Prince Difficulty Level:General Tips and Domination Victories

[Evangelion2014]

So, I've been lurking the forums for a bit and saw that there were no Civ5 strategy articles on the noble difficulty level or even any recent threads. So, I'll ask. To give you some background I played a lot of civ5 and had just mastered the noble difficulty level and was moving up to the Prince difficulty level. So, I started playing on warlord (difficulty level 3) and can steamroll it, but I'm having trouble for the most part on Prince (Difficulty level 4). I can reliably get a peaceful culture or space race win by using India or Siam or a similar civ, but so far I've had only one domination win on a standard or longer map. I played as Rome as a standard continents map, where 6 of the other civs were on my continent, who I bum rushed with the Roman UU's, netted enough luxury resources from all the other civ's starting area's for my expansion and made up for the rest with happiness buildings spurred by Rome's UA. By the time I found the ottomans, who I had to build up enough military strength to match, I built a huge fleet of naval units and a ton of mechanized infantry uints, I threw 2 nukes around the area of their capital and nabbed the win.

My games I've tried to rush a few of my neighbors from the start, and I usually take down 2 to three, until a a large neighbor just out tech's me or out numbers the unit's i've lost beating down my opponents. One game as askia for example, I got Catherine and Siam out of the way, but was attacked by arabia when they had a large army of midieval units and were starting to build Rifleman, needless to say, I just gave up, and probably didn't build enough libraries, as I had 6 cities and 2 libraries. So If I'm going for a domination win, should I take enough time to develop 3-4 cities fully and then attack?

When I do pull of a successful attack I tend to run into a few problems: I'm outclassed by a larger empire that isn't crippled by unhappiness or a bad economy, which then boils down to two things which in many cases can be boiled down into one:money. Most of the time you won't get enough luxury resources to fully counter unhappiness, so that turns into getting the right techs and enough money to support +happiness buildings. So, my theory is that I generally follow whatever the game tells me to build for improvements, which is spamming farms, but i have a feeling that like in civ 4 you need a substantial number of trading posts (or cottages) to get a solid economy. In general, how should I improve my land to get a balance of food, gold and production? Should I just go with improving the natural qualities of the land, i.e., farms on grassland, trading posts on rivers/flood plains, and mines on hills and lumber mills in forests? How should I balance building military/tech/happiness/culture buildings in order to avoid going broke but still coming out on top?

As an addon, what is a good policy for what to do with conquered cities? I gather I should only annex when I have the money to support a courthouse and the city is on good land, puppet when it's on good land but I don't have the money but can spare the happiness, and raze when it's on bad land? Or should I just raze most of the time unless I get spectacular sites?

Finally, do any of the much more skilled players than I have any general tips for mastering this level especially things to keep in mind when moving from civ4 to 5? Also, hello to everyone on the forums XD

 

[fromar]

Welcome to the forums, Evangelion2014!

From what I understand, Prince is a fully-balanced game where the player and the AI receive the same bonuses and starting units. Players have developed strategies on higher levels to milk the AIs for their huge bonuses. Since these bonuses don't exist on Prince, occasionally Prince is more difficult than higher levels.

Domination wins require tech leads. Regarding civ 4 - civ 5, one unit per tile means each individual unit is much more important than the old stack of doom. You can conquer just about any AI with a small army of promoted and teched-up units.

To maintain a tech lead, you need to generate great scientists and sign research agreements. With libraries, you get science per population, so in a large empire, you can generate massive science from just libraries. Building a national college before expanding to city #2 can help you move through the classical techs with lightning speed.

Regarding happiness, you need to plan ahead. Build a large happiness surplus before going on a conquering spree, not after. Build colosseums and theaters in your cities. The Piety social policy tree has a lot of happiness bonuses, as does freedom. Your puppet cities will eventually build colosseums and theaters. Luxuries are great, but are worth more if you can sell them to the AI. A lux brings 300g for 30 turns. You can turn around and gift that money to a city-state that has a luxury you don't already have. Then you are happy neutral (or positive in the case of multiple Lux copies) plus you get a war friend and any bonuses that city state gives.

Don't ever annex cities unless you have a reason to do so. Annexing produces extra unhappiness, and even if you built a courthouse, that costs extra money. Annexing also raises your social policy cost, so unless you need a strategic city to build what you want, put trading posts down all over the puppet cities. You can leave them alone and let the cash roll in.

If you are attacking a civ that's stronger than you, stake out a defensive position just outside their borders. Make sure your units are not within range of city-based ranged units. Then declare war, and let the enemy come to you. You can pick off their units with your ranged units and finish them off with melee. Let the AI exhaust their army, then move in to capture cities. You only need to capture the capital to win domination, but you may want to take a few more decent cities for puppets. When you capture a city, take a look inside. If it's a crappy city, burn it down or sell it to another AI. Crappy means: No buildings of note, no unique luxuries, no strategic resources that you need, and it does not hold a massively strategic position.

I think if you go watch Bibor's or MadDijinn's videos on immortal and diety, you will still learn how to play on prince.

 

[Kerosene31]

Just a few general things in addition to the great advice posted:

As was said, happiness is key. You need to stay ahead of it. Just because you are at +8 happiness now it will fall later on as your empire grows. It isn't if it will fall but when.

For improvements, the game just seems to recommend whatever focus you have your city on (if you are focusing on gold they will recommend trading posts, etc). On prince you should probably be going for balance overall. The one rule of thumb is you can never have too much gold. You can always get food from maritime city states.

I always raze cities and re-settle them, especially early on.

Another key is building maintenance. A common problem is building too much. Things like culture buildings are nice but don't necessarily build them everywhere if your culture is ok. The maintenance you end up paying on all those buildings adds up in a hurry.

On prince the key is learning to manage your gold mostly. Once you figure that out everything else will fall into place.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I am also a player stuck in the Warlord Doldrums who would appreciate some ideas on this topic. I'm not really challenged at Warlord, but I have a fun game so I stay there. It would be nice to have a little bit more competition, but I often just wind up getting frustrated.

Often, I know, one "failing" is my general approach to the game. I have strong builder tendencies, but that leads me into a less aggressive approach where I don't really push for slingshots and the like. I think there are ways to better maximize my efforts without forcing myself to do the same "exploit" or "trick" each time, however.

Currently, I lead with scout (or rarely warrior) > monument > worker > settler (> library > NC [after buying a library in my 2nd city]). Depending on which victory I am seeking and what my start looks like, I do things differently with techs and policies. Basically, beyond the standard starting build order, I tailor my start to my end goals (which is the reason most rigid strats don't work for me). "Tips" are much more useful in my eyes than rigid start that relies on doing things in an exact way AND having the luck to pull it off.

To answer your questions in general Evangelion, one thing I've always tried to do early on was choose my victory type. In a Prince game, if you're going for Domination, it's all about getting technology. Two libraries in six cities isn't going to work. You need to get Philosophy soon after Iron Working so you can start on your RA's with the guys you aren't killing currently and then push for education after you get longswords (or rifles if you are progressing quickly).

As for unhappiness, this is where a "tall" empire will serve you best. Gold and unhappiness will not be as much of a problem once you start conquering if you puppet cities. Puppets generally give you a net + on gold and happiness if you are picky about which ones you keep. I only annex a city near the next front of my war so I can buy troops for the front if things go poorly. Start razing them (one at a time because it will affect your policy advancement if you annex to raze) unless they have a new resource you need or a wonder.

As for terraforming, improve resources, farm everything by fresh water, farm plains, and mine or trading post everything else. Lumber mills generally pay off in the long run better than if they are chopped, but it's up to you if you do that. In a puppet, put a trading post on everything other than resources. You don't want them growing too much because they still affect your happiness and a puppet is all about science and gold.

Anyway, that's where I'm coming from in my experience as a guy right at your level.

Edit to Add: Fromar brings up a great point also that the AI is dumb with war. If you balance your forces with some ranged units you can deal with an AI with a minor tech lead because they will typically come at you in a particular area and you can focus two or three ranged shots on a unit which will be enough to take it out of the fight in the AI's opinion (wounded unit penalty really makes them less likely to attack). Don't forget to have some mounted units to take out enemy ranged though!

 

[Kerosene31]

Often, I know, one "failing" is my general approach to the game. I have strong builder tendencies, but that leads me into a less aggressive approach where I don't really push for slingshots and the like. I think there are ways to better maximize my efforts without forcing myself to do the same "exploit" or "trick" each time, however.

Unfortunately that is one bad habit that the lower difficulties teach. Once the AI starts getting bonuses, you have to have a focus or you will fall behind.

I spent far too much time on prince just getting a feel for things and all I did was learn a bunch of bad habits.

I play on king now and with that you have to have a plan. You don't need to follow some of the higher level formulas, but you need to know what you want to do. On prince I spent too much time doing a little of everything and eventually it doesn't work.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Unfortunately that is one bad habit that the lower difficulties teach. Once the AI starts getting bonuses, you have to have a focus or you will fall behind.

I spent far too much time on prince just getting a feel for things and all I did was learn a bunch of bad habits.

I play on king now and with that you have to have a plan. You don't need to follow some of the higher level formulas, but you need to know what you want to do. On prince I spent too much time doing a little of everything and eventually it doesn't work.

Well, as the rest of my post hopefully shows, I go in with a plan, but I do branch a bit. I acknowledge that I'll never play the higher difficulties (where the AI starts getting bonuses), but what do people need to do to make those adjustments in your eyes?

 

[DonQuiche]

I also struggled on my first two prince games because I had troubles managing a quick expansion. If it's also your problem (it does look like), here is the key: do not overextend and do not extend too quickly, this is possibly why you fail.

As an expansionist, you are faced with four burdens:
* The more you expand, the more expensive social policies become. As a result, the sooner you expand, the less social policies you will have. This can seal your fate on the long run! Especially because, as an expansionist, you more or less need to focus on some SP just to keep unhappiness in check : the über theocracy (piety branch) and the nice meritocracy (liberty branch), although the latter only pay off late.
* You will need to generate happiness, this means specific buildings (meanwhile, your opponents will build production/science buildings) and money for maintenance, city states or trade agreements. And that means more financial buildings for less gold per turn. All of that means that expansion cripples your efficiency if not correctly managed
* As long as you are expanding, you cannot build national wonders, you have to make a pause at some point to build them.
* You need to anticipate some more techs: once you built coliseums and markets in all your cities, you will need the techs for theaters and banks to make up for the demographic growth (and stock exchanges/stadiums later) so make sure you will have those techs early enough to finish building the first ones just before they are needed.


Those burdens lead to this conclusion: expand slowly, expand only when you can back it up, i.e.:
* When you are sure you will have enough happiness to support new citizens (both in the new cities and the old ones)
* When you are confident that it won't prevent you to grab the SP you need
* When it's not better to halt and build a national wonder.
* Make sure you unlocked the appropriate techs to not trap yourself.

Some notes:
* Regarding luxury resources... Sometimes, you may want to build a city just to grab a luxury resource but think about it twice: this city will cause more 5 unhappiness as soon as it reaches 3 citizens, this will be far before it can build a coliseum. Trying to grab all luxury resources is not a goal, luxury resources are just a support for hasting out your expansion at the beginning of the game : at the beginning, try to put new cities only close to a luxury resource but your goal is not to grab them all, try to not become dependent on external sources and rely on your buildings.
* Do not hesitate to limit your cities' growths : focus production and/or replace farms with trading posts.
* You do not have to rush a war, take your time : once you defeated the initial wave, it's going to be cool as long as no one opens another front (you can anticipate it: see this diplomacy guide).

Regarding conquest...
* Early conquests can be hard, pick your opponent carefully and check his wonders and units: if he has the Himeji castle and expects your attack, be prepared to suffer. When possible, I prefer to conquer in the late stages (bombers !)
* Puppets ! They do not increase the SP cost and courthouses costs three golds per turn and per city, this is a lot. I usually leave my conquests as puppets for the whole game, sometimes annexes a couple of them. Typically, I do not conquer/keep everything, just a couple of cities and I use settlers for the rest.

 

[Kerosene31]

Well, as the rest of my post hopefully shows, I go in with a plan, but I do branch a bit. I acknowledge that I'll never play the higher difficulties (where the AI starts getting bonuses), but what do people need to do to make those adjustments in your eyes?

I'm still learning king myself so I can't help much other than to say that you just need to be a little more focused. Everything is just a little faster.

I never planned on going beyond prince, but eventually I started always being one of the top civs without a whole lot of effort and moved up.