Is it just me...

[Rakuen]

or does it seem that King is much harder than Warlord or Chieftain? I'm not complaining, cause if I was, I would just always play Warlord... anyway, I win all Warlord games with little to no effort, but when I try King... I almost always lose... (I'm 1-6 methinks...)

Why does it seem to be such a big gap?

 

[NintendoTogepi]

I agree, way too big of a gap.

 

[Chinese American]

on lower difficulties, you get handicap over AI.
on King nobody has advantages.
on higher difficulties, AI has handicap.

 

[Rakuen]

on lower difficulties, you get handicap over AI.
on King nobody has advantages.
on higher difficulties, AI has handicap.

not it for me atleast, I usually win [warlord] with tech or Economic victories, but my one win in King was a domination...

I think its just how quickly the AI gets Techs/money/wonders/GPs

 

[Rakuen]

well, I beat it again, rather easily actually!

The Ruskies are surprisingly great in this game! The loyalty and +1 plains is great... I also like half price spaiz...

 

[Quotey]

IIRC the only difference between Warlord and King is that you don't get a 50% combat bonus.

 

[I-am-a-panda]

I can't muster domination on king. The closest I got was taking over the english city before they even got units!! I always get economic or culuure on king, occasionaly science!

 

[Raw Power]

To put this shortly.

If you manage to be aggressive in the start game you can win any victory condition on any level.

Personally I played around 30 games on chieftain learning the game mechanics and also read a lot of helpful advice on these forums. I skipped Warlord and went straight for King and two things i noticed early.

1) I had to be quicker on early conquest or the AI would already have Archer armies.
2) Go to war even if you can't take their cities. The reason for this is simply put that the more time the AI uses on "obsolete" units instead of research, the better your chances to win.
3) The 100% on chieftain and 50% on Warlord to combat makes a HUGE difference, so you will usually have to get your units promoted or attack with a class with basic attack rating higher then the defender, and this is were the tech comes in.

My games are usually played out like this (even on Deity)
a) Either full science for HBR (no food, no hammers) and build horsemen ASAP for faster movement and added attack strength, or build warrior army ASAP. Attack 3 times barbarian villages (4 usually since it takes 2 attacks to get the bonus from taking a village) to get promted to veteran, and hopefully by this time you have found the first AI.
b) If you can attack from a Hill do so, and once your army is in place attack. If he has an archer army, withdraw and leave him for later picking up troops going outside his city, and any settlers etc. Scout around for your next prey as well, he might not be as fortunate to have archer army
c) You have now gotten your first AI capital, and time to switch to growth/science or continue with units to get a second AI capital and maybe an additional city depending on how long it took.
d) By this time you have secured your area, so beeline for code of laws unless you have been so fortunate to get the pyramids from a relic. Switch to republic and start settling your land, i advice to use sea regions as science and gold are your friend. I usually do a 2/3 science and 1/3 gold. I don't care much for production as i rush buy what i need.
e) You now have the game in the palm of your hand, and can focus on cultural, science, economic on conquest after your desire.

 

[bardolph]

My first game at King was Mongols, and holy smack (!), their ability to convert barbarians to cities is zOMG !@#%! powerful. I had 5 cities up and running before reaching the 100gp mark and the free settler.

First tech was horseback riding, and by the time I hit medieval times, had enough keshiks to make a few 3-move keshik armies.

Oracle of Delphi is a HUGE boon for early warfare. Just park Horseman or Legion armies outside of a city, and keep "suiciding" into the city until the gods predict victory for you. Another big benefit is that you are making longshot attacks, which gives you more XP and a higher chance of spawning a great General. Using the Oracle, I managed to knock out two civs with only 2 keshik armies before the oracle went obsolete.

 

[erislover]

The Oracle is worth having, if you get it from Egypt, but I'm not sure it is worth building. (Though last game I crippled three civs so quickly, and the fourth civ was an island civ that never bothered researching religion, so I had the Oracle the entire game through to a cultural victory!) Basically, the Oracle makes 2 or 3 armies worth 4 or 5 in terms of not wasting life on attacks that will fail, and being unafraid to try even if you are already missing some health. If you have it, by all means, use the heck out of it.

To survive on king all you need is strategy and aggression, but not greed, though what counts as greed depends heavily on how good your strategy is.

 

[bardolph]

The Oracle is worth having, if you get it from Egypt, but I'm not sure it is worth building. (Though last game I crippled three civs so quickly, and the fourth civ was an island civ that never bothered researching religion, so I had the Oracle the entire game through to a cultural victory!) Basically, the Oracle makes 2 or 3 armies worth 4 or 5 in terms of not wasting life on attacks that will fail, and being unafraid to try even if you are already missing some health. If you have it, by all means, use the heck out of it.

To survive on king all you need is strategy and aggression, but not greed, though what counts as greed depends heavily on how good your strategy is.

Actually, now that I think about it, the Oracle came from a Great Builder, which popped right about when I hit Medieval. There were some good choices: Pyramids, Great Wall, Oracle, Colossus. I figured the Oracle meshed well with my Keshik strategy.

 

[Raw Power]

bardolph:

I would have chosen Pyramids and changed Gov to Fundamentalism if war was my game (i assume so since the oracle is in question). The +1 to Attack is huge in turning the odds to your advantage.

 

[bardolph]

bardolph:

I would have chosen Pyramids and changed Gov to Fundamentalism if war was my game (i assume so since the oracle is in question). The +1 to Attack is huge in turning the odds to your advantage.

Is the +1 attack multiplied by 3 for armies?

 

[Raw Power]

Is the +1 attack multiplied by 3 for armies?

Yes, it's the basic attack rating for each unit with a +1 modifier.

Say a knight has attack rating of 4
The modifier gives it an attack rating of 5

An army of knights without modifier has attack rating of 12
+ veteran makes 18
+ Infiltration makes 24

An army of knights with the modifier has attack rating of 15
+ Veteran makes 22.5
+ Infiltration gives 30

With a hill or a general as well the difference increases even more, and not to mention the Samurai wonder which also adds +1.