Playing US and others on harder difficulties

[GuitarDemon]

Usually I play on monarch and marathon. And while I usually run into some difficulty at a certain point I just walk all over the AI. Trying to go back and beat my favorite CIVS on harder difficulties and I’m getting curb stomped every where I go.

Right now I’m trying US on emperor. My tried and true strategies are not working.

I’ve read some suggestions of conquering a europes core but they usually have rifles by the time I’m ready.

England tech rate is insane and usually 6-8 techs ahead of me. I know at some point the US economy and industrialization really takes off and I can become tech leader by 1920s or earlier. Last monarch game I played I beat the game at 1920 ad.

But on emperor I’m getting beat to my UHV buildings ridiculously fast.

Some how I need to get my economy off the ground much earlier if I’m to compete with the other civs. Or commit to conquering England core? I usually try to play more historical but harder difficulties don’t allow for it

Anyways tldr need help with US on harder difficulties. Also other CIVS as well, SPAIN is another favorite of mine that I can’t even come close to beating on emperor anymore

Edit: forgot to mention there’s an additional layer of difficulty added to playing US now. For some reason no matter what I cannot trigger England to declare war on spawn in the latest version. That means we’re missing out on a something like 8 additional military units which really hurts even more so on harder difficulty. Which means conquering a Europe core early almost impossible

Also one less settler.

Gonna try another roll over the weekend or maybe next week and see how it goes


AAR:

Had my best game yet but still got beat to empire building by England.

I made two grave mistakes. One England has to be destroyed in emperor. I’m convinced there’s no other way.

Two, I used defense pact with Russia to create chaos I Europe but underestimated how easily they would steam roll over my rivals. They created an early soviet bloc out of Europe vassalizing Germany, Spanish, Poland, and france. The last issue was with france. Becuase they still owned 3 carribean cities (they got them from world congress) so I would have to fight all of Europe tanking my diplomacy and breaking the defense pact

But I’m convinced only through destroying England can the game be even remotely winnable

 

[xijinping]

The old strategy for America worth a try, RNG to England declaire war on you, sneak your free units to capture london. By doing that you gain a mega citiy that produce milk and eliminating your by far the biggest competitor. After that all there left to challenge you is Prussia's Frankfurt, which can be captured (and gift to france if you dont want to risk congress decisions or cultural flipping over) to the ground in a surprise war after your remaining army healed in London, and the turn limit, which is somewhat challenging but manageable.

If you dont like initial war chesseing, this strategy may still work with initial units ( you dont have to have guards in most of your cities due to the sufficiency of happiness from UP) but not on paragon as you will have no chance to seize Frankfurt in this scenario and Prussia will build one, if not all, of your required wonders there. In lower difficulties disssolving prussia isnt a must.

I havent played this for a few years so some ( if not all) part may need tuning. But from my understanding I think it will overall still work fine.

 

[Dracosolon]

I thought you couldn't get AI to declare war on spawn anymore on the latest versions.

 

[xijinping]

I thought you couldn't get AI to declare war on spawn anymore on the latest versions.

huh sorry im kinda obsolete. will be curious of the new strategy to pass Americe at diffucult level

 

[DanLT3]

I have been playing America lately on Marathon/Paragon, game speed/difficulty.
After a few tries I concluded that collapsing England is now a must. As soon as you got Ballistics go for London and then Edinburgh.
Taking those two cities is enough to collapse England.
You can land your troops on the south western tip of England without having to enter their borders with your transports.
Having an open border with another European country like Portugal then allows you to get away safely with your transports, and ship them back for more troops.
Because England is going to rule the sea's since you are way behind in tech.

 

[GuitarDemon]

Giving this one another go. Still hoping I can beat it without having to destroy England.

Here's my strategy so far. Any advice on how to optimize it more please let me know.

No starting conquers in 1.17 version.

First civics I switch to manorlism for 50% discount on workers and pump out at least 10 or more workers. Lots of land to develop. I've been switching to regulated trade for 50% custom house speed. Not sure if that's a good idea.

1500 starting gold with quick start. Here's where things get tricky. I've tried different strategies here and not sure what works best. One strategy is build science buildings in slow cities like Boston and Charleston. Another is one mega city. New York for trade or Washington so they can focus on military only.

The one I tried for this run is developed core. So used the gold to build up cottages and mines early. Let me know what you guys think is optimal here. I think it can make or break a run.

Next strategy is DOW on France and use defense pacts to start global war in Europe. Grab new Orleans right away and Haiti later. New Orleans is too valuable of land to be left to France and waiting on congress vote is a gamble.

Research is priority is biology, metallurgy and then labor unions. Trading techs as I go I can picked up some extra techs like machine tools.

Used first great scientist to bulb biology. Waiting on an engineer for statue of liberty.

Once I got my workers I switched to indivualism, free enterprise, and colonialism. I think egalitarianism would have been a better choice for double engineer slots and chance for great engineer honestly. Not a lot of cottages early on so I think I messed up here.

That's as far as I've gotten so far. Spying on England and they are still 8-10 techs ahead of me so in 1840 it might already be a lost cause.

Another strategy I tried for emperor difficulty is full spy economy but still was not even close to catching up to England.

Anyways any tips would be useful. Mainly how do I close the tech gap quicker?




One last note. What defense pacts do you all like when playing US? I'm thinking of trying a Monroe doctrine approach and defense pacts with America civs first

 

[Tigranes]

I am reading this one year later and can't help but marvel at how much things got changed with 'Murica. Not only the new map and resources, but also civics, UP, UUs and UHVs. I think game became more enjoyable. With the current tech rate Monarch/Marathon feels like the optimal difficulty. I was spying on British the entire game and still was second in techs. I always try to build all the American wonders (not only UHV ones), but I lost Hollywood to British very early on. Won the game in 1974 by collapsing China after bringing them to adopt the most ridiculous combination of civics (Cristo Redentor in the single most powerful Wonder in the game!)

 

[GuitarDemon]

Yeah 'Murica is a different animal now

I'd say it's harder earlier on since now we're missing the 6 free happiness but have faster growth rates. Happiness is a real problem early on I feel.

We have similar play styles in trying to get all the right wonders in the right locations lol I got Hollywood once but then lost UHV wonder for my efforts.

One additional self challenge that I've been trying is a pseudo cold war game. No defense pact with Russia makes the game way way harder. Late game Russia is a beast with at least 3-5 vassals and easily 40% or more military power. I've done it before but it's extremely hard to do sometimes.

But it's fun making trade embargo deals and NATO type defense pacts. Once in a wlhile they'll declare war on an ally and all hell.breaks loose but the AI militarily still lacking. If they built ICBMs then I'd be a little scared what they could do to me or my allies.

Anyways sorry to ramble but I suggest you play one game with no defense pacts with Russian or communist bloc nations and see how interesting it can get.

Shame that by the time US is ready to be a major global influencer the fate and allegiances of most nations has already been decided. At least in my experience

 

[Tigranes]

In my game Russia didn't settle a single new city from 1700 till 1974. Yes they can be a red menace, but only after you deal with Hitler. In my universe, Germany got nukes and whipped out Dutch with 8 nuclear bombings of Amsterdam. It was a tad bit excessive, but I bent out backwards to cajole Nazis into unholy alliance after fighting WW2 style stalemate war with them earlier, and wasn't going to get sentimental at this point. 75% power is a large number to match.

 

[GuitarDemon]

Gosh dang 8 nukes.. I forgot how much the AI like those bombers now. I might have to walk back what I said earlier, that is scary.

Most my games the germans can't their hands on oil or they start wonder hording so I have to cause ww2 and sic the Russians on them. They usually capitulate faster than I can build and ship over a decent army. But if they can grow uncontested then they become a monstrous civ, I'd like to see that more often

 

[Tigranes]

Yeah, they are never motivated to go after Romanian oil, but very fast teching helped them to build an offshore platform in Africa and I didn't pillage it on purpose because wanted some old fashioned WW2 action. But then I realized that I might need Germany if I ever going to get to 75%.