This is going to sound bad, but Prince really isn't that hard. It's almost the same as Noble.
I notice you're using leaders with builder traits. Maybe you should focus on more militaristic leaders, instead of Pericles. Alex is better for war, but, still, I'm not sure that he's a good choice for you. I think Rome or Persia would be better than Greece. Both Rome and Persia get overwhelmingly powerful, early UUs, and both get quite good UBs. Rome and Persia are extremely noob-friendly, warmonger-friendly, and most of the Roman and Persian leaders are Organized, letting you easily manage that large empire that you conquered so easily.
Greece is not really as noob-friendly, and you might want to hold off on playing Greece until you've got a good handle on the game. A specialist economy requires lots of micromanagement and experience. You need to know when to force merchants, when to force priests, etc.
Here's some quick tips that will help you survive Noble/Prince:
- Build more workers. Keep building them until you've got so many, you are tempted to automate them.
- Don't bother making defenders. Defenders are pointless. Make offensive units. You can leave unpromoted warriors in your cities, generally. Border towns need a decent garrison, of course, but that's about it.
- Protective is a joke. Target the Protective leaders first. It's like they only have one trait. Treat them that way.
- Never trust ANY Russians or Frenchmen. They will backstab you, guaranteed. Kill them before they do so.
- Choose one civilization to be the "rogue state". Bribe everyone into war with that civilization. If anyone holds out, then choose that civilization to be the next rogue state. This is the safest way to engage in war, because you end up minimizing the "You declared war on our friend!" modifiers, and your war allies are too busy being useful to backstab you.
- Build more cottages. Really. Cottage spam, as a strategy, almost never fails. You don't need the pyramids, you don't need to be philosophical, and you certainly don't need to be Financial. In fact, Financial only helps minimally -- about a 10-15% increase in commerce, at the end of the game. Financial's real benefit is when you're working coastal tiles, where you get a constant 50% increase in commerce.
- Learn how to use diplomacy to your benefit. Once you can get a permanent alliance with Tokugawa, you're probably all set. If you don't know how to get Tokugawa to open his borders, you need to read the War Academy ASAP.
- Don't build so many wonders. Take the wonders by force.
- Don't go after religious technologies. Take the shrine by force.
Thanx for the advice . Actually your right about most things and because of following some of these tips , I just won my first game on Prince ( with this actually being my 5th try on Prince.) Well , I did win a diplo with Saladin but this time I'm talking a Domination with Alex .
I see what your saying about the Greeks and the SE , however , for me , its rather simple to run a SE and it paid off very nicely for me . In the Medieval Era with my science meter at 0% I was still producing between 300-400 beakers/turn . I actually find the SE more benificial to me .
I picked Alex because he seemed the perfect balance between a builder and warmonger . Alex's two traits make him formidable during both war time and peace time . It paid off once I incorperated some of these older but very wise tactics . Brushed over the war academy again before trying another game .
This time I had the intent of being aggressive since turn 1 . In my other games I would be either non-aggressive or semi-aggressive . This time it was about building troops , troop support ( barracks , etc) , invasion .
The only wonder I gunned for early was Oracle just for the slingshot , I didn't even bother with the others until later in the game . By going Oracle , I already had the option of adopting two religions ( 3 once I slingshoted CoL) but chose to remain a heathen . I didn't discover any of the early religions first aside from Confuscism .
Ok this map was particularly odd . It seems that certain resources were concentrated on one part of the continent ( I was playing Terra standard) . Of 7 of us , only three had access to early iron and 3 had access to early copper . I was fortunate enough to have a relatively close ( not immediatly close) access to copper . Threw up my second city there . So I build mostly Phalanxs . I varried their promotions and shuffled between cover and CR I . My scout was fortunate enough to gain two levels in his exploring so I brought him back to base where he awaited the emergence of a GG to become a super healer . From the getgo , I was focused on taking down Isabella . Naturally she made the Buddha shrien and focused on wonders and religous techs This worked in my favor since I was going mostly militarly . I didn't even bother with any wonders after Oracle until later in the game . I got 4 cities up before I invaded Isabella . By then she had a couple swordsmen and axemen , no big deal , majority of her forces were Archers . My Phalanxs had relatively little trouble taking her five cities and razing one . I made good right away with ZY of the Ethiopians as soon as I captured the Buddha shrine since he was also a Buddhist .
I was rather fortunate because Isabella already spread Buddhism to all four of my cities including her 5 I captured . Naturally I converted to buddhism as soon as I got the shrine and destroyed the Spanish civ .
In the aftermath , I had 9 cities with a couple wonders to boot . I was in good shape . I then had an era of peace ( not long but long enough) where I reshaped the cities to fit my economy by appointing specialists ( I had caste already) . I consolidated my gains and turned all of my cities into benificial ones . My beaker rate began to skyrocket which saved me a lot of money in the long run . I made friendly with ZY . ZY isn't as militarly effective as Shaka but he had access to some nice happiness resources before I wanted to take on Representation with Pyramids . I was able to procure those happiness resources from my friendly civ for free and able to send him to war with some future enemies to weaken them up a bit . I only had to trade a couple techs for it . With the SE economy and high GS + other GP birthrate I was already ahead of the tech race in no time . I built the Great Library , National Epic , Heroic Epic ,etc , and adopted Mercantilism . During my era of peace I was on pacifism/beauracracy which generated some very useful GP , mostly GSs and GMs . I lightbulbed mostly with teh scientists until I was far enough ahead that I could integrate them into the cities as SSs .
I had riflemen before the AIs did with a considerable cusion of a lead before they would get them . As soon as I had riflemen , I was building like crazy plus upgrading obsolete units . As soon as I had enough , I took out Hatty and Tokugawa in one sweep . Consolidated my gains again but in much shorter time , I was strictly focused on ending this game as soon as possible before other AIs had a chance to catch up . During the wars with Hatty and Tokugawa , I aquired the ability to make infantry . I upgraded to infantry , used my great generals as both instructers and elite units . I moved to Shaka and took him out with a single sweep , I totally destroyed all but one of his cities , swooped on over to Brennus ( he was one of the lagging AIs , not as powerful as Hatty) and didn't have much trouble there . During the fight with Brennus I declared war on my former friend ZY and did a double front and even killed ZY with mostly calvary reserve I left in my base to pick off potential invaders .
All in all , it was a very smooth game . I generated probably 5x more GP than the AIs combined . I was able to advance even in war or with a 0%-20% beaker investment and was able to focus that extra money on upgrading units or paying my friend ( ZY) appropriate sums to ' soften up' a target .
This went even smoother than some of my noble games and this was prince . I must have been partly lucky . For one , Isabella basically gave me her religion , shrine , and couple wonders with Iron too boot without much of a fight . I was able to aquire an ally relatively easily because of taking her state religion w/ shrine . I had one turn where I produced THREE GREAT ENGINEERS at the sametime in 3 diff cities . A couple of my opponents lacked Iron which made the fight A LOT easier .
I think what made the difference this time is that I focused on my Agg trait as much as my PHI trait . I utilized it to its max advantage by not being afraid to be aggressive in the early game . I used hammers for military instead of wonders and buildings and got a pay back by capturing wonders the AI already built for me
THough , I can see , like in other games , how the Org triat can be extremly useful . I gave my cities the basic ' buildings package' with all the standard ' every city ' buildings like granaries , libraries , forges , etc . I had to spend some turns on courthouses but it helped me in the long run . I managed to pop up Forbidden palace and versilles fairly quickly further helping my money situation . I had wall street / shrine in Madrid , the buddhist holy city .
This game is purely strategy . Its about building the right units/building and selecting the correct civics for max synergy .
I think part of this game was luck and I don't want to speak too quickly and say I might be ready for monarch already . But this was a pretty straight foward game and I didn't have too much trouble . Still , I want to try some other strategies with other leaders/civs on prince before I start playing monarch regularly . I want to be able to win with multiple strategies .
