Need tips for Emperor and above...

[Midleiro F.]

well I've been playing c3c for a while now (1 and a half year)... I always play on monarch level, and it's getting pretty (very) easy for me each day.
I had some tries as emperor but they both failed... it's such a big difference from monarch from emperor and i always end going back to play monarch (very frustrating).

I play as dutch, iroquois, sumeria and sometimes maya, on archipelago 60%... i try to find maps with a cattle on a grassland and next to a river... i start off building a warrior and then a granary and then settlers and more settlers. I'm also always in for the tech race and in the beggining i beat most civs at most techs. i try to hook up as many luxuries as i can and switch to republic asap... so i usually have: 0% taxes, 70% science and 30% lux.

my experiments on empreror went like this: at first theres like 4 dominant civs (including me) and they have a lot of money power and stuff... when we get to the mid middle ages all the money is concentrated on me and another rival, turning it impossible to have a interesting trade with another civ...

this other rival dominant civ eventually gets way ahead in tech and gold, and it's impossible to catch up. and if i declare war on them i'll probably lose. then it goes like this until i get bored and retire or lose the game.

can you guys give me some tips on how can i win an emperor game? i don't mean to maximize my score or anything, a diplomatic or space race will do...

 

[vmxa]

You simply have to start taking land from some one soon after you fill all the available land. The issue is how hard to go at it. You can go in a warmonger mode or in a less aggressive mode.

In either case, if you do not continue to expand, you will stagnate. The other guy has a few advantages and will out pace you. You offset their bonus, but being more effiecient and getting bigger than they will.

 

[Mursi lives]

Why should you lose a war against your main rival? Trade a tech (hopefully the same tech) with all other civs for a MA against this guy. Allies are pretty useless at monarch and below, but at higher level they become vital since they get the same production advantages as your ennemy. Besides, that will destroy any trade involving luxes or gpt your rival made with other civs.

Also to be efficient at war, use only veteran units, mainly offensive units, and dont be afraid to build more units than the max supported.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Use of specialist farms is crucial, and tighter spacing becomes much more important. Most of all, poorly focused research will kill you. You'll need to trade much more, the days of tech hoarding is over. If you manage to get a monopoly tech, trade it around for maximum benefits. Forget wonders, except for critical ones. If you like wonders, capture the ones you want but can't afford. Plan on short, sharp wars, using alliances sparingly. Only build defensive units to guard your bombardment stacks or frontline cities. Most of all, have fun. If Emperor is still too challenging, you can do things to make Monarch harder, like Pangaea maps, raging barbarians, playing as weaker tribes, variants like Always War, XCC, zero science, etc.

 

[bob rulz]

I know granaries are good but you don't need a granary before a settler. I guess I've never tested it, but usually my capital grows fast enough to build plenty of settlers even before I get a granary.

 

[Theov]

Use of specialist farms is crucial

Could you explain the specialist farm for me? Or give a link to it? I havent' found them.
Thanks.

 

[Aabraxan]

Check out "The Role of The Specialist Citizen" by Bede. It's in the War Academy: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/specialists.php

The short story: Where cities are 90% corrupt, cram them in closely, water and rail all the food tiles and use the excess food to hire specialists.

 

[Mursi lives]

I know granaries are good but you don't need a granary before a settler. I guess I've never tested it, but usually my capital grows fast enough to build plenty of settlers even before I get a granary.

Well, it depends of the extra food you can get around your capitol, but granary first is very often the way to go. The purpose of the granary is precisely to quickly build many settlers. It also doesnt necessarily take long to build: you often can chop a forest, whip the 20 last shields ...

 

[Midleiro F.]

thanks everybody!

about the war... well i guess i'll give it a shot, i'm not much of a fighter though.
should I declare war on the main rival right away or take weaker civs before? oh, and should i use artillery (archipelago)?
also, i've tryed before (just to see if they would have accepted) to get fake military alliances against my rival but they just wouldn't accept no matter what...

thanks also for the tip about the specialists... i didn't know they couldn't be corrupted.

 

[Snarkhunter]

If Emperor is still too challenging, you can do things to make Monarch harder, like Pangaea maps, raging barbarians, playing as weaker tribes, variants like Always War, XCC, zero science, etc.

? I'm a little confused. I haven't played that many monarchs, but have done a bunch of quick starts at least. What I find is that given an average start, I have no difficulty with pangaea's if I don't do something silly, but I'm having a devil of a time with 'pelago's. The basic problem is that resources, strategic & lux, always seem to be very limited, not just on my starting island, but on the map in general. My empires are always much less productive & slower growing, & to get anywhere I not only have to avoid silly mistakes, but be much sharper than usual all the way through.

What's the good player consensus on map-related difficulty? As it stands, I'd take a crack at emperor on pangaea, but wouldn't consider it for 'pelago. Have I somehow got it backwards? (I've been concentrating on using Byzzies for a 'pelago; are one of the other seafarers a better go?)

kk

 

[MAS]

on pangea AI Civ will quickly meet each other and then they can trade a lot and the tech pace will be murder. Also, you can easily be attacked by multiple civ.

On archipello, AI civ will remain isolated for longer but the human can easily adapt, also, the human will be focusing more on making contact and thus will be the first one with contact with everyone. It will almost always have a monopoly to some civ. Also The AI is terrible at DDay invasions. You can easily afford being at war with more than half the world, and hardly seeing a hostile unit.

 

[The Professor]

(I've been concentrating on using Byzzies for a 'pelago; are one of the other seafarers a better go?)

I like the Byzantines. The Dutch are also a good seafaring tribe, and the Vikings have a wonderful UU for going to war on an archipelago map.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Another thing about Pangaea, if someone declares on you, they can get to you with lots of troops. On continents, you really only have to worry about your neighbors. On Archipelago, you might own your island or share it with just one other. So that changes the whole game, Pangaea is a little more difficult. To answer about specialist farms, you get 30-40 tiles from your capital and your cities are swamped by corruption. Any build takes forever. So what to do? Maximize food by irrigating everything and hire as many scientists as possible without starvation. Build low priority items, such as catapults/trebuchets/cannons/artillery, settlers, workers, or wealth. They really can crank out the science when you get rails. Here are a couple pictures from a recent game:

Spoiler :

A typical specialist farm area:

Here is the domestic advisor:

Note the ^^ in front of cities, that means a specialist farm from population 7-12. It helps keep things organized.

Note all those happy faces. Turning citizens into specialists reduces unhappiness dramatically.

 

[ZzarkLinux]

@Overseer


That is amazing! Those beakers ... that income... the power ....

Do those cities have any buildings in them???
I suppose not, because buildings aren't needed, and only cost money...

 

[TheOverseer714]

Some were captured with aqueducts that couldn't be got rid of, but generally I build no buildings in a city that can only generate 1 uncorrupted shield. Specialist farms can really power your empire's science. I still could only get modern age techs in the 5-7 turn range because those cost a ton of beakers. I was pleased with my score in ths game, it was my highest solo score ever. If I'd taken it to 2050 AD, it would've hit even higher.

 

[Aabraxan]

also, i've tryed before (just to see if they would have accepted) to get fake military alliances against my rival but they just wouldn't accept no matter what...

Were you already at war when you tried? I'm pretty sure that you have to have declared war before the AI will accept an alliance. That's not to say that you have to send troops, mind you.

 

[Snarkhunter]

Another thing about Pangaea, if someone declares on you, they can get to you with lots of troops. On continents, you really only have to worry about your neighbors. On Archipelago, you might own your island or share it with just one other.

Ah--that might explain my difficulties. I think on every archipelago I've looked at, I've shared my island with at least 2, sometimes 3, AI's--incredible as that seems. (i didn't believe it at first either! But I'm playing with 60% water, and even on a 'pelago, that seems to be enough to stick several AI's with you.) I'm not getting the benefits of isolation, and I'm slow to figure out the productivity bottleneck. On pangaea, I've had no problem manipulating the AI's into "helping" when one of them declares on me. So I've been able to take them down one after the other, and grabbing resources is much less of a problem for me.

Well--doing something different is good for you

kk