Mistakes you make often

[Lord Parkin]

I'm guilty on the "waiting forever to build the Forbidden Palace" thing.

Also, I'll sometimes not pay proper attention to diplomacy, refusing demands rather than considering who future friends might be.

Not checking for new resources/techs to trade as often as I should, simply because it's so tedious to do so. (If there could be a popup whenever another nation has something new to trade, that would be an awesome addition to Civ for me.)

Building more wonders than are necessary on the higher difficulty levels.

Not checking the graphs and demographics for power etc as often as I should.

I also sometimes build the Apostolic Palace while forgetting to foster the AI relationships needed to be voted the Leader.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Often I get an obsession about playing a game a particular way and stubbornly stick to it or give up in annoyance if (when) things don't go according to plan.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Inadequate barbarian defense.... Recently I have begun playing as agressive leaders just so my inclination to forgo Archery and keep out the hordes by the wave of the club won't hurt my game too much. On the plus side, I never miss an early game tech oppurtunity.

 

[foobarred]

Switching to Organized Religion before having a religion

 

[oyzar]

I'm guilty on the "waiting forever to build the Forbidden Palace" thing.

Also, I'll sometimes not pay proper attention to diplomacy, refusing demands rather than considering who future friends might be.

Not checking for new resources/techs to trade as often as I should, simply because it's so tedious to do so. (If there could be a popup whenever another nation has something new to trade, that would be an awesome addition to Civ for me.)

Building more wonders than are necessary on the higher difficulty levels.

Not checking the graphs and demographics for power etc as often as I should.

I also sometimes build the Apostolic Palace while forgetting to foster the AI relationships needed to be voted the Leader.

use the bug mod / hof mod for that feature...

 

[r_rolo1]

My biggest mistake is to try to play as much as I can in every seat and ending playing in 12 h seats, sometimes even without going to the bathroom I don't need to say that the concentration levels are not at their best at 4 am when you're playing non stop since 4 or 6 pm

On game: definitely starting slowly. This game values a lot early development ( IMHO too much, but that is for another thread ) and I tend to lag it down a little, as I'm noticing in the Pitboss game that I'm playing now ( Well, I'm not being fair with myself: my biggest reference is my northern neighbour, that has a Fin civ and started with a gold hill and FPs )

 

[zeolite]

Avoiding researching a tech cos it will obselete something I currently rely on, e.g. putting off researching Computers when I have a religious economy.

 

[DilithiumDad]

Biggest problem I am working on now is overexpanding and killing my economy. I got used to playing Financial or Organizaed leaders (or Shaka or Charlie with their UB's) and now playing leaders that are neither I always end up in the Classical age with the science slider at 20% or even 10% and I fall 10 techs behind the AI. My cities run out of things to build and they are building excess units or Walls just in case I might a Castle eventually. Meanwhile I don't even have Alphabet and so can't build research. Very tough hole to dig out of. It seems like I need 5 or 6 cities to grab all the important resources, and that's enough to kill your economy before courthouses.

 

[CivCorpse]

Biggest problem I am working on now is overexpanding and killing my economy. I got used to playing Financial or Organizaed leaders (or Shaka or Charlie with their UB's) and now playing leaders that are neither I always end up in the Classical age with the science slider at 20% or even 10% and I fall 10 techs behind the AI. My cities run out of things to build and they are building excess units or Walls just in case I might a Castle eventually. Meanwhile I don't even have Alphabet and so can't build research. Very tough hole to dig out of. It seems like I need 5 or 6 cities to grab all the important resources, and that's enough to kill your economy before courthouses.

Tech towards monarchy for raising the happy cap through HR. Just working one extra cottage per city makes up for the financial boost. And building research is the least effective use of hammers because it is not benefited by research multipliers.

 

[Sero Sed Serio]

Biggest problem I am working on now is overexpanding and killing my economy. I got used to playing Financial or Organizaed leaders (or Shaka or Charlie with their UB's) and now playing leaders that are neither I always end up in the Classical age with the science slider at 20% or even 10% and I fall 10 techs behind the AI. My cities run out of things to build and they are building excess units or Walls just in case I might a Castle eventually. Meanwhile I don't even have Alphabet and so can't build research. Very tough hole to dig out of. It seems like I need 5 or 6 cities to grab all the important resources, and that's enough to kill your economy before courthouses.

I also wanted to comment on this!

Just one city with some grassland cottages and a good commerce/happiness resource (gold, gems) can fund something like 6 cities.

My favorite starts include 3 non-tundra/desert hills and a lot of flood plains and grasslands. =P

By the way, for the first, oh, 5000 years the most important resources are... Well IS iron. So if you can't get iron within a few cities you need to question your priorities. Copper is cool and (from what I understand) damn near necessary in games beyond monarch, but if you're playing prince or below iron is the key. All other resources simply boost your economy by allowing you to grow, and therefore are not "necessary".

 

[RojoRon]

Avoiding researching a tech cos it will obselete something I currently rely on, e.g. putting off researching Computers when I have a religious economy.

i too fall victim to the not building wonders to obsolete current bonuses. i'm a true victim to great lighthouse and colossus in my first port city (especially if financial).

i also forget about the forbidden palace - i guess the grass isn't always greener on the other side

i always forget to keep a few workers to micro after i've automated them... (they really do just get pesky and annoy me) but then i miss out on that uranium i thought i had hooked up because its under the stupid town ... UGH ... then my friends nuke me, great, thanks guys!

 

[wannabewarlord]

Not building the National Wonders, or too few of them. The National Epic and the Heroic Epic are easy choice for me, those I always build. But for the rest I always go "hmm, maybe it's better in THAT city" and then I go, "but what if I put it there" and then "hmm, doesn't really need National Park here" and I end up building it nowhere

Not trading techs. I rarely initiate tech trades. I usually wait for the AI to propose and if it is decent enough or I can renegotiate, I'll trade.

Not enough cities. I usually have strong quick starts which lose momentum pretty fast since I want all my cities to be hooked-up and wonderfully prospering before I even think about the next city or important techs. I experienced how a large empire does wonders to science and production, but only when I conquer my neighbours. I never expand enough peacefully.

Many other things, mostly mentioned in previous posts.

cheers,
wannabewarlord

 

[phoinix]

In my recent games I have a sick obsession to found every single religion I can get and spread it everywhere in my empire for the happiness with free religion civic. I want to keep everyone as my religious buddy. Eventually I'll miss 1 or 2 and by 1500 I find out that my main religion is 15% of the world and the religion I missed is 40%. A religious economy can be quite robust but eventually becomes weak.

 

[Bostock]

To the person who forgets about the Noble barb-combat bonus: I wouldn't call that a mistake, not if you you plan to advance to Prince soon.

On the other hand, maybe it is one after all, in that you have an opportunity, and you are not using it, and the idea in Civ is to use your opportunities!

 

[erikthecelt]

Believing the attack odds... then gifting the AI promotions for it's defenders

 

[DilithiumDad]

Tech towards monarchy for raising the happy cap through HR. Just working one extra cottage per city makes up for the financial boost. And building research is the least effective use of hammers because it is not benefited by research multipliers.

Sure, no problem. With the science slider at 20%, I can get Monarchy in 26 turns. Then one turn of anarchy, and my cities can finally grow by one. Meanwhile, the AI is in the Industrial age.

Turning hammers to research is a desperation move. I don't really care that it doesn't get multipliers. Running the science slider at 10% or 20% doesn't make much use of the library multiplier. So what? I am dead without research and building it directly is the only way without commerce for the science slider or enough food for scientists.

 

[DilithiumDad]

I also wanted to comment on this!

Just one city with some grassland cottages and a good commerce/happiness resource (gold, gems) can fund something like 6 cities.

If I have gold or gems in my capitol, then I don't really get into the stalled research jam. Same if I am Financial or Organized. It's all those other times. In the Classical age, I have cottages and maybe a hamlet or two at my capitol.

 

[CivCorpse]

Sure, no problem. With the science slider at 20%, I can get Monarchy in 26 turns. Then one turn of anarchy, and my cities can finally grow by one. Meanwhile, the AI is in the Industrial age.

Turning hammers to research is a desperation move. I don't really care that it doesn't get multipliers. Running the science slider at 10% or 20% doesn't make much use of the library multiplier. So what? I am dead without research and building it directly is the only way without commerce for the science slider or enough food for scientists.

I usually start researching the "save the economy techs" BEFORE the economy crashes. Also you have a cottage and a couple hamlets in your capital. what about your other 4-5 cities? Do they have cottages?

By your statement that Monarchy takes 26 turns and you consider that a long time, I gather you are playing at Normal speed. That means Monarch has a base of 300 beakers. Even if you are playing on Diety level it is only 507 beakers. You have 6 cities. With a library you can run 2 scientists each for 7.5 beakers. that is 45 beakers. That is Monarchy in 11 turns @ ZERO percent research.
If you're playing Epic or Martahon then Monarchy in 26 turns isn't horrible. And you can probably trade it to backill.
Much better than using production cities to build research.

 

[Bostock]

Believing the attack odds... then gifting the AI promotions for it's defenders

You mean "not taking large enough stacks to your battles"?

 

[Clam Spammer]

To the person who forgets about the Noble barb-combat bonus: I wouldn't call that a mistake, not if you you plan to advance to Prince soon.

On the other hand, maybe it is one after all, in that you have an opportunity, and you are not using it, and the idea in Civ is to use your opportunities!

I don't have any plans to advance in difficulty just yet. I don't get much time to play, so I haven't even tried out most of the leaders yet (mostly the ones that lack strong economic traits ). There's plenty of fun to be had at Noble

Really, I just mentioned this because no one else did already.