Newbie with some questions

[fugitiveunknown]

Wow, what an indepth mod! Crazy amount of work done on it!

I'm trying to play on the higher difficulty levels, and have a few questions about the game I was hoping someone more knowledgeable then myself could answer.

First up, what civilizations / strategies would you recommend for a water map on the higher difficulties?

I like to play with standard or small worlds, high sea levels and tiny islands with epic (shortest) game length. It basically cuts off hunting entirely (something I'm very happy to skip) but somehow the AI usually ends up massively out producing me by the time the AD rolls around. I'm trying to be more or less peaceful and just out producing my opponents, though I don't mind sending some commerce raiding out. Of course, by the time I'm in a position to do that, frequently the enemy already has a huge tech advantage.

I usually either play Expansive + Scientific or Expansive + Organized - that +2 health seems to be such a huge advantage when your starting with a negative health. I suppose I should consider one of the "Seafaring" civs, but the bonuses seem SO weak compared to virtually all the others, and it doesn't help you in those first critical 100 turns.

Any tips or tricks would be appreciated.

 

[Acularius]

What is your over all goal for the game?

I don't know how to really help you, but I tend to play on Eternity speed, and play on the GEM scenario...

I can only guess what strategy will work for you, because I do have to deal with the 'hunting' phase. Which helps when you want all the goodies associated with those animals.

Either way, that is neither here nor there, but generally I tend to opt for production then food when planning out my first cities beyond the capital (which is usually built up to the teeth at the point tribalism pops around)...

Expansive trait helps initially, but as you get rolling with additional food stuffs, tech and other assorted bits of awesome it quickly devalues itself as the 2 starting health becomes redundant mid to late game I'm suspecting.

I think there are built in strategies in the mod somewhere in the Civilopedia, which may not be totally relevant to the mod with all the new goodies, but it shouldn't take long to apply the techniques or modify them to work so long as they don't rely on rushing a tech.

I tend to beeline the tech that gives the 2 civics that boost science output, and then immediately rush the 'cave' tech to build the wonder that establishes a Golden Age so I can implement both without loss of turns to anarchy. I play a philisophical civ so I tend to stock a couple of great men, and with divine prophets I use them to settle cities as great prophets or eventually settle a religion tat I think would work with my area.

After tribalism, depending what other tech you have, you 2nd civ should probably be on a productive spot of land, hopefully with the amazing resource known as stone, although other productive resources work just as well... barring that, hills are great or on a delta to create a huge POP city that can create productiv engineers to pump things out.

Then, 3rd one, a commerce city set out to prioritize money and science. On eternity most cities tend to be built up anyway, but most of my cities have priorities in how I build them outside of my (pproduction first, then food).

 

[fugitiveunknown]

I just want to get ahead earlier.

What I'd like to know is what I can do to give myself an advantage, particularly in the early portion of the game, and what I can do to maximize overall growth/science in my empire. Should I build cities like crazy? Is there a resource I should look for? Keep in mind that land tiles on my setting are pretty rare.

I'll try the Cave Dwelling thing (I'd forgotten that golden ages negate anarchy requirements).

I'd also apreciate any suggestions for civilizations that would be a good pick for a water heavy map. Seafaring civs are an obvious choice, but there aren't that many, and frankly, seafaring's advantages seem really, really REALLY pathetic. Of course, I may be totally wrong about this.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

One of the best ways to get ahead is by hunting. The animals you get can be used for many things - , , , and as well as expirence and great generals.

 

[Acularius]

I just want to get ahead earlier.

What I'd like to know is what I can do to give myself an advantage, particularly in the early portion of the game, and what I can do to maximize overall growth/science in my empire. Should I build cities like crazy? Is there a resource I should look for? Keep in mind that land tiles on my setting are pretty rare.

I'll try the Cave Dwelling thing (I'd forgotten that golden ages negate anarchy requirements).

I'd also apreciate any suggestions for civilizations that would be a good pick for a water heavy map. Seafaring civs are an obvious choice, but there aren't that many, and frankly, seafaring's advantages seem really, really REALLY pathetic. Of course, I may be totally wrong about this.

I'd be tempted to say a financial/philosphical civ leader would suit you since Great People are amazing and commerce directly ties in with research.

 

[Koshling]

Very watery/islandy maps are especially hard in C2C, since they mean you don't typically have access to many animals early on (because you can only hunt your own island). Assuming you can see other islands across coastal stretches (no intervening ocean), I'd beeline to raft building and prioritise getting some hunting units onto other islands - as DH said - hunting is super-powerful in the prehistoric era.

Ideally if you have such a narrow 1-tile crossing within your cultural borders just park a bridging raft or 2 there. If you have to venture outside of your cultural borders with rafts expect many and frequent casualties to sea creatures, but they are totally safe (from animals generally) within your cultural borders.

 

[fugitiveunknown]

Ok. That sounds like a good idea. Just one question - how do I get rafts? I've never heard of that unit, and I thought I had the latest version.

If your talking about the canoe, I usually hunt like crazy when I have those. Just setting them to explore with hunting I brings in quite a few fishes. But it takes a long time to get to those techs. Boat building requires a pretty large number of techs.

 

[Koshling]

Ok. That sounds like a good idea. Just one question - how do I get rafts? I've never heard of that unit, and I thought I had the latest version.

If your talking about the canoe, I usually hunt like crazy when I have those. Just setting them to explore with hunting I brings in quite a few fishes. But it takes a long time to get to those techs. Boat building requires a pretty large number of techs.

If you're running the release v22 then canoes are indeed your earliest water unit. The SVN version (aka ongoing beta for next version) has rafts a bit earlier. Everything I said about rafts applies also to canoes, though as you say its a bit deeper to beeline to. Note that I didn't mean hunting with rafts (or canoes, though that is somewhat viable with canoes also), I just meant using them to get land hunters onto other islands as early on as possible. Sea creatuer hunting with rafts really isn't viable (strength 1 units) for the most part.

 

[Sgtslick]

coral with the 15% damage per turn makes sea huntin all the more difficult, especially early on. If you have great commander option on, you can get a stack of canoe's and keep you general in one. Keep him in the least upgraded canoe or like have 1 raft, the rest canoe's so that when you get attacked, your great commander's ship isn't targeted. This way your ships will get a nice bonus from your general.

 

[BlueGenie]

*Tip*
A ship/canoe with a Great General, or any other unit, on it will be pushed down in priority for defending. Basically when you have a ship/canoe that you feel has reached the amount of experience you want it to have you can move your GG onto that ship/canoe so the others will be defending first instead, and thus gain experience.

Cheers