Pre medieval era, just beat 1 enemy off my island, left with 1, what now?

[Snovvdog]

As title
This is my first prince game after noble started becoming tooo easy, however I'm in a kind of situation where I don't know what to do, I've just beaten the germans on wich I declared war the turn I met them as they gave me a worker for free .
But now, after the war, I'm left stuck with an enemy better than me in everything but military (we're equal) and food.
Now I'm left with a crippled economy, and a huge army of aztec jaguars, some horse archers, and some axemen, and all my cities left almost undefended ( just 1 or 2 units for defence ).

Prince lvl, BTS, small and large map standard size iirc, epic, montezuma.

This is the situation:













Any help what do do now ( in detail) would be very appriciated.

EDIT: Should I post the savegame too?
EDIT 2: See post ~3 for more info and savegame.

 

[Janus0]

Basicly, you have over expanded. There are two ways to expand in civ, slow and steady and REX. You've done the first step of the second. The way to pull yourself out now is to focus solely on your ecconomy and just leave your opponents alone militarily. The good news is you have good land (and lots of gold!) so the game is quite salvagable. Pump out a worker in each of your cities (two might be better) and do everything you can to maximise your commerce.

Aquire writing and pottery if you don't already have both and then decide for each of your cities if you want it to be an SE, CE, or production city and get the tiles around them improved asap. Hook up your resources first so they can grow to full size.

The bottom line is you will be behind for a while, but the land you have (and the fact that you have alot of it) will allow you to come back, but you need to start working on your ecconomy right now.

 

[Snovvdog]

I've got both those techs already and some hamlets or villiges ( develloped cottages anyhow) in my captital, and other east coast cities.

Biggest problem with the gold in the north west is the barbarian city, the greeks are beating me to there with 1 turn, wich means that city is theirs, so basicly those 3 gold tiles are wasted aalready I think, leats I've secured the other 2 and mining them already.

Hooked up most resouces, the only really unworked city is berlin wich I just captured, but it's on a great spot imo with ivory and 3 clam, also loads of unchopped forests, but all otehr cities except berlin and one are linked up to all resources in their BFC iirc.

Last time I checked though, my biggest expenses were maintanance and military, iirc during war i lost 15 per turn just for unit costs ( or was it supply?).

The reason I expanded this much is to capture good city locations before greece does, and to keep up with greece ( wich I think still has more cities than me)

Commerce/research cities are my capital, and the 2 cities south of it ( on the east coast ).
All other cities Haven't decided yet, wasn't yet important as all I needed to do is mass produce axes and jaguars.

Can you perhaps check out the save so I know what to research, and what to generally build everywhere, oh and most importantly, although I'm on good relations with him, I'm afraid militaristic alex will invade me, how can I keep him in his own territory?


Thanks for replying and thanks very much in advance to anyone advising me, I really want this first prince game to not become a terrible loss lol.

 

[dankok8]

You're in an excellent position to win it. First of all, you have the highest crop yield which means you have the potential to have the largest population and second, your power is only slightly less than Alex's. Given that you're human and he's an AI, you'd probably kick his sorry ass if a war breaks out. I wouldn't be worried. Make sure you build a courthouse in every city and once your population takes off, so will your production and GNP provided you build enough cottages.

 

[Snovvdog]

I don't think I can make courthouses yet? But what should I do generally this very moment, go and punish alex ( I've got enough units for about 1 big stack of doom, I've got barracks in pretty much all cities) or get my economy on track again , I'm researching the tech for cata's and war elaphants atm is that ok?

Okay I'll start building cottages more ( atm building some, but at a slow rate, but got enough workers anyhow 7 or 8 I think),

Well I don't know if alex would be defeated by me atm, his production is better as mine, he can mass produce mroe army's than me.

What should I do about that future greek city in the north west near the 3 gold ?


If you wounder why I'm so cautious, this actually isnt my 1st prince game, it's my first sp prince game, but I got owned twice earlier in 2vs2 team games with a mate vs price AI's.

 

[Snovvdog]

Just played on, about 10-15 turns ( decided peace) and now alex owns me with evreything, gdp, food, prod, power etcetc, what now, I've been avoiding buildign military at all and atm have like 5-10 cottages under construction.

It seems I already have 1 village, and 2 towns, 1 hamlet in my capital and some unmature cottages.
Also have some develloped cottages in otehr cities.
But still I can only research 20%, what should I do !

ARGH alex has longbows, wich means im behind in tech, REALLY behind.

Help.

 

[Gooblah]

Okay, beeline for Code of Laws for the Courthouses ASAP. I'm assuming that you share religion with Greece, and hopefully he's Pleased or Friendly. I stress a cottage spam combined with the "fat cross theory". enter your city screens, and count all of the food yields. Anything above 2 counts as a positive number: 3 food on a farm, thus 3-2 is 1, and the tile counts as 1. Anything below 2 is negative, so 1 food on a tile would be 1-2=-1, so the tile is -1. If the number comes out as positive, you can stop building farms and go for Workshops or Cottages. If its negative, thats the number of farms you have to build. (don't remember who did this, but it is genius!). After allocating th rest of the land for resources improvements, find riverside tiles not farmed for cottages. That should bring your economy back up. After that, you can expand into drafting and such for an invasion of Greece. If your cities are truly undefended, build a worker and start spamming 3 archers in each. Unit maintenance may be high, but it'll even out in a little bit.

 

[Snovvdog]

Right so continue to spam cottages?

Also is CoL a priority over alphabet and currency? Atm doing currency and was planning to do Alphabet after.
I haven't got any religious ones yet except the one I started with, I usually ignore religious techs and trade em in later.

 

[Snovvdog]

Okay economy is startign to look better: GDP is almost near alex lvls and startign to build markets in my cities, also just 3 turns away from sacrifical altars/code of laws ( still ignored meditation, priesthood, I got it through currency).
BUT: Starting to fall behind in power.
Pics of situation:








What now? Continue to expand economy or start mass producing war elaphants now that they are still powerfull ( alex doesn't have ivory )?
Im Still on +9 with him.

 

[Red Viking]

i noticed alex is reasearching currency try to get something if anything from a trade with him

 

[Snovvdog]

Don't have alphabet, im researching now, after that it's calendar either by trade ( alex has it, I know coz he has them luxury's) because my cities want to grow more but can't...

I've further increased my research with specialists in cities I didnt want to grow in 4 turns from those pics (I'm playign as we speak in windowed mode), I'm upto 85 beakers/turn now.
Also I noticed CS is ready to research, should I go for that after alphabet instead and trade it in for some early tech or get them myself ( I can get meditation etc in 1 turn...)

But really I don't know what to do now: Get war elaphants or markets, its one of the 2 as my cities lack production to do both.

 

[r_rolo1]

How about suggesting to alex a war ( anyone will do, but send him the most far you can )? It would give you space to bread and you could backstab him when you're ready ( and of course, with his army far far away )

 

[Snovvdog]

How about suggesting to alex a war ( anyone will do, but send him the most far you can )? It would give you space to bread and you could backstab him when you're ready ( and of course, with his army far far away )

Cyrus says weve got enough on our hands now.
De gaule says nothing to gain ( btw he's VERY far ahead of me with techs, like 6 or 7 techs...).


EDIT: oh and btw, should i go for caste system, or keep slavery, whipping is very handy atm for me as got loads of food income in most cities while my unique building reduces the negative effect of whipping, but on the other hand, I need artists to keep borders from falling into alex's hands and mercants would be nice too, I'm leaning towards a mixed specialists/cottage economy.

 

[Snovvdog]

Okay instead of calendar I've went for monarchy for hereditatary rule, would give me more overall happyness than 2 extra luxury's, and i can switch civics without anarchy anyhow, also alex is going for civil service.
Hope this all turns out good, alex's gnp keeps growing though at the same rate as mine , so need some kidn of economical boost soon or else I'm goign to fall out of line compeltly, tried bribing alex vs france or cyrus, but he wasn't content with a bit of gold and a tech, he seems to want more for a war with either of them, ill keep trying though.

EDIT: Got monarchy, going for phylosophy as nobody seems to have it, to trade it against calendar and perhaps some gold or old tech.

 

[Terrance888]

Okay, beeline for Code of Laws for the Courthouses ASAP. I'm assuming that you share religion with Greece, and hopefully he's Pleased or Friendly. I stress a cottage spam combined with the "fat cross theory". enter your city screens, and count all of the food yields. Anything above 2 counts as a positive number: 3 food on a farm, thus 3-2 is 1, and the tile counts as 1. Anything below 2 is negative, so 1 food on a tile would be 1-2=-1, so the tile is -1. If the number comes out as positive, you can stop building farms and go for Workshops or Cottages. If its negative, thats the number of farms you have to build. (don't remember who did this, but it is genius!). After allocating th rest of the land for resources improvements, find riverside tiles not farmed for cottages. That should bring your economy back up. After that, you can expand into drafting and such for an invasion of Greece. If your cities are truly undefended, build a worker and start spamming 3 archers in each. Unit maintenance may be high, but it'll even out in a little bit.

:sigh: sistual

 

[Snovvdog]

Okay I think ill stop for today and play on tomorrow.
My problem now is production, im left with 0 producting cities, all the improvements I've build were built with the whip and the chop.
My army is obselete, half the size of alex and even numbers are small.
Any idea's what do do now?

Included the save, please help, I really have no idea how to become a producing civilzation again, and fearing greek invasion.
I'm off for the night, gnight people.

 

[GuitarHero]

Snovvdog, what you need to do is gain allies, like De Gaulle or Cyrus. Treat them very well, give them gifts whenever possible. EX: Get alphabet, then go on a colmpletley different course of research. then give away all that tech to you new "friends", all you need to do is make sure when war with Alexander comes, you got backup.

 

[Snovvdog]

The problem is I've got nothing to gain their trust, and one dislikes me already for wrong religion, Alex is the only one about same tehc lvl as me now, the otehr 2 although weak, are very far ahead in techs etc...

 

[GuitarHero]

What you should do in that case is drop your religion. Have no state faith and they can't hate you for your beliefs. Or, if possible, switch to their religion.

 

[Dnomal]

Switch to Philisophy (truet me), turn Berlin into a GS monster city, with the first one i traded for Monothiems and GOld to Cyrus.

Switch to Vassalage when you get Feudalism

Sell your resources. You can get 4 gold per turn for a rice you don't want... just keep selling, the more money and the more deals the better.