Need suggestions... Lost again.

[B1sh0p]

I just bought Warlords, and have come back to the game after being away for almost a year, so I'm a little rusty. I know the basics, like how to effectively use your units, how to specialize your cities (great person cities, production cities, commerce cities, etc) and what not, but I lost this game handily.

Here's the situation. I'm England, I started a large map on noble, with 11 civs total (including me). I started on a quite large island with Korea on the west, me on the east. I expanded quickly, taking over the east side. Korea expanded just as fast, taking over the west. I massed an army, and obliterated Korea. Now I own the most land mass out of everyone. Of course, at this point I didn't know that, since I hadn't met any other civs.

I made contact with China and America next. They were on an island together about equal to my size just south of me. They both own half of the island.

Then I made contact with the large continent to my east. It consisted of Russia, India, Egypt, Rome, Zulu, Arabia, and Germany.

It quickly became apparent that India was the foe to beat. Their score was slightly above mine, and they had a formidable military. Not only was their military large, but they had much more tech than me (and everyone else.) By around the 1600's they were already making SS components, if I recall correctly.

Due to my war with Korea, I was falling behind in tech. I tried to catch up just through focusing on my cities, trying to build them up as fast as I could, but I was still falling behind. I decided to go after China to get a little more territory. I took over 3-4 of his cities, and then made him my Vassal. I then focused on building up those cities, along with my mainland ones. I was still unable to catch Ghandi in tech, not even get close.

I decided that Ghandi needed to be brought down to size through military means. I convinced Arabia, Germany, and Russia to declare war on him. I did as well. There was some intense fighting, but we were well out of our league. I sent over my redcoats with cannon support, and he brought out tanks!...... TANKS! His military was a good 2 generations ahead of me, and mine was about 2 generations above everyone else!

Well... things didn't go as planned. Not only did I not "bring him down to size" as I thought I would, but he ended up with Germany, Arabia, and Russia as Vassals!

I turned my eyes on America. I needed to expand. I took 2-3 of their cities, and made them my Vassal. So I now owned, or owned those who owned the entire west side of the map, with Ghandi controling most of the eastern continent himself, or through his subjects.

I decided my next best bet would be to build up a large defensive army, and then a nuclear arsenal, and send 1 to every city he owned to stop him from advancing.

I only got 1 nuke out of the production line before he created the UN, was made secretary of it, and made nukes illegal!

I spent the rest of the game trying to garner support with the other civilizations, hoping that I could win a Diplomatic victory in the UN. I managed to become Secretary a few times, but never had enough support to win.

By 1940, he won a Space Race victory. My final score was 3194, and his was 3122, but regardless, he won.

So I guess what i'm asking here, is what's the best way to get back in the Tech race when you're far behind? That's what killed me, I think. I NEEDED to take out Korea, they had some very nice resources on their half of the island, much better than mine. But by the time I'd finished them off, I had spent so much time building my army, and neglecting my cities, that I was still chucking spears when Ghandi was making machine guns.

Suggestions?

 

[[EC]Eternal]

........ from what u have said looks like u did all the right things but u have to avoid wars at all cost to get ahead in tech so doesant seem like there is much u could have done....

 

[asabahi]

Did you aggressively tech trade? If you have a big empire and need to catch up quickly, running a specialist economy might be more helpfull, specially under representation. 2 scientist give you 12 beakers, and every other specialist gives you 3 beakers plus other stuff too (merchant gives you gold and etc.). Do not trade with your enemy and try to persuade other civs not to trade with him either. It seems like you over extended yourself, because at noble you should be OK if you have bigger parcel of land.

 

[B1sh0p]

Well, like I said, I'm quite rusty. I did tech trade with the smaller civs for gold, to keep my research at 90%, but it wasn't enough to catch ghandi. I don't know what he did, but he really took off.

I'm not very good at using specialists. That is, I rarely use them. I try to focus on getting my cities as large and productive as I can. Is this a mistake? When should you use specialists, and when should you not?

 

[ElJojo]

You should be able to outech another civ if you have more landmasses and more cities. Gandhi must have built a lot of cottages and wonders. And he must have triggered a few golden ages with his GP.
Maybe you had too much production cities and not enough commerce cities. From what you said you waged a big war against Korea which may have incited you to focus on production cities to get more units.
Specialist can be useful when shifting from production to research. Most production cities have food ressources to allow them to work mines on hills.
Just take the citizens from the hills and make them into specialists. This should boost your research for a while. And it will generate GP you can use to lightbulb tech or build academies or shrines.
But eventually I think a specialist economy will fall behind a fully developped cottage economy. So when the war is over switch to specialists while converting some cities into commerce cities, if possible.
There's no point of having big cities if they are useless. You don't need production cities when you're not warmongering and have no wonders to build.
And finally you should bee-line a little and specialize. You may be able to get one tech Gandhi hasn't and trade it with him, instead of trading it for money. If you're not producing much commerce then getting the science slider to 100% won't make much of a difference.

 

[asabahi]

There is thread with no cottage, emperor game somewhere in the forums that I read. It was a succesion game and they won by domination, running a full SE. It was pretty impressive. The SE is powerfull in the begining of the game because you get imediate benefits. There are a lot of arguments between whether to run a SE or CE, but you can have hybrid economy. Have a couple of cities will cottaged with money multiplier buildings and the rest farmed with specialist. Ghandi and Mansa are techers and need to be attacked early or dimplomatly isolated. Also there is thread right now for a immortal game in the startegy section. He is running a SE and poping techs with the GPs. Check it out.