Noobie looking for tips

[10goliath]

Hey, first post here. It seems I am horrible at Civilization 5!
Every time I play on a difficul;ty highter than two or three, I get clobbered in every way by the computer players. I just can't keep up with any of the other civs!
What I'm looking for is some tips or a short guide that goes through what to build when, which civs are easiest to master, and other basic, non complicated stuff.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Glassmage]

I think playing civ with UA that help with "peaceful" victories is very easy. India, Egypt, and Babylon come to mind where you can be defensive and get Cultural, Science, or Diplomatic victories without expanding and micromanage too much.

 

[Ex.plode]

Keeping a steady economy has helped me ALOT, do your best to keep tabs on how you can keep your economy going strong:

-Trading unused resources for gold
-Building markets and banks, etc.
-Building cities near or around resources such as gold or silver (coastal cities help alot too!)

Another thing to keep in check is happiness, in my opinion it can make or break your empire. There have been many times where my people where unhappy (under 0 happy faces) which stunts growth by a huge amount. 2 or more of the same luxury doesn't contribute to happiness, so if you have extra luxuries, trade them!


Another thing to keep in mind is how effective ranged units can be, both defensively and offensively they can help a ton. Having the basic setup of a melee unit in front with a ranged unit behind can do some nice damage at lower levels

Keep us up to speed on what you have issues on in the future as well, there is also a thread regarding tips and tricks and the war academy is very helpful as well.

Quick Questions & Answers thread

War Acadamey sub-section

 

[Stratti]

My simple tip is keep an eye on your soldiers ranking on the demographics page is.

This game is pretty brutal on those who don't buildup military. In Civ4 you could get away with it in this game they will declare war very early on .

Remember no point in building an awesome civ if the others see the golden city with the gates open ready for plunder. Make sure your close enough to the leader in the army race.

One way of doing this is purchasing units if you don't want to slow development .

Sounds to me your making the mistake I made early where I was too concerned with building and not making enough of an army to defend

 

[SomeoneLikeHim]

The one tip that i think would help the most would be this:
Always sell your resources when you don't need them. The AI will practically always pay 240(!) gold for every luxury. Remember that if you for example have 2 silver you can sell one without happiness penalty.

Also never ignore science, it is vital to every victory.

 

[bonafide11]

My simple tip is keep an eye on your soldiers ranking on the demographics page is.

This game is pretty brutal on those who don't buildup military. In Civ4 you could get away with it in this game they will declare war very early on .

Remember no point in building an awesome civ if the others see the golden city with the gates open ready for plunder. Make sure your close enough to the leader in the army race.

One way of doing this is purchasing units if you don't want to slow development .

Sounds to me your making the mistake I made early where I was too concerned with building and not making enough of an army to defend

This is the best advice. I was about to say something similar before I read it. Many noobs focus too much on buildings that they think will help them get a gold/science/culture advantage over the AI while neglecting their military. If the AI sees that your military might is weak (check the demographics page), it will declare war on you because it sees you as vulnerable and your nice buildings and land would be a nice addition to their empire.

So the most important thing in Civ V, regardless of the victory type, is to have the most powerful military in the game. Don't wait for them to attack to build units. Build units in preparation for them attacking, or go on the offensive once you have a military advantage.

Puppet cities will initially hurt your happiness, but there are ways to offset it with resources, civics, and buildings. The puppet cities can also bring in a lot of extra gold which will help you afford a larger military and that's when you can start going after some of the nicer treasures in the game, like wonders and such.

So in short: just build a stronger military than anyone else. No good empires have been built without conquest.

 

[Ex.plode]

Even for non domination victories, you need a big military.

I've just come off my first attempt at a culture victory on Emporer, and needless to say I got demolished by about turn 100 due to my small army

 

[Sprenk]

Even for non domination victories, you need a big military.

I've just come off my first attempt at a culture victory on Emporer, and needless to say I got demolished by about turn 100 due to my small army

That can certainly happen, but it's amazing how small your army can be if you sit back behind your capitol and let them come to you. Just two archers is probably a big enough army to defend your capital for quite some time. Between the city fire, the archer safely fortified inside the city, and an archer hiding behind it, you can eviscerate most early DOW's.

Of course, if you want to expand early, it gets harder . . .

 

[Ex.plode]

That can certainly happen, but it's amazing how small your army can be if you sit back behind your capitol and let them come to you. Just two archers is probably a big enough army to defend your capital for quite some time. Between the city fire, the archer safely fortified inside the city, and an archer hiding behind it, you can eviscerate most early DOW's.

Of course, if you want to expand early, it gets harder . . .

I thought this would work as well, but on Emperor the AI can squash you quickly if you aren't prepared

(learned this the very hard way)

 

[rkelle7]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCXy...xt=C3c4f914UDOEgsToPDskL3viV5izeYC3CQlT8rP0Ak
Check out this video. Also check out all of BuilderFTW youtube videos, very helpful. Note: Most of these games are on multiplayer platform.

-AwesoMe

 

[sschmalz]

Note: Most of these games are on multiplayer platform.

YouTube is a great place to get help. However, unless he plans on switching over to multiplayer I wouldn't be suggesting that kind of game for him. He needs to learn how the ai plays and there are a ton of vids on YT showing people how to play against the ai.

Some people come here looking for good, honest advice on the game. They aren't here for advertisements.

 

[chazzycat]

Keeping up in troops is solid advice. The ai can be pretty aggressive if you don't. the only way around this is if you are really isolated and don't expand. IMO it's really only feasible in OCC.

Tech is super important obviously. Tech is based on 3 things - population/buildings, RAs and great scientists. make sure you are using at least 2 of these 3 things to good effect. RAs are the most complicated, so I would recommend going for a population and scientist heavy approach. Try to settle at least 4-5 cities, and build universities when they get to pop 10 or so in 3 of the cities. the other 2 cities can build units. in the university cities, work both scientists right away and keep them there. these cities will generate a few great scientists over the course of the game, which will help your tech immensely. Either bulb important military techs, or save them for the industrial/modern techs which are really expensive.