More Emperor Advice

[shumble]

Okay, I have read many of the posts in these forums. Some of them seem a little boastful and I cannot but wonder if they are true, but then again, maybe I'm just not as good as the rest of you and can't imagine the possibility of winning every Emperor game that I start. Right now, I am happy if I can win 1 in 10 Emperor games. I currenlty have one Space Race victory and one Cultural victory. I would like to get a Diplomatic victory next since I consider that one of the harder ones to get.

Before any advice is given, please note that I am playing 'vanilla' civ and do not have any of the upgrades that Conquests gives you. It took me awhile to sift through threads that are speaking of Conquests and those of Vanilla.

My biggest problem right now is still the sciences and expansion. I have tried micromanaging with some small successes, but I am not sure when to stop researching sciences and win to start buying them off of the computer. Many threads have said that you should not builds temples, libraries, etc, but if I do not build a temple, my culture doesn't grow and my cities flip easily. If nobody on this forum builds libraries, I do not understand how you are getting new technologies in 4-6 turns. I am getting so far behind in techs in most of my games it's ridiculous. In the last game I played, I started on an island and did not meet any of the other civs until around 200 A.D. Nobody wanted to trade me any techs; the United Nations was built in 1720 and I had just finished researching Electricity.

I know that a few people have said that the Luxuries slider is very important and I still have not been using it on the Emperor level although a few players have said it is a must. I keep forgetting about it since I played the other levels so long where you can get by without it.

Second, when do you stop expanding and when do you start concentrating on other aspects of the game. I read one post where the writer said that he had built 20 cities on the Emperor level and had temples, libraries, universities, etc. in them all by 750 AD. I am lucky if I get 20 cities all game without warring and if I am fighting to get the 20 cities, I probably do not have any of my cities building temples, libraries, universities, etc.

Also, when you are expanding, you are constantly losing your population and cannot grow bigger cities which from the threads are a must to winning at the higher levels.

I will sit back and see what your responses are. I've been playing this 'vanilla' version for about 5 years now and my wife thinks I'm crazy, but I want to try to get each kind of victory on the 6 different levels. I have finally reached Emperor, but I need to start adjusting some of my previous strategies.

 

[killercane]

Im a conquests person, so beware. In vanilla, the Forbidden Palace and that second core is essential, giving you a dozen or more highly productive cities to fuel your economy. Temples are not bad per se, but not optimal, and I would probably say bad if you arent religious. Yes many do build libraries, and with the reduced specialist role of vanilla, scientific improvements would seem more valuable per shield.

I buy/steal tech when the research costs are prohibitive; eg, I am getting a tech in 15 turns at 100% sci, but my gpt will allow me to do a safe steal twice in those 15 turns. Safe, careful, and immediate have 65%, 55%, and 40% chances of succeeding, so the math would dictate that I probably would succeed in one of those 2 attempts, bringing me that much closer to the tech leader.

Play up to your civs traits. Industrious is a valuable commodity in vanilla. Definitely learn the intricacies of the lux slider, that is essential. Post a save for more accurate advice.

 

[vmxa]

I think killercane is correct for vanilla, you will want at least libs. Most players are using libs in C3C on most games. If you want a border epansion you have two choices, temples or libs.

Libs are prefered especially for scientific civs as they are then cheaper than temples. If you do not intend to do much war action and want diplo, temples are useful, but they cost.

Winning is often because they have played so much they know what the AI wil do and how to counter it, even in a big hole, they know you can just grind it out with a better kill ratio.

The time libs are not worth it is when you do not intend to do any or little self research. This is not common on emperor, unless going for a variant game. Then you may decide to stop research at knights or calvs.

Things that impact your ability to research :

empire is too small
you have to much maint for structure and or units for your empire
lack of contacts
empire is not well developed
empire is not well managed

I don't know how many times a game is posted and you will find things like a citizen on a mountain getting 1 shields and one gold. One I just saw last night, I moved that pop to a fish and get food and gold increases. Pop working tiles with no improvements, not even a road.

Irrigated grass and the size 12 is making 29 food, why not mine a bit as only 24 food is needed, unless you are pumping out workers/settlers there. It is endless.

Lack of use of the principle of a monoploy or near monopoly tech. Failure to get the few key wonders. If you are going for the Diplo, you may want to control the UN.
Get the ToE, that is not hard on emperor. If you are not doing well, you can still time a prebuild to get a good jump.

Not using specialist when it makes sense, such as corrupt towns. Instead of clowns, use scientist or taxmen.

The number of cities is tricky as the map controls that quite a bit. But I would say expand as long as you can and still defend your empire. It is only when you get out on your edge and close to their centers that flips are big concern at emperor, especially if you are building temps and libs.

If I followed the part on losing pop, this not a big issue if you are using pumps. You set up a town to make workers at a set interval and it stays at a fairly stable size.

Settlers can be done the same way, but may require you to pop a worker here and there. If you get the +food to be matched with the shields, you can grow right back to the same size in time to pop another settler. say one every 5 turns, 4 for really great setups.

UN wins can be done with either a last minute blitz of goodness as you get others to dog pile the other nominated civ or a longer term steady feeding and care of some civs. This is best done by getting the tech lead and dealing techs to them.

They will have no money, so you gift them cash and then sell the tech for the cash you gave them. Now they love you and it cost you only the tech.

Toss in maps and such from time to time and you have a friend.

 

[Tone]

I find that in the end, tech supremacy is gained by researching techs and selling these for stacks of gpt that in turn restrict the AIs capacity to research for themselves. It's a vicious circle that I want to be controlling but how I get to that stage depends upon my starting position.

At the start, food rich capitals will lead to settler factories and quick expansion. At the other extreme. food poor starts with close AI neighbours will lead to an early war to stunt their growth. No half measures at this stage. Go all out to get as much territory as possible.

Contacts are really important. If you have contacts that others don't, they will be a gold mine but trading of these comes early so be prepared to defend them and don't be tempted to trade them until you really have to. (eg AI has Navigation!) For example, suicide galleys on continents maps are a great investment and you can be sure that the AI will not be able to venture across the oceans until they get the relevant techs/wonders. With contacts that you alone hold between the two groups, buying techs is cheaper if both sides know the tech and selling them means that you get monopoly prices twice.

I research if I am close to tech parity and buy if I'm further behind, but I'm always on the look out for further deals with what I buy. In all cases I'm looking to research what the AI isn't (look at the war acadamy article if you haven't seen it) and if I'm close to tech parity, I want libs and unis in all non-corrupt cities. I'll be looking to get my investment in research returned to me in trade deals and being one turn late can be disaterous. In either case I tend to find that some early trading skills are essential to get to somewhere near tech parity. Buying techs is cheeper than researching them but selling can be a game breaker.

In the game you talked about when alone on island, it is really tough to catch up. I look to find an AI that is behind the others and trade for techs that he hasn't got and swap them for what he has but when you're that far behind there is not a lot you can do. This is where early suicide galleys are just so important.

5CC games show you how much your core contributes to the total GNP of your nation so look to ensure that your core has everything it needs to keep those citizens at work in the first and second rings. I only build temples and caths if I have a happiness issue-libs and unis have priority unless my towns cannot cope with the size of their population. The other cities just support your core with unit production.

Republic is a must. This is more so in C3C but avoid Monarchy unless you have no other choice. I presume that if you are playing at this level, you will have decided this already but I mention it just in case. If it's a SS/UN game, I'll go for democracy in vanilla and just be prepared to use the lux slider in any significant wars

Speaking of wars, in vanilla/PtW the second core is a major factor and so at some point I'll be at war to fish for a GL to rush the forbidden palace. I'm not a great fan of the palace jump, not that it isn't effective but there are certain tactics that I try to avoid when playing solo games unless I have no other option. With the FP in a developed 2nd core, the cash will just flow in.

I hope that wasn't too boastful and helps you to crack the next level

 

[shumble]

What is ToE and 5CC?

How big do you grow your core cities before switching to Republic?

You talk about buying and selling techs to the other civs, but as soon as they meet each other they immediately trade all their techs away so usually there are no civs with whom you can sell techs.

Where is this War Academy manual that everybody talks about?

 

[Desert-Fox]

ToE = Theory of Evolution... gives you 2 tech for free... it in middle of industrial age when you just get tech lead and you can sell tech for gpt to everyone so you can research in 100% science.

5CC = 5 City Challenge... so you must have exactly 5 cities... if you capture a city... raze it, if a city flips to you, decline etc...

I learnt that I just do my own research until I get philosophy and a free tech and then I do 0% my own research until the late of middle ages/early industrial. In this time I build up my libs, univs, banks, markets ...

 

[vmxa]

ToE is the Theory Of Evolution a great wonder that give two free techs.
5CC is 5 city challenge, where you can only have 5 cities. OCC is one xCC is whatever number you pick.

I never really paid attention to the size, just get the tech and see how soon I can make the switch. I am looking at things like any important builds close to finishing. Especially if it is a wonder or market.

War Academy is a collection of articles here on CFC.

Well many things come into play on tech trading. You can often manage a few good deals on higher levels than emperor, so surely it can be done on Emperor.

First lets toss out extreme island maps, but those are often even easier. On those maps you can get contacts before many other civs have them and be in a positon to broker.

In just a pangea, you may be last to contact some civs and as you found out, you may have little to offer in the AA.

You then have to get a tech that is not known to everyone and broker to as many as you can and the big thing is to do it with the proper civs in the proper order. Because the act of trading it will cause the price to drop.

It is quite easy to get at least Lit first at emperor and that can surely be used to get back in the race. So if you have a horrendous start, then fine, lets all agree it can get real ugly. If you are not aware of some of the things I am saying, then you need to read more threads. Get more practice to get a solid understanding of the AI.

I am by no means a great player, I have played with great players and learned a lot. Teamates like Alexmen, Aeson, Dominae and countless others. So believe me there are scores of players here and at Poly that will beat the crap out of emperor and find it very boring. Some will go to the extent of MM to not lose a single shield or food, but that level is not required to beat emperor with a decent start. I am not talking about 2 cows and lux in the captiol, just water and normal tiles.

Hope to see you join those ranks, I know you can do it. I have seen many start from not beating Warlord to beating much higher levels.

 

[shumble]

Thanks, I found the glossary of terms and the War Academy and read through the first scenario of Babylon on Deity level. Some very interesting reading and ideas to try. I would not have thought of some of them.

And it appears that at least in that sample game, the player did not try to expand immediately. Instead, he built a granary and built a nice settler farm. So, he knew that he would be outbuilt for a few turns, but once he got everything going, he could build a lot faster than the AI.

I will have to try some of the more interesting strategies especially the suicide galleys for contact with other CIVS. I tried it a little bit in one of my games, but I immediately sold off all my contacts so that didn't help me with bartering.

 

[vmxa]

One of the things that is still ok in emperor is that you can get a city built up with mines and a few structures and out produce the AI. It is not the same at deity and sid. The bonus makes it hard to have your best city do better than their best city after the first age or two.

Early they will strip their top cities down for settlers and you can out product them and get settlers out as they will do it the long way (no granary and small size).

Yeah hold those contacts until they are going to become counterfeit. That means at least MM and maybe Astro or more, depending on the water tiles. Once they get galleys and can reach others, then try to get somethig for them. If they need to cross sea and ocean tiles, sit on them longer.