Mid-end game strategy

[Freddieflux]

I just moved up to prince yesterday and while I was playing I realised that my mid game really blows.
I basicly always know what to do early in the game, either warrior rush, chariot, axeman or rex the land. After that i focus on my economy and research and i start building, well, buildings... you know market here, stable there, popping wonders.
Then 50 turns or so later I realise im either totally surrounded by AI's who expanded a lot and/or are totally outteching me. Im always the tech leader on noble so this is new for me.
Then I think: Man, I should totally take Mansa/Ragnar/Toku/whatever OUT to gain the upper hand.
But without a tech lead i dont have the better units to kill off AI's easily, and yes i know i should build alot of siege for warring. So i build an army and when i think i got a nice SOD i go.... but its 1800 AD by now.

TL,DR: How to build an ARMY for conquering FAST enough, while building up an economy so i dont fall behind in techs/land?

Much obliged everyone, this is truely an awesome forum!

 

[Gwynnja]

One of your first settlers should build a city dedicated to building only units. The only buildings it should have are a barracks, a granary, a stable if you're going to build horse archers, and a forge after metal casting. After that, only units.

 

[itg]

Unlocking the Heroic Epic is a high priority. Put it in your best hammer city and you'll probably be building 1 unit per turn there for most of the game. The HE requires literature (prereqs aesthetics and polytheism) and a level 4 unit. Early war will probably net you one of those, but if not, either make a supermedic with your first GG (this will also unlock West Point) or try to farm XP off the barbarians.

 

[erikthecelt]

I'm playing on Emporer - all I need is copper and axes. Cripple or kill the local AI early - don't keep all of the cities. Don't waste units trying to take hill cities. Farm workers (capture settlers or have a woodsman 2 axe - the AI does not reallize you have a unit that moves 2 tiles through woods - so it leaves lots of workers in reach). When you have cats, you can mop up the hill cities. Removing or crippling 2-3 AI neighbours will result in lots of room to expand when you are able.

Wars end around 250 BC on marathon.

 

[DaveMcW]

Cottages!

 

[coanda]

Things to think about / try:

-Focus on getting a few production city sites. One, in particular, for HE as people have mentioned... but it's nice to have a few more that can provide extra support. If you're looking at the start and see few locations for production cities, then be sure to grab those. If you see few locations for commerce cities, those are priorities. Of course more land is better, and if you really do have limited production but lots of nice rivers and food resources you can always...

-Build extra farms, get a food surplus, and use the whip from slavery to spam units quickly from your cities. Don't be afraid to stack unhappiness here (use the whip again before the previous one has worn off). Be reasonable about it, and don't dig yourself a 100-turn hole, but it's not too bad to stack 2 or 3 whips on top of each other, especially if you have extra happiness anyways.

-Remember that if you're going to war, it should be a near-complete commitment. It's not good to have 1 city working on the war effort while the rest go on building infrastructure - that'll generally only work if you have a truly absurd 1 city and an excellent tech lead to start with.

-Plan when you're going to be fighting in advance, and beeline the relevant tech(s). Let yourself fall behind in all the other areas of tech, and be reluctant to trade those techs to AIs if it'll help them make up the lost ground on you sooner. It's usually not too hard to make up a tech deficit if you've just won a major war.

-Build older units in advance, then cut off research to pay to upgrade them once you have the necessary tech.

-Later in the game, do anything to boost your cities' production - grab Mining Inc. if you can, put workshops over some old farms and cottages, aim for Kremlin if you can.

-Bribe the AI into a war against each other first. Their tech rate will generally slow down a little as a result, their SoD might waste itself killing someone else's units, and at the least it should serve to draw their SoD away from your borders, so when you stick the knife in you can grab several cities before they have time to react.

There are probably other tips and tricks out there, but these spring to mind.

 

[JammerUno]

DaveMcW's strategy will definately work on prince.

 

[erikthecelt]

Cottages are not a strategy, cottages are a mechanic to implement a strategy.

What VC are you persuing? Different VC have different strategies.

Space --> fast Oxford and many beakers from cottages - several science cities and building lots of wealth/research
Conquest --> fast units and city killers
Domination --> Settlers too the max
Culture --> First to Music and Lib, good GP farm and max Artists
Religious --> Quick Theology and nicey nice with everyone
Diplo --> Quick UN - generate 2 GE before you get there, Radio from Lib

One size does not fit all.

 

[Aoxomoxoa]

One thing to recognize is that you don't need a tech lead to wage war. Ask the A.I. he'll tell you<wink>. A bigger army can do the job quite well. If your running in the middle of the pack techwise and maybe your commerce cities aren't the best, go with some serious Gunboat education. Get some good land and techs from war is a very viable 'mid-game' strategy.

 

[Krill]

Nah, if you can work every tile without too many farms, cottages and SS is pretty much enough.

 

[erikthecelt]

Strategy: Broadly conceived military operations that entail the application of series of integrated tactics.

Typical Space strategy: Oracle CS, Early Oxford, Let AI fill in techs as you beeline SuperConductors for Labs.

Use Oracle for CS - this means learning Math and CoL early - the best approach to acquiring the bulbs for this is tech Pottery and Writing early. Farm enough tiles to run two scientists in the capital with a Library while going Myst -> Med -> Priest -> CoL At higher levels Math is bulbed using the first GS from the capital. Limit yourself to 2 or 3 cities until CoL is complete as you don't want to slow down the tech rate until after.

Early Oxford - After CS tech Currency - sell techs to keep tech rate at 100% while expanding to 6-8 cities. Build libraries in 6 cities while teching Paper & Edu. Whip/Chop Uni's when Edu is in. Max hammers in chosen Oxford city (usually the capital). Forests should all have been prechopped and hopefully stone is connected. (You can trade for stone with AI if they have an extra and they are friendly - give anything they want for it and tehn cancel after Oxford is complete).

Beeline SuperConductors - after Edu this is your tech path - do not waver just use trades or forced offerings from the AI to fill in everything else. The more tech from the AI the better. Hoard Edu and use Lib as late as possible for a big tech - don't settle for Nationalism - you can fill in techs by trading Nat without giving up control of Lib. Just don't trae Edu.

You will of course select different cities for science vs production. Science cities get as many cottages as you can, Production cities get farms. Don't try to cottage everything. You will need to continue tech while building the space parts.

 

[UWHabs]

Best strats for building an army fast to take out other is to find the breakpoints. By that, I mean find the tech to give you the best benefit, and strike while that's hot. So some common strategies:

1. Cuiraspy war. Bank EPs against an opponent. Depending on tech path, either build some knights before, or if not, be prepared to whip like crazy. You will regrow, but with 6 cities, whip each one every 4-5 turns, and after about 10-12 turns, you probably have 15 or more cuirassiers, which is probably enough to surprise a neighbour. Make sure your spies are in place, and strike.

2. Cannons. Cannons are murder on the field. And do you know what? They're cheap. And cheap to upgrade to. Build lots of trebs/grenadiers/musketmen/macemen/knights or whatever else you have. Tech to steel. Upgrade Trebs to cannons. Win. Even if you're facing riflemen, you can defeat them with mass cannons.

3. Drafted army. If you have the setup (high food town -> put Globe in there), you can draft an army really fast. This works well with the cannons setup above drafting a bunch of muskets to go with the cannons, or it also works with drafting riflemen (if you lack iron, then a Treb/Rifle war is pretty strong).

The big keys here is that the AI are dump. I've seen them avoid rifling until pretty late in the game. And without rifles, any of the above strats work really well. The key is to whip and draft like there's no tomorrow, since, as you are well aware, if you don't strike early, there is no tomorrow. Another big thing that helps is to take your intended target, and either bribe someone else to war with them a few turns before you attack, or bribe them to war with someone else. They'll send their big stacks to get slaughtered, and then you can go in for the kill. Just be careful that they don't vassal to someone else, but it can definitely help in some instances.