Newbie

[mrbloke]

this is the first civ game ive played (i have no expansions)
i played through the tutuorial, played a couple of games on chieftan, i found it too easy so i moved onto warlord (or whatever the next one up is) Now i cant win, I always do the same thing, get off to a flying start having top score until about the industrial age, then everything goes downhill, I slowly descend on the leaderboard, most of my cities go to either stagnant or starvation.
I prefer to have a peaceful victory rather than warring, and id like to win the space race. By the time i get to reasearching the apollo program i only have 100 turns left (on Epic) and it takes about 65 turns to reasearch! and im around last on the leaderboard at this time. If i set to Marathon the same thing happens, except the ai either destroys me or beats me to the space race before i can.
Is there anything specific im doing wrong? is it my late game economy? (i useually have lots of money though) Or do i just need more pactice?
Thanks.

 

[Gone Dark]

Impossible to really say what you are doing wrong without more specifics. Perhaps you could post a late game save?

Some thoughts though:

You mention your cities are starving or go stagnant. Pay attention to the happy and the health cap. Learn what resources, buildings, civics etc boost each. Late game cities working all tiles with a decent amount of food maxes out at 20+. Make sure to research Biology (+1 food to all farms) sooner than later.

Also, something tells me you don't specialize your cities. If you have lots of cities doing a little bit of everything neither commerce nor production nor great person production will be that great. Therefore, a city with all hammer boosters as improvements (besides food of course), mines on hills, lumbermills on forrests and so on will help you build things faster, especially with the right buildings inside (forge, factory etc). The same goes for cities that's dedicated to commerce generating science or running specialists for great persons.

 

[mrbloke]

i dont specialise my cities, ill try it thanks.
Btw what actually counts towards your score? Once i was the second larget civ, the wealthiest and the most cultured and quite low down the the leaderboard.

 

[Cam_H]

mrbloke,

Welcome to CivFanatics!

Gone Dark raises many good points ... my guess would also be that you have an insufficient number of cities. On a normal sized map, when chasing Space, I would think that you'd want at least a dozen cities in total, and this will probably mean taking over at least one other empire, or taking chunks out of at least a couple.

While it's possible to win by Space while playing peacefully or at worst defensively (and indeed it's possible to win with only one city) in order to have a good chance of picking up resources (e.g. Aluminium) and having both the and 'critical mass' needed for a convincing win, you really should expand to be the size of at least a medium-to-largish empire.

Best of luck!

[Edit]

Specialising your cities will help, but more so once you move up a couple more difficulty levels, but it probably hasn't been the main reason that you've not been winning.

Also, I'm not sure how willing or otherwise you've been to trade technology with your rivals, but this could be slowing you down.

On 'score', it's an assessment based on your; empire's population, land in cultural borders, technology acquired, and Wonders possessed - it's a handy guide, but don't become obsessed with it - the score can change dramatically with one good (or bad!) war, and about half the victory conditions don't need you to be on top of the chart anyway. Use the 'search facility' to find more threads regarding score if you wish.

[/Edit]

 

[mrbloke]

Thanks guys!
I actually won a game on Warlord by the space race!
I specialised my cities (best i could, is there a guide to specialising cities?)and took over 2 enemy civs.
I did this with the Russians, theres so many civs i dont know which to pick so i do random but Caroline seemed to work.

 

[Cam_H]

Congratulations on your win!

Three Guides (available through 'The War Academy' ... spend some time browsing this section of CivFanatics if you can) addressing city specialisation are;

• 'Sisiutil's Strategy Guide for Beginners' (very worthwhile - there's a section containing information on specialisation within this broader Guide), and

• City Specialization: WHERE I do it by OTAKUjbski

• Guide to City Specialization and Land Improvements by Excl

Best of luck with it!

 

[Gone Dark]

Very nice mrbloke!

Nice warmongering as well. Even if going to space sounds peaceful, the launch is often preceeded by a few (often fairly early) wars to gain enough territory to tech faster and boost production later on.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

No matter what win you're going for, conquering your nearest neighbour(s) is usually a solid plan. Land is power, afterall.

 

[TheTemplar]

mrbloke, this used to be my problem, when I was a peacemonger. I would be soaring sky-high, then as soon as I hit the industrial era, it all falls to bits. The key is to watch your cities tiling, and work them to your needs. But now, I am a warmonger. I kill the first few civilizations I see, and take their capitals.

 

[mrbloke]

Thanks guys! People are nice on this forum, i was half expecting a 'cos u suck' reply.