Non specialist strategies at higher difficulty

[gaash2]

So I generally play on prince/monarch and I can beat the game comfortably (Huge Map/Epic) with most leaders. However, I find it quite tedious to play a specialist strategy (hence I usually just use financial or organized leaders -> cottage spam -> huge tech lead -> win). Are there some strategies on Huge Map at the higher difficulties where you can still keep up tech wise with AI without resorting to a lot of micro-management/specialist strategies?

 

[sampsa]

Build a library, run two scientists, build an academy in capital. Next might come from music or from a city you built some wonders in and ran some scientists to get the faster. Start a golden age when you have philosophy, switch to caste+pacifism and run specialists in several cities. It's not harder than that and there isn't really a lot of micro-management once you get the hang of it. I'm not sure what exactly you meant by specialist strategy, but at least the first few pay back so well that ignoring them is very sub-optimal.

 

[Seraiel]

He wants to not micromanage sampsa, he needs to keep playing Prince / Monarch. You can try Emperor but apart from Traderoutes and Cottages there is not much that would not need micromanagement.

I wrote a guide on hybrid economy, you imo. should read it, it's about 3 pages long so rather short. And you imo. should start micromanaging at least rudimentary so open the log, read it and every time a city grows, becomes unhappy, you get a new tech or whatever you assign the citizen. This is really not that much work but will greatly push your game forward. The city govenor is really just a n00b, if you can win Monarch without micromanagement then you probably could win Emperor with medium micro and Immortal if you learned some strategies like the one Sampsa wrote about.

 

[InovA]

Sure! I don't use a pure specialist strategy unless I have a PHI leader, I use cottage spam for a few of my cities but the main difference in my play from Prince/Monarch to Immortal is tech choices and managing my workers/city tiles more efficiently. You don't need specialists in all cities, I've only focused on managing 1-2 cities with specialists per game.

To keep up tech wise early on, you more often grab the techs that the A.I. doesn't go for themselves as quickly. I.E. Aesthetics, Compass, Literature, etc., and get great value trading them. I'll still micro-manage shared tiles a lot, but don't care about which specialists I get from Statue of Liberty, Mercantilism, etc.

And even if not trying to use specialists much, definitely use your capital for 2 scientists as soon as your library finishes, the Academy your first GS makes and early bulbs for the Liberalism race go a long way.

 

[sampsa]

He wants to not micromanage sampsa, he needs to keep playing Prince / Monarch.

Ok. For me it has always been unclear what exactly constitutes "micro-management" and why it is so repulsive for some people who are voluntarily playing a strategy game. I can distinguish between a good play and a bad play though and I'm doing my best to guide people making what I view as good plays.

 

[gaash2]

Sure! I don't use a pure specialist strategy unless I have a PHI leader, I use cottage spam for a few of my cities but the main difference in my play from Prince/Monarch to Immortal is tech choices and managing my workers/city tiles more efficiently. You don't need specialists in all cities, I've only focused on managing 1-2 cities with specialists per game.

To keep up tech wise early on, you more often grab the techs that the A.I. doesn't go for themselves as quickly. I.E. Aesthetics, Compass, Literature, etc., and get great value trading them. I'll still micro-manage shared tiles a lot, but don't care about which specialists I get from Statue of Liberty, Mercantilism, etc.

And even if not trying to use specialists much, definitely use your capital for 2 scientists as soon as your library finishes, the Academy your first GS makes and early bulbs for the Liberalism race go a long way.

Interesting, you describe kind of how I play already other than optimizing my tech path for trading(I get lib first every time almost but I don't research those techs you describe basically ever), maybe my issue is more / management than not micro-managing specialists enough since I do manage the big cities to make sure I've got mostly scientists running unless there is a very specific reason I need a non-scientist.