Micky Onimusha
Prince
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2004
- Messages
- 344
This forum unfortunately lacks a "Newbie Tips" thread, and so I've decided to just suck it up and admit, "Hello, I'm a newbie, help!" I posted previously in regards to the Infernals, but this thread is more of a "General help" request.
Basically, after finally completing my first successful game on Warlord, I've been trying to make the move to Prince. For the most part I've been playing a bit hit and miss, using different Civs, different maps and different strategies, but for the most part, I find them slipping out in the middle of the game. Either I'm falling behind in techs and so forth or my strategy has gone astray in the long term. Generally, I've decided to simply ask for general ideas on how to play the game effectively.
In making this thread, I looked through the sticky first to read some of what had been posted. May as well learn before asking
The two I read thoroughly:
Analysis: The Opening Game Unraveled (Unser's Slightly out of date opening game analysis)
Getting Started, or, How to Cook for 10,000 Unexpected Houseguests (How to Survive raging barbarians in general)
After reading them, a couple of quick questions arose from me.
In "Analysis: The Opening Game Unraveled", there's a large obsession with cottages. Within the sticky thread it is called "slightly out of date", so I wished to check, should cottages be my top priority throughout the first 100 or so turns? And how much of a priority?
There was also a lot of mentions of cottages upon resources. Is this a wise course of action? Placing cottages instead of building the appropriate improvement to gain the resource benefits?
In "Getting Started, or, How to Cook for 10,000 Unexpected Houseguests", it emphasizes the importance of ignoring Workers in favour of Warriors, since you'll be unable to defend improvements. Does this hold true when playing with normal Barbs?
With those two out of the way, general question time.
Starting
Firstly, I'm having difficulty getting off to good starts. With this, I would like to ask some people's early starting strategies. Presently, my strategy has been like so:
1) Set up a city in turn one, built in a way that I'll get the best tiles possible of those visible within it's cross.
2) Set the Scout and Warrior off exploring.
3) Build a Warrior first.
3) As far as research priority goes, I've usually been aiming for Agriculture-Ancient Chants-Mysticism-Education, with the next set of research going to technologies related to my nearby resources.
4) Once the first Warrior pops, fortify it in the city and build another.
5) Once I have two Warriors, depending on the surrounding situation and technology progression, I either make a Scout, Settler or Elder Council (assuming I've reached Mysticism).
6) If I didn't go straight for a Settler, once whatever pops, my next priority is a Settler.
7) If I haven't got the Elder Council yet, I got for that and once it's done, make a Sage specilist. I usually run pacifism as well in an attempt to get a Great Sage ASAP, that science boosting building is delicious.
7) Send it off with one of the Warriors to my next city destination.
8-9-10) Lots of stuff in between, I've usually been keeping a system of two warriors per city and try to get Obelisks early in my 2nd city for quick expansion. I usually have a second worker as well. Normally I try to cottage by rivers, connect my cities together and link up resources.
11) With two warriors on stand-by, set off for my 3rd city.
From here, the route is varied. Normally I shoot straight for my preferred religion and then afterwards focus on Hunting-Archery.
Now, I'm sure this general early build set-up is flawed. A major thing I've noticed is problems with Barbs. My lone warrior guarding my settler doesn't always work, sometimes a wild animal will pick it off (damn those bears
) and occasionally, the barbs will have an evil lizardman. If I lose my early settler as well as its guarding warrior, I'm highly crippled in my opinion. As it stands, I'm figuring I should make an extra Warrior for escorting purposes.
Now, my main questions. Priorities:
Should I really try to get my city up in turn one? Would it be wiser to scout with my settler the first couple of turns for a better starting position if I dont have on I consider ideal?
How much of a priority should Mysticism and God King be? ASAP? After Education and a Worker?
How much of a priority should Hunting and Archery be? I personally leave them for a while, because of the fact I need to make an extra building to pop the units related to them. However, Ive been starting to notice that I need more powerful units, and Im starting to think maybe this should be a larger priority.
Military questions? How many Warriors per city? Extra Warriors? Should I go exploring around my borders with my Warriors to pick up some cheap upgrades from the wolves and lions?
Elder Council and Sage? Am I making this too much or a priority. Should I be making it a priority at all? I like it personally, I lose one population worth of productivity but I find the +50% from the science building really helpful and like to get it ASAP, but if it's an inefficient idea, it can easily be dropped.
Cottages? I asked it earlier but Ill mention it again. Should I go nuts cottage spamming ASAP?
Cities
Now, this is where I have real problems. Nine times out of ten, once I get my third city up, thats it. I have no more optimal city plots left to fill, so my future cities are either in meh positions or need to be taken from a neighbour (and Im not too good at early warmongering). How should I prioritise my city spreading? Should I be doing it slow and precise, or should I rush for the best positions early, regardless of the nasty maintenance costs?
Now, assuming I dont pick up the spots if want, should I go for an early warmonger? I dislike doing this unless I have an aggressive civ. To me, it seems like all Im doing is helping all the other civs. If I succeed in taking their city, it costs me a lot of warriors. If I dont, well, thats a lot of wasted hammers. Personally, I prefer to let it wait slightly, at least until I have access to Axemen and preferably when I have a Hero. Still, Id like to hear other peoples opinions on how important early warmongering is.
Wonders
Should I bother? Ive noticed the AI always seems to snatch up the Free Life Mana wonder very quickly, so I was wondering if Wonders should be a priority at all? I personally dont go for them, I usually dont have the time, but again, I want to hear other peoples opinions.
Dealing with Barbarians?
What if Skeletons start streaming in my direction, or Orthus decides he feels like visiting *note: pillaging* my towns. How do I handle this? Obviously, I usually start spamming as many warriors as possible, but other things I should be doing? Should I hide all my warriors in my city or should I slot them on top of my resources? Should I try and attack or just let them run their course? (I have better combat odds defending but I lose more turns waiting for them to attack and risk losing my worker improvements, as well as turns I couldve spent making improvements).
Now, although I do have some problems with middle-game, I feel questions related to that would be civ-specific, so Ill leave them out of it. Personally, I feel I have more problems starting than handling the middle.
Whether it helps or not, I generally like to play Small or Standard maps with the default amount of civs + 2. The map I choose is usually Oasis, Great Plains, Highlands or Pangaea. My play style is more of a builder. Normally, I aim to make a solid economy before shooting for an army, so my army mostly consists of 3-4 units defending my cities and maybe one or two others. I like going for Fire Mages prior to invasions, I find Fire Balls and Meteors priceless when it comes to invasion.
I apologise for the essay-ish length of this, but I appreciate feedback. As well as critiquing how I start things, Id like to see some step-by-step ideas of how you guys start. Ultimately, I hope to move from being stuck on Prince mode and off higher, preferably to one day being able to respectably play in Multiplayer.
[Ill also be on holiday until Sunday, so if it seems like Im ignoring the posts, Im not. When I get back, I will be reading the replies with interest and appreciation. Hopefully, when I get back I can fire up a game and finally win a game on Prince
]
Basically, after finally completing my first successful game on Warlord, I've been trying to make the move to Prince. For the most part I've been playing a bit hit and miss, using different Civs, different maps and different strategies, but for the most part, I find them slipping out in the middle of the game. Either I'm falling behind in techs and so forth or my strategy has gone astray in the long term. Generally, I've decided to simply ask for general ideas on how to play the game effectively.
In making this thread, I looked through the sticky first to read some of what had been posted. May as well learn before asking

The two I read thoroughly:
Analysis: The Opening Game Unraveled (Unser's Slightly out of date opening game analysis)
Getting Started, or, How to Cook for 10,000 Unexpected Houseguests (How to Survive raging barbarians in general)
After reading them, a couple of quick questions arose from me.
In "Analysis: The Opening Game Unraveled", there's a large obsession with cottages. Within the sticky thread it is called "slightly out of date", so I wished to check, should cottages be my top priority throughout the first 100 or so turns? And how much of a priority?
There was also a lot of mentions of cottages upon resources. Is this a wise course of action? Placing cottages instead of building the appropriate improvement to gain the resource benefits?
In "Getting Started, or, How to Cook for 10,000 Unexpected Houseguests", it emphasizes the importance of ignoring Workers in favour of Warriors, since you'll be unable to defend improvements. Does this hold true when playing with normal Barbs?
With those two out of the way, general question time.
Starting
Firstly, I'm having difficulty getting off to good starts. With this, I would like to ask some people's early starting strategies. Presently, my strategy has been like so:
1) Set up a city in turn one, built in a way that I'll get the best tiles possible of those visible within it's cross.
2) Set the Scout and Warrior off exploring.
3) Build a Warrior first.
3) As far as research priority goes, I've usually been aiming for Agriculture-Ancient Chants-Mysticism-Education, with the next set of research going to technologies related to my nearby resources.
4) Once the first Warrior pops, fortify it in the city and build another.
5) Once I have two Warriors, depending on the surrounding situation and technology progression, I either make a Scout, Settler or Elder Council (assuming I've reached Mysticism).
6) If I didn't go straight for a Settler, once whatever pops, my next priority is a Settler.
7) If I haven't got the Elder Council yet, I got for that and once it's done, make a Sage specilist. I usually run pacifism as well in an attempt to get a Great Sage ASAP, that science boosting building is delicious.
7) Send it off with one of the Warriors to my next city destination.
8-9-10) Lots of stuff in between, I've usually been keeping a system of two warriors per city and try to get Obelisks early in my 2nd city for quick expansion. I usually have a second worker as well. Normally I try to cottage by rivers, connect my cities together and link up resources.
11) With two warriors on stand-by, set off for my 3rd city.
From here, the route is varied. Normally I shoot straight for my preferred religion and then afterwards focus on Hunting-Archery.
Now, I'm sure this general early build set-up is flawed. A major thing I've noticed is problems with Barbs. My lone warrior guarding my settler doesn't always work, sometimes a wild animal will pick it off (damn those bears

Now, my main questions. Priorities:
Should I really try to get my city up in turn one? Would it be wiser to scout with my settler the first couple of turns for a better starting position if I dont have on I consider ideal?
How much of a priority should Mysticism and God King be? ASAP? After Education and a Worker?
How much of a priority should Hunting and Archery be? I personally leave them for a while, because of the fact I need to make an extra building to pop the units related to them. However, Ive been starting to notice that I need more powerful units, and Im starting to think maybe this should be a larger priority.
Military questions? How many Warriors per city? Extra Warriors? Should I go exploring around my borders with my Warriors to pick up some cheap upgrades from the wolves and lions?
Elder Council and Sage? Am I making this too much or a priority. Should I be making it a priority at all? I like it personally, I lose one population worth of productivity but I find the +50% from the science building really helpful and like to get it ASAP, but if it's an inefficient idea, it can easily be dropped.
Cottages? I asked it earlier but Ill mention it again. Should I go nuts cottage spamming ASAP?
Cities
Now, this is where I have real problems. Nine times out of ten, once I get my third city up, thats it. I have no more optimal city plots left to fill, so my future cities are either in meh positions or need to be taken from a neighbour (and Im not too good at early warmongering). How should I prioritise my city spreading? Should I be doing it slow and precise, or should I rush for the best positions early, regardless of the nasty maintenance costs?
Now, assuming I dont pick up the spots if want, should I go for an early warmonger? I dislike doing this unless I have an aggressive civ. To me, it seems like all Im doing is helping all the other civs. If I succeed in taking their city, it costs me a lot of warriors. If I dont, well, thats a lot of wasted hammers. Personally, I prefer to let it wait slightly, at least until I have access to Axemen and preferably when I have a Hero. Still, Id like to hear other peoples opinions on how important early warmongering is.
Wonders
Should I bother? Ive noticed the AI always seems to snatch up the Free Life Mana wonder very quickly, so I was wondering if Wonders should be a priority at all? I personally dont go for them, I usually dont have the time, but again, I want to hear other peoples opinions.
Dealing with Barbarians?
What if Skeletons start streaming in my direction, or Orthus decides he feels like visiting *note: pillaging* my towns. How do I handle this? Obviously, I usually start spamming as many warriors as possible, but other things I should be doing? Should I hide all my warriors in my city or should I slot them on top of my resources? Should I try and attack or just let them run their course? (I have better combat odds defending but I lose more turns waiting for them to attack and risk losing my worker improvements, as well as turns I couldve spent making improvements).
Now, although I do have some problems with middle-game, I feel questions related to that would be civ-specific, so Ill leave them out of it. Personally, I feel I have more problems starting than handling the middle.
Whether it helps or not, I generally like to play Small or Standard maps with the default amount of civs + 2. The map I choose is usually Oasis, Great Plains, Highlands or Pangaea. My play style is more of a builder. Normally, I aim to make a solid economy before shooting for an army, so my army mostly consists of 3-4 units defending my cities and maybe one or two others. I like going for Fire Mages prior to invasions, I find Fire Balls and Meteors priceless when it comes to invasion.
I apologise for the essay-ish length of this, but I appreciate feedback. As well as critiquing how I start things, Id like to see some step-by-step ideas of how you guys start. Ultimately, I hope to move from being stuck on Prince mode and off higher, preferably to one day being able to respectably play in Multiplayer.
[Ill also be on holiday until Sunday, so if it seems like Im ignoring the posts, Im not. When I get back, I will be reading the replies with interest and appreciation. Hopefully, when I get back I can fire up a game and finally win a game on Prince
