Plz help me fix my Elizabeth-Strategy...

[G-Bustah]

Well, like you see I'm new and well, like you see, already have a question

I dunnot know if this is a good way of strategy, but I have a straight strategy I always go for..

So first let me explain:

[EDIT: It's meant too play on Islands, Tiny or Standard]
First of all Elizabeth is Philosophical and Financial
So becuzz of the philosophical part I try and get as many Great Person-Based buildings and becuzz of Financial part I rush cottages and build as much as possible.

The Civs I try too get are=

Government Civic: Hereditary Rule
Legal Civic: Free Speech
Labor Civic Caste System, Emancipation
Economic Civic: Mercantilism ,State Property
Religious Civic: Organized Religions, Free Religions

Hereditary Rule= Every military unit in city gives +1 happiness.
So 1) Easy happiness 2) Improve military force in cities quickly

Free Speech= + 100 Culture rate in all cities and + 2 commerce in town's (second is the main reason = even more income and usage of Financial part.

Caste System= Dnno what for lol
Emancipation= The angry penalty for other civilizations without this and (main reason) 100% more development of cottages (Financial)

Mercantilism= Not much of importance, main reason is the 1 free specialist.
State property= Huuuuuge difference when havin' this; NO maintenance cost (=> even móre income) and as extra an additional +1 food from workshops en watermills.

Organized Religions= Not much of importance, in case I get a religion it's a nice boost (+25% faster construction in cities with state religion)
Free Religions= +1 happiness in cities per religion, but more important: +10% research in all cities!


Next off all, here’s the tech-tree:

1) The wheel (Without roads cottages don’t do too much good...)
2) Pottery (Makes you able too build cottages)
3) Writing (It enables the library [+25% research!])
4) Agriculture (Makes you able to build a farm)
5) Hunting (Makes you able to harvest several animal-resources)
6) Bronzeworking (This makes you able to chop forests and rveals copper)
7) Mathematics (Makes choprushing even worth more with a +50% productivity bonus and enables the HANGING GARDENS)
8) Alphabet (Enables technology trading and leads to other important techs)
9) Animal Husbandry (Makes you able to harvest several other animal-resources and reveals horse)
10) Mysticism (Needed to go on too Polytheïsm)
11) Polytheism (Needed to proceed to Literature)
12) Literature (Enables the GREAT LIBRARY and the National Epic)
13) Drama (Enables Theatre and Globe Theatre which are pretty handy)
14) Music (Enables the NOTRE DAME and when lucky you get a free Great Artist)
15) Sailing (Enables galley so we could start exploring around our island)
16) Masonry (Enables a quarry and when built an aqueduct you can proceed on HANGING GARDENS)
17) Currency (Get’s you an extra trade route and also market and grocer, which increase your economics)
18) Code of Laws (Enables the Caste System and first discoverer founds Confucianism!)
19) Ironworking (Reveals Iron)
20) Civil Services (Makes farms spread irrigation)
21) Priesthood (Leads to techs like monarchy)
22) Monarchy (Makes you able to build a winery and also enables Hereditary Rule!)
23) Paper (Leads to Education)
24) Education (Enables University and Oxford University, a great Research boost!)
25) Meditation (Needed for philosophy)
26) Philosophy (Leads to Liberalism)
27) Liberalism (Enables Free Speech, Free Religions and also when lucky a free Tech!)
28) Free Tech  Nationalism (Leads to Constitution)
29) Metalcasting (enables Forge and leads to Machinery)
30) Machinery (Leads to Printing Press)
31) Printing Press (+1 commerce from villages and towns => more income)
32) Calendar (Enables Plantations)
33) Construction (Leads to Engineering)
34) Compass (Leads to Optics)
35) Optics (Enables Caravel so we could start exploring the world [I know, pretty late])
36) Engeneering (+1 Road movement and leads too chemistry)
37) Feudalism (Leads to Guilds)
38) Guilds (Gets you a grocer and leads to banking)
39) Banking (Mercantilism and also gets you a bank => more income)
40) Economics (When lucky you’re the first discoverer and gets a Great Merchant)
41) Astronomy (Gets you better ships and also observatory which increases Research)
42) Gunpowder (Leads to Rifling)
43) Replacable Parts (Leads to Rifling)
44) Rifling (Makes you able too create your special unit REDCOATS, which are a pretty boost)
45) Chemistry (Leads to steampower)
46) Steam Power (Leads too Assembly Line and Railroad)
47) Steel (Leads too Railroads)
48) Railroad (Improves Roads)
[From here on I lost contact with the person who was helping me out]
49) Democracy (Gets you Emancipation and STATUE OF LIBERTY)
50) Corporation (Leads too Assembly Line
51) Assembly Line (Enables Infantry and also the PENTAGON
52) Scientific Method (Leads to Communism)
53) Communism (Enables State Property!)
54) Physics (When lucky, you’re first too discover and get a free Great Scientist)
55) Biology (Leads to Medicine)
56) Medicine (Enables Hospitals and Red Cross which is handy because by now you’ve gottin into warfare)
57) Combustion (Enables better Naval units)
58) Artillery (Leads too Rocketry)
59) Electricity (Could get you Broadway and also leads too several techs)
60) Industrialism (Enables Marines and other better military units)
61) Refrigeration (Improves Naval units with +1 movement)
62) Radio (Enables bomber, when lucky ROCK ‘N ROLL and leads to Mass Media)
63) Mass Media (Enables HOLLYWOOD)
64) Plastics (Enables the THREE GEORGES DAM and electricity in general)
65) Fission (MANHATTAN PROJECT)
66) Ecology (No sickness from buildings with Recycling Center, great boost!)
67) Flight (Enables your Airforce)
68) Rocketry (Enables NUKES [mwuhahaha])
69) Computers (Enables Laboratory which increases Research)
70) Satellites (Well we get too see the world map, lol)
71) Composites (Enables better Military)
72) Genetics (+3 Health everywhere and leads to Future Tech)
73) Robotics (Increase your military)
74) Fiber Optics (Makes you able to create the INTERNET and leads to Fusion)
75) Fusion (When lucky and discovering as first, you get a Great Engineer)
76) Future Tech (Increases health and happiness, over and over again, timeless research)

Further on my building strategies:

First of all when created my first city I create a warrior, a worker, another warrior and then a settler. When building I NEVER build walls because it’s pretty useless on an isle and by the time people come invading you they’re probably already coming in with riflemen…
But the MOST IMPORTANT is to RUSH COTTAGES!!!
Rushing cottages is what the Elizabeth-Strategy is based on, so build s much cottages as possible. Also try and build these next to rivers since this will give you a +2 commerce bonus!

So that is my strategy.



Well I hope it ain't too bad, had help for it from a guy I met when playing online. Plz help me fix this becuzz tomorow, Friday I'm playing against my dad's workmate who's known too be a pro there (7:30PM Brittish time)

Well if I can't make it 'till then, no prob, but I juz need some help plz

ty

 

[Hackapell]

most of this sounds good! Really impressed with the tech tree as well; I always lose focus after the renaissance
your tech tree is too rigid in the early game. If you have farmable resources early on, Agri is a priority, so don't delay! Alphabet, imho, is too early; you'll take years to research it while your army stagnates, leaving you wide open for a swordsman rush. You've left IW until after music?!? first IW and military techs in MP! the goal of MP is to conquer, so speak softly and attack with overwhelming firepower. roads are not necesary for cottages. Are you using SE or CE? I can't tell. IF SE, you shold be able to bulb 5 or 6 techs for free on the way to liberalism.
Your civics are OK; I would try to transition into Representation or US instaed of HR. Mercantilism is unecessary with the SoL. for labor, stick with slavery all the way to build your early armies and to rush infrastructure in conquered cities.
It's a good plan; your priorities are just mixed.

 

[G-Bustah]

Ty for the reply

Well I ain't familiar with many shortages..


What does SE and CE stand for (EDIT: can't either seem to find what SoL is..)

EDIT: Aah SoL = Statue of Liberty lol
Well maybe you rite, but if some1 there be4 me I should stick with HR I think.

 

[Hackapell]

HR and Mercantilism are mutually exclusive(HR is government, Mercantilism is economical), so you can run both at the same time.
Sorry for all the abberviations; CFC grows on you after a while, and you adopt their ways
SE stands for Specialist Economy: the theroy behind it is that early on, you use scientists to fuel your research instead of cottages. since you no longer are reliant on any of the sliders (done correctly, you can outtech the AI at 0% research ), the dough rakes in to your treasury. This is good early on, because with all those scientists you are producing Great Scientists by the boatload, and they can be used to instantly research, or "lightbulb" techs on the path to liberalism. this gives you a large, but temporary lead over the opponent that can translate into a military advantage. things you need to work this well are scientists, The Great Library, The Parthenon(optional), a phiosophical civ( also optional, but prefered),The Pyramids ( also optional, but useful for early representation), a cottaged city(preferably your capital with bureacracy) to get lots of money,Pacifism( doesn't mean you're not going to war though!), and patience with MicroManaging.
A CE, or cottage economy, relies on the convetional way of research, which is cottages, and lots of them. That commerce translates to scientific research via the science slider. Much easier to control that the SE, but slower, this economy will not pick up speed until the late Renaissance, with Free speech, emancipation, and the Printing Press. less micromangaging is required for this system. The Financial trait really makes this economy unstoppable, although late-game warmongereing is advised.
The battle over which economy rages on, and has been ever since Civ 4 came out, with proponents on each side, so pick your own style. For a lively debate on this topic on which economy is better, check out the thread Convince me to use a Specialist Economy.
Ah, but you use Elizabeth! Well, She's both philosophical and finacial, so cottage spam, but make more than one city have a lot of food resources and lots of scientists. Simple, really.
If you want more help, look at some of the game thread on the forums, Specifically Sisutil's ALC game(the link to his other games is in his sig), and aelf's Immortal challenge. they are an awesome resource for learning new strategies.

 

[Sisiutil]

I haven't played a ALC with Elizabeth yet, but she's one of my favourite off-line leaders.

Overall, your strategy looks good, especially your choice of civics to leverage the Philosophical trait and get more Great People.

I agree with Hackapell that your early game tech order could use a shake-up. Early growth is critical, and more food helps your Settlers get built faster. Remember, too, that precendent techs make their dependent techs cheaper. Thus, Agriculture will make the research of Pottery faster. Animal Husbandry is too important to put so late--besides revealing horses, you'll want to work cows, pigs, or sheep. Hunting can wait, unless you have one of the three camp resources (deer, fur, ivory) near your start.

I usually like to Axe-rush someone when I'm playing as Elizabeth, which means Bronze Working is a higher priority for me. In fact, it's the first tech I research. Elizabeth starts with Mining, which makes BW available early; the earlier the better for an axe rush. The 2nd English city claims copper, and once cities 3 and maybe 4 are built it's time to whomp a neighbour--preferably one with a holy city which you can cottage and make into your Wall Street city later on. After that first war and elimination of one opponent, I usually settle in and work towards Redcoats after that, usually getting Nationalism from Liberalism so I can draft.

Keep in mind I prefer playing on larger land masses than you do (pangaea, continents, or fractal maps), so your mileage on a more water-based map may obviously vary.

With Elizabeth, a hybrid economy makes sense. This means you'll have most of your cities with cottages, a few devoted to production, and a small number of high food cities that produce Great People. Because of the Philosophical bonus, you can have several cities producing Great People one after the other. For this reason I usually delay building the National Epic until GP get expensive, otherwise you'll only have one city producing GPs, and that often makes it hard to get different types of GPs. Running Pacifism and owning the Parthenon can make your GP production go through the roof.

Though they've been nerfed in Warlords, Redcoats are still a strong unit with a very long lifespan, since they beat the stuffing out of all the medieval units and stand up very well to all of their contemporaries. I like running Nationalism to draft them, Slavery to whip them, and Theology to give them more initial XPs.

 

[Hackapell]

Sis put things a bit more eloquently than I did, so listen to him if you don't like my text block. Thanks Sisiutil!

 

[svv]

A lot of times with Elizabeth you can put off agriculture for a long time. This requires one or more of the following: good fishing sites, some flood plains, or livestock and animal husbandry. If you have one or more of these, you can avoid buiding farms. Build cottages in the flood plains or on the grass, getting your excess food from the fish or the animals. Building cottages instead of farms also helps with the commerce.

Obviously, this depends on conditions. If you don't have the fish/floodplains/animals, or if you have just too many grains to ignore, you'll still want to get agriculture early. Most times, though, I find I can wait and trade for it.

The other thing I like to do with Elizabeth is concentrate my GP making in a GP farm, and have cottages everywhere else. Specifically, the GP farm should be one that raises great engineers, so that you can use them to quickly build other wonders in the same city (even though you're not industrious). That's how I got this city here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=219285

The GP farm is usually the capital. I'll often start out with some cottages in this city, but get rid of them as I need more food as I aquire the means to hire more engineers (such as by building the Ironworks).

So, I emphasize masonry earlier, and will try to chop they pyramids, and metal casting after alphabet, so I can build a forge and hire an engineer. Then I shoot for mathematics (Hanging Gardens), and the techs I need for the Hagia Sophia and the Iron Works (which I build in my gp farm, regardless of what the natural hammers there are). If I had warlords, I suppose I'd be trying to build the great wall there too. Anyway, by concentrating gp points in one city, and having cottages everywhere else (except maybe in a military production city and a money/shrine city), you can leverage both the financial and the philosphical traits.

 

[Sisiutil]

svv's post is excellent because it provides a contrast with mine. I'm obviously more of a warmonger while svv is more of a builder. You can choose whichever play style suits you and your mood. What I like about Elizabeth is that she's flexible and lends herself to either approach.

 

[smatt834]

with this tech path you are dead by #8. try again.

 

[Hackapell]

not to nitpick, but....

Alphabet, imho, is too early; you'll take years to research it while your army stagnates, leaving you wide open for a swordsman rush.

That was stated in post 2

 

[G-Bustah]

with this tech path you are dead by #8. try again.

Euhm well okay smatt...

The rest of you, already ty for helpin' me out
Well the battle with my dad's friend has been delayed because he called and said he's "sick" (ye rite ) so I've got lots of time

So rite now tryin out to make the beginning of my tech-tree more flexible and later on the day i'll try against some ppl online again

BTW; I think that I'm playing CE cuzz I try build as much cottages as possible.

I also want to let know I ain't too good at this game since I still have troubles planning out a difference in cities like one that creates military, GP's, etc.
So still need to work on well.. how too play

Aah well, still thx for helpin', later on I'll post the improvements for my strategy and when I've finally had that battle I'll report about how it went

 

[Hackapell]

good sources to learn how to play are anything in the war academy, and again Sisiutil's and Aelf's threads that play out games for you. If the games going on don't suit your style, read some of their old games for more advice.

EDIT: 100th post!

 

[G-Bustah]

lol well le'me try out all this


And well gratz with 100th post

lal

 

[svv]

I guess here's a basic tech tree I usally follow with Lizzy. I'm assuming I have flood plains.

Bronze Working
Wheel
Pottery
Masonry (if I think I have a shot at they pyramids, such as if I have access to stone and/or a lot of trees to chop)
Writing
Alphabet (now I'll try to trade for anything I can get, especially agriculture, animal husbandry, and maybe some religious techs. Assuming I have access to copper, I don't worry much about military techs; I'm happy with my axemen for a while).
Metal Casting
Mathematics (should have a great engineer coming soon from Pyramids/forge, so I'll build aqueduct and use the GE on the hanging gardens)
Literature/Philosophy (I'll aim to have literature done right about the time I get my next great engineer to build the Great Library. If it's going to be awhile for the GE, I might do Philosophy first).
Music (if I get it first, use the artist to lightbulb Drama)

What I do now depends on whether I think there's a tight race for liberalism, or if I need some offensive firepower. In the former case, I'll do the liberalism techs (paper, education, liberalism I think it is). Otherwise, I'll do construction (for catapults), Machinery, and Engineering (for Hagia Sophia), and then do the liberalism stuff.

If I get liberalism first, I'll usually use it on Printing Press, unless I feel a need to beef up my military very quickly, in which case I'll do gunpowder. In either event, my next targets are gunpowder, chemistry, steel.

After that, what I do depends on the situation. I'll usually beeline democracy to get Statute of Liberty, and then beeline Assembly Line to get Pentagon, Factories, Infantry).

I usually trade for the economic techs, but I might divert to economics if I think I can get it first and collect the great merchant.

 

[Agent Cooper]

The great thing (amongst many others) about the financial trait/cottage economy combo is, that you don't really need the economic techs to stay afloat, as you would otherwise. That gives you freedom and time to pursue other tech-routes earlier and get - as an example, redcoats and later cannons and you can dominate your part of the world.

Also, you'll be better suited to upgrade key military units which can be quite expensive. I usually drop my scienceslider to about 0% in the turns leading up to and following a declaration of war and shift to some of the more military-oriented civics. If I feel I can sacrifice them, I might use two 'useless' GP's to trigger a golden age (the only one I would ever start myself using GP's), to boost unit production further.

BTW: in SVV's techtree I would put Animal Husbandry at the top - it's usually the first tech I research since animal ressources often reside in my capitals big fat cross, followed most time by BW. I usually build a worker and settler before my first warrior.

It's great playing a leader which benefits from combining elements from a CE and SE, while having a kickass cool UU.

Oh, did I mention that I just looove to play as Elizabeth? She's hot - and smart too!

 

[futurehermit]

I haven't played a ALC with Elizabeth yet, but she's one of my favourite off-line leaders.

Overall, your strategy looks good, especially your choice of civics to leverage the Philosophical trait and get more Great People.

I agree with Hackapell that your early game tech order could use a shake-up. Early growth is critical, and more food helps your Settlers get built faster. Remember, too, that precendent techs make their dependent techs cheaper. Thus, Agriculture will make the research of Pottery faster. Animal Husbandry is too important to put so late--besides revealing horses, you'll want to work cows, pigs, or sheep. Hunting can wait, unless you have one of the three camp resources (deer, fur, ivory) near your start.

I usually like to Axe-rush someone when I'm playing as Elizabeth, which means Bronze Working is a higher priority for me. In fact, it's the first tech I research. Elizabeth starts with Mining, which makes BW available early; the earlier the better for an axe rush. The 2nd English city claims copper, and once cities 3 and maybe 4 are built it's time to whomp a neighbour--preferably one with a holy city which you can cottage and make into your Wall Street city later on. After that first war and elimination of one opponent, I usually settle in and work towards Redcoats after that, usually getting Nationalism from Liberalism so I can draft.

Keep in mind I prefer playing on larger land masses than you do (pangaea, continents, or fractal maps), so your mileage on a more water-based map may obviously vary.

With Elizabeth, a hybrid economy makes sense. This means you'll have most of your cities with cottages, a few devoted to production, and a small number of high food cities that produce Great People. Because of the Philosophical bonus, you can have several cities producing Great People one after the other. For this reason I usually delay building the National Epic until GP get expensive, otherwise you'll only have one city producing GPs, and that often makes it hard to get different types of GPs. Running Pacifism and owning the Parthenon can make your GP production go through the roof.

Though they've been nerfed in Warlords, Redcoats are still a strong unit with a very long lifespan, since they beat the stuffing out of all the medieval units and stand up very well to all of their contemporaries. I like running Nationalism to draft them, Slavery to whip them, and Theology to give them more initial XPs.

Why build more than one city? Claim copper with 2nd city, build a couple barracks, and go to war keeping capital, holy cities, cities that can pay for themselves (e.g., have a gold pit), and cities close to capital (low maintenance).

 

[Sisiutil]

Why build more than one city? Claim copper with 2nd city, build a couple barracks, and go to war keeping capital, holy cities, cities that can pay for themselves (e.g., have a gold pit), and cities close to capital (low maintenance).

I often find it takes too long to generate a sufficient initial army unless I have 3 or 4 cities churning out units. What with whipping and then recovering from it, as well as having to divert course to other builds such as Workers, granaries, libraries, and so on.