Most underrated advice

[karlkrlarsson]

These last couple of weeks I have tried to enhance my skill as a civ player. I have read all the articles written here, and overall my skills have greatly improved. The biggest boost I think I got from the bronze working-treechop tactics.

I realize there are alot of tactics and tricks out there that people use, and most of them are never told to other players. I hope people in this thread can share with me, and others, their favorit tricks and tactics that they belive most don't know about. Let it be said, I play on noble, so I am no Civ Wiz myself, but i guess most of us aren't.

Well. To begin I will share my advice. It's so obviouse its moronic, but it helped my game very much when i realized it. It seems to AI decides if he is going to attack you based partly on the realtion between your power rating and his. Some AI leaders will only attack you if they are significantly stronger than you, others are risk takers and will attack you even if you are stronger. To avoid attacks make sure that you power rating is stronger than your opponents, not just your score. Look at the graphs. If you are ahead in score, you might not be ahead in power.

Post 'em if you got 'em.

KK

 

[Kietharr]

1. In BTS, if your enemy's city is on a hill and has food to spare, don't bother with it until catapults. Otherwise he will just whip the city down to size 1 and spam archers that take several axemen each to kill.
2. Never trust Cathrine, she is practically the only AI leader that will declare war at friendly.

 

[Swedishguy]

3# Ragnar is the most aggressive leader in the game. Don't trust him. Just don't.

 

[Cabay Jet]

#4. Oil is vital to late game success, and BtS seems to have made oil a more scarce commodity. If your enemies get modern tanks and you still don't have oil, you're toast.

#5. Do not spam corporations to all your cities! You'll murder your economy without very much benefit in return. Only send executives to cities where that corporation would be of any use.

#6. If own the HQ of a corporation and you spread it with moderation to foreign cities, you'll be richly rewarded with gold. But do this carefully, if you spread the corporation too much the AI may change civics and leave you with nothing.

 

[Elros]

#7 Be careful not to accidentally click the exit to desktop button in a moment of extreme lag

 

[civvver]

Make all trades as separate items. That way you can renegotiate the trade without having to cancel them all.

 

[Lance of Llanwy]

Do your best to be, at worst, the second-weakest power in your neighborhood. Ideally, you want to be the biggest dog, but as long as you aren't the one getting dogpiled, it's good.

 

[Cabay Jet]

I don't know, dogpiling is a good way to get Great Generals.

 

[IAM]

Trade up in resources. Resources like wheat and fish will give you +2 health with a granary or harbor. For these I'll trade a resource that doesn't get the bonus until supermarkets like cow. Same as trading silk for gold +2 happiness with forge.

Of course I always give the women whatever resources they want

 

[gettingfat]

#8 In early game, with at least one production city pumping military units non-stop, particulary when you see any one of those irrational leaders (ie. Alex, Bourdica, Montzy, Zulu etc) as your neighbour.
#9 To supplement #8, pick your early great wonders. Don't get too greedy and slow down military buildup. Afterall, wonders can be captured by military force (best thing that can happen is your close neighbour just build the great pyramid)
#10 When picking the 2nd city location, remember strategic resources (e.g. copper and horse) are usually more valuable than anything else in early game.
#11 If you don't see copper and horse, research archery right away. Your warriors can't handle the barbarians for too long. Then put ironworking high on your priority list (unless you are isolated).
#12 Build granary. It helps.
#13 Don't bother with library in every city. A library in a military city doesn't mean much.
#14 At higher levels, don't bother with early religions.
=> In short, doesn't matter you're a builder or a warmonger, if you don't know what to build, build military units.

 

[Mango]

Trade up in resources. Resources like wheat and fish will give you +2 health with a granary or harbor. For these I'll trade a resource that doesn't get the bonus until supermarkets like cow. Same as trading silk for gold +2 happiness with forge.

Of course I always give the women whatever resources they want

I think enough people don't realize this. Resources are not created equal, and some resources are far better than others in certain situations. If you have theaters, dye is +2 happiness. If you have forges, gold, silver and gems are +2 happiness. Like you said, the grains are +2 health because everybody builds graneries early in the game, whereas other heath resources like pig are only +1 for most of the game (and even then the grocer isn't something I'm ever in a rush to build). Markets are usually something I never build either, so the resources that receive bonuses from them are not as valuable (although fur is very valuable just for the fact that if you control it chances are you have the only source of it in the world, so a city with 4-5 furs can pull in 25-30 gold per turn just from that.

 

[karlkrlarsson]

#15 keep a close look on how the different AI civs relate to each other. Sometimes one or two of them will be hated by everyone else. If you are their only friend, you will be hated as well. Sometimes friendship isn't worth it.

 

[Lockesdonkey]

2. Never trust Cathrine, she is practically the only AI leader that will declare war at friendly.

Not true. Alexander did the same to me on several occasions.

And between the two, I'd rather have Cathy stab me in the back than Alex: he's always prepared for war, she never is. I'm usually a military wimp, but I drove her into the Stone Age...and I was the Inca in the early Industrial Age. Not exactly a military powerhouse (though Universal Suffrage+Financial did help).

 

[kniteowl]

Don't play Civ before you're bedtime or you'll end up sleep deprived or end up suffering from insomnia.

 

[Wingman357]

#17. Gain the best ground around you in the beginning. Try to prioritize building workers and settlers to claim and improve your lands. Don't drive your research down too low (60% is a good general rule I read about), but early claims are crucial. Try to move outward, toward your rivals rather then towards a coast, which can be claimed later. Otherwise the bastard AI will place their cities in coveted spots.

 

[King Flevance]

Markets are usually something I never build either, so the resources that receive bonuses from them are not as valuable

Wow, I usually hurry markets along side courthouses to stablize my economy early. SImply because the market complements the courthouse nicely. Although a courthouse should go in any city, a market shouldn't necessarily. Usually by the time I have currency, I have at least 4 cities that would benefit from a market. As by that time I am running around 40-60% science. SO 40-60% is also going straight into the treasury. After I get currency, I go for CoL, for courthouses.

#10 When picking the 2nd city location, remember strategic resources (e.g. copper and horse) are usually more valuable than anything else in early game.

Unless you are still running at 90-100% science, then gold is a very nice resource to grab - especially if a food resource can also be obtained in the same city. Gold will increase you science in huge wallops early on. Same for gems. Along with provide +1 for an additional population to each city. But I usually build 1 settler, and 'whip' another so my 2nd, and 3rd cities are founded at the same time usually.

 

[Molon Labe]

I think the most under rated tip is to watch your diplomacy. There are many threads and posts regarding warfare, building orders, improvements and wonders but diplomacy generally gets the shortest shrift.

It's something I still have yet to master, but when I do it well in a game, what a difference it makes.

 

[DrakenKin]

# BFC (the big fat cross)

One mistake I was doing was making sure my cities BFC never overlap. However from experience, I know now that it is rare that a city grows enough population to use all of the tiles in its BFC.

You'd need 19 population to use all 20 tiles, and assuming you have some tundra or desert or mountains etc, you will never be able to. Or at least, not for the early and most crucial part of the game (techs like biology change that, but they come way too late in the game).

Also, even if you have 19 population+ you might want to use specialists, so even then you won't be using all tiles. In the end it is better sometimes to overlap cities so you can take advantages of all resources at your disposal. A side benefit is that when your cities overlap, you don't have to make them far away from your capital (you will have more city density close to it) so you will have a healthier economy in the early game.

# distance to palace

Another mistake was to go far in order to grab resources. Sometimes I see a position that can take 3 or 4 resources, and I'd make a city there instead of closer to my capital. That was very bad for my economy since the few gold you spend on maintenance are rarely worth it, especially in the beginning when your earnings count in the dozens instead of hundreds gold.

 

[kolokol]

#5. Do not spam corporations to all your cities! You'll murder your economy without very much benefit in return. Only send executives to cities where that corporation would be of any use.

Not always true. Make sure your HQ is in wall street city. market+grocer+bank+wall street = 12 commerce. Not sure I've ever seen a corp. cost more than that so a net profit.

#18 Always give in to ressource demands... you can just cancel the deal after 10 turns and still get +1 relations

 

[bestbrian]

#19 Late game when upgrading your carefully hoarded stack of CR III units to Mech Inf, pay attention to what you're doing or you'll end up with a stack of CRIII Mobile SAMs.

#20 Also, noone likes Shock MGs; pay attention to promoting those.

#21 Don't be afraid to trade excess reources for cash, and periodically check your trade screen (BUG is a savior for this) to know when you can get more cash for the same trade.

#22 BUG is your best friend.