Moving up to immortal

[pwnerer]

So I recently moved up from emperor to immortal. Tried england and didnt do so well. I'm way behind on tech. America reached the industrial age in 1000 AD on standard (turn 165?)

I feel like im 50/50 on immortal but I think i've figured out a few important immortal lessons. Maybe you guys have some more.

1. Only cap wonder cities, mainly capitals. Even cities with 1 new lux dont seem to be worth it. I knocked out 2 mongol cities and 2 american cities and still was at -15 happiness. they all had 1 additional unique lux.

2. Never take the last city of a civ. This makes you a war monger and everyone gangs up on you.

3. If you get unlucky with trade routes (all routes run through zulu, for example. Or whoever the warmonger du jour is) you are kinda screwed. I dont know how to fix this scenario.

4. Never accept peace with the AI when they throw in a throw away city (even with a unique lux). Especially if you are at negative happiness.

 

[Scott Jegg]

1. I dunno about that. If you get a good site with lots of grassland, that's a trading post bonanza once it's puppeted. Lots of cash and beakers when you get the proper rationalism SP. Of course, capturing enemy cities isn't going to work if you already have plenty of your own and are near happiness cap, but if you plan ahead, puppeting 3-4 cities is still easily doable. If they are big cities, you can just raze till they are a manageable size. Don't be afraid to capture cities and sell them to a weak friend on the same turn, especially if it's not likely to get in the way of you winning. The AI will often buy cities and raze them for you. Now that's good service.

2. I agree. Plus, it's one less person to trade with.

3. Try and settle a city on its own in a place surrounded by friends. Never been in this position though.

4. Why not? Even if it's garbage you can can just sell it to someone else for cash/gpt. As before, choose someone weak who is unlikely to gain any real strength from it.

 

[FrostK]

All wrong.

 

[Vidszhite]

So I recently moved up from emperor to immortal. Tried england and didnt do so well. I'm way behind on tech. America reached the industrial age in 1000 AD on standard (turn 165?)

I feel like im 50/50 on immortal but I think i've figured out a few important immortal lessons. Maybe you guys have some more.

1. Only cap wonder cities, mainly capitals. Even cities with 1 new lux dont seem to be worth it. I knocked out 2 mongol cities and 2 american cities and still was at -15 happiness. they all had 1 additional unique lux.

2. Never take the last city of a civ. This makes you a war monger and everyone gangs up on you.

3. If you get unlucky with trade routes (all routes run through zulu, for example. Or whoever the warmonger du jour is) you are kinda screwed. I dont know how to fix this scenario.

4. Never accept peace with the AI when they throw in a throw away city (even with a unique lux). Especially if you are at negative happiness.

1) Not necessarily. To warmonger effectively, you need to befriend at least one mercantile CS, and/or found/acquire a religion with lots of happiness. Early wars are tough for this reason, but it gets way easier with ideologies.

2) Used to be more true than it is now. There ARE times when this is not the case. If you are in a joint war, it negates warmonger penalty with those civs completely. If you do some liberating, you can get away with more conquest, since liberating erases one city's worth of warmonger. If you are liked, other civs are less likely to judge you harshly. Make sure others join your war too, and you can conquer whole civs with no backlash.

3) Yep. If no sea routes are available, trade with CS. Otherwise, try to befriend Shaka. Shaka and Genghis are actually quite loyal, but hard to befriend. Be mindful of backstabbers though. Alexander will always backstab.

4) more like, now's your chance to raze them. Cities you get from peace deals don't count towards warmonger hate, so if you plan on wiping out a civ, always take peace deal cities, just be sure to raze them quickly if they aren't worth anything.

 

[bokaj]

If you want to make your game easier: Try to grab a religion as soon as you can, look for a neighbour AI that hasn't established a religion and spread your religion like wildfire in their cities. They'll be your best friends for the rest of the game and you can make them go to war with your other neighbours by bribing them.
Ideally choose an AI that you think will get the same ideologies as you will get.

 

[Vidszhite]

Also, don't worry so much about how far behind in tech you are, unless you are more than one era behind. The AI has a massive head start, but you can close the gap by the end, even take the lead. I once even did close the gap on a runaway and won a SV 5 turns before her CV.

Keep in mind that war is no longer a requirement to win, but if you do create a favorable situation for a war, it behooves you to go for it. But you do have to create that situation.

 

[Abraxis]

If you want to be told how to do it, what's the point.

Right now, you're wrong about everything. This is a wonderful opportunity to make mistakes. Losing is fun. Don't squander this. Once you beat Deity you'll have nowhere left to go.