Is it a good idea to do this.

[sonix]

Is it a good idea to build every city improvement you can and then build settlers war units and wealth(assuming you made a spearmen or better in a city that allready has all city improvements fortified at a city still making some )

i do this for culture victory and its a huge difrence in culture score but im wondering on some of the harder levels how the AI tackles this.

 

[Tomoyo]

On higher levels, if you do what you're doing, the AI will overtake you in techs, territory, and, eventually, culture.

 

[sonix]

hmm at what dificulty do they do that and in tech with some mods to the game THERE NOT MAJOR STUF THAT MAKES ME LIKE GOD just some more realistic improvments that i feel were apropriate i can get tech at a prety good rate and i still get gold to fund for it (mostley threw trade with other civs)

 

[NewbieHere]

What Tomoyo's saying is that if you do that for all of your cities, the AIs will likely to wage war on you since you wouldn't have such a big military (yes, the AI is more likely to declare war on you if your military is small).

What I do is I usually build a defensive unit first if there isn't one to begin with (the one you send with the settler), then depending on the situation I'll build one or two culture improvements to enlarge my boundaries (or, in extreme situations, a city wall), then I'll build barracks or another defensive unit or a worker. Then when I think I have enough defensive units, I'll stick with cultural stuff or offensive units.

You can probably get away with it on chieftain and warlord, on regent you might have a little difficulty getting through, tho cultural flip will help (hopefully).

 

[Tomoyo]

A. Improvements early on? Except for Granaries and Barracks, any buildings will be wastes because they do absolutely nothing.

B. Who cares about early culture, really? The only reason you want early culture is for the 20K victory. For 100K you need to concentrate on getting as many cities as possible first.

C. Defensive units? Waste of shields! Except for some in your border towns that the AI can reach in one turn, they are uesless, sitting in your cities, not fighting. Offensive units can kill invaders just as well, and as a bonus, you even get to choose when and where to fight!

D. And I would say that if you did what you were doing, word for word, you couldn't even win on Regent.

 

[mikezang]

Not only early culture, even midlle or later culture is useless!
I just won a game on Manarch, Arabs has over 10000 culture, and America also over 8000, my China is only near 1000, but I have Iron, Horse and Saltpeter and a stronger Rider and Cavalry army.

 

[vmxa]

i do this for culture victory and its a huge difrence in culture score but im wondering on some of the harder levels how the AI tackles this.

You probably do not want to do much that the AI does in this game, except to expand quickly. The way the AI does it at higher levels is to get a bonus. As you go above Regent the AI gets cheaper everything and will start getting extra units to begin with.

By the time you get where it starts with 2 settlers and 18 troops, culture is not a concern for them. They will be able to crank out building at half price.

 

[Tomoyo]

Not only early culture, even midlle or later culture is useless!
I just won a game on Manarch, Arabs has over 10000 culture, and America also over 8000, my China is only near 1000, but I have Iron, Horse and Saltpeter and a stronger Rider and Cavalry army.

Yeah, but you can get a lot of late game culture to go for the 100K victory.

 

[Chieftess]

Is it a good idea to build every city improvement you can and then build settlers war units and wealth(assuming you made a spearmen or better in a city that allready has all city improvements fortified at a city still making some )

i do this for culture victory and its a huge difrence in culture score but im wondering on some of the harder levels how the AI tackles this.

The simple answer: no.

BTW, when you have 100 cities captured in the industrial era (around the 900s-1500s in higher level games), even putting in a library and temple (5 culture each - 500 culture per turn!), it adds up quickly.

Some cities don't even need certain improvements. (i.e., your core cities, and capital don't need a courthouse). Highly corrupt cities aren't gonna do much with a marketplace. Barracks are good for military unit producing cities, and fringe cities during wartime.

 

[citizen001]

Is it a good idea to build every city improvement you can and then build settlers war units and wealth(assuming you made a spearmen or better in a city that allready has all city improvements fortified at a city still making some )

i do this for culture victory and its a huge difrence in culture score but im wondering on some of the harder levels how the AI tackles this.

Your strategy is mad on Chieftain, but not terribly good on any higher levels.

 

[Arachnaphobia]

It wouldn't work, they'd beat you to the ground as you wouldn't have much of a military.

 

[the_corvos]

I find you get off to a good start when you do that because your culture soars, but later in the game, when culture really starts being accumulated, it's very hard to win by culture with just a couple cities, and your rivals will be beating you in every other aspect.

 

[Ruby Lady]

A. Improvements early on? Except for Granaries and Barracks, any buildings will be wastes because they do absolutely nothing.

B. Who cares about early culture, really? The only reason you want early culture is for the 20K victory. For 100K you need to concentrate on getting as many cities as possible first.

C. Defensive units? Waste of shields! Except for some in your border towns that the AI can reach in one turn, they are uesless, sitting in your cities, not fighting. Offensive units can kill invaders just as well, and as a bonus, you even get to choose when and where to fight!

D. And I would say that if you did what you were doing, word for word, you couldn't even win on Regent.

hmmm that may explain my inability to move past regent, despite playing for almost a year...

 

[Willem]

B. Who cares about early culture, really? The only reason you want early culture is for the 20K victory. For 100K you need to concentrate on getting as many cities as possible first.

It makes sense to build at least a Temple in your cities in order to expand the citiy boundaries. Otherwise you're losing out on a lot of potential land that could be worked. It also keeps your citizens happy.

C. Defensive units? Waste of shields! Except for some in your border towns that the AI can reach in one turn, they are uesless, sitting in your cities, not fighting. Offensive units can kill invaders just as well, and as a bonus, you even get to choose when and where to fight!

Defensive units are generally cheaper and they will keep your population happy while your off fighting your wars. In Monarchy, you can have up to three units keeping the peace in your cities.

D. And I would say that if you did what you were doing, word for word, you couldn't even win on Regent.

I agree with you there. He would be left in the dust by the AI's expansion. I don't build anything in my cities until each one as contributed three Settlers with escorts and at least one Worker. Even then it can be a stretch trying to keep up with the AI, especially if it's an Agricultural civ.

 

[Tomoyo]

It makes sense to build at least a Temple in your cities in order to expand the citiy boundaries. Otherwise you're losing out on a lot of potential land that could be worked. It also keeps your citizens happy.

One way around that is to build your cities closer together. I think it looks kinda ugly, but I do it for serious games. For casual games, I do build the culture to expand my borders.

Defensive units are generally cheaper and they will keep your population happy while your off fighting your wars. In Monarchy, you can have up to three units keeping the peace in your cities.

In Republic, the extra cash more than makes up for the lost MP smiles. I don't want this to become a Republic v. Monarchy argument, so I'll leave it at that. If you like Monarchy, defenders aren't that bad.

However, warriors are the cheapest, and archers are pretty cheap too.

 

[vmxa]

Consider that when people talk about defenders they are talking about spears in the ancient age. Most of these players are not playing any variant game and are playing Monarch or less. In that case you do not need to make spears. The Ai is not coming for you early and when they come it will not be a big problem.

The next age bump that triggers uprising is time to consider, if you need spears/pikes. Prior to that the few barbs are no threat to you. even emperor the AI is not likely to jump on you right off.

Above that, barbs can start to be an issue and you may have a nasty neighbor from time to time.

 

[Dachs]

One way around that is to build your cities closer together. I think it looks kinda ugly, but I do it for serious games. For casual games, I do build the culture to expand my borders.

I only ever build temples to keep away culture flip on my outermost cities, and that's only in the early medieval times.

 

[Kime11]

I also do build anything that it's possible in every city,depending on it's size (some buildings do not pay of in small cities),but later,because in begining the most important thing is to get as much territory as you can... also it is good later,because of resources,even if it is a cost for you,because of corruption, to have much territory....
Much territory is a must for winning ...

 

[Rohili]

hmm at what dificulty do they do that and in tech with some mods to the game THERE NOT MAJOR STUF THAT MAKES ME LIKE GOD just some more realistic improvments that i feel were apropriate i can get tech at a prety good rate and i still get gold to fund for it (mostley threw trade with other civs)

I wonder what "more realistic improvements* you made...

 

[The Omega]

I normally play on archipelago maps, with less than the normal amount of civs for the map size, and since the AI stinks at naval invasions so much, doing stuff similar to that (Whenever I get a breather between my almost constant wars, I tend to build improvements like crazy, trying to get as many as possible before I find some new excuse to smash the closest enemy )