noontide
Warlord
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2007
- Messages
- 267
Hi guys,
So far I've logged in 1200+ hours on the game and I feel I finally start to get a hang on early stage of the game on Immortal difficulty. I can usually set up 5-6 cities before running out of space while manage not fall behind in city growth. Finally learned how to alternate between population growth and settler/worker output so as not to work on unimproved land. I feel the next stages of the game I need to improve on are (i) better understanding and handling of diplomacy and (ii) research sequence during the Medieval Era.
The game I'm playing right now (saves attached here) is a rare case of everything just humming along. I did have to reload a few times to optimize the building and/or research sequence but I managed to achieve most of my goals. I have a natural tendency to go tall than wide but on Immortal I learned to resist my urge to spam wonders. Pyramid is pretty much the only thing I would attempt if the situation allows it. And maybe Great Lighthouse if I'm playing a sea orientated civ. This game however, I decided to try fto ocus on Great Persons due to England's Philosophy trait. Had a great start location and was able to block off a good chunk of land by quickly setting up a city chain. Grabbed stonehenge (I play without New Random Seed but after a few restarts managed to get it), and use the first Prophet to start a golden age, during which i completed the Pyramid and Great Lighthouse. I almost never build the Colossus but decided to go for it here and got it too. The Pyramid incredibaly gave me two Great Engineers with which I nabbed both Parthenon and Great Library. Also built Hanging Garden because my capital had healthy problem and I wanted to keep popping Great Engineers. The downside of all this was I back filled the land I blocked off very late. Since in this game no one is fighting, I'm just barely hanging on in term of research progress. It's actually a bit disheartening to think with ALL these lucky breaks I'm still not far out in tech progression. Mali has only 5 cities but is already shooting for Liberalism and I'm not sure I can catch up to him. I usually have an easier time if there are aggressive civs who bully Techies and leave me along. I tend to have problem catching up when everyone is teching like crazy on Immortal.
At 520AD I cannot decide which route to take. I just rolled another Great Engineer, I'm thinking to either pop Sankore University to further boost research or grab Apostolic Palace. Is Apostolic Palace useful in diplomacy in general? The resolutions all seem underwhelming, especially in peace time. I'm leaning towards Sankore University. But do you guys usually build monastary for research purpose? I read it on this forum that never build aqueduct and market because they are way too expensive for their benefit, and that's generally the rule I follow. When I run out of useful thing to build I just build gold.
Also as a general question how do you handle Medieval Era? I often shoot for Liberalism for the free tech but how important is improving infrastructure with Machinary or Metal Casting etc.? I know Currency is important but how about Guild? I often run into healthy problems.
So far I've logged in 1200+ hours on the game and I feel I finally start to get a hang on early stage of the game on Immortal difficulty. I can usually set up 5-6 cities before running out of space while manage not fall behind in city growth. Finally learned how to alternate between population growth and settler/worker output so as not to work on unimproved land. I feel the next stages of the game I need to improve on are (i) better understanding and handling of diplomacy and (ii) research sequence during the Medieval Era.
The game I'm playing right now (saves attached here) is a rare case of everything just humming along. I did have to reload a few times to optimize the building and/or research sequence but I managed to achieve most of my goals. I have a natural tendency to go tall than wide but on Immortal I learned to resist my urge to spam wonders. Pyramid is pretty much the only thing I would attempt if the situation allows it. And maybe Great Lighthouse if I'm playing a sea orientated civ. This game however, I decided to try fto ocus on Great Persons due to England's Philosophy trait. Had a great start location and was able to block off a good chunk of land by quickly setting up a city chain. Grabbed stonehenge (I play without New Random Seed but after a few restarts managed to get it), and use the first Prophet to start a golden age, during which i completed the Pyramid and Great Lighthouse. I almost never build the Colossus but decided to go for it here and got it too. The Pyramid incredibaly gave me two Great Engineers with which I nabbed both Parthenon and Great Library. Also built Hanging Garden because my capital had healthy problem and I wanted to keep popping Great Engineers. The downside of all this was I back filled the land I blocked off very late. Since in this game no one is fighting, I'm just barely hanging on in term of research progress. It's actually a bit disheartening to think with ALL these lucky breaks I'm still not far out in tech progression. Mali has only 5 cities but is already shooting for Liberalism and I'm not sure I can catch up to him. I usually have an easier time if there are aggressive civs who bully Techies and leave me along. I tend to have problem catching up when everyone is teching like crazy on Immortal.
At 520AD I cannot decide which route to take. I just rolled another Great Engineer, I'm thinking to either pop Sankore University to further boost research or grab Apostolic Palace. Is Apostolic Palace useful in diplomacy in general? The resolutions all seem underwhelming, especially in peace time. I'm leaning towards Sankore University. But do you guys usually build monastary for research purpose? I read it on this forum that never build aqueduct and market because they are way too expensive for their benefit, and that's generally the rule I follow. When I run out of useful thing to build I just build gold.
Also as a general question how do you handle Medieval Era? I often shoot for Liberalism for the free tech but how important is improving infrastructure with Machinary or Metal Casting etc.? I know Currency is important but how about Guild? I often run into healthy problems.