Seeking advice from the masters

[poldbops]

Civilization Revoluton is the first "civilization" game i played. I pretty much new to the whole civilization thing so i learned playing it "guerilla" style. I came up with this strat:

I start creating 3 wariors, form them to one army, then explore. ( i know, i waste turns but there are times barbarians kick my butt or encounter enemy warriors immediately)
By the time my warriors are veterans, and when i have an idea where an enemy civ is, i return them back to the city.

I set my cities to science, build my 1st library then learn techs in the quickest order i achive feudalism.

I now have knights to defend my cities from attackers (by this time, enemy civs are already all over me).

If i realize that my cities could stand alone against them, ill learn techs like invention, gunpowder, steam power, metallurgy, then finally combustion. (i skip some techs)

Then i build Leonardos workshop to have hordes of tanks. By this time, the enemy civs fire at me with arrows and i fire back with firepower! From here i decide what victory i want.

Sometimes, i dont use great thinkers to settle on cities. I use them to complete the techs. Makes things a lot quicker

This strategy works for cheiftain, warlord, and, king difficulty.

I don't know why but when i battle against emperor, i am only in the process of building my first library when enemy civs swarm me with legions.

How the heck could i be faster or at least as fast as the A.I. on emperor and deity mode?

Thanks in advance

 

[Hertsh]

Hi Poldbops, you are touching upon a theme that many threads has been about already earlier. You might want to read the thread Diety Strategy posted by Kadazzle. It will probably give you nice overview.

But in general, my answer to you is
a) Don´t turtle, attack and defend in a balanced way
b) Ensure that you grow your number of cities and grow the city size
c) Focus your cities on special "abilities" (in lack of a better word), i.e. ensure to have at least one city that is focused on gold, one on science, and one on production. The rest you focus on what you think is best for your overall goal for the current game.

Good luck.

 

[Kadazzle]

I'll carry on what Hertsh said for "c)". You want to make sure all of your cities are specialized; meaning you want a gold city, science cities and a couple main production cities.

City placement, is key to specializing your cities. One of the main problem newer players to Civ Rev encounter, is that they don't understand that most poor tiles early in the game, become powerhouses later in the game. Hills, Plains, Snow and Mountain tiles all seem poor tiles to build cities around, because they only produce one food (Hill, Snow) or 1 Production (Hills, Mountains). The more technologies you research, or depending on your civilization, the better these tiles become. Plains and Snow tiles only produce one food, but if they're by a river and have a Granery, they produce 4 food, which is double what Grassland squares produce. Same thing with Hills and Mountains, 1 production each, but once you build a Workshop/Iron Mine, you're set with 3-5 production, again making it higher then forest squares. (Note: Desert are good for Trade!)

What does this mean? It means that when you specialize cities, you'll want some of your specialized cities to be built around squares that are good "now" and some cities built around squares that will be good "later".

Gold City-

For me, a gold city is something you want to get out quicky to get a good position for, but will only into use on a big scale once you hit the Industrialization Era. You want to make this city near 2 grassland squares, 2 hill squares and as many desert squares as possible. Desert squares only produce 1 Trade, but once you get a Trading Post and a Market, that's 6 trade per desert tile. Once you research Construction and build a Workshop, your Hill squares should be produce 3 production each (6), so you should be able to pop out a Market and a Trading Post in 20 turns (10 each). The grassland squares help with early food production, but food isn't too key as later growth won't be your main priority; gold will.

Production City-

Again, another city that hills will come in handy for. I suggest settling towards the mainland, will trying to get 2 grassland squares and as many Hills/Mountain squares as possible. Production will be all you're using this city for, so what I'd do is use it to grow and produce defense units untill you research Construction. Once you get construction, start working on the Hanging Gardens (Shouldn't take more then 10 turns if placed right) to get the population boost you'll need to become a production powerhouse. Once you get the Hanging Gardens, you should start producing offensive units or building wonders, depending on the victory.

Science Cities-

Science Cities are mainly your average city. Your capital will always be place in a good spot for a science city, consisting of 2 grassland squares ande 2 forest squares. Try to make your science cities have 2 grassland, 2 forest while making the rest sea tiles. These cities will have decent growth and production, which will help pop out Libraries quickly and enough sea squares to use Libraries to their full ability.

Food / Cultural City-

A Food / Cultural city should be inland, with mainly all plain, grassland or hill squares (Snow, depending on the situation). This city can help you catch up in Technology if you're behind and is good for over-all production as well. You should be building a Granery as quickly as possible, while rushing to Irrigation (Hopefully you have a river near your city) to get your city really growing. If you have sufficient growth in your production city, build the Hanging Gardens in this city, bringing it up to between 15-20 population. The hills, again will be used for producing more Wonders with the Workshop. How does this become good culturally? Simple! Temples and Cathedrals multiply depending on how many citizens (Population Points) you have in your city. With the monster population you'll have, the amount of cultural you get /turn should be enough to get you great people fairly quickly.

(Certain Wonders will help make most of your specialized cities even better! Trade Fair for Gold City, Shakespear's Theatre for your Cultural City.. etc)

Now, I also have a couple other tips that with help you in Emperor and Deity-

1. Turns Matter! Try using those warriors to explore instead of grouping them into an army at once. Move them around and try to defeat those barbarian villages quickly, if you have full health, they shouldn't beat you.

2. Attack quicker! You may not be a rusher, which is fine, but don't sit back and camp with libraries in all of your cities all game, as the AI will still tech quicker then you if left alone on Emperor and Deity difficulty. After you're done exploring, use your warriors to capture enemy settlers and to cut production off of the enemy (Declare war then sit your units on their production squares). Naval units can be useful as well, cut off their science! I'd also suggest to attack when you get to Catapulrs, as it's mainly an assured win unless you're facing certain civs (Greeks, Russia, English).

What civilization do you use? I could write a guide, or simply point you into the direct of one to help you better understand / use your leaders traits to their full extent.