Rome first 30 turns, need help

[Munchie]

Hi everyone.

Can't believe I've never tried the civ games before, I love gods and kings .

I do, however, have some problems with my startup. I've looked at youtube playthroughs but they're all played in vanilla.

For example, I wanted to rush legionaires with Rome in order to crush my opponents. Then I discovered that iron works takes almost 40! turns to research now. So are legions useless now? Is it not better to focus on rushing horseriding instead?

Could anyone please give me a few tips with Rome. I'm playing continents (normal difficulty as I'm a beginner).

Thanks a lot.

 

[glider1]

Munchie welcome to the forums. Rome is fun, not necessarily for a legion and Ballista led war necessarily, but that you can use their ability (25% faster production for those buildings that have already been constructed in the capital) to best effect by expanding rapidly under a policy of Liberty, and constuct buildings in the capital that will be useful across the empire like monuments and libraries, and using your Legion army as a deterrent because other civs will not like that you are big expansive and powerful. It's flexible because you can also go to war with them.

Cheers

 

[Munchie]

Thanks for the reply. Could you give a few tips on what to research first?

I know that depends on the type of resources located around you but in general, if one wanted to beat the cr*p out of ones neighbours, is it better to go for horseriding?

 

[Barghaest]

Heh, I just finished a Rome game... I used the Legion quite a bit (mainly to help workers connect those new roads because the AI stopped attacking me) but I play a really slow-paced game so get to enjoy those units more.

As for what to research first to raze your neighbors to the ground... I'd concentrate on the melee line. The AI prioritized Civil Service and fields mainly spearmen/pikemen, so cavalry isn't the best choice as a primary unit against them (good for running down their siege/archers perhaps). I usually load up on Legionaries and bullrush through their spears/pikes.

 

[Montov]

You could research Pottery -> Writing first, start building the Great Library, then research Mining and Bronze Working, and when you completed the Great Library you can pick a free tech. Pick Iron Working as the free tech.
That way, you also get some science from Great Library and free Library, which helps a lot eraly game.

 

[Munchie]

Thanks a lot for the tips. At the moment the barbarians are spawning left and right and Japan just betrayed me.

I do get a nasty glitch occasionally which makes the game unplayable, when I change the video settings a little it works properly again. Anyone have problems with that too?

Anyway, thanks for the tips.

 

[glider1]

Video settings matter Munchie, no question.
In time you will learn that Toku is like that and so that you will expect this of him.
Cheers

 

[Barghaest]

Yeah, on my old laptop during its final days, had to run the game with leader screens on lowest setting otherwise it would crash when I met somebody new... driver issue. Occassionally gives Microsoft Visual Studio crashes in this one but it's more a case of playing for too long without a client restart (especially on large or huge maps late game when a lot is explored - using strategic view clears this up a bit but isn't as pretty to look at).

 

[Adjuvant]

You can push for iron early. It just means you're putting other things "on the backburner" while you research it, then successively upgrade/build a mixed legion/archer force. Just hope you have iron, though. Sucks to push it and have none.

You can wait on roads, then until after your "first push" hopefully with 6 melee and 2-4 ranged. This will kill anyone before 500bc. You'll have some 4ish promoted melee (if you used them well) who can "drop back and build roads to your new awesome "previous capitol" city site. Then play a defensive game awhile until your science, culture and income are "back in check" with competitors, and decide for which victory condition you aim, altho it likely won't be cultural.

Rome works well with liberty policies, and it works well with a developed, productive capitol and several "smaller" (size 2-4) satellites, totaling 6-7 cities by 500 AD. This means you'll be spending extra efforts on happiness... try for religion happiness if possible, but prioritizing happiness buildings in the capitol will make them build "that much faster" in satellites.

Those early cities will eventually be your "core" and successive expos will develop very quickly.

 

[BenjaminCIV]

I haven't had time yet to try a swordrush on G&Ks, something to do with taking 9 credit hours plus working, but the best plan is to hook up luxury resources and build 4-6 warriors and when you research iron working sell the luxuries (they go for about 240 gold on standard) and upgrade your warriors to legions. Definitely go for iron working over horseback riding especially as Rome, and don't ignore Let's Plays in Vanilla they are still helpful, Wainy Civ and MadJinn are two of the best.

 

[weregamer]

As a new player, be sure to check out the Civ 5 War College section, there are some articles in there that explain the subtler points of most of the basic mechanisms in the game: barbarians, combat odds, each of the social policy trees. There are guides for specific civs, but IIRC Rome is not one of them because their abilities are pretty self-explanatory.

I've won with Rome, though I'm not an early-rush sort of player. I find Rome a bit challenging because I like to build wonders, and with Rome you really want to concentrate on regular buildings. That said, in G&K many of the early wonders also give a free regular building, which should count for the UA. Also, unless you are playing above Prince difficulty you should be able to complete the Great Library to get Iron Working quickly as the earlier poster explained.

Also, if you build a good army and don't strip your homeland of defenders to attack (which in turn means having a healthy economy to support those units), you can let the AIs build most of the wonders then capture them, gaining the benefit "for free". The wonders this doesn't work as well for are the ones with an immediate benefit: Great Library, Leaning Tower, and to some extent Ivory Tower and Pyramids. These also give lasting bonuses, quite potent in the latter two cases - the immediate free GS/workers are on top of the lasting benefits that you can capture.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Ironworking plus its requriment cost about the same as horseback riding and its requriment. If you want Legions fast you should probably go straigth for it from turn 0. Try to get Rome bigger because this means that your science and your production both gets better. However ironworking rush may not be the best thing to do because this will leave you economy underdeveloped. Rome may do better by developing first so that it can sustain the counquest.

 

[chazzycat]

I would recomend researching the techs you need to hook up luxuries and then beeline iron working. You should try to have a few cities by the time it pops to better your chances of finding some, and also have a settler coming out at that time to plop on a 6-spot if you don't already have some.

although the UA is great for peaceful play, I think if you're not killing at least 1 AI with legions/ballista then you are doing it wrong. Conquer until your legions start becoming obsolete, then stop and build up your empire. Having 2 good early UUs and not using them is a bit of a waste IMO.

 

[Olleus]

1)Build Rome

2)Tech to hook up your nearest luxury, build a couple of scouts then a worker, then whatever you need urgently (monumet/warrior)

3)Tech to Iron Working

4)Hook up/by iron however you can, build Legions.

5) Declare war on your nearest neighour and kill them, pupet major cities, raze the rest.

6) While teching to mathematics, repeat 5.

7) Build balistas, repeat 5.

8) Repeat 5.

9) Once you have enough money, annex the biggest conquered cities and rush courthouses in them.

10) Build up your infrastructure in all your new cities, making sure to build stuff in Rome first.

11) Win however you want.


Legions are really really good. That can hardly be understated. They are really good. I cut up a stupidly aggressive Napoleon who started 12 tiles away from me before 1000BC on immortal with them.

 

[Munchie]

Thanks for the great advice mates. Lord Olleus, will that strategy work with the new addon? They have significantly increased the turns it takes to reach iron works.

 

[Olleus]

yep, did it with G&K. You might want to buy an archer or a couple of warriors before iron working for defence, depending on difficulty/neighbours. Archers are better, but warriors can be quickly upgraded to legions, which is a good thing.