Post short tips here!

[Gingerbread Man]

1: I read Sun Tsu's Art of War, and it sure helped.

2: Askan is right about disreguarding reputation, but i say only once you can build armies, feel free to backstab your enemy. war is won on deception, so decieve. make peace with someone you are at war with and are about to crush, in exchange for all they've got, but staight after you do that, the very same turn, destroy the enemy completely. Sure, reputation will dissappear, but you cant be stopped, cooz your invincible, right?

3: Also once you can build armies straight off, build a large grid of junky corrupt cities that can be easily replaced. as you need four cities to support an army, these 20 or so useless cities will give you an extra five armies! (has somebody else noticed this?) i havent fully tested this, so there could be something stopping you.

reputation is important when you are weak. when you are strong, it is only future proofing for when you become weak again. but in the endgame, future proofing is usless.

 

[thisismysn20]

#3, I have noticed that it is important to make extra armies. I usually build a abundance of small towns in tundra areas where production really doesn't matter. That way I get a few extra armies.

I figure it is pretty important to have atleast one army in each key area. One per continent... so on, it adds a very important stronghold in any war.

So personally I don't care if I waste 20-30 cities in the Tundra area, it won't do anything for me anyways. I usually keep these cities pretty low cost also, only building things that will help my nation, not the city. So usually University, Library... stuff like that.

 

[Shaitan]

Small city cash bonanza.
Plant loads of small cities in deserts and tundra. Manage these directly so they do not grow. Turn the available worker into a tax specialist. Corruption doesn't affect specialists so you'll always get a profit. The larger your city number, the higher your relative power is rated according to the AI. Also (as noted above) you can build far more armies.

Do not build improvements in these cities. Build workers. Production will be 1, meaning 10 turns to produce a worker. Watch and micromanage so the growth rate parallels the rate the worker is being built. Your large productive cities are not occupied with building workers. You get a steady stream of workers coming out that can be added to city pops or used traditionally.

 

[bbaws]

I usually build my military academy in a town that can turn out armies once every four turns. The armies just sit there (maybe one with knights or cav and two with infantry) until I get Modern armor. Imagine my surprise to find I couldn't build any more armies. It was time for war.

 

[bbaws]

On the subject of Sun Tzu, I never ever build it. I just target whoever has. Plan a strike on the wonder city and it makes the rest of that continent easy. Tell a lie I do build it on pangeas.

 

[philippe]

NEVER ever irrigate grassland in despotism
Cruise missilles and bombers are you best friends against heavely defended metropolises

 

[calle-76]

If im in a race against a rival faction to get an essential wonder such as the hover dame i use workers to join that city, thus cutting the build time by a few turns.

 

[Fierro1816]

Make workers like hell...

 

[billindenver]

Originally posted by Nick
If you've built up a nice little pot of money and then barbarians appear near an undefended city immediately go to the diplomacy screen. You should be able to lend another civ say, 100 gold, and in return get it back at 5 gold per turn (sometimes better). The barbarians will ransack production then disappear.

This is particularly useful early in the game when cities may not have any protection.

I probably lost 100 gold in my current game due to stupid barbarians attacking and either beating my warrior or taking it before I could build him. I could see it coming, but could do NOTHING. That's just a great idea!

 

[Evincar]

Originally posted by philippe
NEVER ever irrigate grassland in despotism
Cruise missilles and bombers are you best friends against heavely defended metropolises

Yes. But Artillery is more or less your lover in those situations

 

[Fierro1816]

Make an small city, rush The Manhattan Proyect and in the next turn abandon it!

And the nuclear menace is gone for good.

 

[Bretwalda]

Nice idea, but... never tested I guess?

It was posted somewhere, that it does not work, nukes are there even if the GW is destroyed...

Originally posted by Fierro1816
Make an small city, rush The Manhattan Proyect and in the next turn abandon it!

And the nuclear menace is gone for good.

 

[satchel]

I'm coming a little late to this party, but here is a tactic that has served me well (I am an intermediate player, I win handily on Regent but struggle somewhat on Monarch level).

As soon as you get mapmaking, even if you don't have the Great Lighthouse, have a seacoast city ready to crank out galleys and send them out in search of the civs you haven't met yet. You will lose many ships in the treacherous waters but it is worth it to meet the overseas civs first - you can quickly catch up in tech by selling maps and contact, or if you find you have a tech lead you can nicely augment your early income. If your neighbors meet the overseas civs first, they will trade amongst themselves, leaving you to beg for contact, maps, and tech.

 

[Yzman]

Actually as soon as the Manhattan project is built, nukes can be even it the project gets destroyed. You never lose the knowledge.

 

[Fierro1816]

It was a nice idea...

 

[Evincar]

Always sanction Revolutions at the end of the turn. In this way, you won't get the worker penalty that turn!

 

[Fierro1816]

Think every single move. Every single option is to be exploted. Rushing your game will lead you to make stupid mistakes. Take your time.

 

[ejday]

Originally posted by Tranced
an easy way to get a lot more cash per turn, is simply by exploiting a bug in the science research. say your researching flight at 70% and it says it will take 5 turns to complete. instead of just saying ok, try to go down to 60% and see if the number of turns changes, if it doesn't, then try to go lower. what's the use of using 70% of your cash to research something in 5 turns if your gonna be able to get it in 5 turns anyway at a lower percentage level. ive found that when your getting a huge income, lowering science by 10% can give you 150 extra a turn+. the concept is simple. pay science the least amount of money in order to get the job done in the same amount of time.

I was reading through to see if anyone had figured this one out, and lo and behold, Tranced said it. There's an addendum that can net you an additional couple bucks, but let me set up how it works:
Setting the slider on the research bar creates, depending on your infrastructure+gov't, a set amount of science per turn. Like Tranced, says, using the lowest setting for the same research time is the efficient way to go. But...
Whatever your setting happens to be, when you get down to one turn before the discovery, try adjusting the slider bar again (*especially* if you're pumping loads of gold into the research effort). See how low you can take it and still make it one turn. When I was up at 90-100% research, I was able to drop to 10% for the last turn on several occasions and make loads of bucks for that turn. (Usually, I could rush an improvement that way).


EJ
Note: As you read the announcement of your discovery, you'll get the "Next Advance Heart Attack." Your advisor will tell you you've finally discovered underwater basket-weaving, then he'll ask: "What shall we explore now?" And your option list will say something like "The Wheel (7 Million turns)." That's when you have the heart attack. Don't Panic.
1) Don't click "OK. Sounds Good." from the option list window. You can, and you can change your research rate anytime during the turn without loss, but after all the civic planning (and civic deconstruction of neighboring states), especially for players that don't like to micromanage, you might forget and go to the next turn without resetting the science rate. So...
2) Click on the "big picture" option and reset science immediately. Personally, I like looking at the tech tree anyway...

So, there you have it.

 

[ejday]

Originally posted by Japher
A few tips I have learned in my first few games:

1. Never play while under the influence, you will come back to your game with an army of spearman and one swordsman, and all your towns will be making the palace. (It sounded kewl at the time?)

Okay, I was nodding and smiling with #1, but I laughed out loud at #9:
9. Ghandi is a prick.
Thank you. I needed that.

Had some thoughts on:
2. Trade, trade, trade!!! Always trade for tech. and maybe lux. never trade away iron, and if you can buy techs, don't swap. A world map can go a long way on a trade, even if you have already traded it to them like 100 times and still haven't found anything new.
Interesting...
1-I loathe giving away tech unless the AI is dead even with me anyway. My usual strategy is research up the tree on Republic (forgo democracy for a while) until you get steam (for railroads; to increase production) and replaceable parts (for faster workers, rubber, and infantry). By then, I can turn around, pound on my neighbors that have been dallying with Free Artistry, and demand all of their older techs that I don't have when they inevitably sue for peace.
2-If I'm far away from other civs, I'll give them a token gold instead of a trade for a map. I do NOT want them eyeing empty territory around my borders (even if it's tundra, it still gives them a base of operations). If I'm already surrounded, it doesn't make a difference, and the map is a great bargaining tool.

3. Location, location, location!!!
Couldn't have said it better. How do I optimize for large cities? Try and find place with a good mix of hills in it (+mountains if you have the grasslands to support the mining pop). Water is handy, but you can *usually* string that over (or wait until you've got electricity). What you can't get around is the production power of a city with some hills in the mix. Just beware the coming pollution...
On that note (and call me a geek), but I actually traced out the city grid on clear plastic so when I'm planning where to send my settlers, I can maximize each city's resource use with minimum overlap.

Hmm...
7. Get your towns locked on growth, and stay in depotisim as long as you can afford it, and don't be afraid to use the whip.
I'm gonna take a different tack here. If I got lots of room to grow (like a continent to myself), I go for the Republic early for the production and the drop in corruption. If, however, I'm gonna be stuck in war early on (and for a long time), I'll go with Monarchy. You may not have the *absolute* power of a despotism, but the increase of efficiency is worth it (not to mention you still have a leash on war weariness).

11. Have 4-infinite workers working a tile at once. Clearing jungle takes a long time!
Amen. Let's hear it for stacking workers!

EJ

 

[Scyphax]

I find workers very useful in war.

I frequently have workers coming out of my ears due to razing enemy cities or stopping enemy settlers.

In a war I use these as bait to lure enemy units from high ground to a less protected area where I can attack them more easily. Workers can also delay a enemy attack for a few vital turns until reinforcements arrive. This has saved my cities on numerous occasions. I generally have 1 defensive unit per city with offensive units off fighting battles or scattered around on roads ready to respond.

Workers in peace time can form a picket line to prevent the passage of 'friendly' units or occupy prime real estate to stop the creation of a foreign city there.

I have not tried this yet: I believe workers occuppying all the land on a small island should prevent any invasion until marines are available. I know it works with cheap military units