review this basic strategy please

[jake2007]

ok i start out by founding a few cities and researching writing and then i build libraries. then i research code of laws and continue to build after the libraries are done i build courthouses. then i start to produce some workers. next i research currency and build market places. (im building cities throughout this whole process) then i build granaries.

at this point i am in second or third place on noble difficulty and am basically defenseless.

my main goal is to be far superior technology-wise at this point.

where are my flaws?

btw im playing as darius

 

[cabert]

ok i start out by founding a few cities and researching writing and then i build libraries. then i research code of laws and continue to build after the libraries are done i build courthouses. then i start to produce some workers. next i research currency and build market places. (im building cities throughout this whole process) then i build granaries.

at this point i am in second or third place on noble difficulty and am basically defenseless.

my main goal is to be far superior technology-wise at this point.

where are my flaws?

btw im playing as darius

2 things strike me :
- no mention of workers. If you're 2nd or third on noble difficulty, you're not doing well. It's probably because you're too small and this is probably because you don't build enough settlers (new cities) and workers (improve the land to grow better cities)
- defenseless . At this point you can often have rushed one or 2 neighbours, or you could be rushed.

 

[Honkoid]

You start workers after building libraries and courthouses? I hope you built some earlier, too? If you need more workers get them asap and don't wait for courthouses or libraries. The sooner you get them, the more profitable they will be. Depending on starting techs and location my first build is often a worker and maybe I chop another one as the second build if I have enough woods and bronze working.
Granaries should be generally be build very early in your cities, definitly before libraries and courthouses. Using the whip they can be quickly built and allow the city to grow with double speed.

Libs for technological superiority are not of much use, if your base income is small and that maybe a result of underimproved land. Also consider building libraries only in cities, that promise to make a lot commerce or are able to support scientist specialists.

 

[jake2007]

so i should generally first build workers and when my land is finished improving then build granaries then libraries and courthouses later?

how do i find time to build a defense though?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Don't bother with much defence until you have a second city up - which should be high production (and near horses preferably since you are playing as Persia, otherwise, near copper).

Build a warrior or 2 to defend the capital from stray barbs (or fogbust), if you don't find any copper or horses you need archery and then whip some archers.

That's what I do anyway.

EDIT: Your production city should then build units pretty much all the time. Barracks as well, but it might be worth building a unit till it has 1 turn left before building a barracks so if a barb appears you can switch back to the unit to act as emergency defender. Both horses and copper have high production value anyway once improved. You want hills too and 1 food resource preferably. The second city doesn't have to be super good, getting horses/coppper is more important, it is just an early unit pump. If the 2nd city is food poor a granary isn't a high priority until it grows a bit. Don't build a library in the production city.

 

[xanadux]

Cities working unimproved tiles are very weak. Each improved tile you work is anywhere from 2-4 times as productive as an unimproved tile. Since 2 food are required to feed the citizen working a tile, if the tile provides 3 units of food/hammers, you are really only getting 1. Improve that to 4 units, and you have 2, twice the production. Special resource tiles are even better. Put a farm on a riverside corn, and it is 4x as productive, going from 3 food to 6.

Founding new cities without improving the tiles is only a drain on your economy and has little to no benefit. You should probably have 3 workers before you build your second settler. Build enough workers after that to keep your cities working improved tiles. I like to have 1 more worker than the number of cities I have in the early game.

Libraries and markets are almost useless if you aren't producing commerce. Early libraries should really only be built in 2 cases, either to run science specialists, or in a very high commerce city. If your science slider is high, markets are almost a complete waste in the early game and are very expensive to build.

Just building courthouses because you can is also pretty wasteful. I rarely build a courthouse until I have 5 or more cities on a small map. There are just more important things to build like military.

 

[madscientist]

You may want to read some of the stategy guides associated with this site they are quite good.

Decisions on what to build depend on the situation, leader, map, resources, city.

Some general hints that may help.

1) You need a worker, but also something for them to do. Do not build a worker if you have nothing for him to do. Once you have something (agriculture, wheel, mining, etc...) built one ASAP. You will want more eventually, not not immediately.
2) The only building from the get go you should build is a barracks, and only if your agressive.
3) Once you have 3 or 4 cities, it's OK to start buildings. Graneries/Courthouses/Libraries/barracks are the typical early ones to favor. Build a library in a city with alot of commerce first. Build a Barracks in a city with good production. Garnery in a city with lots of food so you can use slavery, and replenish the lost population fast. Courthouses should be built in cities furthest from the capital first.
4) Build Military, period. Have at least one city always building a military unit is a safe bet to start with. If you plan war or under attack, have all your cities building units at the same time.
5) As far as research, alot of poeple including myself favor getting mining and bronze working as soon as possible, as this allow production from chopping a forrest as well as using slavery. Also you want techs that feed your cities (fishing, agriculture, animal husbandry). Commerce techs such as pottery and the wheel. Finally military, if you have no copper go after irow working or animal husbandry. Archery is improtant (some here disagree) but does not have to be the first or second tech (took me a long while to realize this). Now you can think about writing, code of laws, and alphabet. These are suggestions for getting the game concepts down and can be modified as time goes on.
6) Finally, cheack out all of the ALl leader challenge games, which ar eexcellent walkthoughs.

Hope this helped

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Well he's playing Persia so I would go animal husbandry first to find out where the ponies are.

I nearly always build a library in the capital, the palace gets 8 commerce. Open borders to a friendly civ after writing to get better trade route commerce too, unless you are trying to block them from building a city next door to you in "your land".

 

[KMadCandy]

at this point i am in second or third place on noble difficulty and am basically defenseless.

my main goal is to be far superior technology-wise at this point.

part of being superior technologically is staying alive of course! i often play scarily defenseless, but when i do that paying attention to diplomacy is critical!

if you're getting along with your neighbors, it can give you time to build up a defense, and give you more trading opportunities. the importance of diplomacy (my pet phrase for it lately is jedi mind-tricks) really jumps as you jump in level. when you're learning at settler level, it matters somewhat (everything does), but you have so many advantages that it doesn't usually make or break the game. deity, well i only try that OCC so by default i have to have at least one friend, the most i can produce is one troop per turn so if 7 civs are fighting me at once i'm a goner!

when noble (or any level) is a step up for you, and you're learning how to deal with it, i recommend paying more attention to the foreign advisor than you're used to. you might have to give into demands more often, etc. by "leveraging diplomacy" i mean managing it the way you want to, sometimes it's just paying attention. even in an Always War game where you know they'll never like you. you don't have to have any friends if you want to hold a beat'em'up fest. knowing who's in the "we love the aztecs fan club" and thus they're pretty easy for monsterzuma to bribe in and dogpile you is handy.

my preference is to play as peacefully as possible. i'm not good at beating folks up. i love to have attack puppies to help me when i do fight wars, etc. so i leverage the mind-tricks more than most do, and definitely more than most have to. but seriously, i think learning how to finesse that stuff helps on any level, the higher the level the more crucial it is. even if you're not not facing a case of everybody and their brother blowing war horns at you, good relations lets you get away with more resource trades (bigger better cities wheeeeee) and tech trades. at Friendly they never even keep track of "we fear you are becoming too advanced" which is spiffy.

it's a pain to focus on that and everything else at the same time. but as you get used to the other stuff that's new (how fast you have to expand, how quickly will they tech, what techs are more important for you to get earlier at this level, etc), i'll bet you 2 golden ages that the better you get at that side of the game, it will help with whatever type of victory you're aiming for.

sorry this got so long! good luck and have fun

 

[jake2007]

well my goal is to get a space victory so i will have to be technologically advanced fast. but i suck and im always behind score and tech-wise at noble difficulty. can anyone tell me in detail how to do it?

 

[manu-fan]

well my goal is to get a space victory so i will have to be technologically advanced fast. but i suck and im always behind score and tech-wise at noble difficulty. can anyone tell me in detail how to do it?

You pretty much have to go to war!

Build up an army, take out a neighbor, re-build, rinse, repeat. Once you've got a sizeable empire and are teching ahead of everyone, you can stop if you want and win the Spaceship victory, or continue warring and get a domination victory.

Also, if you want to practice winning, play a Pangea map so you don't have to worry about the navy and overseas invasions.

Cheers.

 

[madscientist]

well my goal is to get a space victory so i will have to be technologically advanced fast. but i suck and im always behind score and tech-wise at noble difficulty. can anyone tell me in detail how to do it?

You have to play a complete game. Somemore suggestions if your looking for space race victory.

1) The AI cannot beat you there is they are dead or damaged. Early war to take out a neighbor or 2 is not a bad idea.
2) Build cottages and work them.
3) Run science specialists to get great people. If you can make a run at the pyramids and run representation early with alot of specialists. Build the rgeat Library and build the national wonder in that city, preferably the capital. Use one great scientist for building an academy in the greatest science city. USe another to lightbulb Philosophy and another for most of education. BE the first to Liberalism and take printing press or nationalism, and switch civics to free speech. You will ALOT of commerce and thus science.
4) Do not overexpand, but expand enough. Get currency and Code of Laws fairly early to help the ecnomy.
5) When you get to sceintific method, persue Physics for the great scientist, use as you see fit. Emphasize assembly plant, electricity, combustion, industrialization for tanks and protection. Then go after Rocketry.
6) Prepare to have 2 highly productive cities for building space ship parts, usually the capital (running beuracracy) and the city with the ironworks.
7) Get superconductors after rocketry and build labs.

My suggesiton is generate an early map at 4000BC with your favorite leader (Elizabeth is considered the best for space, but Hyuna Capac is also strong), post the start and ask for advice as your play along. I am sure alot of people will help.

 

[xanadux]

Read your manual, read the war academy articles (a little dated if you have BTS, but for the most part still show good basic strategy). Read through walkthrough games on the forum. Any answers in this thread are not going to magically solve your game. You need to actually do some work and read through some of the tons of good information on this site and then practice it in your game.

There are dozens of walkthrough threads in this forum where people play through the entire game in the thread.

 

[Cer]

I highly recommend building a worker as soon as you have any techs that would allow the worker to do something besides road-building. Starting the worker before you have the tech so that he will be finished at the same time the tech is finished, is even better. You should also consider your first worker tech to be a high priority. (animal husbandry if you see cows in your fat cross, agriculture if you see wheat, etc).

Building a second worker some time around the point where your capital reaches 3 population, and somewhere around the same time you first build a settler, is also a good idea. Special-resource tiles with improvements can (and should) do most of the work for your entire empire in the early game. The special resources are still huge all through the game, though not as much after techs like railroad and democracy show up.

 

[Murky]

You pretty much have to go to war!

Build up an army, take out a neighbor, re-build, rinse, repeat. Once you've got a sizeable empire and are teching ahead of everyone, you can stop if you want and win the Spaceship victory, or continue warring and get a domination victory.

Also, if you want to practice winning, play a Pangea map so you don't have to worry about the navy and overseas invasions.

Cheers.

I prefer warmongering to peace but you don't have to go to war to win every game. For a cultural victory you only need 6-9 cities. If you do a fast REX you can easily get 6 cities built before the AI and the cultural boundaries will overtake the rest you need.

 

[montanaseahawk]

Build a healthy size strike stack, and declare war on a neighbor who is pulling ahead of you in the tech tree. Use this force to ravage as far as it can into their territoty. You can get even Ghandi to give up on peace and become a unit pumping machine.

Keep the war going as long as you can, allowing the AI to bash its head against a border city with high walls and stout defenders.

Most AI will concentrate on one or two border cities, stock those and have a couple other cities building units to relieve the defenders, and the rest of your empire can pretend there is no war.

I guarantee that with a little attention, you will deal with the war weariness much better than they will.

Before you know it, you'll be laughing at his pathetic begging for techs...