Paragon Strategy

[JustAnotherNerd]

Russia, Paragon/Normal, UHV is here Russia/Paragon/UHV

 

[Rackham]

Dutch difficulty can vary depending on other colonizers' technological advance (and more importantly diplomacy and colony choices), but I think I've more or less achieved consistency.
It is not affected much by playing on Paragon though (you just get economics a few turns later), although it seems that Portugal (and some others) is significantly less advanced in my Paragon games than lesser difficulty...odd.

1. Amsterdam
   Build workshops, and run 4 merchants in it at all times ofc, but you can also run 1 additional engineer and/or scientist when it grows (you'd have to be very unlucky not to get 3 GMs out of 4 great people that the Dutch can easily pop)
   Amsterdam should start by building an East Indiaman, then land troups (muskets at first, then bombards&swordsmen when you have iron) ; some can be bought.
2. First trips
   Alot of the game can be decided by the first trips your ships make.
   Moreover, chosing which trips to make first can depend on other eurocivs, and I think several options are available : colonizing, sending troops to North America, to South America, to Africa (usually i send 1 ship to colonize in two trips, and the other 2 with troops).
   A wrong choice can necessitate a restart.
3. Colonies
   Jost Van Dyke (Caribbeans, to settle on the spice later on) and Adriaanz Fort (South America for 2 spices) are almost mandatory to have : colonize them with your first trip, or conquer them if already settled.
   Colombo is also great (iron+spice), but can wait till the second trip of one of the starting ships.
   Don't colonize Africa yourself unless you have a spare settler (one of the spots above is taken).
4. Conquests
   Chose badly defended cities if possible (explore with caravels). Splitting your starting troops is not usually a good idea.
   Portugal and England are prime targets because of their colony placement, usual military weakness (Portugal esp.) and inability to pose a threat to Amsterdam (unlike France and Spain).
   Don't forget you can give Astro to Portugal if they don't research it fast enough, or get exiled of Lisboa (which was the case in my last game).
   France and Spain sometimes have to be attacked though, because they love to colonize the spices spots ; in that case, make peace asap after conquest.
   It is sometimes advisable to conquer 1 or 2 cities in North America before moving on to Africa if the English are there but with weak defenses.
   Whatever you do, avoid declaring war on defensive pacts ; sometimes reloading a few turns earlier and dow pre-emptively can be necessary if Portugal makes a pact.
5. Indonesia
   After the conquests, continue building some troops (some can be bought, but prioritize an early TC rush) and sending them to Indonesia ; war can even be declared a few turns before rushing TC to conquer weakly defended cities.
   Nabire, Makassar and Jaykarta are enough for the victory ; ignore heavliy defended Palembang until you have nothing else to do.
6. Civics
   I switch to Theocracy and Fanaticism a few turns after spawn, but I don't think it's crucial.
   Switching to Capitalism is mandatory though, to rush the TC asap.

 

[JustAnotherNerd]

England/Paragon/UHV is here

 

[JustAnotherNerd]

Portugal/UHV

 

[JustAnotherNerd]

Greece/Paragon/UHV is here

 

[Tigranes]

^^ Quite unorthodox placement for Byzantion: why miss the Fish?

 

[JustAnotherNerd]

^^ Quite unorthodox placement for Byzantion: why miss the Fish?

You know, I was playing and SUDDENLY I thought: What if I will place Byzantion 1W from "orthodox" Byzantion? Maybe Tigranes will ask me, why I did that?" And look! It happened.
So, I made it that you was asking...

 

[Tigranes]

Always keep me in your thoughts while placing cities. It will keep your citizens lean and mean.

 

[rmontaruli]

It seems more difficult to me than original RFC.
I played three games with Egypt always loosing the Pyramids race.

I played a game as Hamurrabi to discover that Oracle gives just older techs (no more code of laws)

And phoenicians are challengeable too. Not enough time to build palace and big harbor.

I need to study different strategies.

 

[Chep]

okay everyone, I could use some pointers for Russia & Mughals

with the Mughals I failed once, not reaching UHV2 in time since I only got to buy Engineering -> couldn't research needed techs in time.
Got a Spy on my next try, but it still seems rather iffy. How would you approach this?

And with Russia...I am completely lost, i think it should be pretty easy, but I cant decide where to place my cities and how to deal with the Mongols. Will you build Kiev yourself? Build it somewhere else? OR conquer it? Horse Archers+Cats vs Mongols?

 

[citis]

okay everyone, I could use some pointers for Russia & Mughals

with the Mughals I failed once, not reaching UHV2 in time since I only got to buy Engineering -> couldn't research needed techs in time.
Got a Spy on my next try, but it still seems rather iffy. How would you approach this?

And with Russia...I am completely lost, i think it should be pretty easy, but I cant decide where to place my cities and how to deal with the Mongols. Will you build Kiev yourself? Build it somewhere else? OR conquer it? Horse Archers+Cats vs Mongols?

Mughals: I propose you to use the shrines (market, grocer in Patna, maybe conquer Jerusalem), but I haven't played them for a long time.

Russia: in every game I conquer Kiev, and found Moskva (on spot), Caricyn (on iron), Uglish (on fur) and Sankt-Peterburg (on historical tile to reach bronze). I prefer knights against Mongols. They can get more XPs in birth (stables) and bigger mobility. Russian UP make defencive units and walls/castles useless.

 

[Chep]

okay, so:

how do you get knights before the Mongols? I am still miles away from researching guilds when the Mongols spawn even though I run 100% science since my spawn and buy fishing&sailing instead of researching them, so I can start with Guilds.
what units do you use to conquer kiev? (or: at what point in time do you conquer it, before polish spawn? before mongol spawn?...)

also with the Mughals, I was able to run 100% science, that hasn't been a problem for me yet, but the sheer fact that I cant research the needed techs in time. I finish the conquest/settling of India and my 12 cities around 1440 and the Ottomans are usually too stable for me to get to Mecca/Jerusalem.

edit: I have won with Japan, Indonesia, Khmer, Mongols, Ottomans and maybe some others I cant think of right now, if somebody needs help with any of them.

 

[Fresol]

You should try China if you have spare time. It should be quite possible but also a bit challenging, and time-consuming.

 

[citis]

okay, so:

how do you get knights before the Mongols? I am still miles away from researching guilds when the Mongols spawn even though I run 100% science since my spawn and buy fishing&sailing instead of researching them, so I can start with Guilds.
what units do you use to conquer kiev? (or: at what point in time do you conquer it, before polish spawn? before mongol spawn?...)

also with the Mughals, I was able to run 100% science, that hasn't been a problem for me yet, but the sheer fact that I cant research the needed techs in time. I finish the conquest/settling of India and my 12 cities around 1440 and the Ottomans are usually too stable for me to get to Mecca/Jerusalem.

edit: I have won with Japan, Indonesia, Khmer, Mongols, Ottomans and maybe some others I cant think of right now, if somebody needs help with any of them.

I don't know then. In regent/monarch I am able to reach guilds by 1100AD (Russia) and when I played Mughals I didn't have any tech problems. You can conquer Kiev immediately with the starting army, 2 turns after its spawn. Typically you lose two units.

 

[Chep]

that seems to be the problem, the tech cost increase in paragon is huge. also, if you lose 2 out of 4 starting units, how do you deal with the stacks of 5 barb horse archers that keep spawning near moscow/kiev?

 

[citis]

that seems to be the problem, the tech cost increase in paragon is huge. also, if you lose 2 out of 4 starting units, how do you deal with the stacks of 5 barb horse archers that keep spawning near moscow/kiev?

5??? 2 Longbows and a sword can defend against 3 most of the times but 5? Have to give a try on my own in Paragon. I can't help you, except if you want to read speculations.

 

[Fresol]

On Emperor level and above barb Horse Archers come in group of 5.

JustAnotherNerd posted a P/N Russia UHV in this thread so why not consult him?

 

[Chep]

I thought he would check this thread and getting everyone else to chime in might help on top of that.

Tried China, seems harsh but doable. Got lucky and destroyed Babylon on turn 35 with my 2 first warriors (they moved 2 archers+settler out to found new city). Got Pyramids & Hanging Gardens (1 turn before Egypt would have finished the Pyramids, 2 before they'd have gotten the Gardens). Currently hoping to get Oracle & the Lighthouse but game keeps crashing on turn 75.

 

[Tigranes]

^^How do you know all about Egypt? Ctrl W every turn?

 

[Fresol]

I would never dream about destroying Babylon.