Newbie still needs your help - please look at this game

[crotonmark]

Hello all and thank for your help so far.
I tried to use what I have learned and this is my latest game:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/36104/Elizabeth_of_the_English_825_BC.SAV

What do you think?
Do I need to get all of the science advances to move forward?
What do I do when a city stops growing so much that it can't produce a unit?
How do I create a trading route to other civs so we can trade?
Where are the horses coming from to attack me from the north when there is a river between me and anywhere else?

Any advice is welcome?

Mark

 

[ChaosArbiter]

1) You need all the advances EXCEPT Literature, Republic, and Monarchy to advance - anything with the slashed circle is not necessary.

2) I'm not sure what you mean by this. Cities can *always* build units. Edit: Regardless of size, anyway - Anarchy and Rioting cities won't build anything.

3) You need a road connecting your capital to their capital.

4) That's not a river, it's ocean. Those are barbarians; these ones have their camp at the top of the peninsula, sitting on one of the Silk forests.

Some general advice ... build a few more (at least) workers. Settle the northern area, so you have more cities. Make sure to connect all your resources (horses and iron). Create an Embassy with Germany (if you haven't) and see if you can have them sign an MA against Russia.

 

[crotonmark]

Hi and thanks
Sorry for being confusing
At one point I was told by the game that one of my cities would not grow a unit because it was not able to. It just sat there and every turn I was asked if I wanted to abandon it.

How do I connect all your resources? Roads?
How do i build a city to their cities? I can't cross the border can i?

 

[ChaosArbiter]

Oh. Your city wasn't *big* enough to build a worker/settler was what happened; they need to be size 2 to build a worker and 3 to build a settler.

1) Yes.
2) No, you can't; you can, however, build a road up to their border, and they'll usually road their terrain fairly quickly. If you're feeling helpful, you can road between their cultural boundaries for them, but it may be difficult, particularly since you're at war with Russia.

 

[crotonmark]

thanks
I made peace with Russia by giving away the store.

 

[Aabraxan]

crotonmark,

Why are there clowns in your core and 0% lux? Turn up the lux and put those laggards back to work.

Why so many spears? I'm guessing MP duty. Warriors work just as well for MPs and they're cheaper. Archers cost the same as spears, but they're better attackers.

You have both iron and horses, but neither is hooked up. Worker turns are precious. Don't waste them. I see workers: (1) roading forest; (2) roading a hill; and (3) clearing jungle. All this is going on while iron, horses and spices remain unhooked You have a worker clearing jungle NE-NE of London. Those worker turns would be better spent mining the BG NE-N of London. Better yet, get a couple of workers to go road the horeses and iron. You got kind of a tough start with all that jungle, but don't bother clearing it just yet.

You are currently working on 2 wonders. You only have 8 towns. That means 25% of your towns are effectively off-line for the war you're involved in. You would have been better off building military, settlers and workers, rather than wonders.

Do you have accelerated production on?

8 cities, 4 workers. Build more workers. Shoot for 1.5-2 workers per town.

Build an embassy in Berlin. Germany will give you 35 gold, Literature, Philosophy, World Map, & Territory Map for an alliance against the Russians. By the way, you're at war, but you don't seem to have many offensive units.

Turn on always wait at end of turn

Hope this helps.

 

[crotonmark]

I don't know what MP duty is but I thought that Spearmen were good for offense. Everytime I attack Vladivostock I lose men.
I turned lux down to zero because I was losing gold each turn
I have the workers building roads to connect all of my cities
Do I not need wonders?

Is this game lost?

Mark

 

[crotonmark]

One last point - I made citizens into clowns because I had revolts to deal with and didnt know what else to do

Mark

 

[Aabraxan]

MP = Military Police. Under certain governments (despotism, monarchy, feudalism, communism), military units that possess attack and defense values (IOW, not artillery) can be used as MPs to help keep people content.

Spears are defensive units, not offensive. Every unit has A.D.M ratings. Attack.Defense.Movement. A spear is a 1.2.1 unit. 1 Attack / 2 Defense / 1 movement. So a spear attacks with exactly the same strength as a warrior, but defends with twice the strength. By comparison, a sword is 3.2.1. That's 3 Attack / 2 Defense / 1 movement. Also, terrain plays a role. A spear in a town on a hill with a wall can be a tough nut to crack. If you attack across a river, you give the defender an additional bonus. Beginning to make some sense? Fast units (horses, knights, etc) also have a chance of retreating if they're losing.

Your workers should, of course, be connecting your cities. But improving hills, mountains, forest, jungle and marsh takes longer than improving flat land (plains, grassland, flood plain, etc.). So if you have to choose between putting a road through a forest or across a plain, the plain is faster.

I wouldn't call the game lost, but you could have made a stronger beginning. Getting horses and iron hooked up would have gone a long way towards your tactical situation. The alliance that I mentioned would let you play the Germans off of the Russians until you get yourself in a better position.

Turning the lux slider down: It's OK to run a negative gold per turn. In fact, deficit research is a very common strategy. Research a tech, sell it to the AI for all the gpt you can squeeze, then use the AI's generous donations to finance your next research project. What's not OK is running into a deficit treasury. At Warlord and above (IIRC), the game starts automatically disbanding units or buildings when you drop below zero. But I think it's more advisable to drop science spending than to turn core workers into clowns . . . generally . . . there will be exceptions. Clowns only make happy faces. Citizens who work produce food, gold and shields. Which would you rather have?

Wonders: No, you don't need Great Wonders to win. They're fun. They're powerful. But they're not necessary. At least not for the standard game. Here's an example. You've got 128 shields invested in the Hanging Gardens at Hastings. That's 4 swords already. By the time it's done (300) shields, you could have built a stack of 10 swords or 10 horses. Think you could take Vladivostok with 10 swords or 10 horses?

In order to avoid civil unrest, all you need is at least as many happy citizens as unhappy. If you must use a specialist to avoid disorder, try using a scientist or taxman first.