Need help with my Sid game

Here are the settings

Map Size: Standard (might be large, I forget)
Land Mass: Pangea 70% water

It is 950 bc and the land grab phase of the game is down for me and everybody else I believe. I think I did quiet well considering the difficulty and land mass. The problem is the tech rate. I am still in the begining branchs of the Ancient Age and the AI is VERY close to going into the Medevil age if they are not there already. My question is, how can I catch up in tech. I have no luxuries so 20% of my income is going to that, which will have to rise soon. I have 1 river and its not that big. What do I need to do to get caught up? I have all the first techs except the wheel and the only other tech I have is Iron Working, and to no surprise, I have no iron

Any advise is welcome.

I have included this picture incase it is of any use.

 

Another thing I just noticed. When did they start putting fish in sea squares? I don't recall ever seeing this before. There are two towards the top of my territory near Lagartero.

 

From the beginning.

Have you mastered deity level? If not, I don't see why you should bother and how other people can tell you how to play..

If yes, I could hardly believe you asked this fish question.

 

Nope, haven't master diety yet, I just wanted to see how tough Sid level was.

 

You have several choice's a rush and very well timed pre-build for the GL, or to drop your science to nothing, and buy the techs from the AI. IMHO, you will not beable to research faster than the AI untill possibly the Industrial age's.

A third option would be to mass an army and attack a neighboring civ, then sue for peace and get acouple of techs that way.

 

Launch curraghs to make contact with the rest of the world. As you gain more contacts you can research/buy techs cheaper.

Buy alliances and force the AIs to fight each other. This slows the tech rate and helps prevent a UN loss.

Build a TON (100+) of catapults and spearmen. This is the only way to win an invasion when you are hopelessly behind in tech.

 

A bit late for this game. But for future game, try to be more focus on just one branch of the tech tree. Only will that give you good trading opportunity. Mastering Trading is essential to beating the higher levels. You should also send out 2-3 warrior to make more contact.

Also, read my signature about tech trading cost in C3C. it is no longer cheaper to buy tech compared with research. Cash flow can help greatly to play the trading game but you need to ensure you can actually sell the tech you just bought or hold on to cash until you make enough contact to drop the tech cost drastically.

 

DaveMcW's advice is right. Your problem is that you have just 14 cities. So you can't build 100s. I reckon you can only afford a 60 piece army, assuming that you have two MPs in each city.

Can you get to maths? Using F1 and F6, work out how quickly you can get maths or riding. (It's a guess, but given you don't have luxuries or iron, you almost certainly have horses.) If riding looks a long way away, continue your Level 7 spending on science until you've got the wheel and then either drop science to 1 or install a scientist somewhere. At worst you'll get riding in 50 gos. However, after 10BC, AIs will often sell riding for 350~400pts, particularly if you have half researched it. Then do the same for maths.

In your cities, stop building temples. Also sell any temples you have built. Build walls on border and seafront cities, barracks in the rest. Once you've built barracks start to build spearmen then horsemen. You will need 10 spears and 25 horses. As you complete your spearmen, send them to Tikal (5) and Palenque (5). Ditto later with horses.

If a city is doing nothing, build a worker. Make sure all workers are maximizing your cities' output. Ensure you've sufficiently roaded and mined near each city so you are getting maximum use not only from your current squares but also when the population grows.

At Yaxchian. Build five carraghs. space them so that no boat can get round you safely from the south (so on the five coastal squares).

Now, are you going to get maths? If not, build 25 horses. If you are, get maths then build 25 cats. The cats do not need to be built in towns with barracks. Indeed if you are still building your cav then build cats in unbarracked towns. As before as you build the military send them 50:50 to Tikal and Palenque.

When your force is assembled attack through the following route Nagoya => Shimo => Nagasaki, trying to destroy Japan's northern seafront. That way, they won't be able to launch a sea-based invasion through the north. If you have cats, send them stacked with spears and use them to red-line the city defenders, before following up with horses.

You will steadily lose horses and you will need new spears when you take cities, so have your barracks producing these. Send your workers to the rear of the battle to road your way to the front.

You must destroy Japan, so do not stop. However, should you be successful, you can sue for peace when only Kyoto remains, get all Japan's tech and then attack again.