Mid Game Momentum Loss

[Bitticus Rex]

Hey Everyone, I've been playing Civ 4 since it came out whenever I get a chance (not as often as I'd like) and lurking around this forum getting tips. A lot of the articles have really helped my game, but the one thing that I consistantly get wrong is my mid game momentum. I hope some of you can look over an example of a pretty typical game of mine to give some pointers.

In this game I'm De Gaulle of the French, BTS, Noble, 5 Continent Hemi, Huge. It's a pretty standard game for me. Start expanding rapidly, building a reasonable sized army and dominating my starting continent (took down my only neighbour Pacal). As an industrial leader I've built lots of wonders too.

The continent was isolated until Optics (Caravals), so I spent time building up infrastructure. Met the rest of the world pretty quickly when I did get caravals. First, to the south I found the Taoist bloc (Justinian, Mehmed, Peter and Bismark), all are on par with myself techwise. Next, I met Gilgamesh and Shuryavarman and spread my religion all over their continent (I also built the AP in my building stage). Then I met the rest (Willem, Zara, Saladin).

Fast forward to the present: the whole Taoist bloc declared war on me. Fair enough, their attack strats have been incompetent and I've fought off each wave. Brought my religion into the war through the AP, but they have done nothing. I'd like to get a good attack going, but I'm stuck in turtle mode. I also think I need a tech edge.

Any suggestions? I'd like to win Dom or Conquest victory. Is that possible? I usually win Space or Time, but I find those kind of lack luster. Thanks in advance.

 

[xanadux]

I haven't looked at your save yet, but for most noble players the key skill to learn is developing a strong economy. Learn to build a strong economy, and you can invade the other continent at noble level with tanks while they are defending with longbows.

 

[Cookie Crumbs]

Seen the save. You are not making good use of your civic options - you're only running Organised Religion and Slavery and the default civics for the other columns.

 

[johncross21]

tis true that the civics are holding back your economy. some powerful ones for making use of military to create happiness and (at a different time) growing cottages

if you are warmongering as soon as you get astronomy you need to colonise -its late in this game but there are some offshore islands close to saladin to serve as a city which can ferry troops across to the mainland

 

[nullspace]

Yes, you need better civics badly. Universal suffrage, free speech, emancipation, and free trade would be good for you. So you should be researching democracy instead of communism.

You have lots of unworked cottages and mines because many of your cities do not have enough food. You should build your cities at food resources whenever possible (there are some okay sites with fish or deer in the tundra to your north). If a city doesn't have a food resource, then it needs farms to be able to work plains or hills.

Your diplomacy needs work, too. Your two friends are weak, and no one else likes you enough to help in your war or trade techs with you. Diplomacy is very important in the mid game. Maybe it was just bad luck that the strong Taoist block developed, and then excluded you, so I'm not so sure what you could have done differently. Now they're trading tech and advancing quickly.

My strategy would be to try and tech for a space win. You should be big enough to outrace any one of your enemies. Build the internet, and you'll get any tech they share for free. Or maybe get marines and then try to make peace with all but the most advanced enemy and burn some of his coastal cities. That could slow them down enough for you to win by space, or for you to come back with a stronger force.

 

[Bitticus Rex]

Thanks for the tips. I've changed up the civics and taken up some of the other tips. I'll probably go for a space victory in this game as it's probably too late to change victory types. In my next game I'm going to try a lot more experimenting with different civics.