Alex Johnson
Warlord
nova10 said:
I'm really surprised to read this. I've never played with less than the maximum number of civs (7) and I've never had trouble at chieftain. Warlord really isn't much different. The big changes start around prince.
So let me ask nova10, what makes you nervous about increasing the challenge level in the game? Are you having trouble with something? Are you often behind the computer in some way?
My first guess was that nova10 was not taking advantage of the other government types, but it seems he plays as Republic and Monarchy, usually.
Other things that might cause one to fall behind:
* Don't focus on making each city perfect before starting the next one. You need to get a half dozen cities before your civ is worth much, so do it fast.
* Don't spend all your time building wonders. If you have few cities and you tie one or two up building a wonder, that greatly impairs your growth and military might. (Wonders are great and pretty close to essential, but select them carefully and weigh the time you spend on one against all the units and buildings you won't be building for those 50+ turns.)
* Trade is your lifeblood. You need roads to get trade arrows, and you need trade arrows to get tax coins and research beakers. Increase trade arrows with marketplaces when you've got at least 4, and banks when you have at least 6. Cut down corruption with a courthouse if you have 4 or more corrupt (black) trade arrows. Don't waste time on buildings that aren't making you money!
* Happiness is easy to obtain. Don't worry about temples until your city starts to grow. Since you always have a militia or phalanx defending each city, that is one unhappy-person-buffer. For example, if you can have 5 people before #6 gets unhappy, with a garison you can have 6 people before #7 gets unhappy. Then you watch for that first black person to appear in the happiness tab. When he does, make sure you get your next building built: temple, cathedral, colesseum. Cathedrals give 1 more happy person than colesseums but don't cost more to maintain, so build them first. On top of that you can build Michelangelo's Chapel to increase the effect of the cathedral! That's my killer combo.
* Government makes a difference! If your civ is small, you will not be able to sustain anything but despotism because despotism counters the maintenance cost of units to a point. But after you get at least a half dozen cities and you have multiple cities of population 6+, then you want to get out of despotism because it limits your growth (food, shields > 2 are cut down by 1 and some trade squares are also cut down by 1). Monarchy and Communism are good for military conquest while Republic and Democracy are good for research/space races. Monarchy and Republic have centralized government, so corruption increases further from your palace while Communism and Democracy have equally distributed corruption (Communism is low, Democracy is nonexistent).
* Fighting wars. Try to avoid going to war with 2 civs at the same time unless you have a decisive advantage over both (for example, you have knights to kill their phalanxes or armor to kill their musketeers). Never go to war with 3 or more civs. I've always lost when doing that. Mobility matters! Higher movement units (cavalry/chariots) can get to the front lines faster, and can attack more times per turn. A 2/1/2 unit is generally more desirable than a 3/1/1 unit. My armies usually consist of 80% chariots/knights/armor and 20% catapults/cannons. If you have to pay mantenance costs on units (in any government other than despotism) you won't want to have more than 1 defender in a city unless they are at or right behind the front lines. If you are worried about barbarians, keep one mobile unit sentried in the middle of your heavily roaded area. When barbarians appear, attack them first, and go back to sleep. Your cities will never be in danger.
