Problems with economy & happiness

[Vahnstad]

Everytime, i play civ 5 (i didn't play it much), and i'm honestly really bad in it, i just seem to be demotivated due my economy & happiness, it's always bad, and i just have to take 100% of my attention and efforts to economy (gold income) & happiness, and it ruins my game immersion. It's too difficult. I can't even win on King difficulty... .

I've even built Notre Dame ffs... . And how can you conquer other civs (i've to conquer Iroquios). How can you have a standing army? How can you keep your happiness high. It's always just so hard, and I honestly find civ VI much more enjoyable.

 

[mbbcam]

Have you tried using a standard opening like this one?

https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/tradition-three-cities-approaches.25617/

The idea is to settle three cities and grow them, building National College by about turn 85-90, or even before. But read the guide, it will explain it.

You have far too many cities in that screenshot. You only need to settle three, perhaps four. And don't keep small conquered cities like Birka. You should raze them. The same goes for Sigtuna, really. Cities like that are of no benefit that late in the game. Don't build Wonders -- they are not worth it (with a few exceptions). I would not have placed my cities where you have them. A city needs a unique lux for happiness. New York seems to have the same luxes as Washington, which is not good placement.

The standard maps are often terrible -- have a look for the Hellblazer maps and install those. They usually give a much better game.

Best of luck.

PS: have a look at this if you want to see one way of doing it:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFWnpbmrXTorc2VjoBaZMinjDhkXQRCRp

 

[andersw]

Now having 6 unhappiness after a successful war is fine, you have a court house building and a colloseum on it's way.
Your lack of gold is an issue and also your faith income is abysmal.
(Edit: Remove unnecessary roads AI made.
Roads leading nowhere is a big cash sink.)

I recognize that from my early bnw games and found good advice from "filthy robot".

A good standard strategy:
1. Start with tradition.
2. On Emperor and below getting a religion is not too hard if you get early shrines, tithe (a belief) helps a LOT with gold, and pagodas help a lot with happiness (Cathedral and mosque are also somewhat ok).
3. Settle one extra city for each uniqe luxury you have (I see 4 in the screen shot and a 5th if you count the city state gold).
4. Raze poor AI city locations (but keep if they have wonders). If you keep citys, make sure you go court house first.
5. With colloseums and circus maximus you can settle a few more same with notre dame (chichen itza and taj mahal also gives 4 happiness each if you can get any of them).
6. Beeline industrialism and get 3 factories asap, go order and grab happiness policys (2 happiness from monuments is huge, other ones are also good), this usually solves all happiness issues remaining.

From this you can then try and fine tune with number of cities and/or try with other starting policys to compare.
Don't forget to trade, being able to purchase colloseum/circus can help a lot, also pillage as much as possible during wars to get extra gold so you can buy things when the war is over.
All in all there are a lot of things to puzzle together.

 

[beetle]

OP, I agree w/ @andersw that your screenshot looks okay. Six unhappy after a war is fine. The gold loss is minor and will correct itself as the cities come out of resistance. Civ5 is really designed for builders, so if you want to war, you have to moderate your pace of war a bit. I do not find that immersion breaking. There should plenty to do every turn. You said you cannot win on King, but are you sure about that? Have you tried finishing those games? Or do you stop playing because you think they are going poorly? I think you well on your way to whatever VC you want, but you are literally only halfway through the game! At the rate you are going, it will take 500 turns, but that is no reason to beat yourself up when (as you write) you would rather not give it 100% of your attention.