Playing Emperor on default huge pangae

[spiceant]

i have recently moved up to emperor difficulty for the huge emperor pangae maps as iv passed monarch which was a challenge but not enough (...)
consequently i moved up to emperor for the settings at which i finished monarch which were Default (non-custom) on pangae maps, epic speed, with random weather and sea levels, one thing i am having trouble with right now is that my rivals swap techs with eachother each every time i catch up with them.

I am compulsively playing the japanese with the same mindset i had on monarch, make a huge empire that reaps benefit from the state property civic (and police state), forbidden palace ,(now very rarely) versailles and a replaced palace untill state property. (i hope you understand i spam courthouses)

need help with:

1. keeping barbarians away from my settlers and citys in a way that doesnt swallow my expansion rate (so i can get a good empire to start with)
2. getting the first worker and settler out (rush for bronze to chop-chop?) without stalling my progress to much
3. keeping my warrior alive despite the animals
4. knowing whats where without scouting there (the equator and the North and Southpoles of the planet, what type of climate rules my area)
5. keeping up to date with latest techs
6. converting conquered citys to useable and defendable military nests
7. fighting multiple wars in the pre-modern era as a huge communist state (mostly having trouble with them sending harassing forces to me which takes the war of atrittion to my own territory)
8. foresee which civilizations will declare war on me (and yeah i know the obvious, annoyed/agressive bordering ppl are indeed obvious)
9. the details, like sending a worker to exactly the right square so it gets another turn to build usefull... stuff.

i do do this:

1. Avoid early wild life and barbarians as much as possible (tough luck against panthers though)
2. micromanage my city production to for example get that work boat 1 turn earlier if it is 2 turns away
3. chop forests that are just outside my capitols working range
4. Avoid the building of wonders (i hope this is obvious)
5. Avoid to found a religion (i hate to see rivals declare war on me if i found one and make it a state religion, in addition to not having mystycism)
6. Use librarys for the most of research and the research slider untill it becomes unfeasible (i always plan on military struggle and pillaging my research money from that)
7. Build mines on plain/hills (and minerals...)
8. spend a turn on moving my capitol to plain/hill if it doesnt send usefull tiles out of my capitols range
9. retain conquered villages
10. research drama for the cultural happyness slider
11. use an occasional forest tile to insta build an early obelisk
12. limit city growth so amount of happy face = unhappy face
13. early on, use rivers as roads to give my workers more stuff to do
14. value coastal connections over +2 health from rivers
15. value happyness resources over health and will consequently put settlers inside jungles without rivers.
16. prefer to build roads between expansion citys before improving their tiles
17. build 2 archers/city before moving on to my 4th settler (for the 4th city)
18. prefer to stay without superstition untill one surfaces as the strongest and will provide me with enough <pleased> to scare off heathen rivals.
19. eliminate that rival that has a last cottage somewhere on a lone island stuffed with defenders.
20. sign open borders with everything
21. write a review about a game i am currenty playing, as im playing it with pictures and stuff (not story oriented) basicly so i give more thought to what im doing. (stopped playing this review game for a bit to reload my positives, it isnt going extremely well, i need to recover so i can play it on with a fresh mind. otherwise ill tear this game down while i dont have to.)

i refuse to (at the moment):

1. Reload a(n auto-)save in unlucky cases or to correct mistakes like letting stuff get on my land while i could have done <something> against it or moving some forces 5 turns before someone declares war on me (which i saw 5 years in the future)
2. wait and spam end turn to win by space/diplomatic/time victory
3. Reload the game because i dont like where or how i'v started (i dont want to be told to restart the game IF <condition>)
4. take advice from someone who hasnt had some kind of succes on a (non-custom non-archipoleg) monarch or above WITHOUT loading a saved game to fix past mistakes (please dont take offense from this)
5. play custom games (i dont like to hear "check no tech trading". iv already come up with that grand idea)
6. play on maps smaller then huge/pangae random weather/sealevel/shoreline on epic speed
7. depend on luck (i prefer to have something that works in the worst case)

if you see an obvious flaw or need a litle more info to help discuss please dont hestitate
cheers and kisses to everything and everyone
spiceant forever

 

[Carboni]

1. If possible, do not name a state religon. It will help you stay out of war.
2. Keep the last city of your rival around, make sure they are crippled ones. They will be perfectly preserved in time. After some centuries seperate you from them, give them crumbs of technology. They will worship you.

 

[Xarathas]

Regarding religion, it may be counterintuitive but founding religions may actually help you with AI relations.

You can either:

1) Spread your religion to your neighbors if they don't have any religion (this is obvious)

or

2) Prevent your neighbors from having clashing religions.

If your neighbors founds a certain religion, it is more than likely that they will spread that religion and convert to it even if they have another religion in place. In my current game, I preserved peace up until the medieval times by founding 3 religions(Christianity, Confucianism, Islam) and not using any of the 3 as my state religion. Judaism was spread to me from one of my immediate neighbors early on, and I converted to it because two of my neighbors were both Jews. I just merely had to spread it to all my other cities to take advantage of Org/Theo, which wasn't really much work. Founding a religion has zilch to do with what you want to make as your state religion, and you can still reap the monetary benefits from having it.

In fact, if you so desire, you can do a religious invasion with one of the religions you found. Say.. Isabella's Jew, and you turn her neighbor into a Christian (Computers will generally switch to the religion that is in the most cities in their empire). Knowing Izzie and her religious fervor, she will probably go to war with that neighbor sometime down the line (I think that's the case.. I've never seen anyone with a +8! for having the same SR, and -4 right off the bat for having a different SR.. well okay, maybe Saladin on the -4 part. I don't think I've had a single game where I share the same SR as saladin)

If 2) wasn't a possibility, you can still just not declare a state religion.. or switch to free religion as soon as you get that civic.


In regards to conquered cities.. this is a tough one sometimes, especially when the computers have a "..." stack nearby. I've always done one of two things.

1) If I think it's defensable, I'd make it culture pump the first couple of turns after getting it to expand it's borders. Basically, set as many artist specialists (having sistine chapel helps.. it may seem like a useless wonder to some, but it's actually very helpful on conquests) you can, and if it has decent production I may even set the production to culture... or make culture buildings, depending on my civ trait. Culture is the best form of defense once you start seeing gunpowder units..

2) If I don't think it's defensable, yet I really want that specific city, I'd RAZE any cities in between that city and the AI's main forces first, THEN capture the city. It's 10x easier to defend a city when the AI's cultural borders don't extend right next to it.


Regarding wonders, I don't know if avoiding wonders is a good idea. Granted that the higher the difficulty, the harder it is to get some of those early wonders, but it's still very possible, and some of them can be very helpful. Unlike previous civs, most wonders in this game aren't necessary, but many are quite useful depending on your civ trait, and some can be useful no matter what your traits are. For example, on a high difficulty game, managing to get pyramids could be a huge boost (happiness is harder to come by). Same with Hanging Gardens, Notre Dame, etc. All the Happiness/Health wonders go up in value as the difficulty level rises. I've found that many of the wonders requiring a pre-requisite are fairly easy to obtain (like HG, GL, etc) as long as you are not researching that tech way after the AI gets it. Plus, depending on your starting trait/resources (Ind[but you play Jp, so no dice on that one], Marble, Stone), many wonders become much more obtainable than they would often be. If you've got marble or stone early, there's almost no reason to pass up some of those cheap early wonders.

Err... I think I may have a few more things to write, but this has gotten way longer than I intended. Maybe I'll post more another time.

 

[basickillr]

need help with:

1. keeping barbarians away from my settlers and citys in a way that doesnt swallow my expansion rate (so i can get a good empire to start with)
2. getting the first worker and settler out (rush for bronze to chop-chop?) without stalling my progress to much
3. keeping my warrior alive despite the animals
4. knowing whats where without scouting there (the equator and the North and Southpoles of the planet, what type of climate rules my area)
5. keeping up to date with latest techs
6. converting conquered citys to useable and defendable military nests
7. fighting multiple wars in the pre-modern era as a huge communist state (mostly having trouble with them sending harassing forces to me which takes the war of atrittion to my own territory)
8. foresee which civilizations will declare war on me (and yeah i know the obvious, annoyed/agressive bordering ppl are indeed obvious)
9. the details, like sending a worker to exactly the right square so it gets another turn to build usefull... stuff.

I reload 4 or 5 times a game, so take that into account hehe.

There is no easy way to protect lonesome settlers. You can try and expand a ring of archers on hilltops around your empire. The barbs appear in unviewed territory, not just unexplored, keep areas viewed and youll get no close barb pops. This gives ample warning where they are coming from and where not to send unprotected units. It is easy to do... usually, with 3-4 units, I use archers fortified on jungle/forest hilltops whenever possible, regular hilltops when not (lower def bonus but better viewing range), and everything else last. It gets harder the bigger you get, but hopefully youll meet up with other empires before it becomes prohibitive.

I chop rush a settler before barb appear so it can go solo with relative ease. A 2nd worker usually right after to take advantage of leftover hammers. Seems to work well.

Other then guessing based on viewable terrain, I do not know of any way to tell with certainty where the jungle is etc without exploring.

Keeping up to date with techs... heh. Figure that one out and youll win. If your warring, you will probably be behind. I usually maintain parity up through middle ages, after that it gets tough. Since you are not going religion, your early research is hamstrung a bit, and not much to pillage early.

Fighting multiple wars is ok. You just have to make sure you spread the love around. Intimidate your closest rivals into not trading with their closest rivals, no open borders is HUGE in keeping pillagers off you. Cowl your nearest AI's and make them your slave states. Never let them get more then 3-4 cities if it can be helped. Pillage them repeatedly early and often until you have a sizable advantage over them. I take a religion and convert them to it. As long as I do not raze any cities, they become cautious/pleased with me quickly when I make peace. Without religion, I am not sure how much success you will have with that. You have to be constantly at war once you start, and always gunning for the strongest, pillage pillage, pillage some more, then pillage a little more to be sure.... Only stay at war with an AI the minimum time possible to cripple their economy, then move to the next ASAP.

Forsee which civs will go to war with you. Huh, my biggest gripe is the uselessness of Diplo at higher levels. Annoyed/Furious of course are always likely. But even friendly/pleased will jump you if they see a weak city, even if you have an army 10 times their size. Just assume they all are going to attack you at any moment (because they will eventually given the chance).

I have much better luck with space race and cultural victories on emp. Warring constantly just drains me hehe.

 

[Shillen]

Hehe, try dealing with barbs on emperor with your own island which I had to do today. Talk about insane. I had to face two axemen when I still only had 2 cities and no copper or horses (hadn't researched iron working yet). And there were like 3 archers per turn coming at my two cities. Talk about crippled expansion. My game is doing alright now though in 1200s AD.

Switching to slavery is definitely worthwhile on higher difficulties I find. Whether you need to whip an extra unit for defense against barbs, whip a granary for extra health/growth rate, whip an obelisk to get border expansion to grab resources etc. It's definitely helpful. It's not so helpful on lower difficulties mainly because your cities can grow pretty large right off the bat. Emperor you're stuck with tiny cities for a while anyway. If whipping gets you an extra resource or something that all your cities can use it's generally worth it. Course my game had a heavy flood plain start so health was more of a concern than happiness (although both were a concern).

Can't help you much with the warmongering as I'm playing a variant game with no wars allowed (unless they declare on me and then I'll only fight defensively). But generally AI's will go to war with you if 1) they're pissed at you or 2) your cities are fighting theirs culturally. Pretty much always if one of your cities is stealing a ring of workable tiles for one of their cities they will declare war on you eventually. If you avoid that situation entirely then getting declared on is much more rare. It's only annoying when they settle their city 2 tiles away from yours because there's nothing you can do about that.

edit: Oh here's a tip for dealing with barbs. Always found your second city in a high production spot. This means hopefully a food bonus, a couple hills and a couple forests. Iron and copper are great as well of course. Then build a barracks in this city and build a bunch of archers and stuff to deal with barbs. If you found your second city on the coast or somewhere with limited production it's going to be very difficult. Also try not to build too many unpromoted units as promotions make a huge difference. Back to those 2 axemen I had to deal with early in the game...I actually killed them both without losing a single unit even though I only had archers/warriors. It's all about the promotions and setting your units up in good defensive positions.

 

[anton_z1]

I am a warmonger on emperor. Warmongering is a difficult skill which requires lots of reloading (sorry for that), if you are not too got at it. Also you should NOT use reloading to get turns away, it may be good to attack your troops on the ennemy city just to see what your troops can do. Sometimes combat is quite random.

Some thing to note:
1) Keep some military near ennemy borders. In this case they would be less likely to bacstab you.
2)At he beginning rush for hill cities. You need production, production and more production. You dont have happiness or health anyway, thus you do not need to found cities on this ultra huge Grassland. My best early production city had a pop of 4 and made 15 shields per turn.
3)Dont fight all sides war. Get yourlesf allies on all side of your empire except one.(ghenghis Khan is a good example. He is dumb as a rock and fight with everyboy, thus having no open borders. Makes him a good shield from others).
4) Get to war as soon as you have swordsmen. Use your swordsmen on small cities to PROMOTE them to city raiding 2. A city raiding 2 sworsmen can basically take almost any city of this age.
5) When you choose a city to attack, grab the one which have pyramids.
6) Burn small cities on non crucial spots. They are too costly to keep up.
7) Dont waste your time founding a religion. Grab the civ who did it.
8) Wonders are mostly useless, except if you get industrious and marble or stone. However some are essential. 1) Hinging gardens and Pyramids. Get them at all cost.
9) Take ennemy ressources (except horses). AI horse attack are the MOST EASILY repelled. A cheap bronze spearmen can take out any horse ennemy until knight !!!!
10) When you are at war, position your units INSIDE a well fortified tile (Hills/Mountains) in the ennemy territory. They will waste their time attacking your well protected unit. (If you can put your well defende units on a hill with ressources, you basicaly WON the war).

 

[Willburn]

I didnt do a single reload and warmongered sucessfull on emperor.
But i got copper early. If you get copper or horse early you have a chance.
Then you do not build settlers..you chop axemen or horse archers...all you can!
Oh and about staying ahead in techs..forget it. you can at best stay at the same level or 1-2 techs behind. I guess if I had the perfect game and used wars a lot to get new techs i could stay ahead but Ive yet to do that. In my 23k domination win i was fighting musketeers and knights vs riflemen and grenadiers..and later tanks vs mechanized infantery. The trick is to use catapults to weaken and later bombers to weaken before attacking.

 

[Willburn]

Oh and about wonders you never should miss..there is only one in my oppinion. The kremlin. With it and universal suffrage you can boost so insainly ahead. I was buying units in my cities every other turn.. Its very powerfull. And it fits for builders too. I could buy banks in every city after 2 turns. etc..Heck even wonders are afordable. (this was on 50% science slider)

Hanging gardens is also powerfull only if you have a lot of cities early.
Pyramids can be powerfull if you are philosophical and go for the representation government. Can actually help you stay ahead in the tech race.

 

[spiceant]

i have trouble with founding my own religion because it takes hammers to spread the faith and missionarys need escorts untill i have a route that is protected by borders and close citys, if i dont get it around fast enough i will have lost 2 turns to anarchy from changing my religion twice (this 1 turn thing also keeps me away from slavery).
also i dont start with mysticism, it just isnt possible to found my own religion without oracle discovering the code of law.