was a nice culture+faith building.
*Hmmm... Ok, I thought stonework is a good production building.
*Himeji is bad? I thought it was a nice wonder because of the supply cap, but if the reason for being bad is not the wonder itself, but the technology, my opinion won't change. Actually, I like building the Pyramids with progress (not venice).
All of this is right in theory. The difference between Deity and Emperor is about analyzing opportunity costs. I do not even try to build Pyramids for any civ other than Venice not because i can't, but because i have more impportant stuff to do. I just dont need this wonder.
 
All of this is right in theory. The difference between Deity and Emperor is about analyzing opportunity costs. I do not even try to build Pyramids for any civ other than Venice not because i can't, but because i have more impportant stuff to do. I just dont need this wonder.

Ok hehe, I think my city-building scheme on emperor won't work on deity.
 
Ok hehe, I think my city-building scheme on emperor won't work on deity.
Well actually it does, at least the way you describe it. Its all about details after all. But generally the difference in building cities on Deity is that you can't build them in the middle of a big plain. You need something to defend it
 
Well actually it does, at least the way you describe it. Its all about details after all. But generally the difference in building cities on Deity is that you can't build them in the middle of a big plain. You need something to defend it

Even on emperor I would agree with this. Your early cities have to ha e defense in mind. Once you have an army you can afford the more exposed spots (although on diety that may never be true)
 
Even on emperor I would agree with this. Your early cities have to ha e defense in mind. Once you have an army you can afford the more exposed spots (although on diety that may never be true)
On Deity you can't afford building army while not in war. I typically hace 3-4 units at maximum just because it is a waste of hammers
 
Top Bottom