OMG the jump from monarch to emperor diff is HUGE

[Borderline]

i just finished emperor difficulty for the 1st time using mayans (indus/agri). it was an uphill battle the majority of the time. played on pangea 70 %.

here's my victory status screen.
https://i.imgur.com/lLAEkAs.jpg

lots of things i've noticed in difficulty:

-lack of strategic resources.

once i finished teching iron working, i bee lined my settler to the closest iron node which was quite a distance away from my capital. i couldn't build any horsemen and knights because i didn't have any horses in my control.. i was only able to pump out some cavalry when i traded some of my luxury resources for horses.

also couldn't built any cannons because i lacked saltpeter for awhile and had to use trebuchets to siege the weakest neighboring AI CIV.

-i was very far behind in the tech race:

by the time i reached pre-industrial age, everyone was more or less in pre-modern age. i let the 2 big nations fight it out for a long time, russia and india giving them both right of passage; luckly they left me alone. i had to relegate to getting new cities by using a settler when either russia or india took over a city because in doing so it made their local cultural influence smaller.

i was trading as much tech as i can to keep up the best i can, but i was just so far behind everyone. i wasn't able to build any great wonders and therefore i wasn't able to get a golden age at all. i think this hurt me.

i switched to republic as soon as i can when i had a few 6 towns ad 7 cities and never switched back.

i've also noticed the TOW Infantry feels like a very strong defensive unit that the stats shows as 12/14/1 with 6 bombardment. even when attacking with my modern tanks with them in size 6 towns w/o walls, or when they are not on hills or mountains, it was 50/50 that i would win.

also couldn't get my 1st army from an elite unit until late in the game when i had modern tanks.

i have saved files to share.. but i don't know what i could have done better. manhattan project was built by another nation, and babylon which was isolated with 2 medium sized islands, they built they UN and were going for a space victory. using nuclear subs with nukes was the answer to really hurt them.

 

[tjs282]

Strat-res are not rarer on the map at Emp than they are at Monarch. But Strat(/Lux-)res tile numbers do depend on how many rivals you put on the board, so if you set half your opponents to 'None' thinking that this would given you an easier game... well, no, it doesn't, at least as far as the Strat-/Lux-res are concerned. The more Civs you put on the map, the more resources there will be.

The AI's tech-research pace is certainly slightly faster at Emp than at Monarch, partly because of their 20% bonus relative to yours, partly because they are inclined to tech-trade with each other (even) more favourably. But at any given difficulty level, research-pace is always faster on a Pan-Map than a Cont- or Arch-map: with no oceans to separate them, the AI-Civs meet each other relatively early, which means that they can trade amongst themselves from the first era onwards (rather than having to wait for Astro/Magnets for safe Sea/Ocean travel), and hence that the tech-research costs for the laggards come way down (because beaker-price for any given tech is decreased according to how many other Civs you know, who know that tech).

So if you're falling behind in tech, that usually means that you're not beelining effectively, not trading effectively, not growing fast enough, and/or paying too much for building/unit maintenance.

For example, the AI-Civs almost always, and almost without exception, research Iron-Working right after they learn Bronze-Working -- so why waste your own beakers on it (when you could/should be beelining to Republic, to eliminate the Despot-penalty, and get the commerce-bonus into the bargain)? Although Iron is nice to have in the Ancient Age, and useful in the Medieval, it doesn't become absolutely essential until the Industrial Age (for Rails plus Factories). So if you have no Iron, build Archers (or Jav-throwers, as the Mayans): with A=2, they still have a roughly 50% probability of beating D=2 AI-Swords/Immortals on the flat, provided that you're the one doing the attacking.

And you should not really be focussing on Wonders, either. At Emp, for most Wonders, it's usually more effective to put your shields into units, and go and capture them from the AI; and if you want/need a specific Wonder(s) yourself to trigger a GA at a time of your choosing, you will have to plan/research ahead for it, and start (pre)building it early. But for most Civs it's also generally easier to trigger a GA with a well-timed UU-fight, than with Wonders. This is actually disadvantageous for the Mayans though: while their AGRI + IND traits make them a very powerful Civ in terms of growth/productivity, they can build a relatively expensive UU almost from 4000 BC, so you may be 'forced' into having an early Despotic GA, if someone attacks one of your Javs before you were 'ready'. But if this happens, you should leverage this as best you can, by getting many towns Settled early, and getting to Republic that much faster...

 

[Lanzelot]

i have saved files to share.. but i don't know what i could have done better.

Let's have a look at the 4000BC, 1000BC and 10AD .sav files. Perhaps we can give you a tip or two on what can be improved.

 

[Borderline]

Let's have a look at the 4000BC, 1000BC and 10AD .sav files. Perhaps we can give you a tip or two on what can be improved.

darn my earliest manual save is from 1850 AD, and i win with a domination victory at 1986 AD.