So I can usually make it to this point well enough...

[Cahuenga]

but then once I hit the middle ages everything turns to...rubbish.

I don't really know why it happens, i just fall behind in just about everything, never having the money, and i usually give up

so is there anything im doing wrong at the moment so I can change it so i don't end up giving up this game

Spoiler :

Bit of background info

- I have met a total of seven civs so far:

Zulu: whose empire is weak and divided after an early war with me, the Scandinavians are also at war with them. They have 4 Cities left

Scandinavia: They occupy the bottom of my continent, they arent overly powerful and im pretty sure they lack iron, things going well they might be my next target. They have 15 Cities

Inca: Located to the north-west of my capital, The Incans were my latest conquest, due to them being quite pwerful but lacking iron, I've only just made peace with them, taking Construction, Currency and Code Of Laws taking me into the middle ages. They have 7 cities left

Spain: Spain is located to the north of me they are just into the middle ages too, Nothing really special about them, they have 13 cities

Netherlands - Im pretty sure they are located to the far north of me as they have 24 cities, yet I see none of them, Probably the most powerful AI so far in this game

Sumeria - I only recently discovered the sumerians, for some reason they are relatively backward, even though they have 16 cities

the map is: Huge, 60% Continents, norm, wet, 4 billion

Im going for conquest and the diffuculty is monarch.this is also one of the first times I went for tight-ish city spacing in my core.

heres the save if you want to look at it

 

[vmxa]

It is too late to check it tonight, but I will look at the save in the morning. I can say I do not like to see all those spears and especially regular units. Are you playing Always War?

 

[Cahuenga]

It is too late to check it tonight, but I will look at the save in the morning. I can say I do not like to see all those spears and especially regular units. Are you playing Always War?

I guess I built those spears before I managed to get a barracks in the town

And no, Im not playing Always war

 

[Turner]

More workers. You've got horses over on your west coast but they're not hooked up, which could hurt you. There are a couple of slaves near the one spot you need to road to hook them up with the rest of your empire.

You also have way more offensive units than I prefer. I'm a builder and like to have just enough offense to keep the rest of the civs at bay. So keep that in mind...you may actually have enough. vxma will probably say that you need one more offensive unit than you currently have.... but that's okay, he's a warmonger and I forgive him for that.

But definitely more workers. You've got 20 workers for 25 cities, and that's too low. I'd get at least two per city, if not more. But two per is good. Start improving those tiles, get the horses hooked up to the rest of your civ.

 

[Moosezilla]

I play at regent so I'm not sure, but some of your money problems could be cured by getting 20 gold minimum for every peace treaty (if they have it). A pal of mine was shocked to see this source of income. Took a quick look and this advice (except Dutch) nets 87. try to deficit spend for sci advances others need....

 

[vmxa]

I do not like to see RoP deals and you still have three. I do not allow units in my land, if I can avoid it. They do not need to know my land, beyond the tile knowledge they have to start the game.

You are doing zero research, so how do you expect to gain the upper hand?

The capitol is size 6 and no growth? Switch to an aqua and get to size 12. You want cities, not towns. I would consider switching the palace as the location is very unfavorable.

Why is Ereen not on the river?

Only Karakorum has more than a barracks and a temple. Most of those place should have neither. You have twice as many units as allowed. This is crushing you. It is fine as long as you are putting them to work taking land.

Monarchy is best if you are going to war most of the game, if not go for Republic instead. Now that at least two nations have Feudalism, you will find the going much harder. They will have MDI and Pikes and probably go for Knights soon.

There is a thread in the strategy forum on Regent playing, it may be worth the time to go over it. I cannot recall what I called it, but it should be easy to find.

20 workers for 25 towns, is not enough. 10 archers is too many and 32 spears is way too many. At Monarch, I would say 4 spears is plenty. Keep them at the front. If this was AW, then lots of spears makes sense.

You have to keep your units support in line with the amount of uints you have and need. Two ways to increase support 1) more towns 2) make towns into cities. Increase income with having roads for all worked tiles. Use river tiles and coastal tiles.

I insist on filling all the land behind me, even if it is junk. When you do not, you get what you see here. That is you have other nations founding towns back there and then troops start marching trough your land to the new towns.

You still have 4 unmet nations? You have not seen the whole map and it is 420AD, you should be well on your way to uncovering the map, at least the landmass you are on.

All those temples and barracks cost you support and shields. You cannot afford them. I would have a few cities, forgot you do not have any cities, making uints and they would have a barracks.

You may want a barracks at the front during war, but I suspect those towns could not raise one fast enough anyway.

Simple rule, no units after the initial explorers, with out a barracks. Push out enough workers to improve any worked tile, at all times.

At Monarch level, you want to be the tech leader. Maybe trade a bit to keep them broke and slow their research.

 

[Cahuenga]

Wow thank you for all your help, i took your advice, and i took over scandinavia, met the other continent(Who was more advanced than ours, but i managed to be first to chemistry, so I traded that around catching up on the top branch)
next i took over spain, which went well, as i got my golden age, so i took out the rest of inca, then attacked the sumerians, taking most of their cities, leaving a few as a buffer against the netherlands. I've now switched to communism, but now corruption is a huge problem, just about 50% in all cities, Its never been this bad before in all my communist countries ive had before

im hoping its due to having no courthouses or anything, im taking a small break from war building up some infrastructure, like marketplaces, courthouses etc which im hoping will solve it.

My military is strong compared to everyone, except the Aztecs who are average to me, but since i switched to communism I can support another 100 troops for free

here are a couple of shots of the minimap, and one of Ulundi, one of my better cities, now almost 50% corruptthat brown civ is America, not Russia or Carthage)

Spoiler :

 

[vmxa]

I have long been one of those that does not favor Communism. The main reason is the corruption is spread around. I do not want a bunch fair cities. I want a few really good ones.

The other big draw back to me is forced labor.

This plus you have to switch for the second time AND you have to research a tech you would otherwise skip. I often skip Nationalism and always skip Communism and Fascism.

That is not to say that there is no time where it makes sense, but I find I can get by without it just fine.

As you are now seeing, all those cities that would have been use as farms and not had structures (markets, temples courts, etc) now can use them and Police Stations. That is a lot of maint to pay as well have shields that do not contribute to taking over the land.

 

[sk8boardbob2]

Plus mostly grassland doesn't provide a lot of shields. There is not a single hill or mountain in the workable space and only 3 bonus grassland.

 

[Exwing17]

Place your cities closer together! In the first screeny you posted there was a line of your cities to the NW, I wouldn't have stretched that far! Its always nice to have more cities from an aggressive expansion phase, but when you have cities that are isolated from your main power house, they become a drain on unit resources!

Make a tight well knitted centre core, with well defended borders!

I always go for more offence than defence, makes the computer scared of you, and gives you the ability to declare war when you want, rather than being unprepared, and having those awful few turns of war whilst your re-enforcements cross your territory!

Also...Republic ftw

 

[Yoda Power]

I do not like to see RoP deals and you still have three. I do not allow units in my land, if I can avoid it. They do not need to know my land, beyond the tile knowledge they have to start the game.

The AI's behavior is not affected by their knowledge of your land, trust me. The only thing they can gain from it is selling maps to the other AI's, and that's insignificant.

 

[vmxa]

The AI does not have any "map" of the world, so even though it knows that say tile X has Iron, it does not know the path to that tile, until it has explored the area or gotten a map.

This is sort of like if you made contact with a passing boat and put up an embassy. Now you see the capitol far off in the map, but do not know how to get there at that time.

So if you have open land behind your borders and the AI has not been through the area, nor gotten a map of the area, it cannot sent a settler to the land. This is why I do not like to let them wander around my area.

IOW if you have a 10 tile stretch that is completely in your border and there is not a way to cross to the land behind it, without a border violation and you are not weak, they will not send settlers or exploring units.

Now if you give them a map and there is unsettled land behind your borders, they will start settler combos towards it. Remember your are strong so it is not a function of being weak. If you are weak they will cross your borders anyway.

Given all of this, I do not understand what you mean by "behavior". If you are talking about wars, then you are some what correct. I mean they do not declare based knowledge of your land, but where they head is a function of that information.

All in all, I prefer that they are not allowed in my land, so if they are I know I have a problem. That does not mean I would never have an RoP, but they are rare.

One of the use I have for an RoP is when two nations are at war and one of them is crossing my land to attack the other and it is early in the game. Once I see the war has ended, I may give an RoP so they can leave quickly as when they take many turns to leave, they may elect to DOW me.

This is of course used only when I know I am not strong enough to deal with them. I have seen when a civ is going to go one tile per turn and has troops in my land early, they tend to decide to attack, so I like to see them use my roads to get home soon. Before the idea comes to them, so to speak.

If the game was not early I would not have let them cross in the first place. The problem is the AI gets a lot of troops to start and I cannot match them for a time.

 

[Yoda Power]

The AI does not have any "map" of the world, so even though it knows that say tile X has Iron, it does not know the path to that tile, until it has explored the area or gotten a map.

Sorry but I'm convinced that's wrong.

The AI knows where everything is. They know where all the stupid islands are and they know well where there is open land, since it's programmed to settle all possible unsettled land.

Most times an AI enter ones land it is because: 1) They are at war, or going to war, with one of your neighbours and it's the straighest way, or 2) They want to settle somewhere beyond your borders.

Also where they head when they are in war is NOT a funtion of their land knowledge. You see they also know how well your cities are defended, and they head for the weakest city within a certain distance. That's where the "leaving a central city undefended" exploit comes from.

 

[vmxa]

You may be convinced, but you need to do some testing and see you are wrong. Like I said, I have seen this many times in my games and in SG's. They know the disposition of all the tiles, hence they know you have a town and if it has defenders or not.

They do not know how to get to the tile, until they have explored the area or gotten a map. Plain and simple. In the 4000bc start those warriors manage to get past you and see the land, then later they know how to get there, if they do not get behind you, they do not know how to get there.

This is why you see the scenario I mentioned. I have a small area that I blocked with two towns and did not allow passage, either because they deemed I was strong or I killed them.

I have unfilled land behind me, but no settler combos come. Once I trade a map, I will see settlers come this way, how else do you explain that? Now if the land was not blocked by borders, they will head towards it, not knowing the path, just like you would.

By stumbling around, not beeline. This is indication of knowing the disposition of a tile, but not the path or mapping.

The bare naked exploit does not show they know the map as the are just headed towards a known tile, blindly. Like I already said, if this was not so, why no settlers during the time that no map was given, but as soon as it is traded they send those settlers?

 

[Yoda Power]

The bare naked exploit does not show they know the map as the are just headed towards a know tile, blindly. Like I already said, if this was not so, why no settlers during the time that no map was given, but as soon as it is trade they send those settlers?

Because there are errors in your observations? It could be possible that there was still unsettled slots near their own land?

Sorry, my own testing shows otherwise. I don't really know who of us are correct, but I haven't seen the evidence in my own testing, so atm I can't believe you.

 

[vmxa]

Try using vanilla and you can see it. You are not likely to see in C3C, due to trade of maps being moved to the end of the next age Nav and Mag. A little too late for empty and unknown lands in all but rare cases.

The inner working of the game was not changed, they do not know more in C3C than they did in C3, it is just that Map Making no longer allows trading maps. There is no error in my observation in this matter, just that you have not seen it, but many of the players from the vanilla days saw it.

If the vanilla editor worked, I would set up a scenario to show you, but to just randomly play maps looking for a start that would allow the conditions is more work than I care to do right now.

 

[Argetnyx]

you probl is too many units, they are costing you too much

 

[Padma]

The AI always knows the entire map, including the location of all units, and all pre-positioned resources.

It has been programmed to *act* like it doesn't know more than has been revealed to it, in most circumstances.

This from the developers some 5 - 6 years ago. And, no, I'm not going to dig through those old threads to find the exact quote.

 

[Argetnyx]

thats cheating

 

[vmxa]

Not really. If I spot you the 8 ball in a 9 ball game and you win by making the 8, you did not cheat. That was the rule. The main reason this was done was to make it easier to manage the logic.

It would take a lot more code and CPU to try to deal with retaining that information. They just took a short cut, considering the game can be beaten on Sid, it is not a big deal.