Maximum Gol

[flymi]

Hey, im new to these games as i was only found out about them around 1 week ago. Anyway i was wandering if anyone might help me increase my gold output, as on my current game with the english im only earning +58 (no science or happyness spending) per turn with about 10-15 cities and half my continent. My capital can produce swordsmen etc in about 2 turns and i can get settlers in york in 3/4. But i dont seem to get any gold but with some threads iv read people are getting around 1000 per turn when they reach the 2nd age, which i have just done.

Any help would be appreciated and i can upload this save if needed. Thanks

 

[Delphi456]

Are you building roads on every worked tile?

 

[flymi]

thanks for replying, ye i build wheneva i can, heres a screenshot of london, anything more i can be doing except build roads on the ones i havnt got round to doing?

 

[vmxa]

No one is making a 1000gpt with 10 cities. That would be 100 per after expenses. Post a save and we can see what is going on.
1-roads for all worked tiles
2-maint too high, due to too many structures
3-support cost, due to too many units
4- form of government

Just a few things to ponder.

 

[Aabraxan]

Welcome to CFC, flymi!

One of the best ways to get advice on your game is to post a save. That way, other players can download it and really take a look at what's going on with your economy. Also, what version are you playing?

Delphi456 has already hit on one of the most common reasons for lack of gold for new players: Lack of roads. In addition to hooking up resources & luxes and the movement issue, the commerce bonus of Republic adds one commerce to every tile already producing at least one commerce. Zero-commerce tiles (like the forest S-SW of London) remain zero-commerce tiles. If you add a road to it, though, it becomes a two-commerce tile. The easy way to ensure that you've got enough roads is simple: Do not to let a worker leave a tile without building a road.

The lack of roads is often caused by a second common issue: lack of workers. Shoot for about 2 workers per city. You can get away with fewer if you're playing and industrious civ, but that's a good rule of thumb. Also, don't overlook the value of slaves. They cost no upkeep, so don't pass up an opportunity to buy them from other civs. Killing other civs' settlers & razing their cities also gives you slaves. They work half as fast as normal workers, but (again) they're free in terms of upkeep.

Looking at your screenshot: First of all, what's your victory condition? I'm going to guess that you've built lots of unnecessary improvements. What is "unnecessary" is partly defined by your victory condition. I see barracks, temple, library, granary, courthouse and The Great Library. Not all of those are necessary. A courthouse reduces corruption. London is your capital. There is no corruption in your capital. So the courthouse is costing you gold, but not doing you any good. If you're shooting for a cultural victory, the temple's a good idea. If you're shooting for conquest, you don't need it.

I also see that London is producing 19 culture per turn. What else is hiding down there that you've built? Also, I'll suggest a trip to the War Academy. Some article to look at are: Cracker's Opening Plays, and The Four Rules of Wonder Addiction.

Your luxury slider is unnecessarily high. I see 10 happy people and 2 that are either content or unhappy. To keep your city out of disorder, you only need at least as many happy as unhappy people. For example, a size 10 city:
->6 happy, 4 unhappy = no riot;
->5 happy, 1 content, 4 unhappy = no riot;
->4 happy, 2 content, 4 unhappy = no riot;
-> 4 happy, 1 content, 5 unhappy = riot.

So you can turn your lux slider down a notch or two.

While I'm on the subject of happiness, can you build a market yet? They increase tax revenue and add to happiness, so London could use one.

Finally, I see 4 spears and a warrior guarding London. A republic doesn't get any MP effect from military units, but I see stacks in the other cities. So I'm going to guess that you've put several defensive units in every city. If that's the case, you're spending gold on units that aren't doing you any good.

 

[flymi]

heres the save, as i say im new to this so i may have completly messed everything up, thanks for replying, how do i turn down luxary as i wasnt actually aware you could do this, in terms of units i have 3 spear in most cities, is this not needed? thanks, i can build markets and will do as soon as possible. i was aiming for domination as this is the main reason i like games like this. thanks again

 

[Aabraxan]

To turn down the luxury slider, hit F1. That will take you to the domestic advisor screen. In the upper right corner, you'll see 2 sliders. The top one has a beaker and is for science. The one below it is for happiness. I think it has a happy face on it, but I don't have the game open right now.

Edit: And no, it's not necessary to have 3 spears in every city. Like I said, if you're a republic (you are), they're not doing anything to make people happier and they're just eating support.

If you're going for domination, it's time to get out and conquer. You'll need to control 66% of the land and 66% of the world's population to win.

 

[flymi]

so shall i just leave 1 spear in each city to avoid attack when im at war, iv turned down the happiness slider to 10% from 30% anymore and London and Coventry revolt. im reading them guides you posted now and when i go back on ill build roads and group some spearman with archers and horseman to attack the french. anymore points would be cool aswell. thanks

 

[TheOverseer714]

Wide spacing cuts down on usable tiles, and a couple ancient wonders can do wonders(pun intended) with tourism bucks channelled through some markets and banks. Also, more cities equal more money. You won't see 1000 gpt unless you have many cities and some useful wonders and a bunch of rails. You'll definitely want Sanitation for this game, and tons of workers to rail everything, then grow your cities by joining the workers in. To see a cash game that went very well, check out SGFN-04 in the Succession Game forum, we did a zero science game.

Note: this advice is mostly for this game, vmxa and Aabraxan's are for longer term. In future games, I recommend tighter city spacing, less defensive units, less city improvements, less wonders, more workers, more roads and a focused strategy. If Domination is your goal, you need to pound on the AIs in fast decisive wars to gain territory. This means Horsemen/Knights/Cavalry shredding enemy defenders left and right.

 

[Aabraxan]

I can't look at your save closely tonight, but . . . have you tried 20%? If it just makes you too nervous to empty cities, you can leave a spear in each city. It's really, really not necessary, though. What many players in Republic do is just form a "crust defense," under which they leave defensive units in their border cities, and empty everything else. I wouldn't leave London undefended, just because it's close to the coast, cities on the interior of your empire can be emptied.

Also, if you have horses, archers, swords and horses, you won't need many spearmen to travel with your attacking Stack Of Doom. Offensive units are much more useful, particularly fast attackers (horses). Archers are fine and the defensive bombard is nice, but among the slow-movers, swords will kill more enemies.

Also, you won't need many catapults at this level, but I might as well tell you now: If you're going to go a-warring, you're going to need catapults as you move up in levels.

Also, if you dig down into the "Stories and Tales" and "Succession Games" fora, you'll find "Training Day Games," or "TDGs," which are designed to help lower-level players improve their games. They'd be excellent reading for you.

 

[Delphi456]

After taking a quick look at your game:

1. Don't get too addicted to building wonders. Limit yourself to 1 per era.

2. Don't stop building settler's until you run out of space.

3. You need to spend a lot more time micromanaging cities. Road/Mine those grasslands before working coast tiles.

4. Next game, try spacing your cities CXXC.

 

[Aabraxan]

There's one other thing that I noticed from your London screenshot, flymi. London is wasting tons of food. It can't grow any more until you research Sanitation and build a hospital (or build Shakespeare's Theater), so road those mined tiles NW of London to get some commerce going, then swap a couple of citizens from the high-food, no-shield tiles to the mined and roaded tiles. You'll reduce the food waste and increase shields without losing much gold. And go road those forests you're working.

Edit: Does anyone know why London has a corrupted gold? It's flymi's capital and it's a Republic.

 

[flymi]

hey, thanks for all your replies. When using CXXC fully do u mean like

CXXCXXCXXC
XXCXXCXXCX
XCXXCXXCXX

or along them lines.

Is there a guide around i can look at to get a specific idea what each wonder does so i can determine which to build.
Thanks, abraxan ill get on it right away

 

[Aabraxan]

Of late, we've pretty well debated city spacing to death. If you want to see the debates (some of which got a little heated, I'll warn you), search for threads by Pyrrhos. One in particular was called "CxxC vs. CxxxxC," or something similar. Regardless of which side of the debate you fall on, the arguments for tighter and looser spacing are pretty extensively laid out in his threads. Also, there's a War Academy that will explain some of the basic ideas behind city spacing: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/city_placement.php

Your diagram above isn't possible. You can't place one city immediately adjacent to the next. Otherwise, you're pretty close. The middle row will have to be all x's. Take a look around in the Succession Games and the Hall of Fame, as well as the Post a Picture of Your Empire thread. There are lots of screenshots so that you can get a feel for how different players space their cities.

When I talk about tight city spacing (which I should have noticed in your screenshot), two of the items I look at are: (1) how fast can I move units from one city to the next; and (2) will all available tiles be worked? The basic argument for wider city spacing is that each city gets to pick and choose tiles within its city radius and work the best ones.

Also, keep digging in the War Academy. There's a guide to the great wonders here: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/greatwonders.php

Edit: I see that you're playing Vanilla 1.29. That means that there may be some significant differences in how to best space your cities from what those of us playing C3C 1.22 do. I don't play vanilla, so I can't help you that much with your spacing. However, there are plenty of players around here that did or do play vanilla and they can give you better information than I.

 

[flymi]

i do have the two expansion i just decided to play my first game on the original, ill start the next game in conquests and put into effect your tips.

Also here's an updated save where iv tried to take into account your suggestions. only getting +20 a turn but thats with 80% science 10% happiness, without that iv almost doubled what i was earning when i started this thread.

 

[flymi]

sorry forgot to attach the save lol

 

[TimBentley]

Edit: Does anyone know why London has a corrupted gold? It's flymi's capital and it's a Republic.

I believe in vanilla and PTW the capital was considered at distance 1.

 

[Aabraxan]

I knew there had to be a reason. Thank you, TimBentley.

 

[ZzarkLinux]

I shall recommend CXXXC spacing.

Spoiler :

Yes CXXC vs. CXXXXC has been debated to death, but one of the conclusions was CXXXC is best

flymi the whole idea is:
if you look at the London picture, there are a lot of good tiles that aren't being "worked" ie not used. There are many good tiles that can't be used (you don't have enough citizens in the area). If you spaced your cities a little closer together, then those tiles would be used (generate shields / money) AND you would have room for more cities.

And if ya'd like more info on spacing, check one of my sig links.

 

[Ansar]

Dude, that picture reminds me of my first game of Civ 3.

Good times.