Intermediate player, need advice to improve

[cabiness42]

I can usually win a space race on Emperor but am not beating the higher levels using the same strategy. This is what I usually do:

I'm usually the Ottomans (single player)

Tech Strategy: I always get Pottery first for granaries and then alphabet next for curraghs to explore/discover other civilizations. After that, I go for monarchy and then map making so I can settle other continents. If I have a particularly small continent I may reverse it and do map making before monarchy. Then I go for Literature to build the Great Library. Beyond that, I don't really have a specific strategy other than to avoid education as long as possible if I have the Grt. Lib. and get Sanitation as quickly as possible so I can build hospitals. Towards the end I go for the tech that will help me build the space ship the quickest.

Opening Strategy: I try to build lots of settlers and workers as early as possible. I usually have all of my cities building them. Do I need to let a few cities start growing earlier?

Also, once I'm done building settlers and workers, I almost always do granary next and then a temple. Then I'll try to get in a harbor for all coastal cities and an aqueduct for those not by rivers. I try to do libraries and universities as soon as they are available. I've been doing marketplaces and courthouses much later. Do I need to change my order any?

Government: I've been sticking with monarchy, but I usually don't find myself in too many wars, so should be I be doing republic?

Any other kind of intermediate/advanced suggestions? I read the stickys and didn't find anything too specific to where I'm at.

 

[vmxa]

I would first say that Monarchy is best only in a war time scenario. Use republic, if you are not going to be in long wars and fairly frequently.

Second, getting the GLB at DG or better is not a given, even if you beeline, it depends on what the AI decides to research.

Are you in maps other than pangea and how many civs in the game versus the default number? IOW if a std map, is it the full 8 or 12 for large and 16 for huge? I ask as you often will be hemmed in on those levels on pangea maps with full civs. About the time you get 4 to 6 towns down.

I don't play for SS, so I have no interest in Sanitation. Unless you do have plenty of room, you will need to take land from someone. This is not going to be easy with a plan of making universities all over the place.

Granaries are best put up early IMO and I put them in only a few towns, but if you have lots of open land and are going for SS, then put up more of them. So how I would go about things, is very much a function of the overall settings.

70% water huge map with 9 civs is a different story than 60% pangea std map with 8 civs.

 

[plastiqe]

I can usually win a space race on Emperor but am not beating the higher levels using the same strategy. This is what I usually do...

I think that is your problem right there, you're trying to use the same strategy that has worked for you on the lower levels and now it isn't working. My advice would be to try something different.. maybe pick a similar civ (like the Persians), don't build the Great Library, head for Republic, and then crush an opponent with your UU.

 

[Optional]

Cabiness42,
Have you thought about putting up a game save here? Then you get more specific advice. Another thing you might want to try is to join in a succession game; playing in a team can improve your skills, and it can be fun.

Vmxa already gave some good strategy pointers.
Cabiness42, is one of your problems above Emperor falling behind in tech perhaps? You say you're 'getting' Pottery first, then Alphabet. I assume you mean you're researching both of these techs?
You're likely to fall behind in tech if you research both of these techs yourself. They're both first tier techs. It's often best to research as horizontally as possible, instead of vertically. That gives you better techs to trading with the AI. You're falling behind, and then you need the Great Library to catch up again.

Maybe next time you start up a game, go with a civ that starts with Alphabet. Start researching Writing, and go look for other civs to trade with. Alphabet and Writing are both excellent techs to trade with. Try keep up with the AI in tech pace by clever trading, and try to lose your dependancy on the Great Library.

You say you're building settlers in every city. It sounds like you're not specializing. Try to specialize; pick out certain towns for settler builds, build granaries there, and let other towns focus on military, build barracks in those towns. That way you'll maximize your efficiency in production, and that's needed on the higher levels.

 

[Spoonwood]

Second, getting the GLB at DG or better is not a given, even if you beeline, it depends on what the AI decides to research.

Sure, it doesn't work as a given... but I don't know how many times I've seen 15 AIs ignore Literature until they have Feudalism.

Cabiness,

Clever trading will help... but doing such will speed up the AI tech pace. I don't think you want this on Demi-god or above... or at least you don't want it quite yet until you have a different playing style. I'd suggest first playing with a tribe that has alphabet, and if you don't want to trade for pottery, play with an agricultural tribe also. This leaves you with the Iroquois, and the Dutch, until you feel willing to trade for those techs. If you want a space-race victory, or want time to build all those structures, don't go for Monarchy. Pick The Republic as your government. For building the Great Library, go (Alphabet)-Writing-Literature or (Alphabet)-Writing-Philosophy with Literature as your free tech. Don't trade around Writing or Literature.

Pick either your capital or a productive city in the first ring, and send your first batch of workers there. Don't chop forests, mine all the tiles (you can road them too), and then once your discover Literature, add in workers into that town, take it to size 12 and build the Great Library (maybe not all that necessary on Demi-God, but still not a bad idea if you want to secure the Great Library). Shut off research until you learn Education, and then trigger your Golden Age immediately after you've learned Education or soon thereafter (you'll have to plan for a careful war at this point). In the industrial ages, concentrate on the bottom of the tree, and forget *researching* Nationalism, Communism, Fascism, Ironclads, and Espionage.

You can also do things like play on a pangea map and enable mass regicide. Then use your king units to get contacts with all the other tribes and trade like no tommorow to keep up in tech for a while. I've never seen an AI attack king units during the expansion phase. Use DaveMcW's list of techs to decide what to research... in fact I'd suggest printing it out and keeping it with you when you play.

You sound like a builder... you might enjoy or find useful this article:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=122419

 

[nerovats]

Also, once I'm done building settlers and workers, I almost always do granary next and then a temple.

Why first settlers then granary, why temples. If you have lot of settlers and workers then connect luxes en build markets. Specialize several cities into settler farms by first building granary then settlers/workers. Let some cities grow for science/production.

 

[vmxa]

Doug.Lefelhocz no doubt it does happen as you said. I have seen the AI not research Lit and I trade it to them while they were late into the IA. I have also had them go ahead and research it when I was 10 turns from the GLB and put up the GLB before me.

That is why I said it is not a given. I manage to get it on Sid most of the time, relying on the AI to not bother, but some times they do. I do not have a handle on the why or when. Now this is all at Sid.

I do not have all that many DG's or Deity games to know it like I do Sid. When I do play DG, non AW, I do not go for GLB as it does not have much of a shelf life. At Deity it is worth it and at Sid it is worth more, but is harder to get.

 

[Spoonwood]

I have seen the AI not research Lit and I trade it to them while they were late into the IA.

WOW! That one I didn't expect. 10 turns before you finished it and you still got beat. That's pretty rough. Did you have a wonder (ToA) cascade going on? Often... on demi-god and deity games I've played and read about... it seems that the AI finishes off the ToA, and any other ancient wonder cascade, before they start The Great Library. Maybe something to do with them having military/scientific great leaders (I don't know how they rush great wonders... the comments around here never seem to come out clear on that) also throws things a bit out of whack. I'd guess that Sid archipelago works out differently than Sid pangea, and having barbies on/off also affects all this.

 

[vmxa]

At Sid they only pay 160 shields for the GLB, so they can make it in a hurry. Cascade are very cruel as they can roll over several wonders. I cannot recall if a cascade was behind it or not.

They could even have a factory up at that point and make maybe 24 or 26 shields.

One thing I have proven is they can make a great wonder from an MGL, so it could be that as well. SGL's are normally turned off in Sid games. but I sometimes fail to notice.

That happens after loading other games posted and then later starting a new one. You can get some of their setting, if you are not paying attention. SGL is the easiest to over look. I play a lot of AW and those are usually done with no huts or SGL's.

 

[bryanwallace]

sorry,where can i find dave mcw list of techs??

 

[Spoonwood]

Here you go http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=123345