Need Help with Strategy

[NoMan89]

Ok, I'm a bit perplexed. I just moved up to King level (I admit it, I have fun, but I'm not that good yet), and I just can't get any traction. I'm doing ok (from my perspective) on the continent on which I find myself, but there is always an AI country somewhere else that just crushes with science. They wind up in the Modern Age by the mid-1700's or mid-1800's, and I am barely in the Industrial Age. I have played as the Incas, France, Germany, and I can't figure it out.

Normally I will stay away from Wonders, and I will control my city's growth, so the happiness doesn't plunge while I'm building up. I do ok with wars nearby, but just can't get any further.

 

[pilot00]

Needs moar info, any saved games we can get our hands on to get an analysis. Or as I said moar info

 

[NoMan89]

just deleted my latest out of frustration. I will come back with a saved game in a couple days. Thanks!!!

 

[pilot00]

Just some general advice: When the first civ you share borders with, declares war with you, wipe them out (or leave them with a backwater city). Puppet everything and trading post spam them. It will give you science (rationalism) and gold. Beeline tech buildings as fast as you can. Detour only for immediate use and emergency army techs.
Science is the beginning and end in this game regardless of victory type.
Rationalism is the only option. Even in cultural games.

IMHO tradition is the only option too. Liberty is very situational.

Wonders are for stealing not building (I struggle with this myself )

National College before turn 100. No ifs or buts.

Growth: Without it you are doomed. Without growth you have no science. Without science you are nobody in this game.

Did I mentioned science?

Cant think anything more specific on the top of my head right now. Ask away if you want

Oh just remembered: Alliances with the AI like contracts and bones are made to be broken. Especially multipart alliances. Sooner or later one or the other will denounce and you will get the first negative (you made a DoF with their enemies....?). By that time prepare for WW3.

Personal observations that can be contradicted possibly:
For some reason Sweden is always an Autocratic power (dunno why).
Harun will always try to take over the world if he is in a continent and will back-stab you.
Montezuma, destroy him before he destroys you.
Spain, America, Rome. After they lose half their cities they just remain there sight seeing.
Alexander, Napoleon = War.
Catherine = Whatever she says, she hates you.

 

[pennjersey83]

I disagree somewhat with the post above me. If you're going for a cultural victory, cultural buildings and the policy focused wonders are critical first before science buildings, although science should still come 2nd. If you're going for science then all science buildings and wonders should be built first. Only build wonders that suit your victory condition objective, unless you have some extra time to build alternative wonders.

Always destroy the closest 1-2 civs near you. The only way to stay technologically ahead in this game is to exploit and destroy the civs closest to you. It is acceptable to leave them each with one city as long as it's not a city with a resource you don't already have. Be sure to build shrines first in every city so you can found a religion. Make sure your religion matches your victory condition.

Don't waste time building things that don't add to culture, science, production, or population. You don't necessarily need walls in cities. Always trade ALL of your excess resources to the highest bidders. Build scouts and caravels to fully explore the world as early as possible. Don't annex useless cities that don't have amazing locations, wonders, or large populations. Raze or puppet them.

Ensure you are always positive happiness and when you see happiness getting below 5, immediately start building happiness buildings or research the tech that allows you to. Happiness is crucial to growth, which is crucial to science.

Most importantly, if you find that every game there is always one runaway civ with a commanding lead, perhaps try playing on small continents map. Regular continents has too much land mass and one AI civ can easily steamroll the weaker AIs. Small continents is perfect for keeping a balanced game and usually I finish the game with only 1-2 AIs destroyed out of the 8-10 I started with. Watch YouTube gameplay videos for more tips. I can easily beat emporer difficulty using the above methods

 

[pilot00]

I disagree somewhat with the post above me. If you're going for a cultural victory, cultural buildings and the policy focused wonders are critical first before science buildings, although science should still come 2nd. If you're going for science then all science buildings and wonders should be built first. Only build wonders that suit your victory condition objective, unless you have some extra time to build alternative wonders.

If we are talking about higher difficulties you are not going to build most of the wonders. Then the AI starts with so many bonuses (even in science) that if you cant hit by 150 turn (standard speed) the Renaissance by bee-lining science buildings you are not going to go on par with the AI. That means the critical cultural wonders are locked too and left for the AI to take at its leisure.

For cultural victories IMHO the most important thing is cultural CS. Even if you have your empire set on full culture and GA planted with piety and freedom, three CS allies will actually produce culture on par with all your cities (and in some cases even dwarf them).

Always destroy the closest 1-2 civs near you. The only way to stay technologically ahead in this game is to exploit and destroy the civs closest to you. It is acceptable to leave them each with one city as long as it's not a city with a resource you don't already have. Be sure to build shrines first in every city so you can found a religion. Make sure your religion matches your victory condition.

I quite disagree with that. You can create a techlead by simply planting enough cities and speeding up the acquisition of GSs and science buildings. War is a good recourse to gain puppets or gain cities but most of the time those are empty shells that need an eternity to go online science wise. Also dont forget that puppets have a flat 20ish (cant remember exactly) percent penalty on science and cultural production. The only effective way is to puppet an entire continent and trading post spam it. Religion can be a strong bonus but it is not necessary to win the game. It can patch a lot of holes and give big boosts though, but this requires large investments.

 

[Unresolved]

Turn 150 Renaissance is really late, even for a culture game. Some people can hit the Industrial Era by then in a really good CV. I'd try to hit Renaissance at the same turn as in a science game, turn 110ish.

 

[NoMan89]

I cannot tell you how frustrated I am! Turn 225, I have three cities and two puppets. I am limping along, head barely above water, and IA's have happiness levels of 54, 38, 32, 30, 24...I have -6!!! WTH!

 

[pilot00]

Turn 150 Renaissance is really late, even for a culture game. Some people can hit the Industrial Era by then in a really good CV. I'd try to hit Renaissance at the same turn as in a science game, turn 110ish.

If you are a number cruncher and total min-maxer sure, but how many are those people out of the total?

 

[Unresolved]

If you are a number cruncher and total min-maxer sure, but how many are those people out of the total?

Okay, so turn 110 Renaissance is a little overachieving for many players. But I think a turn 150 Renaissance is borderline loss, even on King. What does finish time does that equate to for a CV? Turn 350? Turn 375?

 

[joncnunn]

I cannot tell you how frustrated I am! Turn 225, I have three cities and two puppets. I am limping along, head barely above water, and IA's have happiness levels of 54, 38, 32, 30, 24...I have -6!!! WTH!

G&K and Vanilla: AI plays on chieftain level which contains several bonuses, most noticable is happiness. (At Emperor+ they get additional happiness bonuses on top of that.)

BNW: AI now plays on a new difficulty level called "Handicap AI Default", the numbers are happiness are somewhere between Chieftain & Warlord.

Basically you're not building enough happiness buildings fast enough and/or expanding too fast.