Jump from Warlord to Regent

[Braedenk]

I can play on Warlord difficulty quite easily, so easily that the game becomes pretty boring after a while. I tried to play on Regent and the AI gets ahead of me so fast, it's crazy. I can expand about as fast as them and have a decent military, but they get ahead of me in technology so much that it'd be impossible to win the game. I've started like 5 games, trying different things but it doesn't seem to help. What's the best way to keep up in technology?

I know I'm probably quite noob to the rest of you who can play on ridiculous difficulty levels, but some help with this would be great. Thanks.

 

[vmxa]

First try to use towns to build one thing. Have a settler pump, even if it is only 8 turns. One to make troops once you get much of the close land filled. One that makes workers. It can make settlers or troops from time to time.

Only put barracks in towns that are building troops. Be sure to get enough workers to make tile improvements as they are needed. That is if a town has a citizen working a tile that tile needs to have at least a road and should be getting a mine or irrigation so it will not be long till it is up.

Keep workers under tight control. Do not let them take circuitous routes that waste turns. Do let them travel back over the save tiles repeatedly.

Mine first and only irrigate when it has a food bonus, until you are out of despotism. Maximize growth as much as you can. Avoid hills and mountains if you have other tiles to improve. Yes there are some times that a hills need to get done, by be sure it makes sense.

Do not make more troops than you need in the early game. You can handle the AI wilth few units for a long time at this level.

Only build structures you need, when you need them.You do not need barracks every where or temples right away. Grow, grow grow.

Get out an make contacts and trade, Wait to trade either when you can peddle to a number of civs or it is about to be devalued.

When you do attack, make it hurt. Avoid building spears, you do not need any at level below emperor. You may not even need them at emperor in a std game. Build attackers instead. Preferably fast movers.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

On regent, the human can out research the AI for pretty much any tech.

However, the human cannot outresearch *all* the AI's, and they trade amongst each other. My guess, and it's a pure guess, is that you are trying to research all the techs yourself.

Rather than researching the 1st level techs (bronze working, warrior code, etc), try picking a track- CB/Mysticism/Polytheism/Monarchy, or Alpha/Writing/CoL/Philo/Republic, or even BW/IW/Construction if you must.

You can use those as trade material for the other techs you need.

Once you get to the MA, you start being able to outresearch the AI almost completely, assuming you have expanded efficiently, of course.

btw - it is probably not true that you can't win one of those games where you are behind in tech. In fact, one method for higher levels is to do minimum research on all techs and buy them all!! If you want, you can post a save from one of those games and we can take a look at what you are doing and make suggestions so you can maybe win one of those games.

 

[Ringo Kid]

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/trading_tips.php

Have you seen the above article on trading? It's a good one.

 

[Theryman]

vmxa, a question has plagued me for a very long time:

You do not want to have too many units in the beginning, right? But you also do not want to have unnecessary buildings. So where do you put all the extra shields? I usually just get a lot of military units and burn them out against a neighbor, but is there a better way?

 

[adog]

go with workers and settlers

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Most important thing you probably have to learn is the value of food and thus growth and citizens.

A shield is just a shield, a warrior is just a warrior. Food however translates into new citizens. New citizens make shields for the rest of the game. Therefore, food above everything early (first 100 turns or so) in the game.

In the beginning, every move you make, ask yourself the question what is best to increase my total food per turn as much as possible and as fast as possible. Your total food per turn is the surpluss food of all your towns together.
So a new settler = new town, makes 2 fpt usually but more if there is a food bonus for it. Irrigating a tile may increase your fpt. A granary increases your fpt. Normally you need 20 food for a citizen, with a granary you need 10. Therefore, you can double the fpt value of a city with granary.

Let those things guide your decisions in early game and grow like a rabbit family.
All you build in early game is usually settlers, workers and granaries.

Next most important thing is to trade. Meet all those AI's and trade technologies with them. When trading, keep in mind that once you trade a tech to 1 AI, it is very likely he will pass it on to the others. Therefore, choose the right moment to sell your tech and when you do, usually sell it to everyone. Also try to buy a tech from one AI and sell it to the others immeadiately. If you learn to do this well, you can be at the top technologically without doing any research and you can have all the AI's gold as well.

 

[vmxa]

vmxa, a question has plagued me for a very long time:

You do not want to have too many units in the beginning, right? But you also do not want to have unnecessary buildings. So where do you put all the extra shields? I usually just get a lot of military units and burn them out against a neighbor, but is there a better way?

Well we are talking about Regent here, so I would not need any MP's for a while, nor for defense. So I can make settlers and workers. I will make some structures, if the techs are kind.

That is I will make a granary in the first few towns and one of them will get a barrack not too far down the road.

Barbs are not an issue at these levels as your bonus is still high. If this was deity or sid, you have get some troops to hold the AI's respect and barbs are no joke as you have no bonus to speak of. You need MP's right away as the unhappy pop is a big issue.

 

[SimpleMonkey]

Rather than researching the 1st level techs (bronze working, warrior code, etc), try picking a track- CB/Mysticism/Polytheism/Monarchy, or Alpha/Writing/CoL/Philo/Republic, or even BW/IW/Construction if you must.

You can use those as trade material for the other techs you need.

Once you get to the MA, you start being able to outresearch the AI almost completely, assuming you have expanded efficiently, of course.

I agree with all of the above, but I'd caution against trying the CB/Myst/etc. route. The AI just doesn't seem to value those techs as much as those on the Alpha route. I also never research IW unless I'm in an AW game, as the AI will pretty much always get there ahead of me.

Build dinky boats to send out on suicide runs, and you can end up with trade monopolies that last a long time.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

oh, I agree that the alpha/writing route is better than the other, in general. But any of those is better than trying to get BW, CB, Wheel, etc by researching them all yourself.

 

[fishjie]

here's a question. i always hear that you should build tons of workers. well i try to - i go for a ratio of two per city. but what should they do? I connect all my cities with roads. i try to road all my worked tiles, mine the greens and irrigate the yellows. but then what do i do? should i improve unworked tiles, especially stuff like mountains? if there's a lot of jungle, i try to clear it out with idle workers, but is there a better use? help pls.

 

[vmxa]

Short answer is that you only need as many workers as you can keep busy. It just takes lots of experience to know what is needed at what time.

Usually 1 per town at the start and later you will need to be improving those moutains. Well that is if you are doing some tighter spacing. If it is more like no overlaps, then it will be a long while with lots of idle tiles.

If you are not taking land from the AI, you will probably find you have more workers than you need. This is because the amounht of land you have will be static and the tiles can get finished.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

improve the tiles that are not yet being worked. Road all the mountain and jungle tiles - that's useful towards the end of the middle ages, because that's where coal can often be found. Once you have coal and iron, then they all get to build rails!! and then they get to clear pollution. if you can get to a point where you have idle workers before you have rails.

if you have spare time, build forts. Build and chop forests for the 10 shield bonus, especially tundra. Road desert and tundra in anticipation of oil.

 

[vmxa]

Forts? You should not be needing forts, unless it is a really massive game. I do not even build them at Sid. I can see some time where you are able to use a choke and will be seeing lots of units come at the choke.

That should not be needed at std maps with no variants (AW). I cannot recall ever making them personally. I have used those build by teammates in AW though, at chokes.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

i just meant that there is *always* something your workers can do. no reason for them to be idle, until everything is roaded/cleared/railed/improved.

 

[vorlon_mi]

here's a question. i always hear that you should build tons of workers. well i try to - i go for a ratio of two per city. but what should they do? I connect all my cities with roads. i try to road all my worked tiles, mine the greens and irrigate the yellows. but then what do i do? should i improve unworked tiles, especially stuff like mountains? if there's a lot of jungle, i try to clear it out with idle workers, but is there a better use? help pls.

Workers help your empire, as you have noted.

In the ancient age, build lots of roads, mine green, irrigate brown and
irrigate food specials.

Once you have switched out of despotism, you can begin irrigating green,
and mining the bonus grassland for extra shields. Don't waste worker turns
un-doing your previous work (yet) -- use the new rules on newly conquered
territory. Build even more roads. Chop forests for shields near cities
that are *not* building small or great wonders, cuz the chopped shields
won't help with those.

In the middle ages, you can think about clearing jungles that are near
your cities, to help reduce disease. Build roads, irrigation, and mines
in your new territory. Don't join workers to cities yet, and don't ever
disband them. If they finish their improvements, stack them up near
the capital and fortify them. Mine a few mountains, if you wish.
Consider turning some mined grassland into irrigation, for selected cities
to grow to size 12. This will also be needed if you plan for the city
to get a hospital, and grow even larger.

Once you discover steam power, wake up the crew and start building
railroads. Start by linking your productive cities with each other, and
with your borders, so that you can speed your troops to any trouble spots.
Spend a lot of the industrial age building railroads, and soon
there will be pollution to clean up. You may need to put some on boats
to send to newly conquered territory, and may consider joining some
native workers to far-off cities to help them grow quickly.

In Modern Times (if you haven't won already), they will clean up a lot
of pollution and/or nuclear fallout.

Edit: add note about changing mines to irrigation

 

[Aabraxan]

There's always something for workers to do. Early on, you need them irrigating, mining and roading. I don't know what kind of map you're playing on, but I typically play continents and their "To Do" list never gets finished. If you get all worked tiles (the ones your citizens are on) improved, then improve the rest. Your cities will grow and your new citizens may as well be working already-improved tiles. Also, as you discover new resources (saltpeter, for instance), if your tiles are already roaded, the new resource is instantly hooked up. You don't want to have to send a worker halfway across a continent to road the only source of saltpeter in your territory.

If you really run out of things for them, meaning that every tile you own is cleared/mined/irrigated/roaded/railed, go conquering. You need more land.

 

[GoodGame]

I think in Regent the AI starts to practice tech trading. Do you do the same? That'd probably be the easiest way to get adjusted to Regent if you're otherwise playing a strong game with sound micromanagement.

Pretty much you need to maximize your contacts early into the game and make multiple tech trades in a turn. (If you sell something to someone, sell it to all of them since it's going to get around to them probably by the next turn(s) anyway.)

Economically, the smartest thing to due to is to bee-line for a government since Despotism is crippling. If you stay despot for long you're guaranteed to fall behind technologically, even if you conquer a few neighbors.

I can play on Warlord difficulty quite easily, so easily that the game becomes pretty boring after a while. I tried to play on Regent and the AI gets ahead of me so fast, it's crazy. I can expand about as fast as them and have a decent military, but they get ahead of me in technology so much that it'd be impossible to win the game. I've started like 5 games, trying different things but it doesn't seem to help. What's the best way to keep up in technology?

I know I'm probably quite noob to the rest of you who can play on ridiculous difficulty levels, but some help with this would be great. Thanks.

 

[jb1964]

Braedenk, give us an update.....

How goes Regentsville these days?