Bone Crusher
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2006
- Messages
- 49
Some of my thoughts/notes on Civ 4, which I have been playing for about a month now. I usually play continents, normal map & speed, all standard settings.
IMO Civ 4 is the most developed of the series, you really need to have your eyes opened and fingers on the buttons all the time in Civ 4 to score a win (in the higher levels). Very involved. Even the way you decide to stay 'competitive' changes in the game.
I have the unpatched Civ 4 right now (Russian official release, which is a copy and cant be patched), so my comments might not be relevant anymore.
For openers, the Civ people have created excellent game, the many all nighters I've already pulled speak for themselves. But, I did find some things.
(1) The communication with the AI is disappointing, why do I get the "you wouldn't want to see me angry" when I got them down to the last city with a stack of units resting on their porch? I think the whole communications side should be improved to take into consideration yours/theirs stance in power ranking, tech race, culture etc. Also you should be able to see exactly how far behind you are in the tech race, not just to see the leading up techs.
(2) Correct the 'you have destroyed a artillery' etc. Grammar should not even come up for comment !
(3) The spoken message of "The whole is more than the sum of it's parts" is the same for Composites and Replaceable parts discoveries.
(4) The button menu that changes from unit to unit, so for example if I fortify a unit, then the screen jumps to next unit, and the button changes because it's a worker, but I've already pressed it (rushing) thinking it's another unit to be fortified. (Note, this is just an example, I'm not sure if this is the exact thing I have written about). Some buttons in the menu should never move from unit to unit, same as the 'delete the unit' command, which by the way should be at the end of all the buttons, not at the front, as it's hardly ever used. Maybe to lay the command buttons vertically in groups, not horizontally in one or two lines, so command to 'fortify' would simply not exist for a worker, or be substituted by another command, as it does now.
(5) And what's with the impossible to see gunships? I'm straining my eyes to see where the heck they are, and it just wastes time.
Ok there are few other things like the farms and the Ironworks not working properly, but I'm sure most has been already fixed in the patches, so enough whinging.
I'm now up to the 7th level, which I think is Emperor, with only the last two to go. (I have not even tried the last 2 levels as yet)
I've come to a conclusion that the easies way is to win 'culturally', and sometimes there is simply nothing you can do to win. I often restart the starts, or go back to some key event/decision - just to see if things could have gone differently. Any hints/ideas/tips I pick up this way have served me well.
Some points to my game:
I always 'spread' my wonders.
Pyramids are almost essential to me staying competitive at this level. I am not afraid to build a city right on top of the stone, and commence the build even while my other worker is still chopping trees near my capital to get another settler out. Then he comes to help the wonder on it's way with more wood chopping.
I take some calculated chances, such as sending a settler unescorted. Nothing stupid, like letting him go 20 squares away, but a trip of 6 squares is quite possible on the pre mapped terrain. If I manage to 'bump' into a barbarian, then curtain comes down on another game. The barbarian animals do not come into the empty city, and you have some time to make warriors before the barb warriors and arches do come knocking.
I try to spread my wonder building to different cities, but always only 3 cities. National wonders excepted of course, but on this difficulty setting I have never built Mount Rushmore, Red Cross, Capital and don't bother with the Scotland Yard anymore. Heck I'm lucky if I get to build the West point and Iron works. Hermitage becomes important, and I always wait to see which city needs a cultural boost. I try to keep an eye out on the culture spread, making sure that they are culturally reasonably similar.
In my earlier games I used to like getting the Stonehenge wonder for the automatic culture it gives my cities, as often the 'block' of the cultural spread is great to stop your rival from venturing all over 'your' corner of the woods, but really the great prophet seems to screw up my strategy, so these days I don't go for it. Almost as a poison pill for me, getting the Henge.
Now my plan is to get the pyramids, priority. On the 7th level I almost always get them, with a help of a forest chop chop. That is after I have put out 3 to 4 cities first, all speed-chopped. So it's crucial to leave some forest for the city that will host the Pyramids.
So the plan is to get the pyramids. It means that my fist GP is an engineer, which allows you to build another wonder fast. I normally try to chop down the pantheon in another city, I save this leader to try and rush the Hanging Gardens in the same city that build the pyramids (HG also produce engineer), and then potentially, if lucky, I also will rush the Hagia Sophia there.
If I don't get the Pyramids I still stick to the culture in 3 cities, trying for other wonders etc. But things are simply not as rosy as they are with the Pyramids first.
I will wait and see how the wonders go, where the National Epic will go (100% GP birth). I try to have 3 cities only with wonders.
If I get the window of an opportunity, I rush the Great Library, for the phenomenal GP generation - albeit scientists. It's nice to have the academies, to at least stay militarily competitive in the later stages due to decent boost of research they provide. They often pump out too many scientist too fast, at the expense of the engineers, who I regard much more valuable at the mid game.
I almost always succeed in getting to rush the Taj Mahal with a GP. Nice artistic boost in the city with the Pantheon (both Artistic wonders).
So basically I have 3 cities producing almost exclusively engineers, artists, and at worst case scientists. When I get the civics or forge I try to give them at least one extra GP by sacrificing growth, which is not a bad thing as often health and happiness issues become a problem.
If I manage to get other GP, I generally save them, and maybe start a 'golden age' with them. I am still trying to work out the 'value' of the golden age. For example starting another one right after Taj wonder, with possibly another one asap after that. That would mean sacking the beloved engineer and/or artist, but it might be a great catapult in the tech race. It's something to explore, and I haven't read anything here on it yet. Seems like AI loves to get these golden ages going, so maybe there is something in it.
Artists I try to add to my cities to provide the culture and the commerce boost, but latter in the game I always add them as the 'culture bomb'.
The great prophets I also add to the city if I get them early, as the +5 gold is often needed to keep alive my expansion (that if often if I stumbled to build the Stonehenge or the Oracle). Not that I go totally bananas, rarely am I forced to drop my tech research bellow 50%
After I am forced to turn the culture to 70%, or more if able, I concentrate on building cathedrals. As I always try and spread any religions that end up on my shores to all my cities as fast as possible, so they provide good boost. Often I will spend couple of engineers to rush these.
Some tips:
(1) Careful when upgrading units. I try to nurse the high promoted units (having them attack the left over weak units) to get the 5th level promotion needed for the West point, or even the 3rd level for the Heroic Epic.
A unit that is 25/26 on the experience will drop to 10/26 after a promotion.
(2) I try building cities next to a river. The +2 heath is often crucial to keep the empire at some sort of growth.
(3) If attacked, I will try to get my rival eliminated (if early on, and on the same continent). If I defend, they never seem to want to make peace, their navy is stronger and they pillage my sea heath resources. Their cities provide nice boost to my growth, but this comes at a cost. A prolonged war will mean no chance of keeping up in the tech race. The cities that could have been building Unis, banks etc were forced to feed the army, and the compensation of the captured cities doesn't seem to be enough. I will already focus on the cultural win while fighting.
(4) I will often 'sacrifice a trade'. That is I will accept some inferior tech exchange deal with the bottom AI, if it gets me the world map (especially I'm playing continents). As the computer automatically allots the trading routes, it's important to get these cities 'known'. Well, that's my thinking, hard to know if there is any truth to it, as nothing is explained about it in the manual.
If you signed an open borders, go and explore the region with a scout or an obsolete unit, at worse for the same city route trade reason.
(5) Spread any religion that comes your way asap. I don't actively go for the religious techs on this level, so I rely on them to come to me. Later it also provides +1 happy with each religion.
(6) Have lots of catapults in your assaults. Kamikaze them to really weaken up even much more superior defending army. The Chinese unique archer unit is also handy, they also cause collateral damage.
(7) Note the "10% tile defence bonus". I see it lots in naval battles, so if you attack, you are basically giving them a 10% increase in strength. If evenly matched, I sometimes park next to an opponent, and hope that he'll have a go at me. Just playing the odds there.
(8) Manage your cities by yourself if possible, treat them as your little babies. Think ahead when laying the cities, and building roads. I even like to have cities '3 apart', that is that a unit can travel from one city to next in one turn (not counting mounted of course) if I'm invaded. I find it helpful when I've been attacked, to defend the early wave. When you get the ability to build railroads, connect up the cities with the best possible route (fastest). I do not mind if cities 'overlap' squares when I found them
Also mines and lumberyards will get a production bonus with rail, so sometimes I mine them, then windmill them, then mine again with rail. Often my workers got nothing better to do in any case.
(9) AI Apollo will trigger in around the 1850s, so that's your 'yardstick', to see how close you are in the scheme of things.
(10) On the levels before Emperor, I tended to build the Wall Street and the Oxford in my capital as often the starting place of your capital has the best commerce. That means not building other national wonders there.
(11) Cottages = life. They will let you stay in the game, build them early and nurse them up asap.
On the levels before, it was quite possibly to even out-tech the AI still and win comfortably with space ship, but on the 7th I feel I haven't come even close yet. Mind you, I played about 6 games so far on the 7th (won 3 culturally), so I feel I have still lot of improving to do, strategically, so maybe down the line I will.
I find that the financial trait is pretty much a must. I experiment now with the other traits, such as phi, ind, creative, exp, and aggressive and will give other non fin traits a go as well down the line.
I do not like to war too much, I think it would be easier to win this way if playing pangea, but terribly unsatisfying. Select a strong unit nation as Romans, chop rush an army and go hunting. This totally falls apart if playing continents which is what I do. But on pangea it should provide a good strategy (plus you tend to keep up with techs easier), especially if on small maps etc. Latter on the trait is nullified, especially as the AI will always have better units due to being more advanced.
I tried this, and was kicking butt, but abandoned the game as there was no enjoyment. Mind you, I don't feel too crash hot either when I have to lick my wounds and settle for a cultural win .....
I'm after a 'thinking/planning' victory, maybe with a strategic war thrown in here and there.
It would be great if the game had some sort of a 'council'. Where you could meet every so many turns, and there would be discussion about your progress, what to do, how to proceed, how advanced opponents are etc. An opportunity to 'change the path', maybe recommendations, maybe possible alliances that should be made etc etc.
I would also like to see incentives to help other nations that are waring and ask for help. Maybe they should offer gold, techs, or to give you like extra 30 'brownie nose' UN votes for 'defending the weak' when the time comes for voting (if it comes)'. As it is right now, I do not help, and if anything, will gang up on the poor bugger if I smell an opportunity to cheaply expand.
Fin and phi traits will almost always get you a cultural win, based on the games I played at the 6th level. If you manage to get a reasonable start, but really that is no fun to do all the time. I'd like somehow to win, and still be the 'best' at techs
As I have written these notes over a few days before posting them, I have now come close to out-teching the AI on the 7th level. In the game I just finished I was staying pretty competitive despite a war in the 1100AD. I decided to abandon the usual cultural angle, and went for the tech race. Mind you, I had my 3 cities neck and neck on culture, and by far ahead of anyone, so that option was covered.
I ended up losing the Space race by 5 turns, coming clear 2nd. I was quite pleased with that, as I was obligatory attacked few times as I drew closer to the top. Certainly was a very entertaining game, with lots of twists, and as I was ranked second - lots of heart stopping moments everytime the UN votes came about. It could have so easily end right there for me, when so close......
But them 5 turns made me wonder. I lost at least 10 turns to anarchy, the most painful was in the latter game, when I swapped 4 civics I think and got a 2 turn anarchy instead of the usual 1.
I played as the Chinese, Industrious (50% wonder boost) and financial. First time I've tried that combo, but I found that the Industrious trait ain't all that useful, especially if using engineers to rush wonders in the mid to latter game, and chopping at the start.
So I'm thinking next time I'm going to go and give Spiritual and Financial trait a go. That I haven't also tried.
Ok, it's few days later now again, and I gave Mali a go (fin & banking). 7th level. The ability to swap the civics without a penalty is indeed very handy.
I got stuck on the worse side of a continent with two others, but still managed to come in second, losing the space race again by 5 turns. Maybe that's a lifetime, I thought I was getting close.
I managed to stay peaceful till the top dog, and my neighbour declared war with 7 turns to ship completion. We were both scooped by the fella coming in 3rd however.
Few days latter.......
Again with Mali, 7th level, I got of to a flier with things, being the tech leader or 2nd, till the space race began. The no anarchy is very handy, I was playing them civics as a grand piano in this game, as I missed out of the Pyramids.
I finished the Apollo second, but then the leader had a golden period and gained about 300 point extra lead in that time. Amazing.
He totally creamed me.
I was on a continent with 3 others (bit unlucky), and the other 2 declared war on me instead of the leader who had only few parts of the ship to go !!??
In any case he was too far ahead in the end for me to scoop him.
I did couple of things different in this game. I did not even for one second think about culture win. It was space race or bust. I saved all my GP except one that rushed the Taj and onother for the Academy in my capital. Then I started another golden period straight after. I thought I was going to leap ahead during these turns, but it seems that the AI actually kept up easily with me somehow. Strange. I was getting techs every 2 to 3 turns (was using fast speed on this game, normal settings) and yet it hardly provided any advantage.
I had another golden age latter, but that also didn't help.
But I will not stop with the golden age experiment just yet. Next time I will try to save the GP for at least 2 golden ages when the space race triggers, hopefully I'll have enough for 3.
I'll provide some updates if they become relevant in due course, especially if I can space race win.
Ok, again day or so after, and I did try a game where I saved 5 GP to start 2 golden ages right after Apollo, which I finished first.
However, the AI still won by 7 turns, almost hard to believe. Cant see what else I could have done, but to trigger the ages maybe while building the most labor heavy componets. I went from being the tech leader to about 4th in that time. Talk about competition !
I'll try it again. That one was with Elizabeth (phi, fin).
Sorry if this post is little hard to follow, I wrote it in bits and pieces.
Cheers,
Crusher
IMO Civ 4 is the most developed of the series, you really need to have your eyes opened and fingers on the buttons all the time in Civ 4 to score a win (in the higher levels). Very involved. Even the way you decide to stay 'competitive' changes in the game.
I have the unpatched Civ 4 right now (Russian official release, which is a copy and cant be patched), so my comments might not be relevant anymore.
For openers, the Civ people have created excellent game, the many all nighters I've already pulled speak for themselves. But, I did find some things.
(1) The communication with the AI is disappointing, why do I get the "you wouldn't want to see me angry" when I got them down to the last city with a stack of units resting on their porch? I think the whole communications side should be improved to take into consideration yours/theirs stance in power ranking, tech race, culture etc. Also you should be able to see exactly how far behind you are in the tech race, not just to see the leading up techs.
(2) Correct the 'you have destroyed a artillery' etc. Grammar should not even come up for comment !
(3) The spoken message of "The whole is more than the sum of it's parts" is the same for Composites and Replaceable parts discoveries.
(4) The button menu that changes from unit to unit, so for example if I fortify a unit, then the screen jumps to next unit, and the button changes because it's a worker, but I've already pressed it (rushing) thinking it's another unit to be fortified. (Note, this is just an example, I'm not sure if this is the exact thing I have written about). Some buttons in the menu should never move from unit to unit, same as the 'delete the unit' command, which by the way should be at the end of all the buttons, not at the front, as it's hardly ever used. Maybe to lay the command buttons vertically in groups, not horizontally in one or two lines, so command to 'fortify' would simply not exist for a worker, or be substituted by another command, as it does now.
(5) And what's with the impossible to see gunships? I'm straining my eyes to see where the heck they are, and it just wastes time.
Ok there are few other things like the farms and the Ironworks not working properly, but I'm sure most has been already fixed in the patches, so enough whinging.
I'm now up to the 7th level, which I think is Emperor, with only the last two to go. (I have not even tried the last 2 levels as yet)
I've come to a conclusion that the easies way is to win 'culturally', and sometimes there is simply nothing you can do to win. I often restart the starts, or go back to some key event/decision - just to see if things could have gone differently. Any hints/ideas/tips I pick up this way have served me well.
Some points to my game:
I always 'spread' my wonders.
Pyramids are almost essential to me staying competitive at this level. I am not afraid to build a city right on top of the stone, and commence the build even while my other worker is still chopping trees near my capital to get another settler out. Then he comes to help the wonder on it's way with more wood chopping.
I take some calculated chances, such as sending a settler unescorted. Nothing stupid, like letting him go 20 squares away, but a trip of 6 squares is quite possible on the pre mapped terrain. If I manage to 'bump' into a barbarian, then curtain comes down on another game. The barbarian animals do not come into the empty city, and you have some time to make warriors before the barb warriors and arches do come knocking.
I try to spread my wonder building to different cities, but always only 3 cities. National wonders excepted of course, but on this difficulty setting I have never built Mount Rushmore, Red Cross, Capital and don't bother with the Scotland Yard anymore. Heck I'm lucky if I get to build the West point and Iron works. Hermitage becomes important, and I always wait to see which city needs a cultural boost. I try to keep an eye out on the culture spread, making sure that they are culturally reasonably similar.
In my earlier games I used to like getting the Stonehenge wonder for the automatic culture it gives my cities, as often the 'block' of the cultural spread is great to stop your rival from venturing all over 'your' corner of the woods, but really the great prophet seems to screw up my strategy, so these days I don't go for it. Almost as a poison pill for me, getting the Henge.
Now my plan is to get the pyramids, priority. On the 7th level I almost always get them, with a help of a forest chop chop. That is after I have put out 3 to 4 cities first, all speed-chopped. So it's crucial to leave some forest for the city that will host the Pyramids.
So the plan is to get the pyramids. It means that my fist GP is an engineer, which allows you to build another wonder fast. I normally try to chop down the pantheon in another city, I save this leader to try and rush the Hanging Gardens in the same city that build the pyramids (HG also produce engineer), and then potentially, if lucky, I also will rush the Hagia Sophia there.
If I don't get the Pyramids I still stick to the culture in 3 cities, trying for other wonders etc. But things are simply not as rosy as they are with the Pyramids first.
I will wait and see how the wonders go, where the National Epic will go (100% GP birth). I try to have 3 cities only with wonders.
If I get the window of an opportunity, I rush the Great Library, for the phenomenal GP generation - albeit scientists. It's nice to have the academies, to at least stay militarily competitive in the later stages due to decent boost of research they provide. They often pump out too many scientist too fast, at the expense of the engineers, who I regard much more valuable at the mid game.
I almost always succeed in getting to rush the Taj Mahal with a GP. Nice artistic boost in the city with the Pantheon (both Artistic wonders).
So basically I have 3 cities producing almost exclusively engineers, artists, and at worst case scientists. When I get the civics or forge I try to give them at least one extra GP by sacrificing growth, which is not a bad thing as often health and happiness issues become a problem.
If I manage to get other GP, I generally save them, and maybe start a 'golden age' with them. I am still trying to work out the 'value' of the golden age. For example starting another one right after Taj wonder, with possibly another one asap after that. That would mean sacking the beloved engineer and/or artist, but it might be a great catapult in the tech race. It's something to explore, and I haven't read anything here on it yet. Seems like AI loves to get these golden ages going, so maybe there is something in it.
Artists I try to add to my cities to provide the culture and the commerce boost, but latter in the game I always add them as the 'culture bomb'.
The great prophets I also add to the city if I get them early, as the +5 gold is often needed to keep alive my expansion (that if often if I stumbled to build the Stonehenge or the Oracle). Not that I go totally bananas, rarely am I forced to drop my tech research bellow 50%
After I am forced to turn the culture to 70%, or more if able, I concentrate on building cathedrals. As I always try and spread any religions that end up on my shores to all my cities as fast as possible, so they provide good boost. Often I will spend couple of engineers to rush these.
Some tips:
(1) Careful when upgrading units. I try to nurse the high promoted units (having them attack the left over weak units) to get the 5th level promotion needed for the West point, or even the 3rd level for the Heroic Epic.
A unit that is 25/26 on the experience will drop to 10/26 after a promotion.
(2) I try building cities next to a river. The +2 heath is often crucial to keep the empire at some sort of growth.
(3) If attacked, I will try to get my rival eliminated (if early on, and on the same continent). If I defend, they never seem to want to make peace, their navy is stronger and they pillage my sea heath resources. Their cities provide nice boost to my growth, but this comes at a cost. A prolonged war will mean no chance of keeping up in the tech race. The cities that could have been building Unis, banks etc were forced to feed the army, and the compensation of the captured cities doesn't seem to be enough. I will already focus on the cultural win while fighting.
(4) I will often 'sacrifice a trade'. That is I will accept some inferior tech exchange deal with the bottom AI, if it gets me the world map (especially I'm playing continents). As the computer automatically allots the trading routes, it's important to get these cities 'known'. Well, that's my thinking, hard to know if there is any truth to it, as nothing is explained about it in the manual.
If you signed an open borders, go and explore the region with a scout or an obsolete unit, at worse for the same city route trade reason.
(5) Spread any religion that comes your way asap. I don't actively go for the religious techs on this level, so I rely on them to come to me. Later it also provides +1 happy with each religion.
(6) Have lots of catapults in your assaults. Kamikaze them to really weaken up even much more superior defending army. The Chinese unique archer unit is also handy, they also cause collateral damage.
(7) Note the "10% tile defence bonus". I see it lots in naval battles, so if you attack, you are basically giving them a 10% increase in strength. If evenly matched, I sometimes park next to an opponent, and hope that he'll have a go at me. Just playing the odds there.
(8) Manage your cities by yourself if possible, treat them as your little babies. Think ahead when laying the cities, and building roads. I even like to have cities '3 apart', that is that a unit can travel from one city to next in one turn (not counting mounted of course) if I'm invaded. I find it helpful when I've been attacked, to defend the early wave. When you get the ability to build railroads, connect up the cities with the best possible route (fastest). I do not mind if cities 'overlap' squares when I found them
Also mines and lumberyards will get a production bonus with rail, so sometimes I mine them, then windmill them, then mine again with rail. Often my workers got nothing better to do in any case.
(9) AI Apollo will trigger in around the 1850s, so that's your 'yardstick', to see how close you are in the scheme of things.
(10) On the levels before Emperor, I tended to build the Wall Street and the Oxford in my capital as often the starting place of your capital has the best commerce. That means not building other national wonders there.
(11) Cottages = life. They will let you stay in the game, build them early and nurse them up asap.
On the levels before, it was quite possibly to even out-tech the AI still and win comfortably with space ship, but on the 7th I feel I haven't come even close yet. Mind you, I played about 6 games so far on the 7th (won 3 culturally), so I feel I have still lot of improving to do, strategically, so maybe down the line I will.
I find that the financial trait is pretty much a must. I experiment now with the other traits, such as phi, ind, creative, exp, and aggressive and will give other non fin traits a go as well down the line.
I do not like to war too much, I think it would be easier to win this way if playing pangea, but terribly unsatisfying. Select a strong unit nation as Romans, chop rush an army and go hunting. This totally falls apart if playing continents which is what I do. But on pangea it should provide a good strategy (plus you tend to keep up with techs easier), especially if on small maps etc. Latter on the trait is nullified, especially as the AI will always have better units due to being more advanced.
I tried this, and was kicking butt, but abandoned the game as there was no enjoyment. Mind you, I don't feel too crash hot either when I have to lick my wounds and settle for a cultural win .....
I'm after a 'thinking/planning' victory, maybe with a strategic war thrown in here and there.
It would be great if the game had some sort of a 'council'. Where you could meet every so many turns, and there would be discussion about your progress, what to do, how to proceed, how advanced opponents are etc. An opportunity to 'change the path', maybe recommendations, maybe possible alliances that should be made etc etc.
I would also like to see incentives to help other nations that are waring and ask for help. Maybe they should offer gold, techs, or to give you like extra 30 'brownie nose' UN votes for 'defending the weak' when the time comes for voting (if it comes)'. As it is right now, I do not help, and if anything, will gang up on the poor bugger if I smell an opportunity to cheaply expand.
Fin and phi traits will almost always get you a cultural win, based on the games I played at the 6th level. If you manage to get a reasonable start, but really that is no fun to do all the time. I'd like somehow to win, and still be the 'best' at techs
As I have written these notes over a few days before posting them, I have now come close to out-teching the AI on the 7th level. In the game I just finished I was staying pretty competitive despite a war in the 1100AD. I decided to abandon the usual cultural angle, and went for the tech race. Mind you, I had my 3 cities neck and neck on culture, and by far ahead of anyone, so that option was covered.
I ended up losing the Space race by 5 turns, coming clear 2nd. I was quite pleased with that, as I was obligatory attacked few times as I drew closer to the top. Certainly was a very entertaining game, with lots of twists, and as I was ranked second - lots of heart stopping moments everytime the UN votes came about. It could have so easily end right there for me, when so close......
But them 5 turns made me wonder. I lost at least 10 turns to anarchy, the most painful was in the latter game, when I swapped 4 civics I think and got a 2 turn anarchy instead of the usual 1.
I played as the Chinese, Industrious (50% wonder boost) and financial. First time I've tried that combo, but I found that the Industrious trait ain't all that useful, especially if using engineers to rush wonders in the mid to latter game, and chopping at the start.
So I'm thinking next time I'm going to go and give Spiritual and Financial trait a go. That I haven't also tried.
Ok, it's few days later now again, and I gave Mali a go (fin & banking). 7th level. The ability to swap the civics without a penalty is indeed very handy.
I got stuck on the worse side of a continent with two others, but still managed to come in second, losing the space race again by 5 turns. Maybe that's a lifetime, I thought I was getting close.
I managed to stay peaceful till the top dog, and my neighbour declared war with 7 turns to ship completion. We were both scooped by the fella coming in 3rd however.
Few days latter.......
Again with Mali, 7th level, I got of to a flier with things, being the tech leader or 2nd, till the space race began. The no anarchy is very handy, I was playing them civics as a grand piano in this game, as I missed out of the Pyramids.
I finished the Apollo second, but then the leader had a golden period and gained about 300 point extra lead in that time. Amazing.
He totally creamed me.
I was on a continent with 3 others (bit unlucky), and the other 2 declared war on me instead of the leader who had only few parts of the ship to go !!??
In any case he was too far ahead in the end for me to scoop him.
I did couple of things different in this game. I did not even for one second think about culture win. It was space race or bust. I saved all my GP except one that rushed the Taj and onother for the Academy in my capital. Then I started another golden period straight after. I thought I was going to leap ahead during these turns, but it seems that the AI actually kept up easily with me somehow. Strange. I was getting techs every 2 to 3 turns (was using fast speed on this game, normal settings) and yet it hardly provided any advantage.
I had another golden age latter, but that also didn't help.
But I will not stop with the golden age experiment just yet. Next time I will try to save the GP for at least 2 golden ages when the space race triggers, hopefully I'll have enough for 3.
I'll provide some updates if they become relevant in due course, especially if I can space race win.
Ok, again day or so after, and I did try a game where I saved 5 GP to start 2 golden ages right after Apollo, which I finished first.
However, the AI still won by 7 turns, almost hard to believe. Cant see what else I could have done, but to trigger the ages maybe while building the most labor heavy componets. I went from being the tech leader to about 4th in that time. Talk about competition !
I'll try it again. That one was with Elizabeth (phi, fin).
Sorry if this post is little hard to follow, I wrote it in bits and pieces.
Cheers,
Crusher
