Need Tips for Higher Difficulties

[amateurgamer88]

Hi everyone! I'm amateurgamer88 and I'm new to the community. Also started Vox Populi this summer but am enjoying every moment of it. Now, I know the title is rather vague so allow me to specify what tips I need.

I've recently started Immortal difficulty. Emperor difficulty has been winnable unless an AI civ simply snowballed out of control and I couldn't do anything about it being too far away. For Immortal, I realized that I have some sloppy gameplay and that's punishing me a lot more now that AI get more bonuses. Below, I'll be listing a few key areas I feel I need to improve on. If anyone can link me to good guides or give suggestions/tips, I'd appreciate it greatly. I know that the civ I play can result in varying strategies but I want to get a general idea of it.

I feel like I'm getting too greedy a lot of my games. I'm expanding to get a lot of nice locations and that's proving to be an issue. First, the cities increase costs to policies and technology which will see me fall more behind. Secondly, I simply lack the military to defend it all unless I have great chock points. What is the suggestions on deciding how much one expands and how far apart? I noticed that, if I expand to cover more area, AI likes to build cities in the various openings between my cities. On the topic of defending my territory, how do we decide how much to invest in the navy and how much in army? If we play maps with more water, we need both but, as the player, our army supply is noticeably less than the AI.

I'm also a rather aggressive player if given the chance. I found early aggression or properly timed ones can be very rewarding on Emperor or lower difficulty. I'm not sure if there are situations in Immortal or, eventually, Deity, where aggression should be restrained. For instance, I tried a slightly different strategy in my recent games. I share a continent with one other civ (playing on continent map) and allowed them to expand a bit so I can puppet their cities instead of needing to settle all that land myself. Not sure if this is viable or if there are other situations where peace is more beneficial overall. For snowballing AI, is war the only solution or are there other methods?

I have a feeling that specialists are very important. However, I don't know what I want to optimize. I usually go with defaults like food focused or production focused. How good is the default assignment and should I learn to do these myself? If manually, what should I focus early game, mid game and late game? One thing I definitely want to improve is my tourism. I saw a number of my games where I'm usually dead last and I feel like, somewhere along the game, I've been neglecting my tourism.

Finally, I have to wonder about managing city state allies. In emperor, I had a game with Germany and had another civ also going for statecraft. I couldn't help but notice them spamming out diplomatic units when I couldn't come close. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? It seems difficult to compete with the AI for CS alliances when I have to invest so much resources on other things to simply keep up in tech/social policies. On the topic of keeping up, what's normally considered normal the gap the player is behind AI in general in tech and social policy? When should we be catching up or it would be considered too late?

Sorry about the long wall of text. I don't want to throw out really vague questions. Thanks for reaching this far and hope to hear you reply soon!

 

[Viralvoid]

I feel like I'm getting too greedy a lot of my games. I'm expanding to get a lot of nice locations and that's proving to be an issue. First, the cities increase costs to policies and technology which will see me fall more behind. Secondly, I simply lack the military to defend it all unless I have great chock points. What is the suggestions on deciding how much one expands and how far apart? I noticed that, if I expand to cover more area, AI likes to build cities in the various openings between my cities. On the topic of defending my territory, how do we decide how much to invest in the navy and how much in army? If we play maps with more water, we need both but, as the player, our army supply is noticeably less than the AI.

If you're not confident that you can protect your cities, then don't settle there. Geography is one of the most important thing when settling, such as avoiding coastal cities if available, hills, mountains and rivers were important, so you should know how to utilize them. If you started on a landlocked location, settling a coastal city is almost a suicide, unless you build a navy which is costly if you only have one coastal city. If you have more coastal cities than landlocked, it is not a problem, just improve your navy.
BUT if you don;t want to invest much on navy, but you want a coastal city to gather a luxury resource, I suggest build it where it only has 1 tile access to the sea.
In watery maps, focus on ranged land army such as archers and catapults, melee units were almost useless, unless you use it to invade. On navy, a mixture of ranged and melee is important.

The less neighboring borders, the safer, prevent cities that causes you to border 2-3 other civs, it is suicide, don't settle one-tile cities if you don't have a powerful navy.

I'm also a rather aggressive player if given the chance. I found early aggression or properly timed ones can be very rewarding on Emperor or lower difficulty. I'm not sure if there are situations in Immortal or, eventually, Deity, where aggression should be restrained. For instance, I tried a slightly different strategy in my recent games. I share a continent with one other civ (playing on continent map) and allowed them to expand a bit so I can puppet their cities instead of needing to settle all that land myself. Not sure if this is viable or if there are other situations where peace is more beneficial overall. For snowballing AI, is war the only solution or are there other methods?

I don't know much, but if you read some photojournals from deity players, they won't doubt to conquer a nearby city if possible, it will trample the AIs strength, vassalizing an AI means less nuisance or reduces their possibility to snowball.

For snowballing AI, you can indirectly slow them down through resolutions like banning their monopolies, sanctions etc.
You can send trade routes too!
75 Culture for 1 trade route is really high, as well as 34 science.
However, Poland is not snowball in that image.

Spoiler Huge Culture Boost :

I have a feeling that specialists are very important. However, I don't know what I want to optimize. I usually go with defaults like food focused or production focused. How good is the default assignment and should I learn to do these myself? If manually, what should I focus early game, mid game and late game? One thing I definitely want to improve is my tourism. I saw a number of my games where I'm usually dead last and I feel like, somewhere along the game, I've been neglecting my tourism.

You can cycle specialists until you obtain the great person (for example 2 scientists, after you get the GS, remove the scientists to merchants, then to engineer). That method will provide you more control on your population. Some tile yields were better than specialists, tbh, a mine (+forge) with no resource yields more production than an engineer, and it does not consume a huge amount of food.

Be confident to use specialists if you have a large amount of food, or if your capital is tradition.
The default assignment is good, however, you can lock good tiles yourself if you wanted. In my games, I focus early game on growth until 7-8 (depends on the number of good workable tiles, don't waste such population if you can't use them), then production for building passive buildings such as shrine, monuments and councils.
Mid-game, still production, there are too many things to build such as army, and other passive buildings + specialists buildings.
Late-game depends on your VC, but most of the time, I focus on science.

It is ok to neglect tourism if you're not planning to win culturally, or you're trading with another civilization. Influence on another civilization provides growth on the origin city if you send a trade route to them. Custom house can help you with this. Tourism is important, but if you're not planning on cultural victory, it is like a side-dish on trading. Being last is fine, send trade routes on the leading, you'll catch up somehow if you plan it well.

Finally, I have to wonder about managing city state allies. In emperor, I had a game with Germany and had another civ also going for statecraft. I couldn't help but notice them spamming out diplomatic units when I couldn't come close. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? It seems difficult to compete with the AI for CS alliances when I have to invest so much resources on other things to simply keep up in tech/social policies. On the topic of keeping up, what's normally considered normal the gap the player is behind AI in general in tech and social policy? When should we be catching up or it would be considered too late?

This is my favorite part, build chanceries, spam buy/build diplomatic units, it is actually easy.
You should focus on gold though, and you can easily steal other city-states by just 5-8 diplomatic units, especially if you have statecraft.

To catch up: Send trade routes to the tech leaders, don't overexpand, know each strategies for each civilization and exploit their strength, use spies (send as diplomat on a warmongering/backstabbing AI, after leveling to 3, steal technologies on the tech leader).

You can read some photojournals, they were really good and fun to read!
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/deity-arabia-photojournal.635126/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/immortal-austria-photojournal-8-19.635676/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/camels-invent-things-a-portugal-photojournal.635234/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/aztec-write-up-photojournal-on-deity.634934/

I hope this is a little helpful https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/moving-up-from-emperor.635061/

EDIT: You can also read this, https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/ingame-decision-delimma.630755/

 

[tu_79]

I have a feeling that specialists are very important. However, I don't know what I want to optimize.

Use Improved City View mod (VP version). There you can assign all specialist of the same kind together. Look which great person can be produced faster and focus all your specialists in that type. You'll save a few turns for the first specialist, which in turn may speed up other parts.

Finally, I have to wonder about managing city state allies.

I find that you can ally confidently 2 city states. Also, you can befriend as many CS as you like, as it's quite cheap actually. Other civs get angry with you when you take their allied CS, so make sure you just befriend them. Having all CS at friendly status really improves your economy, both for tall (direct CS yields) and wide (with diplomatic buildings).

 

[Stalker0]

I find that you can ally confidently 2 city states. Also, you can befriend as many CS as you like, as it's quite cheap actually. Other civs get angry with you when you take their allied CS, so make sure you just befriend them. Having all CS at friendly status really improves your economy, both for tall (direct CS yields) and wide (with diplomatic buildings).

The last part is very good advise. For the price of allying 2 cs you can befriend 5-6
Sometimes. And with chanceries thst is quite a nice benefit. In fact I just recognized thst as a weakness in play I need to get better at

 

[amateurgamer88]

If you're not confident that you can protect your cities, then don't settle there. Geography is one of the most important thing when settling, such as avoiding coastal cities if available, hills, mountains and rivers were important, so you should know how to utilize them. If you started on a landlocked location, settling a coastal city is almost a suicide, unless you build a navy which is costly if you only have one coastal city. If you have more coastal cities than landlocked, it is not a problem, just improve your navy.
BUT if you don;t want to invest much on navy, but you want a coastal city to gather a luxury resource, I suggest build it where it only has 1 tile access to the sea.
In watery maps, focus on ranged land army such as archers and catapults, melee units were almost useless, unless you use it to invade. On navy, a mixture of ranged and melee is important.

The less neighboring borders, the safer, prevent cities that causes you to border 2-3 other civs, it is suicide, don't settle one-tile cities if you don't have a powerful navy.

I guess it's the lack of experience when it comes to settling cities. Depending on the map, coastal cities may or may not be an issue. I have realized that, even if I have multiple coastal city, a navy is still costly. Either I have a land neighbor who I cannot ignore or there's a lot of water and defending against the AI from multiple directions can be very frustrating. I'd be sure to pay more attention to geography but I feel that comes with time. As for borders, I've learned that even one neighboring border can turn a friend to enemy overnight. As for one tile cities, are they worth it to secure a monopoly of a resource or just ignore it as a whole until a strong navy is constructed?

I don't know much, but if you read some photojournals from deity players, they won't doubt to conquer a nearby city if possible, it will trample the AIs strength, vassalizing an AI means less nuisance or reduces their possibility to snowball.

For snowballing AI, you can indirectly slow them down through resolutions like banning their monopolies, sanctions etc.
You can send trade routes too!
75 Culture for 1 trade route is really high, as well as 34 science.
However, Poland is not snowball in that image.

Spoiler Huge Culture Boost :

On the topic of vassalizing, I found it tough to make vassals like me over time. There have been too many cases where they vote against me like sanction my civ. Is there something I'm doing wrong or are they just like that?

As for trade routes, I do feel I neglect them a bit too much. I'll definitely use them more often but, lacking experience, I guess it's just not knowing when to get them and when I should focus on other stuff like important buildings.

You can cycle specialists until you obtain the great person (for example 2 scientists, after you get the GS, remove the scientists to merchants, then to engineer). That method will provide you more control on your population. Some tile yields were better than specialists, tbh, a mine (+forge) with no resource yields more production than an engineer, and it does not consume a huge amount of food.

Be confident to use specialists if you have a large amount of food, or if your capital is tradition.
The default assignment is good, however, you can lock good tiles yourself if you wanted. In my games, I focus early game on growth until 7-8 (depends on the number of good workable tiles, don't waste such population if you can't use them), then production for building passive buildings such as shrine, monuments and councils.
Mid-game, still production, there are too many things to build such as army, and other passive buildings + specialists buildings.
Late-game depends on your VC, but most of the time, I focus on science.

It is ok to neglect tourism if you're not planning to win culturally, or you're trading with another civilization. Influence on another civilization provides growth on the origin city if you send a trade route to them. Custom house can help you with this. Tourism is important, but if you're not planning on cultural victory, it is like a side-dish on trading. Being last is fine, send trade routes on the leading, you'll catch up somehow if you plan it well.

It never even crossed my mind to cycle specialists. I'm assuming I want to do that for all my cities with decent great person production?

I'll keep in mind about the focus. I definitely notice that production gets real tough, especially industrial and later eras. I guess those cities weren't properly improved so, when the time comes, they are lacking. Though, I do play on marathon which might be the reason.

I thought tourism is what determines ideology pressure. Did I get this confused? I'm assuming that, by catching up, you mean that my culture output from trade routes will eventually put me in a safe position where I don't worry about being influenced?

This is my favorite part, build chanceries, spam buy/build diplomatic units, it is actually easy.
You should focus on gold though, and you can easily steal other city-states by just 5-8 diplomatic units, especially if you have statecraft.

To catch up: Send trade routes to the tech leaders, don't overexpand, know each strategies for each civilization and exploit their strength, use spies (send as diplomat on a warmongering/backstabbing AI, after leveling to 3, steal technologies on the tech leader).

You can read some photojournals, they were really good and fun to read!
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/deity-arabia-photojournal.635126/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/immortal-austria-photojournal-8-19.635676/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/camels-invent-things-a-portugal-photojournal.635234/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/aztec-write-up-photojournal-on-deity.634934/

I hope this is a little helpful https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/moving-up-from-emperor.635061/

EDIT: You can also read this, https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/ingame-decision-delimma.630755/

I still have much to learn about diplomacy then. I can see the strengths but I always seem to need to focus on other things. Gold isn't doesn't seem to be my strong suit since I like to use it to speed up building construction.

The spy suggestion is very good. I didn't even know diplomats can level up. I'll be sure to use that. As for warmongering, does that mean they like to plot or actually plan on sneak attacking another civ? I find diplomacy can be interesting but, too often, I seem to be the target as my military is pathetic.

I will check out the photojournals. I have been glancing at a few of them and they help somewhat. I should probably be more active in asking questions specific to their runs to get the most out of them. By the way, am I allowed write my own so people can point out my mistakes or are experienced players only allowed to write them?

Thanks for the links! I do very much appreciate it. These will take time to go through but I do think they'll improve my games.

 

[amateurgamer88]

Use Improved City View mod (VP version). There you can assign all specialist of the same kind together. Look which great person can be produced faster and focus all your specialists in that type. You'll save a few turns for the first specialist, which in turn may speed up other parts.


I find that you can ally confidently 2 city states. Also, you can befriend as many CS as you like, as it's quite cheap actually. Other civs get angry with you when you take their allied CS, so make sure you just befriend them. Having all CS at friendly status really improves your economy, both for tall (direct CS yields) and wide (with diplomatic buildings).

I'll definitely look into the improve city view. I haven't paid too much attention to the various mods but, now that it can help, I should. I feel like utilizing specialists will help my game a lot.

Befriending does seem to improve a lot and is cheaper for sure. Though, I notice completing quests and gaining influence still anger other civs when you don't even come close to allying. Guess I have to find a good balance.

The last part is very good advise. For the price of allying 2 cs you can befriend 5-6
Sometimes. And with chanceries thst is quite a nice benefit. In fact I just recognized thst as a weakness in play I need to get better at

I need to get better as well, especially when I play a civ that isn't focused of CS diplomacy as much.

 

[Viralvoid]

I guess it's the lack of experience when it comes to settling cities. Depending on the map, coastal cities may or may not be an issue. I have realized that, even if I have multiple coastal city, a navy is still costly. Either I have a land neighbor who I cannot ignore or there's a lot of water and defending against the AI from multiple directions can be very frustrating. I'd be sure to pay more attention to geography but I feel that comes with time. As for borders, I've learned that even one neighboring border can turn a friend to enemy overnight. As for one tile cities, are they worth it to secure a monopoly of a resource or just ignore it as a whole until a strong navy is constructed?

You should invest on your navy, if your sea is unprotected, they can easily embark and made it through your lands.
Be sure you don't provoke your neighboring AI, send trade routes, don't buy tiles, don't forward settle (if you plan to go peaceful).
Don't trust warmongering neighboring AI such as Huns, Japanese and Mongolia, eliminating them early game is the best way to start a fairly peaceful game.
Thanks to geography, you don't even need lots of units to defend, just prevent settling on plains/grasslands.

On the topic of vassalizing, I found it tough to make vassals like me over time. There have been too many cases where they vote against me like sanction my civ. Is there something I'm doing wrong or are they just like that?

As for trade routes, I do feel I neglect them a bit too much. I'll definitely use them more often but, lacking experience, I guess it's just not knowing when to get them and when I should focus on other stuff like important buildings.

If you have a vassal, just ignore them, and don't overtax, and don't do things that will make them angry. If they were on the rock bottom (1 city, with 3 population), they were 100% harmless. Remember: warmongering comes with diplomacy, don't neglect city-states when warring!

That is absolutely wrong, don't ignore trade routes, it is not about the money, it is about the other yields, and modifiers.
Caravan: Use them to buff your villages/towns.
Cargo Ship: If you safely eradicated coastal barbarians, it is safe to send cargo ships.
Don't neglect trading routes!, just think of it as an investment, it could provide more science/culture than a library and amphitheater.

It never even crossed my mind to cycle specialists. I'm assuming I want to do that for all my cities with decent great person production?

I'll keep in mind about the focus. I definitely notice that production gets real tough, especially industrial and later eras. I guess those cities weren't properly improved so, when the time comes, they are lacking. Though, I do play on marathon which might be the reason.

I thought tourism is what determines ideology pressure. Did I get this confused? I'm assuming that, by catching up, you mean that my culture output from trade routes will eventually put me in a safe position where I don't worry about being influenced?

Yes, I actually do it on all my cities with more than 8+ population. (3 for triangle farms, 3 for productions/luxuries, bonus; and 2 for specialists) this is not true to all cities though.

It depends on your policies, can I know what your policy choices?
Tradition: It is tough to build all the buildings on your secondary cities, sending a "hammer trade route" could be beneficial.
Progress: All cities were good in terms of infrastructure.
Authority: Early game, has strong hammer output, as time goes on, it becomes weaker.
All cities should have atleast 1 worker. On Tradition, you need it ASAP, and even 1.5 workers per city.

Yes, that is also the effect of tourism, it affects the ideological pressure.
That is the problem, sometimes, the leading civ where you want to send a trade route is winning CV.
-Prevent trade routes
-Close border
-Sanction them
-Choose a different ideology if possible

I don't think that increasing your tourism will affect the incoming pressure of other ideology (I'm not sure, sorry), culture is what you have to improve to reduce the influence, reducing boredom is also important.

I still have much to learn about diplomacy then. I can see the strengths but I always seem to need to focus on other things. Gold isn't doesn't seem to be my strong suit since I like to use it to speed up building construction.

The spy suggestion is very good. I didn't even know diplomats can level up. I'll be sure to use that. As for warmongering, does that mean they like to plot or actually plan on sneak attacking another civ? I find diplomacy can be interesting but, too often, I seem to be the target as my military is pathetic.

I will check out the photojournals. I have been glancing at a few of them and they help somewhat. I should probably be more active in asking questions specific to their runs to get the most out of them. By the way, am I allowed write my own so people can point out my mistakes or are experienced players only allowed to write them?

In diplomacy, it is easier to maintain allies if you have lots of gold output, that is why statescraft is handy (it provides gold, and increases the influence from diplomatic missions). Always check the "contender UI" on your allied city-state. It should be greater than 60 if classical-medieval, 120 to renaissance, and 200+ on industrial.

Diplomat levels from intrigue. Of course everyone is allowed!
Although I don't write photojournals, but I do ask suggestions on my current game. There were many skilled players here, they could be helpful.

 

[Legen]

I'll definitely look into the improve city view. I haven't paid too much attention to the various mods but, now that it can help, I should. I feel like utilizing specialists will help my game a lot.

Befriending does seem to improve a lot and is cheaper for sure. Though, I notice completing quests and gaining influence still anger other civs when you don't even come close to allying. Guess I have to find a good balance.



I need to get better as well, especially when I play a civ that isn't focused of CS diplomacy as much.

Remember that you can propose sphere of influence once Steam Power is discovered by someone. You can use it to gain an alliance at no cost. This is particularly useful on surrounding city-states, as it gives you a permanent buffer against your neighbors that doesn't require you to spend production/gold to maintain.

 

[amateurgamer88]

You should invest on your navy, if your sea is unprotected, they can easily embark and made it through your lands.
Be sure you don't provoke your neighboring AI, send trade routes, don't buy tiles, don't forward settle (if you plan to go peaceful).
Don't trust warmongering neighboring AI such as Huns, Japanese and Mongolia, eliminating them early game is the best way to start a fairly peaceful game.
Thanks to geography, you don't even need lots of units to defend, just prevent settling on plains/grasslands.

Thanks for the tips! Investing in a navy can be expensive but I will need it to guard my cities. As for not provoking them, it's not always possible. Had a few matches where they forward settle me means wars are inevitable at times. Guess I just have to plan ahead whenever I can.

If you have a vassal, just ignore them, and don't overtax, and don't do things that will make them angry. If they were on the rock bottom (1 city, with 3 population), they were 100% harmless. Remember: warmongering comes with diplomacy, don't neglect city-states when warring!

That is absolutely wrong, don't ignore trade routes, it is not about the money, it is about the other yields, and modifiers.
Caravan: Use them to buff your villages/towns.
Cargo Ship: If you safely eradicated coastal barbarians, it is safe to send cargo ships.
Don't neglect trading routes!, just think of it as an investment, it could provide more science/culture than a library and amphitheater.

Warmongering is definitely one of my issues. However, I have lost a game where I worried too much about opinions and that proved to be costly. I have to be better as determining when to go all out to make a serious push so I can take on the snowballing civ. As for trade routes, I will focus on them more. I realize that I'm paying a lot of hefty price ignoring them for too long.

Yes, I actually do it on all my cities with more than 8+ population. (3 for triangle farms, 3 for productions/luxuries, bonus; and 2 for specialists) this is not true to all cities though.

It depends on your policies, can I know what your policy choices?
Tradition: It is tough to build all the buildings on your secondary cities, sending a "hammer trade route" could be beneficial.
Progress: All cities were good in terms of infrastructure.
Authority: Early game, has strong hammer output, as time goes on, it becomes weaker.
All cities should have atleast 1 worker. On Tradition, you need it ASAP, and even 1.5 workers per city.

Yes, that is also the effect of tourism, it affects the ideological pressure.
That is the problem, sometimes, the leading civ where you want to send a trade route is winning CV.
-Prevent trade routes
-Close border
-Sanction them
-Choose a different ideology if possible

I don't think that increasing your tourism will affect the incoming pressure of other ideology (I'm not sure, sorry), culture is what you have to improve to reduce the influence, reducing boredom is also important.

For the game I'm talking about, the civ is Askia with me taking authority. Only just finished the policy tree so its impact is probably still good at this point. Though, the second policy will be more difficult for me. I have a religion and have a civ somewhat close that doesn't have a religion. I was wondering if fealty is good for me or if I should go statecraft or artistry. I haven't used artistry too much so I'm curious when it's ideal.

Those are definitely good suggestions to dealing with AI aiming for CV. I'll be sure to keep those in mind.

In diplomacy, it is easier to maintain allies if you have lots of gold output, that is why statescraft is handy (it provides gold, and increases the influence from diplomatic missions). Always check the "contender UI" on your allied city-state. It should be greater than 60 if classical-medieval, 120 to renaissance, and 200+ on industrial.

Diplomat levels from intrigue. Of course everyone is allowed!
Although I don't write photojournals, but I do ask suggestions on my current game. There were many skilled players here, they could be helpful.

Thanks! I do plan on writing photojournals so the experts here can give me tips. I feel I have lots to learn and I need time to implement many of your great tips. I really appreciate them.

Remember that you can propose sphere of influence once Steam Power is discovered by someone. You can use it to gain an alliance at no cost. This is particularly useful on surrounding city-states, as it gives you a permanent buffer against your neighbors that doesn't require you to spend production/gold to maintain.

Sphere of influence was something I used but, since I was playing as Germany, it was a bit slow and I wasn't utilizing my unique ability enough. It's just my noobiness that was costing me but it's definitely a powerful tool.

 

[KaoticKanine]

I've been trying to play on Immortal difficulty lately, and I'm at a serious loss on how it's even possible to win Immortal games... The AI gets such a huge advantage with Science, Policies, and Production that they end up nabbing the majority of Wonders, especially ones crucial to my Civ and overall game plan, and with that I have no hope of catching up in the game since Wonders are too important, especially for a Culture Victory. And I can't even hope to win via Science or Domination since, again, the AI gets such a massive tech advantage that they're sure to build their spaceships before I even reach the relevant techs, and their units will always be stronger than mine (and since they don't seem to suffer from gold penalties like I do, they can build up a massive army that makes even defensive wars a fruitless effort)

I admit, I'm not the best at playing the game in general. I'm still trying to figure out how to play Tradition properly (I know it promotes Tall play, whereas the more simple to understand Progress and Authority promote two different style of Wide, but HOW you actually take advantage of Tradition besides GPs and Specialists flies over my head), as well as balancing the production of Buildings, Military, and all other Units in all cities, and figuring out the truly ideal settling locations. But it really feels like no matter what I do, I'm just doomed. Passive play is obviously a big no-no since I will get taken advantage of by the hyper-aggressive AI, and naturally falter behind everyone due to not settling enough Cities for my empire to truly flourish and such. But if I play wide and/or aggressively (stealing workers, forward-settling, etc), I WILL get DoW'd, and even if I manage to successfully defend my cities, my Units will inevitably perish from the superior Units being spammed at one of my Cities and net me war weariness, and my Trade Units will get plundered, further decreasing my ability to catch up. So basically, aside from sending Caravans/Cargo Ships to the leading Civs, how do you catch up on Science, Culture, and Production on higher difficulties? How do you hope to win wars when your enemy has Knights while you're still stuck with Horsemen/Spearmen?

 

[CppMaster]

I've recently finished a Denmark game on Immortal difficulty. I got science per follower belief, so I wasn't much behind in tech. I was behind in policies until industrial era, but it changed thanks to my UA. Wars were not problem at all with exception of my first war with Zulu, second one went very smoothly. I went Authority, Fealty, Imperialism, Autocracy with Zealotry, Orders and Crusaders, God of War and Council of Elders as religion, so I had tons of faith, science and culture from killing, also science and production from easy converting conquered cities and gold from UA.
At the end of Industrial Era I was leading in techs, policies and production and it was basically won game at this point. I purchased so many units with Zealotry.

 

[tu_79]

I've been trying to play on Immortal difficulty lately, and I'm at a serious loss on how it's even possible to win Immortal games... The AI gets such a huge advantage with Science, Policies, and Production that they end up nabbing the majority of Wonders, especially ones crucial to my Civ and overall game plan, and with that I have no hope of catching up in the game since Wonders are too important, especially for a Culture Victory. And I can't even hope to win via Science or Domination since, again, the AI gets such a massive tech advantage that they're sure to build their spaceships before I even reach the relevant techs, and their units will always be stronger than mine (and since they don't seem to suffer from gold penalties like I do, they can build up a massive army that makes even defensive wars a fruitless effort)

I admit, I'm not the best at playing the game in general. I'm still trying to figure out how to play Tradition properly (I know it promotes Tall play, whereas the more simple to understand Progress and Authority promote two different style of Wide, but HOW you actually take advantage of Tradition besides GPs and Specialists flies over my head), as well as balancing the production of Buildings, Military, and all other Units in all cities, and figuring out the truly ideal settling locations. But it really feels like no matter what I do, I'm just doomed. Passive play is obviously a big no-no since I will get taken advantage of by the hyper-aggressive AI, and naturally falter behind everyone due to not settling enough Cities for my empire to truly flourish and such. But if I play wide and/or aggressively (stealing workers, forward-settling, etc), I WILL get DoW'd, and even if I manage to successfully defend my cities, my Units will inevitably perish from the superior Units being spammed at one of my Cities and net me war weariness, and my Trade Units will get plundered, further decreasing my ability to catch up. So basically, aside from sending Caravans/Cargo Ships to the leading Civs, how do you catch up on Science, Culture, and Production on higher difficulties? How do you hope to win wars when your enemy has Knights while you're still stuck with Horsemen/Spearmen?

It seems that you need to do a little bit more of warring, following what you say.

 

[KaoticKanine]

It seems that you need to do a little bit more of warring, following what you say.

Ah! So I should focus on pumping out a powerful military and declare war on my neighbors more?

 

[TwoPodRay]

Ah! So I should focus on pumping out a powerful military and declare war on my neighbors more?

My preference is to provoke the enemy to declaring war on you, in case they have a defensive pact, or if you do, but also to slightly reduce the warmongering you get if you capture anything. Declaring war just to run around pillaging, killing units, and preventing their workers from doing anything can also cripple them, so you don’t actually need to take any cities.

 

[tu_79]

Ah! So I should focus on pumping out a powerful military and declare war on my neighbors more?

Yes. A sizeable army is very important in VP. With a big army you can be opportunistic. For example, if you are scared of a neighbor, you can wait until this neighbor is at war and strike his backyard. This is something you can do because you have an army ready.

Another thing you don't seem to be doing is choosing a side. The best players know in advance who are going to be the runaways, but even if you don't know, choose one friend and one fiend, be nice with the former (trade, gift them good deals, accept his religion, declare friends) and awry to the latter (denounce, speak roughly, steal land, send missionaries of different religion, compete for the same city states). Beware that some civs dislike some behaviours, so if you plan to be aggressive don't try to befriend India, the nuclear peacemonger. If you want to be friends with Greece, don't befriend more than a couple of city states, for example.

 

[chicorbeef]

I've been trying to play on Immortal difficulty lately, and I'm at a serious loss on how it's even possible to win Immortal games... The AI gets such a huge advantage with Science, Policies, and Production that they end up nabbing the majority of Wonders, especially ones crucial to my Civ and overall game plan, and with that I have no hope of catching up in the game since Wonders are too important, especially for a Culture Victory. And I can't even hope to win via Science or Domination since, again, the AI gets such a massive tech advantage that they're sure to build their spaceships before I even reach the relevant techs, and their units will always be stronger than mine (and since they don't seem to suffer from gold penalties like I do, they can build up a massive army that makes even defensive wars a fruitless effort)

I admit, I'm not the best at playing the game in general. I'm still trying to figure out how to play Tradition properly (I know it promotes Tall play, whereas the more simple to understand Progress and Authority promote two different style of Wide, but HOW you actually take advantage of Tradition besides GPs and Specialists flies over my head), as well as balancing the production of Buildings, Military, and all other Units in all cities, and figuring out the truly ideal settling locations. But it really feels like no matter what I do, I'm just doomed. Passive play is obviously a big no-no since I will get taken advantage of by the hyper-aggressive AI, and naturally falter behind everyone due to not settling enough Cities for my empire to truly flourish and such. But if I play wide and/or aggressively (stealing workers, forward-settling, etc), I WILL get DoW'd, and even if I manage to successfully defend my cities, my Units will inevitably perish from the superior Units being spammed at one of my Cities and net me war weariness, and my Trade Units will get plundered, further decreasing my ability to catch up. So basically, aside from sending Caravans/Cargo Ships to the leading Civs, how do you catch up on Science, Culture, and Production on higher difficulties? How do you hope to win wars when your enemy has Knights while you're still stuck with Horsemen/Spearmen?

I think you have the right ideas but you're just trying to focus on too many things at once. Make an outline for what you're going to do. If you're going for aggression, for example, you could make Military Theory a priority, forward-settle aggressively and deny their horses, and rush them quickly. Be careful not to lose units (I know that AI unit looks so juicy but don't be tempted by the carrot).

Going for Tradition wonderland, you generally want to avoid war as much as possible. Bribe your neighbours if they're going to DoW you, give them like 15 GPT early on if you have to. I see people say the VP AI is super aggressive all the time but it's not always the case (in my Arabia photojournal game, I managed to get by to T150-ish with 2 warriors and a Scout, simply because I avoided forward-settling, spread Religion and let my neighbours do their own thing).

Check out the photojournals Viralvoid posted above, CrazyG has a really good T275 Korea Culture win, and a great example of somehow using Progress to wage early war and then dominate infrastructure. They're really detailed and help a lot.

Plan what wonders to go for eg. Hanging Gardens, ToA, Stonehenge, Petra, and Mausoleum can all be worth going for as Tradition, but you're never going to get all of them, so think about the synergies (eg. playing Arabia and going for Goddess of Beauty, Stonehenge is a good pick, ToA is good as Korea or India because Korea needs food for all those specialists and India has massive food so a +% modifier is a god-send).

For ideal city locations....I think people sometimes focus a bit too much on getting the "ideal" city and not on what's in front of their eyes. Imagine if there was an army coming your way, how exposed do you want your city to be? How many coastal tiles should it be exposed to? What immediate tiles can it work? Is its resources in 2 range or 3 range?

Also, very important, make sure to lose as little units as possible. This is a big deal. A dead Horseman is 90 wasted hammers. That's a lot, you can't afford that kind of cost early, and it only drags you into longer wars because your warscore declines. Later on, when in doubt, more units is usually a good choice, but early on, focusing on economy = better economy and better military. The exception is when you're going for an offense early, of course. Don't build Walls early, I did that once and it destroyed my game.

For TRs, that kind of sucks, you could post cheap sentinels on your TR's to defend them for a turn before they get recalled.

I view Civ as playing a puzzle. Fit together all the pieces to form a coherent strategy to win the game.

 

[CrabHelmet]

Also, know your Policies and commit to them. If you go Authority, you should be spending the first third of the game in perpetual war, even if it is just raiding and pillaging. Too many people take Authority because they intend to do a single early war. That is what Progress is for.