Late Game Help

[jetsfan]

Hey, I've had Civ 4 for a couple weeks now and I really enjoy it. I am, however, having sever problems late in game. At the beginning i am almost always the points leader, i have a good base military, i am the scientific leader, and my economy is ussually so-so. By the end of the game however, i find myself in fourth or fifth place and struggling to keep up technology wise. some country like the malinese or england usually becomes the new tech leader and wins by space race. i would really enjoy any stratagies for late game and any advice. one thing i think im doing wrong is somehow not getting enough production out of my cities. in my last game, i was third or fourth place and england was in first. i spied on their cities and wanted to try to sabatoge their space race. then i noticed two things. One, i didnt have enough money, but second and most importantly, London had 130 production a turn, while my top city only had 40! Am i doing something wrong? please help me! thanks alot
jetsfan

 

[Dragonlor]

What are you doing different in your late game compared to your early game?

 

[jetsfan]

thats what i don't get, im really not doing anything different. I fell like late game i become more focused on building buildings instead of units, but thats about it.

 

[cleverhandle]

Post a save, unless you enjoy idle speculations.

 

[DaveMcW]

You need to specialize a few cities in the late game. Dedicate one city to producing shields, and irrigate/mine/watermill/lumbercamp the heck out of it. Build the iron works.

 

[cleverhandle]

Build the iron works.

According to screenshots I've seen, the Iron Works is broken and doesn't provide a production boost.

Still, the general point is valid - you've got to specialize.

 

[dh_epic]

How many cities do you have? (Compared to the AI?)

What do you generally do with your workers? What's your strategy there?

 

[jetsfan]

hey i would just like to say that i found a solution to my problem for any one out there. the problem really actuallly begins in my starting game. i used to grab a religion, usually budda, then beeline for alphabet and trade it off. i found that by hoarding alphabet and trading techs with only the weakest AI's, i was able to out research my opponents and win the space race quite easily. thanks a bunch for the help.
jetsfan

 

[KAuss]

Since the AI can trade you without alphabet, they can trade themselves without alphabet also...

The trick is not to trade them anything... However, to do that you'll have to rid yourself of alphabet for a long time...

The AI generally joins forces late game anyways once they see you run away in tech... I've had a civ pop up with three new techs in three turns just out the blue... I was like WTH? Next thing you know, everyone else has it under "unwilling to trade" and I'm the only one left without it...

 

[tempuraki]

two thing i can think of that might cause you to struggle in late games:

1. too much forest chop early. if that's the case then you will be left with no forest to build lumbermill on, which is very good production booster. if that's the case then you may have to switch to state property civic and build workshops, which is almost just as good. in any case, you will save a bunch on upkeep by switching to state property anyway. Also, if you have some lumbermills, make sure you have coal so you can build railroads.

2. not enough cottages in the beginning. AI likes to build cottages, and once they grow into towns, they are really great. This could solve your cash flow issue in the late games.

As for trading with the AI, concentrate on the techs they don't have, and trade the same one with every AI for different techs or cash. also trade your excess resource for gpt and use the gold toward research. if you find that AIs don't like you, see if it's due to religion differences, if so, you can improve the relationship by switching to free religion.

hope that helps

 

[Nestorius]

Maybe try playing a few games that start in the industrial or modern era?

 

[Multiplicity]

According to screenshots I've seen, the Iron Works is broken and doesn't provide a production boost.

Still, the general point is valid - you've got to specialize.

Iron Works work. I've seen it add 50% or 100% depending if I have one or two of the right resources necessary for Iron Works to be useful.