Next Move in a Noble game?

[Bannerman]

I'd appreciate some help on where to go next. I'm playing Zara Yaqob on a standard sized map, hemispheres (3), and Noble difficulty.

I quickly found out I was on a continent with Mao. With the only copper close to Mao, I researched IW. A source of iron popped up in my captial's BFC, so I used this to rush Mao and snuff him (using my newly practised rush technique ) before he started working the copper. So, by 1075 BC, I am alone. I have two cities of my own establishment, plus two of Mao's (his third city auto-razed when I captured it). [I think I would've been better to raze Shanghai, yes? Can I raze a city once I've decided to keep it?]

At this point I've paused to get some experienced input, especially about city placement. I suck at that, so any suggestions welcome. I'm trying to learn. For example, there is a potential city site to the west of Beijing that has 4 spices+3 gems+ wheat and on a river. Would this be a reasonable site for a commerce city?

I've attached saves from this point and the start.

My own plans are rather vague:
(1) colonise the continent;
(2) research COL--for courthouses to reduce empire maintenance;
(3) Optics to make contact with other continents.

I have no idea which sort of victory might be best to aim for. Is it too early to tell?

I don't really know how many cities would be optimal on this continent. Which is why I'm asking the experts.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

On your own - stone and marble - cultural victory. If you have a religion or 2.

 

[theskibum]

I think your order of business you posted is good. CoL is a priority as your Chinese holdings are bit distant. It looks like you could have about 12 decent cities there judging by the screen shot. I would try to get about 8 or 9 cities up by the time you have researched CoL and then fill in the remainder.

I would beeline Optics right after CoL and build 2 caravels and send them opposite directions. Early contact is important for you or you will probably get behind in tech early on. Make sure you build at least 1.5 workers per city and get your tiles worked and paying. At Noble that should keep you close to tech parity. Thats a good continent, better you are not sharing with anyone.

 

[Yoshi1]

lol at the commerce city question, this is the mother of all commerce spots

I wouldn't have rushed + killed him, he could have been of use. His 2 cities are really bad compared to yours.
You have marble, hills, forests in your capital, why not the peaceful wonder-building way first, there is no way Mao could have kept up and you could have finished him any time you want prolly.
And yep the marked spot is good, for closing your borders if you'd have played peaceful too.

 

[theskibum]

by the way, since you are using BUG mod, use the dot mapping feature to map out your city placement prior to any more settling. Spend some time with this to layout cities to maximize your resource and commerce usage. You will want calendar shortly after optics.

 

[Gwynnja]

My own plans are rather vague:
(1) colonise the continent;
(2) research COL--for courthouses to reduce empire maintenance;
(3) Optics to make contact with other continents.

I have no idea which sort of victory might be best to aim for. Is it too early to tell?

I don't really know how many cities would be optimal on this continent. Which is why I'm asking the experts.

1 and 2 are spot on. I'd tech towards COL, currency, calendar, and civil service. Settle your food and happiness resources. Gem city alone ought to allow you to expand and tech fairly well. Your happiness cap will be 8 after you connect ivory, gems, sugar, and spices and you have what looks like good land for running some scientists with either caste or cheap libraries. Send a work boat out around those little straggler islands; you may be able to meet some neighbors without optics yet. Once you have your land settled it's really up to you whether you want to snag a couple religions and aim for culture as paradigm shifter suggested, although I'd probably tech towards astronomy, gunpowder, and steel for and intercontinental oromo/cannon invasion.

 

[Ghpstage]

CoL isn't the highest priority in my opinion, Sailing, Currency (and maybe Monarchy?) are far more important.
There are plenty of nearby coastal cities you can settle soon which won't have too much maintenance and will instantly get trade routes if you have Sailing, the rivers can be used to speed up connections too, and there are also 2 nearby small islands to settle for much better trade routes.

Shanghai is fine, for now it can be used to run 2 scientists to get your first great person.
Also, your captured cities don't need Steles first, Zara is Creative.

For all intents and purposes the hard work is already done, as long as you continue to expand while growing your economy this should be an easy win. Be sure to keep an eye on your worker count! Any victory condition looks like fair game.

 

[stopstopp]

Courthouses on Noble? Is everyone here insane? Currency would have much better benefits than courthouses would. Just get currency then go for calender, colonize the whole continent, then get liberalism for something good like say steel or rifling and take over the world.

Edit: I'm don't know if my dotmapping skills are any good or not, but I'll get some pics for you.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Courthouses on Noble? Is everyone here insane?

Develop good habits in your gameplay and you'll allow yourself to move up in difficulty levels, if you so choose. If you instead purely focus on abusing the bonuses that are intrinsic to a difficulty level, such as getting most of your Settlers from Huts on Warlord difficulty, then it'll be a lot harder for you to develop the skills that will improve your game at all difficulty levels.

Getting Currency is still a good idea though, and whether or not he goes for Code of Laws before or after Currency will not matter much--although the order of those techs may make the difference between founding Confucianism or not.

 

[jwez11007]

CoL, currency and calender are definitely tech priorities. Expand into the prime spots during or shortly after getting those three. After that and assuming you're going for culture (with a continent to yourself, stone, marble, and plenty of decent land definitely my recommendation), I'ld proritize getting one or maybe two religions hopefully at CoL and Philo, if you miss either or both you should probably be able to pick up islam later.

After that, wonder spam, choose your lengendary cities, and get the culture multipliers in place. Combined with the stele and creative trait culture will be that much faster. It will also give you a chance to practice good diplo management which is very important as you progress up the difficulty ladder. If there's a strong hammer spot near any the pigs/fish spots I might consider prioritizing it as a GP farm and specifically building those wonders with GA GPPs in it ASAP. Other than that you'll probably want to minimize unwanted GPs by spreading you're wonderwhoring out to 2, 3 or even 4 other cities (if you're really worried that your GP farm can't stay ahead of the other cities in producing GAs).

 

[strangestranger]

Alphabet has no use for you right now. No Civ to use Spies on or to trade techs with.
Before going on a settling-spree, research Currency and Code of Laws.
And I'm gonna agree that you should go cultural.
Unless a major invasion during the industrial era is in your plans...

 

[Bannerman]

COL, Currency, Calendar. Okay.

Colonise the continent without breaking the economy. Okay.

No stele necessary in those captured cities. Thanks!

Alphabet not necessary because I don't have anyone to trade with. Yup. Thanks.

Worker count. Oh, yes, I have to remember this.

Courthouses on Noble? Is everyone here insane? Currency would have much better benefits than courthouses would.

I assume there is some advantage I don't know about with Currency that means it would be more useful than courthouses on noble difficulty?

Edit: I'm don't know if my dotmapping skills are any good or not, but I'll get some pics for you.

That would be great, if you could.


A culture win? Okay, that will be something different for me. I'll give it a go. I'll check out the Strategy Articles section for tips on how to do this.


Thanks for all the comments. Is it okay if I post again at a later stage to get critical feedback on how I have developed the game?

 

[vicawoo]

Currency isn't so hot in isolation. Courthouses aren't amazing either, but you can go caste and run to astronomy.

 

[Ghpstage]

Currency isn't so hot in isolation.

Did you account for the presence of the islands? With those in mind all Currency really loses in isolation is people to trade gold with.

 

[vicawoo]

It becomes untradeable and is very expensive. If you settle islands for the sake of settling islands, with currency you get an extra 2 commerce per turn. Which hopefully offsets the extra maintenance. In the end it's the coastal tiles that will be paying for the islands.

Isolation is all about minimalism. Your first goal should be increasing your happy cap, then usually bulbing takes priority.

 

[stopstopp]

I assume there is some advantage I don't know about with Currency that means it would be more useful than courthouses on noble difficulty?

Currency allows you to build gold, and you get more trade routes, even though they suck in isolation. The main disadvantage to courthouses below emperor (Although I guess you could argue to immortal) is that they don't save you much as maintenance is lol