King to Emperor

[Naeshar]

But is it fun/challenging/engaging if you know up front that you're going to win?

um... yes!
The game is not about winning but playing then.
Not all gamers crave challenge.

 

[Victoria]

um... yes!
The game is not about winning but playing then.
Not all gamers crave challenge.

And many find a challenge in speed of victory. This has the added bonus of avoiding many long late game turns that have little effect beyond window dressing.

 

[Karmah]

I understand your point of view but at some point King just felt too easy. When I can horde almost all the wonders it becomes a bit lame. The step to Emperor with it's two free settlers for AI is a tad steep though.

good it means you are in the right spot
And I wouldn't stay below your level. It's boring. I know I can't play below immortal.It feels way too easy. At immortal , I do win all the time but I feel I had resistance ,and I need to stay my course. On deity I won 80% of the time, when I'm losing I'm usually punish for having neglected some 'must do' , lilke not enough units at start , or forgot to check how this runaway far away is doing. A tiny bit of 'I could not have done anything' can happen at deity too. And I build wonders. People are right to say they are not worth it. But I want wonders , some. Not the classical ones obviously but come on forbidden palace , come on big ben , zimbabwe. I want to win sure but ... wondaws!
Point is , play at the level that feels challenging.
Hopefully ,I don't have a lot of time to play so I can't close on the game like some of the civ fanatics who win easily below 250 and know everything ... then it'd be boring all the times.

Oh and Maori , yes it is easy but damn the guilty pleasure

 

[Iberian]

Watch Potato on YouTube as well. He always plays on Diety so you can get an idea of strategy.

He is fun to watch but he plays to make a game interesting and isn't too calculating in his play. Marz I think does a better job of nailing the early game play.

 

[knighterrant81]

“No one ever.”?
Well flexibility means a lot of detail and I am always posting and saying you have to be flexible but if you read what is written before that point it normally talks about the options.
Example here
Trying to get better at deity, a bunch of questions for people who know more...
There is also a good phases post above it which should help the OP.

I just get frustrated because everything is buried in threads instead of being compiled into guides. I would do it, except I'm busy at work and don't consider myself knowledgeable enough.

 

[Victoria]

I just get frustrated because everything is buried in threads instead of being compiled into guides. I would do it, except I'm busy at work and don't consider myself knowledgeable enough.

Guides are not just a case of writing. Getting everything in there and right takes a lot of time.
I have 3 kids, a demanding spouse, 2 jobs and 3 acres.... I truly have limited time.
It should be Firaxis doing this

 

[orasis]

Food/Archers/Settlers/Gifts.

Settle as much as possible as early as possible, even in low production areas... you can make up for that with trade routes.

Cities matter - they snowball - the more you have, the better off you will be.

 

[footslogger]

Hooray, I finally won my first game at Emperor! Now no one will kick sand in my face ever again.

It was a bit cheesy I suppose in that I elected to play as Rome. On a continents map at standard speed I had plenty of room to settle cities early, ten by move 100. I then used my legions to take out Lautaro's six cities to the north and that freed up mote open space for me to settle another five cities into the tundra. So 21 cities by move 200 and even I couldn't lose from there. I had planned for a Culture victory but ended up with a Science win at move 340 (not very fast, but hey my first Emperor win).

A couple of thoughts about Emperor level. All the advice about the need for early expansion certainly made things easier and Rome was perfect for that. I found I had to think more carefully about moves than I am used to during the first three eras. I usually tend to be rather blasé re eurekas and inspirations, placing and promoting of governors, order and placing of districts etc. Much more careful this time, which I enjoyed. I wouldn't want to go back to King level and not have to put in that extra attention to detail. The challenge now is to try for a win with fewer cities, which several people have said is possible. My economy management will have to be even tighter if I am to do that.

My thanks again to all who gave advice about playing at this level. The diversity of it shows that the game is complex in a good way with lots of different viable approaches. With patches the AI should get a teeny bit better.

 

[Victoria]

The challenge now is to try for a win with fewer cities,

Thats the spirit, the secret with fewer cities is concentrating more on what you need when you need it.
Glad you are finding the choice and challenge in the game.

 

[Disgustipated]

15 is a good number to shoot for. The last few cities aren't all that in the grand scheme of things, they aren't building game winning districts, what they are doing is giving you gold (provided you are building harbors/commercial hubs in these cities which you should) that you can use to enhance your core cities. The core cities are what really win the game. The peripheral cities help the core cities by providing additional resources like gold or faith. I'm not a big faith guy myself, but if going for cultural victory, it's very welcome. My Netherlands Emperor game I think I only had around 12 cities, and it was a lot closer than I like. Though once I slotted in international space agency I pulled away. But up until then I was pretty much even with the AI. I lacked a lot of production as well. It was that in between situation where it looks like you have enough room to peacefully expand, and there are no close AI civs to attack, so I opted for peaceful play and no conquering. But in hindsight, conquering a few cities would have helped things along faster.

 

[Aristos]

Guides are not just a case of writing. Getting everything in there and right takes a lot of time.
I have 3 kids, a demanding spouse, 2 jobs and 3 acres.... I truly have limited time.
It should be Firaxis doing this

Three kids = three pops.
Three acres = three tiles.
Assign your pops to your tiles correctly, one per tile. Micromanaging, yes, but ends up freeing your time for better things.
Demanding spouse = governor.
Two jobs = two cities.
Assign one city to the governor. More time for you.

==> Play more civ. Write more guides.

The power of micro.