Now i have never been a very good civ player. This is why i play on prince. However, i normally do pretty well in the score aspect of the game, i do have trouble getting caught up with the other civs in terms of techs. However, with civs on my continent i normally do pretty well. But in an ungodly year, when the other continents start sending their caravels, they have me cornered in the tech race. Now my strat is usually to go for stonehedge and then the oracle, usually aiming for four city's (and a religion depending on my civ). Normally i do fine until this point, almos talwyas getting the oracle. With that, i had figured it to be a no brainer to get alphabet, as to start trading techs as early as possible to my inferiors. So please tell me what the heck i am doing wrong. And i know it may not be my strat but moreso my crummy build choices and lack of civ fundamental knowledge. ANy help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! PS and by the way i play on a mac, so im not sure if that matters for the PC users. PSS ANd any tips regardless of topic would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks yet again.
Prince Help
- Thread starter laxman888
- Start date
The save looks fine except for the science. Basic mistakes; you don't have an academy in Rome! An early great scientist for this would help lots. You should also build NE (only 4 turns) to increase the number of great people. It is also my impression that you are trying to research everything yourself, instead of beeling towards some key technologies and trading for the missing ones.
Other comments: some cities use unimproved tiles, while other have more improved tiles than they are able to work. You should probably specialize the cities instead of building one of each building everywhere.
Good luck with the game. It looks winnable.
Other comments: some cities use unimproved tiles, while other have more improved tiles than they are able to work. You should probably specialize the cities instead of building one of each building everywhere.
Good luck with the game. It looks winnable.
laxman888,
Thanks for posting your game (it makes it much easier to dissect). No problem with the Mac <-> PC conversion.
In terms of "basic mistakes" to me the one to highlight was that Iron Working was not discovered until 125BC ... you have arguably the most influential unique unit in the game, and it's a Golden Opportunity gone missing to have a tribe with this great unit and then wait for so long before building them.
A 'common' Roman strategy is to race towards Iron Working, find where the Iron is, hook-up near or even settle on the Iron, and start churning Praetorians out. Get a SoD of seven or eight with a few Axes and Spears, and go 'kick some behind'. After four or five cities (more because you're on a large map) the city maintenance will start to hurt your spending on science, and you'll be well served by pillaging and razing the enemy cities rather than capturing (... most of ...) them. Keep churning out more Praet's as reinforcements. In this game you have Tokugawa as a neighbour - he should have been smashed centuries ago with your Praet's as he will do absolutely nothing for you in nine games out of ten except present himself as an enemy (or present himself as a builder of your future cities
).
Did I mention "city maintenance"? Two technologies are important here - Currency and Code of Laws. These were acquired in 1110AD and 960AD respectively - far too late for you to support large expansion while leveraging your Praetorians.
There are other and lesser aspects to your game that I'm not sure that I'm quite following - Why build the Sistine Chapel? Why research Paper but not go on to Education? Why cut off chain irrigation opportunities to get fresh water to your Farms? Horseback Riding with no Horses? - hopefully picked up as collateral in a trade. Why not build more units so your cities grow larger to the health cap rather than the happiness cap under Hereditary Rule? Why make peace with Tokugawa at this point when his best two cities were next up (I'm not sure - but it looked as though you probably could keep going)? Why only one Catapult - siege weaponry is very important once available?
Perhaps a more important one; What victory condition to you have in mind? You've got a job ahead of you if you want to take out Japan and more so Mongolia, as you're pretty weak from a military standpoint. You are behind in technology, so you'll need to play catch-up for a space race win. You have done little to nurture good relations by being the only Christian in the world, so some effort will be needed on the diplomatic front if a diplo' win by external votes is what you're wanting (easily fixable I admit by switching religions!). Rome's culture's good, but most other cities are lagging, and it's the 16th Century and still no Drama or Music, and few religions in your empire for a cultural win.
Anyway - from here I think you need to work at killing off Tokugawa. More Catapults and Macemen. Use Hereditary Rule, as indicated above, to address any happiness issues. Consider technology 'targets' on the technology tree - for instance Chemistry and Steel for Grenadiers and Cannons for taking out Mongolia once Japan's finished. From there review your victory options.
Get angry!
I know this post sounds a bit 'pick-pick-pick', but the intention is that it might be of some help!
Thanks for posting your game (it makes it much easier to dissect). No problem with the Mac <-> PC conversion.
In terms of "basic mistakes" to me the one to highlight was that Iron Working was not discovered until 125BC ... you have arguably the most influential unique unit in the game, and it's a Golden Opportunity gone missing to have a tribe with this great unit and then wait for so long before building them.
A 'common' Roman strategy is to race towards Iron Working, find where the Iron is, hook-up near or even settle on the Iron, and start churning Praetorians out. Get a SoD of seven or eight with a few Axes and Spears, and go 'kick some behind'. After four or five cities (more because you're on a large map) the city maintenance will start to hurt your spending on science, and you'll be well served by pillaging and razing the enemy cities rather than capturing (... most of ...) them. Keep churning out more Praet's as reinforcements. In this game you have Tokugawa as a neighbour - he should have been smashed centuries ago with your Praet's as he will do absolutely nothing for you in nine games out of ten except present himself as an enemy (or present himself as a builder of your future cities
). Did I mention "city maintenance"? Two technologies are important here - Currency and Code of Laws. These were acquired in 1110AD and 960AD respectively - far too late for you to support large expansion while leveraging your Praetorians.
There are other and lesser aspects to your game that I'm not sure that I'm quite following - Why build the Sistine Chapel? Why research Paper but not go on to Education? Why cut off chain irrigation opportunities to get fresh water to your Farms? Horseback Riding with no Horses? - hopefully picked up as collateral in a trade. Why not build more units so your cities grow larger to the health cap rather than the happiness cap under Hereditary Rule? Why make peace with Tokugawa at this point when his best two cities were next up (I'm not sure - but it looked as though you probably could keep going)? Why only one Catapult - siege weaponry is very important once available?
Perhaps a more important one; What victory condition to you have in mind? You've got a job ahead of you if you want to take out Japan and more so Mongolia, as you're pretty weak from a military standpoint. You are behind in technology, so you'll need to play catch-up for a space race win. You have done little to nurture good relations by being the only Christian in the world, so some effort will be needed on the diplomatic front if a diplo' win by external votes is what you're wanting (easily fixable I admit by switching religions!). Rome's culture's good, but most other cities are lagging, and it's the 16th Century and still no Drama or Music, and few religions in your empire for a cultural win.
Anyway - from here I think you need to work at killing off Tokugawa. More Catapults and Macemen. Use Hereditary Rule, as indicated above, to address any happiness issues. Consider technology 'targets' on the technology tree - for instance Chemistry and Steel for Grenadiers and Cannons for taking out Mongolia once Japan's finished. From there review your victory options.
Get angry!
I know this post sounds a bit 'pick-pick-pick', but the intention is that it might be of some help!
futurehermit
Deity
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- Apr 3, 2006
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Yes, get IW, currency, and col much earlier!!! That's solid advice
And don't take alphabet off of the oracle. Take monarchy (CE) or col (SE).
And don't take alphabet off of the oracle. Take monarchy (CE) or col (SE).
Yes, get IW, currency, and col much earlier!!! That's solid advice
And don't take alphabet off of the oracle. Take monarchy (CE) or col (SE).
CoL is SE?
If i could choose i would take CoL all the time for courthouses. So i can support more cities with lots of cottages. CoL is a strong tech, so i don't know why anyone would pick Monarchy instead of it unless they got no happiness resources.futurehermit
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Monarchy because even with resources you want to grow your cities as large as possible asap to work max cottages and herrule allows you to do that. CoL is SE because 1) it unlocks caste system and 2) it unlocks philosophy slingshot for pacificism. CoL is also en route to CS which does help a CE, but it also gives irrigation, which is important for SE.
resources you want to grow your cities as large as possible asap to work max cottages and herrule allows you to do that. CoL is SE because 1) it unlocks caste system and 2) it unlocks philosophy slingshot for pacificism. CoL is also en route to CS which does help a CE, but it also gives irrigation, which is important for SE.Monarchy because even with
Maybe, but i get Monarchy from trading eventually so it's still not worth the same as early CoL for me. I think CoL is a key tech regardless of SE/CE/HE or whatever you call your economy
I've played some version CE/HE most of my time and i always want CoL first, so i'm not sure what the deal with early monarchy is. (Early mining/hunting happiness resources is perfectly viable to have the same effect as early monarchy for most of your cities, and i start wars to get these resources) The important point is getting your capital to a decent size so it's ready for Bureaucracy power anyway
In the end all comes down to land regardless of economy. Land is power, to support more land you need CoL more than Monarchy.
The only "true" SE techs for me would be Philosophy and maybe Constitution too, the rest power up both economies anyway.
And for not taking this thread away from the point. Land is power, on all difficulty levels your problems can be solved by assimilating neighbors into your nation. Take down at least 2 opponents and get 30-40% land and cottage up and no AI will tech from you late game.
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