Soliciting Advice: First game above Regent/Monarch

[GZRD]

I'll be stepping into Emperor for the first time. I feel I have many of the basics underhand at this point, but am looking for more advice. I will be posting my starting turn SAV as well as a screenshot of the start, and trying to maintain a journal here of my progress.

Along the way I am hopeful of getting as much advice as possible to learn the game at this higher level. Regent just isn't much fun any longer, I lose interest in the game as it is too easy!

Civs I Might Be: Dutch, English, Russian (the rusos are my favorite as of late, but on continents), French, Japanese
Map: Large Archipelago @ 60% water @ 5 billion years & AI More Aggressive

VCs: Diplomatic UN victory or Conquest. I don't understand the 20k/100k game principals. Really just surviving and being a reasonable power at the end of the game is enough.

My typical gameplay: builder with a bit of warring. I tend to manage wars very poorly and end up waring myself and my civ out, which is something I would love to improve on, hence a possible choice of Japan as a civ. War mongering civ fanatics, your advice is especially appreciated

This evening I will post more details. Taking all help, advice, suggestions, etc and thank you in advance

 

[GZRD]

I chose Japan, Default Rules, Arch map 60% Water 4 billion years, no barbarians, more aggressive AIs. Emperor level.

I had a decent start with a cow, mined it, explored, found a nest of cows and webbed cities around them. No spearmen. Built barracks and archers and settles and a few workers in there. And temples. Fell behind rapidly in tech, just couldnt keep up between mongols, chine and persia. Met zululand and Ottomans. Looks like im only on an island with china and mongols.

Finally got iron working, but no iron the mongols are sitting on two or more, so i start to move towards them. had already decided war was in future over silk resources that are in a nest as well...

Deciced to give up on tech race and start stock piling cash. Zululand sold me mysticism so i traded that around and caught up on tech more or less. remain 0% research after this point, adding cities as fast as i can and ever more temples, barracks and archers.

This save is at 330 BC i believe. I am reasonably well off, stayed out of war so far and am on good terms with most. Only thing is NO ONE wants to sell me anything no matter how much I offer. Perhaps I Have enough cities to fire up research again...

My current goal is to conquer my island, starting with securing iron and the silk in mongol territory. It will be a difficult war if I can't get iron quickly or have insane stacks of archers (current best idea). I am done expanding with new settles, are money and sheilds going into archers, a few workers and shield guys every now and then...

If anyone will load this up and check it out. Its C3C, i didnt isntall any patches.

Please let me know what you think, what ideas you have to play better or what a good plan might be.

 

[Elephantium]

I couldn't load the save.

Based on your writeup, though, I'd say:

1. Stop building temples. Use MPs and the lux slider if you're having happiness problems.
2. If you don't have two workers per city, you don't have enough!
3. Mongols are a good war target in the early game. They won't have their UU yet, so they'll be easier targets than, say, the Zulu or Persia.

 

[vmxa]

If anyone will load this up and check it out. Its C3C, i didnt isntall any patches.

Most will not be able to load a save that is not patched to 1.22.

 

[Lanzelot]

If anyone will load this up and check it out. Its C3C, i didnt isntall any patches.

For your own sake: go and install the latest patches, they fix a lot of crashes, freezes and other bugs... Also everybody around here is patched to 1.22, so we won't be able to load your .savs.

 

[GZRD]

Okay, I had trouble finding it before but I will look and get it, and start again so that way I can at least share the SAVs to get some advice Thanks

 

[Elephantium]

Oh, and on the topic of temples...Bede said it best:

Temples...temples...priests are prevaricating parasites who pillage the body politic.

You want culture, build libraries. You get something back from the investment.

You want content citizens, build marketplaces, trade for luxuries, build towns for luxuries, build colonies for luxuries.

If happiness is a problem in a settler or worker farm, it is a self-limiting problem. Raise the luxury tax, hire an MP, you only need to make the expenditure for a couple of turns. Temples are with you forever and are a permanent drag on the economy.

Understatement...bah!

 

[Lanzelot]

Okay, I had trouble finding it before but I will look and get it,

It's here on Civfanatics in the "Downloads" section!

 

[GZRD]

Okay I have patched and started a new game this morning as the Greeks. It continues to amaze me how much more difficult Emperor is compared to Regent!

I'll be posting a new game SAV and details this week.. thanks everyone

 

[vmxa]

Regent has no bonus, more or less, while Emperor give 20% boost to the AI. They start with an extra worker and 4 def and 2 att, while Regent gets none of that.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

My first advice to anyone trying a new level:

Read cracker's post on opening plays, which basically tells you how to set up a settler factory.

Read it, learn it. Play 3 or 4 or 5 or more games through 1000 BC and focus on REX, getting a bunch of settlers and workers.

THEN, once you are comfortable with a settler factory, then play a game through on the higher level.

 

[TheOverseer714]

I say master Monarch level first, Regent to Emperor is too big a jump, I couldn't do that. Play this month's COTM, it is Monarch and you can compare notes with the other players when you reach certain stages.

 

[Raliuven]

I noticed you switched from the Japanese to the Greek. Are you just playing whatever randon Civ is given to you, or did you chose these Civs for a specific reason? If you hand picked them, what made them attractive to play when making this large jump? If they are random choices, you might find up easier if you hand-pick your starting Civ.

 

[EvilConqueror]

Deciced to give up on tech race and start stock piling cash. Zululand sold me mysticism so i traded that around and caught up on tech more or less. remain 0% research after this point, adding cities as fast as i can and ever more temples, barracks and archers.

This save is at 330 BC i believe. I am reasonably well off, stayed out of war so far and am on good terms with most. Only thing is NO ONE wants to sell me anything no matter how much I offer. Perhaps I Have enough cities to fire up research again...

I would not shut off research that early. I would be afraid of falling even further behind. There's no guarantee that you'll be able to buy techs later.

 

[Elephantium]

I would not shut off research that early. I would be afraid of falling even further behind. There's no guarantee that you'll be able to buy techs later.

Nonsense. It's never too soon to shut off research (including Turn 0 of a new game!). Pointy-stick research is a long and hallowed tradition in these parts

 

[Aabraxan]

There's a time and place to shut off research. There's even a Zero Science SS game at DG in the Succession Games. IIRC, that team even won by SS with a busted rep. . .

 

[Elephantium]

Ah, yes, Rage Against the Machine. That was a fun game.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=205564

 

[Aabraxan]

That's the one &, for some reason, the name always escapes me. Thanks.