My first serious Emperor game

[Arska]

I've played plenty of monarch games, and I've reached a point where I can win at least 90% of them. This is my first serious attempt at emperor level. At 820 AD (see attachment) I'm well behind in technology (China just started building Smith's trading company). Do you think I can still win in my situation? What would you do if you were me, or what would you have done differently?

edit: I'm not asking for micromanagement advice, but rather for broad guidance.

 

[Raliuven]

First impressions:

Disclaimer – not meant in any mean way, so if this is brief it is because I am rushed for time.

Need to get all citizens to work. Use the luxury slider, not clowns. This is so very important in the early game!
Need to turn city governors off. You need to MM your cities at this point.

Starting economy – 161gpt, -34gpt corruption, -41gpt maintenance, -50gpt unit costs = +36gpt to treasury. Mono 34t. Sliders 10/0/0

Push Lux to 20% -

Atico doesn’t need a courthouse. Could use a galley, or Aqua. Aqua is questionable until we can get more happiness. Galley to scout map? Need Contacts!
Juli – has a harbor but is not big enough to use the coastal tiles. Temple may actually be a good idea with this situation. Not sure there.
Chuquiapo doesn’t need a courthouse either.
Nasca doesn’t need a courthouse.
Putting the FP in Machu Picchu – it is already in good shape and the land is not the best for a FP location in my opinion.
Ollantaytambo doesn’t need a courthouse.
Vilcabamba is building wealth and it is one of your most powerful cities! It can build a sword every 3 turns!
Vitcos is working an unimproved grass tile which nets you . . . nothing. Forget the harbor. Maybe galley, probably a sword. Need to get more land, more luxuries.
Andahuaylas doesn’t really need courthouse. Whatever you do is going to waste shields. You need military. You’ve got a bunch of barracks and you are not building military.

Marketplaces are nice builds usually, but they don’t have much power here. Need more luxuries.

New economy with 20% luxury - 189gpt, -29gpt entertainment, -38gpt corruption, -41gpt maintenance, -50gpt unit costs, +6gpt from taxes=+37gpt to treasury. I’m actually making more money and my production is up because citizens are back to work.. Mono 34t – you are already locked into a long research here. Without serious growth there is nothing that can be done. Also, because research is turned off, libraries are costing gold rather than producing it.

You are way underdeveloped so the population that is working is often working unimproved tiles. 18 citizens (of 69 citizens) are working unimproved or partially improved tiles – but some areas have a lot of roads with no other improvements? That’s more than 25% of your working citizens. I would suggest that when a worker touches a tile that they do not leave it without fully improving it. There are exceptions, like rushing a road to outlying areas, resources & luxuries.

You need to see more – you need to get those early contacts! You only know 6 of 15 rivals! – it is hard to plan an effective war without knowing the location of the luxuries and resource. I don’t know if the game can be saved at this point. I’d have to play it for a while to get a feel for it. China is as far as Navigation already – not an insurmountable lead, but difficult. Looks like Shakespeare, Newton, Bachs are still available. Everyone (that you know) is larger than you, so you are at the very bottom of the pile. You really need more map to make some decisions here.

I'd suggest staging a war ASAP - I'd probably pick America without any other knowledge. But you are likely to run afoul of an AI dogpile because you are so far behind and they can buy allies. It will be a struggle.

One option for Emperor might be to start a succession game and play with other players. You might find that helpful if you post it as a semi-training game. If you can win at Monarchy 90% of the time, you should definately be able to play Emperor with a team.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Let me post a picture first:

Shows a zoomed shot of the whole empire and the military advisor. (Click for larger version)

That is a very tough start you have there. You are Inca, and with that agricultural. But the start position has absolutely no fresh water, and hence no way to make agricultural bonus count during despotism. You'll also have to build aqueducts everywhere in order to have cities. The lack of rivers also means that the land is commercially poor.

There is only one food bonus in the immediate surrounding of Cuzco, and that is the cow on the eastern coast. But by the way that you have been settling I can tell that you could not have worked the cow until either Vilcabamba or Arequipa had a border pop. You just cannot afford to build any expensive culture that early on. And you most certainly cannot afford to build a 60 shield temple in order to get your only food bonus workable. Vilcabamba was founded in 1050 BC and Arequipa 450 BC. Hmmmm .... That is all wrong. You first settler (2400ish BC) should have grabbed a spot right besides the cow.


The military is not all that bad though. At least it is not all that bad, were this still the BCs. But OK, you have a though start without fresh water, without food bonuses. Wrt, the workers, I am not going to say that you have enough workers, simply because you can never really have enough workers, but it is a start. Apart from the workers you only have attackers, all of a good quality. Way to go. Again, were this sometimes in the BCs, that would be really, really good military -- but in 820AD?

Unit support is of course killing you. That is almost exclusively due to the fact that you only have towns. And that in turn is partly because you just don't have any fresh water in you core, and partly because you are lacking the aqueducts. In addition, you have no irragations, so even if you could have towns, you'd be growing slowly anyway.


Having the governor on is a crime. Not having (had) curraghs, galleys, scouts out is a crime too.


What to do? See that you get irrigations into your core as soon as possible. See that you get aqueducts up as quickly as possible. You should have never build those 60 shield temples, but instead invested into 50 shield aqueducts. You have practically no choice with that land.

 

[tR1cKy]

how about you build some serious military and start attacking somebody?

 

[Verarde]

And for that, switch to Monarchy. This will cut your unit costs significantly, and possibly allow you to put your science at 10%.
Of course, I'm only a lowly Regent player, so what do I know?

 

[MarkK]

Hey Arska,

First let me say, I admire you posting this. Your file taught me a few things.

I'll light right in, and dont take it personal;

Should've had the ENTIRE Continent you live on outlined by now, plus all the nooks-and-cranies afforded buy a Curragh/Galley/Warrior. You MUST PROJECT yourself. Landing on someone elses shores is TREMENDOUSLY more powerful than them finding you.
You are like a mouse in a maze right now, and that only works as long food works

 

[Aabraxan]

First off, I haven't loaded up your game. I've only looked at it through CA2.

With that said, I have to agree with Lord Emsworth: that is a very tough start. The Incas are agri and expansionist, and you've wound up with a map that fails to capitalize on either trait. The lack of fresh water undermines your agri trait, and the arch map doesn't make very good use of expansionist.

With that said, what is your desired victory condition? You've got a fair number of temples. Now, let me stop right there and let you know that I almost never advocate temples outside of cultural games. However, you're woefully short on native luxes, and nobody has any to trade that I can see. So the temples might have been the right play.

Also, I see units in every town. Since Republic has no MPs, why do you have them there? You could put them into a big ol' stack and go someone (probably the 'Muricans).

 

[MarkK]

What you need to do is have the Worker west of Vilcas make a bee-line south doing nothing but Irrigation. You have plenty of workers to tap off this and carry it to your many cities. The main-line of irrigation is key right now; nothing can progress without that.

 

[Arska]

Kind of a late reply, but anyway...

Soon after my message I realized I totally forgot the luxury slider, and I even know how to properly use it. Some of my building choices are probably down to that slip. I also forgot to build early ships, obviously that hurt me contactwise.

I'm not keen on war, but if I had to pick one, America would be my #1 choice for sure. Still I'd prefer to develop my empire with other ways. I don't see many gains with war for me. That's the reason why I went for Republic.

About the starting location: I always play with all things random, and I recognized the river situation is really tough, but I like challenges, that's why I have most things at random.

Even if I use the governor a lot, I modify their choices often (hard to see in the save file). Yes, I realize that I still should have built some sea units. I've been working with trying to get irrigation to my core, but it's a slow process.

I have units in towns to help me be prepared in case an AI tries to jump me. It's a strategy that's worked well at monarch, I don't know if emperor changes the game.

 

[web25]

i would move most workers north and stack irrigate to connect all your cities with irrigation.

change all your cities to building swordsman (to prepare for war) or workers.

 

[Elephantium]

I have units in towns to help me be prepared in case an AI tries to jump me. It's a strategy that's worked well at monarch, I don't know if emperor changes the game.

It doesn't. It's the same AI with the same play quirks, it just builds things a bit cheaper. The most you have to worry about is getting overrun because the AI can build a few more troops.

All you have to do is hold off a few extra units!