New player, and getting butt whooped

[Jarred Darque]

OK, I am in between noble and the one below it chieftan? I can pretty much win every time as chieftan, do win every time at warlord. I typically play standard-huge maps with the slowest speed setting...i.e. 12 hour games...

I am currently on a noble game, continents, huge map, medium water, tropical, slowest game setting.

It is 1300AD, I dont have gunpowder yet..normally I have it around 1000AD. Anyways, I havent even made it off the continent, I only know of the 4 other AIs on mine, and I am the lowest on the scoreboard, but worldwide notices, I come up on hte list for most things. Ghandi is kickin my butt with expansions, he has me completely surounded except 2 cities I took from JC when he declared war.

OK, my problems are mostly at the beginning of the game, I have tons of problems just living past the barbarian attacks with archers and axemen. I didnt lose any cities this time, but I spend a very long time setting up 10 units around my border to keep them out. (I was lucky in that starting city is on a penninsula, easy to defend main 2 cities) I lost alot of time building upgrades and find it almost impossible to expand for almost 2,000 years during non stop attacks. I was lucky this game in being able to find copper just as they started attackin, so I had axemen when they started sending them in..first wave was archers and easy to kill warriors.

I know my early game is where I hurt the most, I build a worker off the bat, and am gonna try experimenting wtih clearing forests to speed up production, I try and build stonehenge asap, and normally am first to that one, but dont get the parthenon or oracle. When should I be expanding/buildin some settlers? Do I wait and get main city started a bit or do it right off the bat? How/what should I be buidling, or should I not worry about improvements other than special resources (pigs/cows/special metals, etc..) for a while?

Like I said, JC declared war, it took me about 150 years to build up an offensive force afterwards (10 macemen 5 cats) I took one city right away, and had to fight a long time while he sent in about 50 units..i lost no cats, and 5 macemen, used the remaining force to take another outlying city of his He destroyed two of mine, one of which ghandi came right in and built a city right there, completely blocking in my 4 central cities. JC wanted peace, paid alot, was nice. but it looks like my only course of action is to build up another force, and try and remove half of ghandi's cities without losing any of mine. I have more tech then him, he keeps wanting to trade civil service and machinery i think it is, so he doesnt have macemen yet, I think I am the only one with them atm on my continent.

Any help is great, sorry for the long post..I am so lost I have read the entire manual, but still learnin alot every day.

BTW, it looks like to me, that macemen and cats are the best offensive, and even defensive, maybe with some longbows for defense, in the middle ages (prior to gunpowder of course) Is this correct? or am I missing something important here? BTW. I have no horses, no elephants....well IO think I do have elephants right now, think that is why JC wanted peace, I know I got at least one copper source off of him, maybe hisonly one, and I may have gotten an elephant resource as well.

should I consider building another force and going for JCs home base asap while he is weakened? I had to have taken out most of his units in those fights.

 

[Hans Lemurson]

Grow more in the beginning instead of just building wonders. Wonders are a means to an end, not an end unto themselves. You can't just build a bunch and go "yay! I'm winning!". Wonders provide specific bonuses that must be utilized with corresponding playstyles. Early wonders are often very deleterious to your growth, so don't even think about building one until you've founded your second city. And even then, ask yourself: "Is it useful?" 'Cause if it ain't, don't bother.

Improving your land is also a big priority. it's the only way to get decent yields for your cities. Also, build more cities. Sitting on your ass in a nice little secure homeland is most certainly not a path to glory. When ever practical, make war upon your neighbors and take thier cities. Make sure you have enough military to do this, since you really don't want to fight more than 1 war per civ.

Beyond that, you'll have to provide some nifty screenshots and/or a savegame if you want a proper diagnosis.

 

[JimT]

But for now do build up and attack, some city raider promoted maceman and siege (type depending on your version, warlords or vanilla) should open doors.

Your wars sound too costly, avoid losing cities (nice city defence promoted longbowmen help) and too many units. Quick wars, moving stacks straight to their cities.

If Julius doesn't have maceman then it may not be worth trading the tech yet, not until you have hit him hard. But trade is the best way to create a tech advantage or keep up. If you don't trade it generally somebody else will, making it a judgement call even in this case

If your building a worker first then those trees should immediately become a settler, although it can be worth utilising resources first. This is generally my strategy although I am thinking of varying it.

I just remembered to mention. The fog of way can be quickly removed by empire expansion. Cutting off barbarian problems at source.

 

[Jarred Darque]

Are you suggesting that I chop my way to a few settlers in the very start?

Also, I got iron working, and went to remove some jungles, and noticd I wasnt getting any hammers for them, and I think I recall getting hammers in the other games I played for removing jungles...any idea?

 

[Jarred Darque]

also, how do I post the saved game here so that y'all can take a look at it?

 

[Bierp]

I have tons of problems just living past the barbarian attacks with archers and axemen. I didnt lose any cities this time, but I spend a very long time setting up 10 units around my border to keep them out.

10 units for border patrol against barbies? Are you playing with Raging Barbs enabled?

This seems pretty wasteful to me. If I have 10 axemen I'm taking enemy cities, not patroling for barbs.

Generally I'll leave my defenders in a city and move out to engage barbs. (though if I have a worker too far from home he'll get an escort.) Ideally the roads I've built to connect immediate resources give me enough local mobility to stay home until they come calling.

If barbs are really giving you trouble, remember your combat basics. Get on a forested hill and let him attack you. Don't attack when he's on a tile with a good defense bonus, etc.

RE: Jungle. You do not get hammers for clearing jungle. However you will give a health bonus (or, more to the point you'll remove a health penalty) to the city in question. At least until Environmentalism, which (if I recall correctly) will give a bonus for jungle.

Hope that helps,
B

 

[Pellanor]

RE: Jungle. You do not get hammers for clearing jungle. However you will give a health bonus (or, more to the point you'll remove a health penalty) to the city in question. At least until Environmentalism, which (if I recall correctly) will give a bonus for jungle.

Hope that helps,
B

Also jungles give whatever square their in -1 food, so not only are you removing the unhealthiness, you're also adding more food. Once you get enviromentalism you get +1 happiness from every jungle and forest square in your fat cross, though at that point in the game hapiness isn't nearly as much of an issue as it is earlier in the game.

 

[pigswill]

Helpful advice (need to select go advanced in reply)

Tips on forum basics for an IT noob

Screenshots:
1. Get a free account at a place like http://www.photobucket.com. There you can easily upload your images.
2. In the game press the Print scrn button to take a screenshot.
3. In photobucket select the screenshot and upload.
4. Below the uploaded image in photobucket there is a tag, copy this tag.
5. Paste the [img] tag into your post. :cooool:

[B]Savegame[/B]
The save game can be attached to your post with the normal forum features. 1. Press attachments icon.
2. Browse for the savegame and upload.
3. In the post press the attachments icon again and select the savegame.
4. It will be attached to your post. :scan:

[B]Links[/B]
1. To add a link, got to the post you want to link.
2. Select and Copy the Address from the explorer address bar: e.g [url]http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=4545410[/url]
3. Go to the post where you want to add a link. Select the text you want the link under. E.g. [U]Link to the save[/U]
4. Press the hyperlink icon (looks like a globe).
5. Paste the copied address and presto! :cool:[/QUOTE]

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Welcome to the forum...
Woah, most newbies build too many cities and expand faster than their empire will allow... that's what I did, at least... (expand too fast and your tech progress will slow to a crawl... expand too slow and you will have problems producing enough units to take on the enemy). Match your city count to the economic level of your empire and you should do fine...

Not seeing the save, it sounds like you are expanding slower than normal for the map size and difficulty level... or you haven't started optimizing your cities to totally blow the AI away in tech.

There are tons of tips in these forum pages. It helped my game up to Emperor (haven't won at Emperor yet, but I can still tech faster than the AI until Astronomy... when the AI Civs all discover each other and and gang up on me after they tech trade their way past me).

 

[cabert]

There are tons of tips in these forum pages. It helped my game up to Emperor (haven't won at Emperor yet, but I can still tech faster than the AI until Astronomy... when the AI Civs all discover each other and and gang up on me after they tech trade their way past me).

could be me

I managed a huge tech lead on monarch, then suddenly i noticed that i had only a handful of cities, while all the AIs where in the 10 to 20 cities.
Ok, i'll attack the bottom scorer to get me a few free cities. That's when you notice that numbers do more than techs

 

[Meatbuster]

Early game before you get courthouses, I find 3 early cities (including capital) to be OK for most difficulty levels up to Emperor (which is the highest diff. I tried). Maybe a 4th city on Noble or Prince.