Level of Difficulty differences?

[starlifter]

Time is like gone in an instant, you really have to set your strategy down to the finest detail. I'm doing poorly on emperor. any tips?

I have not started GOTM 9 yet, so I have not been reading the GOTM 9 spoiler threads yet.

But in general, if you want to throttle the AI, you'll need to play "efficiently", and use your own advantage (the human "cheat" of Intelligence) to overcome the AI advantages. Key to this is happiness.

IMHO, you cannot mess around with junk technologies like Horseback Riding, Map Making, Warrior Code, etc. You must make a beeline for Monarchy (or direct to early Republic, if the game situation allows), then jump right on the Happiness techs.... Literacy, Philosophy, Monothiesm... Michelangelos Chapel is hands down the most valuable wonder in the game, though in the end, the human should crush the hapless AI even with no wonders. It will just take longer, esp. on big maps.

Use the AI to research techs for you... Marco Polo is a critical early game wonder in most games. If you jump right on your SSC, MP will allow you to control the AI like a conductor controls an orchestra.

In the end, you will likely not even see an AI get much past Industrialization, unless you "gift" an AI the tech to get there. I usually gift the AI civs liberally with tech. Slow science=slow game, fast science=fast game (& better "GOTM Score").

 

[jc011]

Originally posted by starlifter

Use the AI to research techs for you...

What does this mean?? get the great library?? or demand gifts??
well, my tech line is pretty sloppy, i don't go for the important ones like you said i should, i should probably start planning out my tech lines, they go the observatory before me and then they just wizzed on by and got medicine (shakespears), monothesism(chapel) and then i was pretty much out of the game,

 

[GeneralHotRod]

I really don't mind the AI advantages in higher levels. What really pisses me off is the Barbarians. I get sick of having to rush build extra defenders do beat them off.

 

[starlifter]

Originally posted by starlifter: "Use the AI to research techs for you... "

by jc011:

... What does this mean?? get the great library?? or demand gifts?? ...

With Marco Polo (MP), you can watch the AI, and know their research and timing. You want to avoid having to spend science to get advances... but someone has to research them (or a hut pop)... better to have teh AI do some, rather than you do them all. Everyone work in Parallel, not sequence. You have failed if you allow AIs to waste their early-game science on an advance that you've already got. Give it to them! Don't duplicate effort.

In a succession game I'm playing in the Stories and Tales Forum, I post lots of details of what I'm thinking on my turns to play. I'm on TSC#2 (Carthegenians), BTW. This has lots of "real" examples.

At deity, people once used to thing the GL was essential to winning (according to old threads I've read). So did I. Not true. MP is far better in most situation, if you use Rep/Dem + SSC. If you wish to stagnate in Monarch, Communism, or Fundy for most of the game, the GL is of more use, however. But the whole game will be much slower.

Maybe the best way to get the feel for this general principle is the OCC. Play one or two of those. When you see how you can whip the entire world with one city, playing with 10 or 20 or 200 will be a crushing advantage for you.

If you want some more competitiveness during your game, adjust the spigot... release a tech or two to the world. E.g., If you want freight worth 4,000-gold each on a big map, give a democracy both Radio and Automobile. note: you are given only 2 choices in gifting each advance. Sometimes you must give other stuff to give what you want. Tuff Luck, LOL. You have to decide if its worth it, and the sum of such decisions is what defines your own game.

BTW, About all I ever get is gold for my demands.

There are lots of good strategies... I have several, personally, but generally advocate only one publically (the Power Democracy) to avoid confusing people.