KingDerfliw
Chieftain
OK, so I had this idea for a different strategy yesterday, to focus all my cities from the start on Gold production, no science, just to see what would happen. I figured I could buy whatever techs I really needed, and the main tech for gold producing, Currency, I could get as a bonus for reaching 250 gold.
I decided to try this strategy with the Chinese because they start with writing which lets me build the Great Library from the start. Plus they get the +1 population to cities which means I can produce gold from turn 1. Also, they later get Literacy as a bonus. So I started (Deity Level) and did the normal exploration getting my goody huts and meeting the neighbors. I frequently checked my diplomacy tab to see if anyone had researched anything yet. As soon as I saw someone with a new tech, I would check what they had available. I got some gold from the barbarians, and I got a Caravan which I used to explore and eventually get me over 100 gold for my free settler. I took my free settler to a nice area with 2 oaks, some grasslands, and plains, and some hills. I rushed my second settler from this city immediately and settled not too far away near a river, on a hill (very cool, because you get the hill bonus when defending or attacking from the city!). This city would become my production powerhouse. I bought Bronze Working from the Romans for 30 gold as soon as I could and fortified my cities with archer armies (partially rush bought!). At this point I decided to start building the Great Library in my capital. I also continued to buy technologies from different civs, and although I was not getting the first to research bonuses, I was actually tied for the tech lead with the arabs. Everything was going just as I planned and I was hoping to get the great Library so that I could stop buying tech, but this was when the AI decided to go to war with me. I had just bought Mathematics from the arabs and the Zulus declred war. I had used a great scientist I got to research construction, so My 2nd city had very good production(due to oak), and my other cities also had decent production. I rushed a cat army and destroyed their invasion force from my city on the hill. A few turns later, I got free currency from reaching 250 gold and rush bought markets in 2 of my cities (abandoning the great library). At this point I was producing about 68gpt from my three cities. I rush bought 3 more cat armies and and went on the offensive I took down 2 zulu cities and they asked for peace. I gave it to them, but from this point forward it was smooth sailing. I went to war with the romans and took all of their cities and then turned on the arabs. i used another great scientist to get Democracy and also got numerous techs when conquering cities. I built the colossus and the trade fair in my capital which was producing close to 200gpt in fundamentalism(+1 attacks and no negative because I had no libraries). I went on to easily win a domination victory by 1750AD.
I've only tried this once and with the Chinese, because I thought I would need the Great Library to keep up in tech. I won easily on deity. I wanted to see if anyone else had tried this strategy and what your results were like. This probably will not work in Multiplayer because you can't buy techs, only trade, but it seems to work great in Single player and made for a fun and different game experience. Try it out and let me know what you think.
I decided to try this strategy with the Chinese because they start with writing which lets me build the Great Library from the start. Plus they get the +1 population to cities which means I can produce gold from turn 1. Also, they later get Literacy as a bonus. So I started (Deity Level) and did the normal exploration getting my goody huts and meeting the neighbors. I frequently checked my diplomacy tab to see if anyone had researched anything yet. As soon as I saw someone with a new tech, I would check what they had available. I got some gold from the barbarians, and I got a Caravan which I used to explore and eventually get me over 100 gold for my free settler. I took my free settler to a nice area with 2 oaks, some grasslands, and plains, and some hills. I rushed my second settler from this city immediately and settled not too far away near a river, on a hill (very cool, because you get the hill bonus when defending or attacking from the city!). This city would become my production powerhouse. I bought Bronze Working from the Romans for 30 gold as soon as I could and fortified my cities with archer armies (partially rush bought!). At this point I decided to start building the Great Library in my capital. I also continued to buy technologies from different civs, and although I was not getting the first to research bonuses, I was actually tied for the tech lead with the arabs. Everything was going just as I planned and I was hoping to get the great Library so that I could stop buying tech, but this was when the AI decided to go to war with me. I had just bought Mathematics from the arabs and the Zulus declred war. I had used a great scientist I got to research construction, so My 2nd city had very good production(due to oak), and my other cities also had decent production. I rushed a cat army and destroyed their invasion force from my city on the hill. A few turns later, I got free currency from reaching 250 gold and rush bought markets in 2 of my cities (abandoning the great library). At this point I was producing about 68gpt from my three cities. I rush bought 3 more cat armies and and went on the offensive I took down 2 zulu cities and they asked for peace. I gave it to them, but from this point forward it was smooth sailing. I went to war with the romans and took all of their cities and then turned on the arabs. i used another great scientist to get Democracy and also got numerous techs when conquering cities. I built the colossus and the trade fair in my capital which was producing close to 200gpt in fundamentalism(+1 attacks and no negative because I had no libraries). I went on to easily win a domination victory by 1750AD.
I've only tried this once and with the Chinese, because I thought I would need the Great Library to keep up in tech. I won easily on deity. I wanted to see if anyone else had tried this strategy and what your results were like. This probably will not work in Multiplayer because you can't buy techs, only trade, but it seems to work great in Single player and made for a fun and different game experience. Try it out and let me know what you think.