Noble Setting help

[dayhjawk]

So far I haven't been doing so hot in Noble setting.

first off I would like another view point on this: I have another civilization to my north on a little strip of the continent. I managed to make a border with my cities before they were even putting cities close to mine. As soon as they placed a city they declared war on me, and they were "pleased" with me. Hmmm.

On top of that, maybe I am doing something wrong here, but I try the early rush attack, send about 6 axemen to attack a city, I normally have 4 cities and going for a 5th at this point, and most Civs have 6+ cities, and my axemen die because their army is bigger than mine. Most situations my second city is built next to bronze and I start building units right away.

Anyways, on to the bigger question. I try and build both Great wall and Oracle and in most situations I can get them. However, because of the changes, I cannot beeline to Civil Service in over the past few days, only 1 game I was able to get civil service. Most situations I do not have the extra time to get math. It seems that Greatwall, stonehenge and oracle are the 3 normally build wonders asap. I have seen games where it's stonehenge first, or like the game last night, Oracle, Greatwall, Stonehenge.

So my question is, In noble+ what should i Oracle shoot for, if i build the oracle. I try and focus on Defense-Offensive-Beeline to Confusism (for courthouses).

also, in older games I use to only protect my cities with 1-2 units. Now with the recent updates to the AI/Combat seems that tactics is out the window and I am having issues tring to defense my towns. So any and all tips in this general area will be helpful also.

 

[Sarek]

You will likely get many answers...here's mine.

If your strategy is to attack a neighbour with Axes, then the hammers going toward building Stone-GW-Oracle are NOT going toward Axes. If, instead of building the wonders, you put more into Axes you would have more, sooner and hopefully would meet your opponent with inferior military sooner.

Noble, imho, is about the last level you can worry about both wonder-building and being very aggressive early. Any higher and you simply must make the either/or choice?

If, instead of the Axe rush, you go the wonder route, you will likely outpace your neighbour on the tech tree quickly, then can deal with them later on with more advanced military.

Purely 2c...

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

I think Warlord to Noble is a huge jump. It took me a llloooonnnggg time to figure it out.
I really don't have all that much advice to give, it just took me playing a bunch of Noble games to eventually figure it out. I know that's not much help, but if you actually just keep playing games, and to the end, you'll eventually master the level. I'm sure you'll get massive, huge posts filled with tips so I won't bog you down with any more of my thoughts.

 

[dayhjawk]

well so far in most games i've played in noble.. before we even get to medivel era i'm getting rushed and in most of those games I get wiped out. In some games I can make peace.. but I can't get beyond 2-3 cities. I am stuck there. I try and fight back, get others to aid, but they have massives units. The AI now seem to attack with stacks.. and I cannot defend my cities in most games with early rush stacks, or fight them.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

Sounds like you get stuck in a builder mentality. Not every city needs everything, you can delay (forever, sometimes) a library in city X and just crank out units. The AI will attack you if they see you as weak, even if they don't totally hate you. Warmongers will attack you at pleased. Next game, maybe focus more on building actual units. It can help, and if you apply yourself, it's honestly not that hard out produce them (possible exceptions being the insane AIs of Monty and Shaka).

 

[v8_mark]

Not only are you building wonders before an axe rush, but four cities as well?

That must put the date of your attacks close to 500BC. Much too late for a pure axe rush. The key is focus - if you want to build wonders and delay any offensive until catapults, do so. If you want to REX early on and set yourself up long term - fine, it's a good way to play. But there's no way on earth you can get away with doing either of these and attacking a neighbour with axes.

An early axe-rush is literally Bronze Working -> second city -> hook cooper up -> chop/whip as many axes as humanly possible (until you have 7-8) and find a neighbour within range. Aim for 1500BC as a declaration date.

A good tip is to focus on the 'why' of what you're doing. Why are you attacking your neighbour? Do you need the land, or is he a threat? Otherwise, you can build more peacefully.

Perhaps more pressingly (and more commonly amongst Noble players) why are you building the wonders? You say you try to shoot for them - is it a case of not being able to live without them? If so, that's not a good approach to a game as flexible as Civ4. The Oracle's probably the only one of those wonders I'd consider useful in all games, but even then, it's a significant tech detour early on. All wonders are situational - decide which ones you need and focus on those. Trying to build all wonders is a bad, bad idea.

As for what to focus on with the Oracle - Civil Service is pretty much out of the window post-Warlords, as you can't usually get Maths in time without taking some considerable risks. Code of Laws is a popular one - my favourite is Metal Casting, but Theology or Monarchy are also reasonable choices.