Managing an empire

[Ibian]

How do you do it?

Its not really realistic to go through the game with only a few cities due to the nature of resources and healthiness, but managing a whole bunch of cities is just annoying. So annoying that i usually abort the game halfway through.

 

[Sjaramei]

Habit, you do the stuff you need pretty fast after some practice. I just take a glance on the city and build list to see what it needs. For heavy micromanaging thats mostly for the specialized cities, and thats were you play the game isn't it?

But i know your feeling, when i get 30-40+ cities i don't bother doing much with most of them. (just building stuff gets annoying, Civ IV could do with a better building interface)

 

[Shadzy19]

Well u can always que up multiple units / buildings or use the infinite que so you dont have to bother going though the same city again when its builds a unit .
Rally points for your city's saves time to when u need to send all troops to the same location.

 

[Sjaramei]

Well u can always que up multiple units / buildings or use the infinite que so you dont have to bother going though the same city again when its builds a unit .
Rally points for your city's saves time to when u need to send all troops to the same location.

Thats my point, you can't queue in the building pop-up. My comp gets real slow late game so it can be a nightmare for me during this phase. Queuing manually after going through all those pop-ups can be tedious too.

 

[Ibian]

I think i just dont have the same kind of patience for these games that i did 10 years ago. I like figuring out complex systems and sub systems, but i hate actually micromanaging them all.

A proper empire simulator needs semi-automation. The president doesnt order every individual troop in a war, he has people for that. And a mayor doesnt manage every aspect of a city, there are hundreds of subdivisions who are responsible for their own areas.

Of course, actually programming a game that can adjust production and sliders and manage a hundred troops in an intelligent way based on the users overall goals is not the simplest thing to do.

 

[absimiliard]

Of course, actually programming a game that can adjust production and sliders and manage a hundred troops in an intelligent way based on the users overall goals is not the simplest thing to do.

Some folk thought MOO3 did a good job. Some felt like they were watching the computer play itself.

But it was definitely an experiment in "managing" the manager tools rather than micro-management. Micro-management was actually impossible in some basic areas, enough so that some people got really mad that they couldn't easily control what their planets built domestically.

I liked it, but a lot of folks didn't.

YMMV.

-abs

 

[Ibian]

It occurs to me that its possible to trade gold for resources. This is not something i have done so far, but assuming it doesnt cost stupid amounts, it might just be possible to run a 3 city empire.

First city: Production for key wonders. We need the pyramids (for the 3 happy faces, and because i like the damn thing) and whatsitcalled that gives all religion civics for free religion. This will keep people happy and no religious tensions with the other civs.

Second city: Gold city. This city will generate a GS first (we only really need one, at least in the beginning). After that it will focus exclusively on GM who will be settled in the city. With the gold we can buy health resources, and the extra food just makes it that much easier to run specialists.
Once enough GM have been settled to pay for all the resources the other civs have, plus a little surplus so we can keep the science slider maxed, it will switch to science production. Maybe make another GS and then farm cottages.

The third city is of course science city. A big well developed city can pretty much keep up with an entire AI civilization, at least on noble where i play.

There is still the option to go to war with this setup. We dont need every single wonder, just the important ones. The rest of the time we can build whatever we want.

 

[LlamaCat]

it sounds like you might want to review some of the interface commands...managing the build queues in all your cities is actually very easy with some key commands. and remember you can actually do all this from the main screen without having to look inside the cities. the only thing you cannot do is rearrange which tiles are being worked in the big cross, but if you keep an eye on when the city grows a point, that's when you can jump inside the cities.

 

[Sjaramei]

it sounds like you might want to review some of the interface commands...managing the build queues in all your cities is actually very easy with some key commands. and remember you can actually do all this from the main screen without having to look inside the cities. the only thing you cannot do is rearrange which tiles are being worked in the big cross, but if you keep an eye on when the city grows a point, that's when you can jump inside the cities.

I know how to queue stuff on the map (i guess this is directed at me). I want to be able to do it in the pop-up. When you get 20-30 pop-ups each turn before you can queue (where you pick whats important anyway) it gets very annoying. Early game it isn't a problem (few cities) late game when you got factories everywhere and Mining inc in all cities it becomes a nightmare. (especially for domination loving me )

 

[Spaced out]

There is an automated build function in the city screen. I use it when going for domination and don't really care if some newly aquired city is building a library or bank as my core is doing all the work for the empire. Once the city finishes a building it starts on another one automaticlly. I'm guessing its based on what the advisors suggest you build but not sure.

You don't need an empire to win the game. I've won games on one-city challenge( OCC ) so having 4 or 5 core cities is very doable.

Try a conquest victory where you just raze 1/2 the world or a space race. Cultural games are most efficient at 9 cities on standard size.

 

[Spaced out]

Some other notes:

Remember that that tundra city you founded way far off to get that silver/fur does cost maintenance. You could easily just buy those resources from the A.I.

Look at hereditary rule. If you have 10 cities and put 1 unit in each that is +1 happy for 10 gpt. You could use that as an idea as to what you should pay for resources.

Don't forget that expanding culture borders can give you more resources.

Every time you add a city to your empire it suffers from dimminishing returns. That is when you build your 5th city you just increased your empire by 25% but when you build your 51st you just gained 2%. Also the later the city is gained the less time it has to build infrastructure before the game ends.

 

[Ibian]

Happiness is never an issue. Between temple spam (i founded 6 religions in my last game, thats 12 happy faces from temples alone with free religion), the happy slider and all the happy happy improvements, the main problem always ends up being health. And there is only so much you can do about that.

 

[Ariminio]

I just vassalize the nation conquer and then liberate the cities back to him. My empire stays normal size and I get allies which is fun!

But I know what you mean, even with only 10 cities I get annoyed in the modern age.