[BTS] Post war buildup - how do I do it?

[Framesticker]

Hi there,

Been coming back to Civ4. Pretty quickly got up back to Immortal - Emperor felt way too easy, but Immortal is definitely as hard as I remember it. Anyway, I just conquered the Romans using Swords and Axes, now bolstering a pretty solid city count with some extra land to settle (got the Pyramids also for kicks).

However, I always sucked at post war buildup. How do I make use of all the land I now have? What are the priorities as far as tech and infrastructure go? I'd love some advice.

Save is attached.

 

[cseanny]

Wow! 50 minutes into the game and you're almost to 1 BC o_^. I played real quick to 250 Ad

Spoiler :

A few thoughts first. You appear to have gone a bit crazy on unit production in your war vs Rome. Also, not having Alphabet and Currency this late seems curiously strange. Probably too many worker turns focusing on unit production and not prioritizing a few better tile choices early.

Having said that you're still in a strong position. Taking a look at your cities I whipped a granary in the Capital asap while working max commerce, grew to size 7, then ran 2 scientist. Northern city started a Sword for barb city with chops (all workers) instead of making cottages. Sent the Sword that was already north to investigate barb city and it only had one defender so I attacked with 1 sword and capture/raze/pillage for coin. Sent your injured 2 axe/1sword to southern barb city and captured/razed that too. It also had just one Archer; Monte had some injured units in adjacent tile.

Jao demanded I switch into Buddy which I denied. In your southern city I switched tiles around a bit and switched to a granary to be whipped next turn. I also whipped the Library (overflow and then chop into monument) in the city which was 9t from finishing and 1turn from growing. I went to max research after your Capital reached size 7. The city your medic3 was in switched to chopping 1axe because......

Since you had all those units left I grabbed your big stack, minus the .9 health Sword (healing with med3)and attacked Monte's horse city. The straggler Axes went to the city with the Medic3 and joined with 2 other Sword (one of which was a city garrison) to capture/raze Monte's newest founded city (right by our border). We then sued for peace/tech/gold.

Earlier we traded Aesthetics for Alpha (backfill some techs) from Izzy (jao almost had Aesthetics) and then went Currency up to Music. At around 250 AD Music is 4turns from finished and at max research we are at 238. Not the fastest Music or best tech rate in the world but still in a strong position to do whatever you want from there.

 

[gaash2]

Not sure if the pros agree but sometimes if I build up fast w an early war I use the next great person even if it’s my first GS for a golden age. Situational of course, but something that’s worked for me a decent amount on IMM

 

[SnipedSoul]

Alphabet and currency are the most important techs to recover from a rush. Use scientists to get to alpha, then build research to get to currency, and build wealth to make sure you don't go broke. You can whip/build courthouses in cities that have ~8 or more maintenance. If I am SPI, I like to pop into caste system and run a pile of merchants. A GM trade mission can get enough gold for several techs.

Make sure you have enough workers to improve your land in timely fashion. At least 1 worker per city is decent, but 2 per city is good if there's a lot of jungle to cut down.

Set up a GP farm so you can bulb techs and trade them around to keep up with everyone else.

 

[unas876]

Not sure if the pros agree but sometimes if I build up fast w an early war I use the next great person even if it’s my first GS for a golden age. Situational of course, but something that’s worked for me a decent amount on IMM

GAs right after a war usually mean your cities are too far whipped down for the GA to come to its full effect. Usually you want GAs when your cities are as big as they possibly can get within a reasonable timeframe. Obvious reasons: the more tiles you're working the more you benefit from the improved tile yield of the GA and in cities where you're planning to run specialists obviously you can run more specialists. Also in a regular game you're usually waiting with your first GA until you have NE set up and Pacifism available, so you can really crank out more GP, which more often than not is the primary benefit of the GA anyway.

Bulbing stuff is a good use of GPs after warfare. A nice fresh tech if you can get it (Philo is usually a popular choice after early wars) can get you back into the teching game and net you a lot of juicy trades to catch up and/or get some money in the bank. If played correctly, that can net you enough time to improve and develop the newly conquered land and regrow the previously whipped down motherland without falling too far behind in the meantime.

 

[gaash2]

GAs right after a war usually mean your cities are too far whipped down for the GA to come to its full effect. Usually you want GAs when your cities are as big as they possibly can get within a reasonable timeframe. Obvious reasons: the more tiles you're working the more you benefit from the improved tile yield of the GA and in cities where you're planning to run specialists obviously you can run more specialists. Also in a regular game you're usually waiting with your first GA until you have NE set up and Pacifism available, so you can really crank out more GP, which more often than not is the primary benefit of the GA anyway.

Bulbing stuff is a good use of GPs after warfare. A nice fresh tech if you can get it (Philo is usually a popular choice after early wars) can get you back into the teching game and net you a lot of juicy trades to catch up and/or get some money in the bank. If played correctly, that can net you enough time to improve and develop the newly conquered land and regrow the previously whipped down motherland without falling too far behind in the meantime.

Don’t disagree .. unless you’re going broke without a GA and don’t have currency yet ... it’s def inefficient use of a great person in general, but if youve got double digit city count and negative income at 0% slider it can get you out of the jam comfortably. While I like to philo bulb , they usually means you have CoL in which case you can also whip courthouses and are close to currency or can easily trade for it. Maybe I’m doing it wrong but some of my early rushes have me very behind in tech but with 14 or so cities. A GA gets me back in the mix quite quickly