my cookie cutter strategy - ffa

[MasterMishi]

brief:

to build up the strongest (sci/ prod) while able to switch to total war machine when/ if needs be.

method:

cap:
mon, scout, war, settler, settler, settler, war, war/ sword, worker, worker, worker, sword, gran, watermill, library, NC, stonworks, circus , colluseum, hagia (eng), notre (rush), PT, (rush w/ lib eng), uni, workshop, himeji, ironworks, barracks, armory, forge, rifles, sci buildings, prod buildings, happiness buildings, arty

other cities:
mon or library, gran, watermill, stonworks, circus , colluseum, uni, workshop, barracks, armory, forge, rifles, sci buildings, prod buildings, happiness buildings, arty


policy:
liberty, settler, worker, production, GA, finish (eng), honour, generel, 10%, xp, the prob commerce

Tech:
to iron, to writing, happy tech, to wheel, to theology, to education, to metalcasting, to chiv, to chemistry, (bulb metalurgy and rifles), to dynamite, to sci theory, to plastics, to nukes, to mech inf

notes:
growth focus until happy cap then prod focus or gold focus if losing gold

may need to hard build 2 swords and maybe an archer or 2 early to stay with military might and show some units to look strong, if isolated dont worry about the military

make 3 new cities for a lux each if you can so 4 total

puppet a city state for gold and unique lux with rifles if target civ is too strong

make sci specialist in at least 1 city with enough food so you have 2 sci with the PT one, ideally more so you can bulb dynamite, or just burn for GA if you need production/ gold NOW

try and get a feel for your opponents by offering trades and judge their mentaility, always try to get a 2 v1 on your rival, get info ask if they are attacking them now etc, what units do they have,

keep an eye on opponents gold and res to guess what units they got and how many cities they have.

dont worry if you dont get any of the intended wonders, save lib GP for sci and make another in cap for 2x rilfe bulb.

Kill your close rival with rifle spam then sit back and grow to arty then push or build up for nukes.

I rarely stick to this but it's a pretty good basis to deviate from

weaknesses: any medieval unit rush, bulb steel or x bows with PT sci if under pressure.

MM

 

[KiffeLesBiffles]

brief:

Tech:
to iron, to writing, happy tech, to wheel, to theology, to education, to metalcasting, to chiv, to chemistry, (bulb metalurgy and rifles), to dynamite, to sci theory, to plastics, to nukes, to mech inf
MM

Without happy tech first, you will have unhapiness after your first city.
I tech Happy techs first then iron.

 

[tommynt]

mon, scout, war, gran, settler, settler, settler

a granny before building 2 settlers sound like a total waste of time - better get a worker
(also granny that early with getting iron 1.? - not like it matters)
apart that this sound pretty much like what every FFA players does

dont see the thrill in having a gameplan which includes nukes = 7+ hour game

 

[MasterMishi]

gran cant come until after iron anyway so is later will edit

you are vulnerable to sword rush if you delay iron

this strat gives the option to sword rush your neighbour, say if they built great lib and had 0.5 your army

in ffa a drawn out war unit trade will cost you by forcing you to build units and not buildings and this will put you behind someone building up and they probably got the great library and are puppeting their next civ

 

[KM]

tecnical question doesnt the + 2 food from gran affect the time it takes to build settlers. so building 3 settlers will go faster if granery is up. still not quite as much faster as the time it takes to build grannery. But if u have 2 patches of wheat it s +4 food......, and if u manage to grow on size more before the settler spam even more so.....

 

[Tabarnak]

I'm less tempted to start with granary if :

-i want to expand very fast
-i have less than 2 hills in range(unless you can buy one)
-no wheat/deer and no 2f/1h tiles
-i found a pop ruin early
-no food(going to pop 3 is crucial, a granary can be built in 3-4 turns very early sometimes)
-i don't build NC first

The goal of a granary is to bring more hammers in cap at a precise point in the game. Going granary to build settlers is a bad idea because you can work only hammers without starvation while you build settlers.

 

[tommynt]

If u plan for building up a strong cap via wonders/NC IS the building to be done before - a granny is 60 shields isnt it? so the easy math is that it pays off in 30 turns allready as u can work afterwards 2 (or even 3-4 hammer with right tiles) hammers instead of 2 food (what for me is sometiems really the case when I overexpanded and cant grow past 3 because of happynes and want to work all those iron/goldhills)

and its gets even stronger when adding the wheatdearbonus and the fact that u ll usually want to grow to 4-5 (or past depending on ..) before maxing prod

its just a bad idea if u plan building settlers next

 

[KM]

IF u go pottery, writing NC, granery really makes all the difference.

Also at that time, what else to build while waiting for writing to finsih.

Build order, monument scout, granery, if not grannery, another scout? worker (wont have time to finish it so you ll have to deley NC a few turns if u do, worrior?

Also gran is stronger the eearlier u get it.

 

[MasterMishi]

if isolated, or boxed in by city staes/ no good spots to settler spam, i like an occ approach, here agran early is strong, with trad, but ideally you want the great lib first , so i would go GL then gran, or purchase the gran ideally, esp if isolated or in a 2v2 teamer if you are the wonder spammer, get gold gift to buy it.

another strat the can compete with my op:

cap:
worker, GL, scout, gran, NC, watermill, HG, circus, stoneworks, GW, colluseum,
then miltary buildings and longswords and puppet or stay wonder spam and Hagia, Uni, ND, PT, Himeji etc...

Policy: Trad, wonder, culture building, landed elite, other 2, honour, freedom

Tech: writing, iron, maths, happy, education or steel, chiv, rifles

notes:

looking to get a massive cap pop and pump specialists with a good gold puppet, ideally a neighbours capital and or city states.

it's risky as iron is late and you might not even have iron, so maybe ignore iron and just go wonderspam, pikes, knights, xbow, muskets, rifles

if you get the GW and then get heroic epic and some strong medieval units you can go puppet, or minimal military and sit back for the tech lead, hanging gardens is prob essential, and if someone else beelines maths, while you go for GL then you will lose it. If that happens you will need to puppet and prob get ND and annex a cap. The HG may be so important for the occ style that its woth beelining and hard building, then back to writing for NC.

I got caught in a stalemate with my op strat vs a tradition occ strat like this, i had arty and rifle, and the enemy hadGL, HG, GW and cannon + inf. i had his cap to the red, but he popped mechs just in time and it was too late to pursue nukes or sci win, we made it a draw.

credit to the devs for balancing tall vs wide...

 

[Tabarnak]

credit to the devs for balancing tall vs wide...

I agree, but wide is a bit better than tall for the long run. Somewhere in the indu. era a wide empire can produce more units and more gold because multiplicative buildings give the necessary extra gold and hammers needed.