Playing as Alex....

[Jelster]

I have never had a good game playing as "Mr Wonderful" as he seems to think of himself... So I want to give him another try. I've NEVER had a diplo win either, so this could all end in disaster !!!

Large, Continents, King, 24 CS's

Recently I have been starting my games on a quick NC strategy, with 1 city, then building it out from there, kicking off with Liberty. Would a basic 4 city Tradition start be better with Alex, then fill Patronage before looking at either Piety or Rationalism ?

Piety or Rationalism is another question, and I was looking at taking Freedom as well.

I'd like to get a diplo if possible, but I always seem to upset a few neighbours during the game.....

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[Unresolved]

Always go Rationalism. The bottleneck will be your science rate, not your GPT. For diplomatic wins, I prefer to go Liberty. While it seems counter-intuitive to conquer people, puppets = gold = UN votes. You don't really need to worry about getting other civ's votes because allying every CS is already overkill.

 

[Velex]

Forget the library, in my opinion. Alex gets two wonderful UU early game. If you go for a worker first, to boost production, and get two settlers out plus UU spearmen, then by the time you get to the Companion Calvery, you'll be able to steamroll through 1 or more players (on king). The captured cities make up for the slow science start. I like to get the honor policy tree, then patronage, then order.

When fighting the war, declare war early and have the CC's pick off the enemy's units. The capital, with the stable, can pump CC's, and the 2nd and 3rd can produce UUspearmen. Catapults as you need.

After the blitz, you'll be safe and sturdy to do nation building. I recommend taking the upper tree into the Renaissance, so to find the other city states and offer protection, and to start buying out the choicest ones.

 

[Seabastian Civ]

Forget the library, in my opinion. Alex gets two wonderful UU early game. If you go for a worker first, to boost production, and get two settlers out plus UU spearmen, then by the time you get to the Companion Calvery, you'll be able to steamroll through 1 or more players (on king). The captured cities make up for the slow science start. I like to get the honor policy tree, then patronage, then order.

When fighting the war, declare war early and have the CC's pick off the enemy's units. The capital, with the stable, can pump CC's, and the 2nd and 3rd can produce UUspearmen. Catapults as you need.

After the blitz, you'll be safe and sturdy to do nation building. I recommend taking the upper tree into the Renaissance, so to find the other city states and offer protection, and to start buying out the choicest ones.

Definitely use those UUs!! CC's are devastating, and the Hoplites make fantastic meatshields (take Cover with the second promotion you get, and then Cover 2 eventually). Your main attacking force should be something like 4-5 CBs, 2-3 Hoplites, 2-3 CC's. Keep the CC's on the flanks and behind (give at least one of them the medic promotions), using them to pop archers that appear and to deliver the final blow to cities. Blast through your closest neighbor, puppeting all his cities, and keep going. You should be able to conquer easily until gunpowder. If you want to rest then, you can focus on settling more cities yourself, but by then you should have the game in hand. Diplo wins are about getting lots of trade routes and lots of river cities. Greece is perfect for this.

I'd recommend you go Tradition, and settle 2 cities before going conquering. You have a lot of room for error on King, so be more aggressive that normal (but try not to lose any units). Rationalism is essential to get to UN quickly. Commerce is also a great choice for Greece, since you'll have tons of money coming in from puppets, it can make up for Patronage. I would still recommend getting 2 into Patronage to get the +20 resting point policy, though.

 

[kirbdog]

It's perfectly feasible to use the companion cavalry but not the hoplite. Companion cavalry and composite bows are all you need anyway for devastation. The tech for horseback riding is on the path to education, which is nice.

 

[VilePilot]

On King just spam archers or spearmen early on and rush the nearest AI.

 

[Jelster]

Thanks for all the input. I'm now on turn 120, have 3 cities, NC & The Oracle, with Chitchin Itza just a couple of turns away. I really surprised at how good both the Hoplites and CC's are. With a couple of promotions, the Hoplites can take a Barbarian encampment in one turn.

I went full Liberty and and have taken the first 2 of Honour (opener & warrior code) and will start on Patronage, then Rationalism.

My neighbours are Theodora and Korea, so my plan is to get a couple more CB's (I have 5 at the moment) and then take her capital. She built the Great Library, which will be very useful.

The only downside is that I have not yet got a boat out into the water, so I haven't found any CS's. But there is time for that once I establish the 3rd city properly (Monument, Granary, Shrine).

So, next stage is to take Theodora, and grow from there.

 

[Novalia]

The first thing you should build is a scout... Maybe even two. Don't undervalue the benefit of meeting CSs in the early game. Those 15-30 gold pops come at a time when you have v little gold and can be put to good use buying a settler or worker. Also the faster you meet other civs the more early trading partners you have access to. You also get a small discount on researching techs.

 

[VilePilot]

The first thing you should build is a scout... Maybe even two. Don't undervalue the benefit of meeting CSs in the early game. Those 15-30 gold pops come at a time when you have v little gold and can be put to good use buying a settler or worker. Also the faster you meet other civs the more early trading partners you have access to. You also get a small discount on researching techs.

I will agree on building a scout on pangea maps. Not so much on continents or obviously archipelago.

 

[Arachnofiend]

Build a scout on continents. On archipelago your scout is a trireme (or a Maori Warrior if you're Polynesia).

Being the first to meet everyone is a great way to get a strong start going.

 

[VilePilot]

Build a scout on continents. On archipelago your scout is a trireme (or a Maori Warrior if you're Polynesia).

Being the first to meet everyone is a great way to get a strong start going.

I usually don't tech sailing until I have already built the NC on deity.

 

[Jelster]

The first thing you should build is a scout... Maybe even two. Don't undervalue the benefit of meeting CSs in the early game. Those 15-30 gold pops come at a time when you have v little gold and can be put to good use buying a settler or worker. Also the faster you meet other civs the more early trading partners you have access to. You also get a small discount on researching techs.

My build order was Scout - Monument - Granary - Shrine - Library

Just taken Theodora'scapital and another city, I now have 5 cities and 2 puppets.....

 

[IronCrown]

I clicked on the thread expecting to read how overpowered Alexander is for diplo wins

I seriously got into Civ V only this last week; although I spent thousands of hours playing Civ IV. This didn't feel like an advantage with V though as so many things are very different. So I'm basically a Civ V newbie

That said, after reading the Tabarnak guide for the 'tall strategy' to get a basic introduction into the game mechanics, I easily won my first serious game, with Alexander. Although it was only a tiny map and Prince difficulty.

Yesterday I won my second game, again Alexander, standard continents map and King level, again diplo win. I should add that I went for cultural win both times but diplo seems to always just lie on the way.

With Alexander I barely have to invest into city states once they are my allies, because standing decreases very slowly. Send in a spy to rig elections and occasionally do a quest for them and they are yours forever. I had every single city state as ally without trying very hard. For the whole game that is, I didn't need to buy them at the last minute just for the UN vote. I could spend most of my gold on buying/upgrading units or buildings.

 

[OwlRaider]

You want to go tall, preferably with the 4 city tradition opening, using your 2 unique units early on to conquer your nearest neighbor or 2 and puppet all their cities for a steady gold supply, than preferably remain peaceful for the rest of the game and get a quick diplomatic victory. This strategy works especially well on a continents or large islands map since you can just secure your island than just ignore the rest of the AI and focus just on science for your diplomatic win.

 

[Djinn8]

Just finished a game as Greece on Emperor.

To start with I opened Tradition and played as a OCC (at least for the start). My second policy choice was the wonder bonus, then I filled out the middle and finally the defence one. (yeah, I suck at remembering the policy names).

My build order went scout, shrine, GL, NC, Oracle, Mausoleum, settler, NE. When my second city was founded, I built a market there, then built the NT in my cap. While building all this I sold my lux and horses to buy a Granary, Water Mll, 2x Hoplites and 2x Composite bows. I Managed to befriend a few military CS, who gave me a few horsemen as well. Oh yeah, I nabbed my worker from some CS early on as well. I didn't found my 3rd and 4th citys untill I was in the Industrial era.

The Mausoleum was a bit of an after thought, but it fit into my plans. As once I popped my first GS, I switched GP production to GMs and popped 3 of them, planting them around my cap.

My future policy choices were Patronage opener, the one that raises resting point with CS, Commerce Opener, Rationalism Opener, left side of Rationalism, completed Patronage, then the right side of Rationalism.

My Religion was Desert Folklore, Tithe, Religious Community, enhancer was the one that increases combat score when near friendly cities (I forget the name of it).

Killed Rome during the renaisance in retaliation to their constant attacks, then started toppling anyone who was either doing too well, or had CS or puppeted capitals I could liberate. Finally won via diplo victory after dropping the bomb on Siam, my biggest rival.