Alright, I guess I've gone through enough games to have some hints and strategies. Here's some of the things I've discovered:
WEALTH - You don't hafta be the most advanced, biggest, or strongest if you're the wealthiest. Gold is used for everything, and with the new diplomacy you can buy your way to victory. Money money money.
SPECIALISTS - I have yet to see a specialist other than an entertainer do what they're supposed to. They earn more money and science by sitting in their square working than they do assigned to a specialist position.
UPGRADE - It's vital to upgrade when you have the money. When you're at war your economy has already suffered and you'll be behind the curve. Having your pikemen overrun because you were too lazy to upgrade is silly, and will make you mad. Here's an easy hotkey too ... SHIFT-U upgrades all units of that type that are currently in a city with a barracks. One key, one price. Easy as pie.
HOTKEYS - Start on page 197 of the manual, if you read nothing else. There's some great stuff in there that it doesn't mention anywhere else, like specific automation of workers, etc.
LUXURIES - For some reason, they spawn in groups. You'll have 5 silks surrounding one city, but no other luxury resources in your entire empire. Very frustrating. They really want you to trade for other things, and it seems to be wired for that. If you have plenty of luxuries coming in, make sure you have a marketplace in your larger cities. The happiness bonus alone will be worth the cost.
STRATEGIC RESOURCES - While I love the realism and extra strategy this gives the game, it's killing me. My huge, thriving civilization is advanced and powerful, and then I exhaust the one iron mine in my territory and I'm reduced to spearmen. In later stages if you find you don't have rubber or oil, you'd better get AT LEAST ONE source by hook or crook. Make a trade for it and stockpile a huge army, even if you don't need it right away. When a world war starts (and it usually does around the modern age) you'll need those resource-hogging units to do their thing. Secure a permanent source by force, propaganda, or by trading for a city or you'll be sorry. It is very difficult to find a resource you need just waiting on you on the open market. Often any extras are being traded back and forth amongst the AI who treat you like a poor country cousin and can't break their existing treaties to sell to you at ANY price.
TECH - Unless you're playing on chieftain level, you can forget about the old civ where you'd be 10 techs ahead of the rest of the world. You're doing good if you're 2 techs ahead. Those techs are powerful bargaining chips. Don't waste them. As soon as you learn something that has a wonder you need, start building. After a suitable head start, trade it to EVERYONE at once for the most they're willing to give you. Even if it's a poor civ and you don't wanna give it to them for 3 gold a turn, it's better than nothing. As soon as you've traded it to one civ, they'll all have it within 5 turns anyway.
TERRITORY - Don't be a pig. In only one game have I had a large landmass all to myself and I pumped out settlers constantly to fill it up. By the time I finished all my cities were still squandering down at 2-4 and I was several centuries behind on tech and city building when suddenly I spot an American frigate off my coast You can dominate the game with 10 well-placed cities sitting on strategic resources and fertile soil. If you can have 20 awesome cities, then do it, but don't ignore quality. It's more important to be well-placed, rich, and well-defended than it is to grab that extra bit of fields before your neighbor does. Make expansion a side-effect of growth instead of trying to create your ultimate nation too early and then scrambling to fill in the border gaps.
UNITS - In previous Civs, a war might involve 5-10 units. Now with the unit costs going into civ overhead and no city-specific resources required for maintenance, the AI may throw 50 units at you at any given time. No longer will you be able to hold off an invading army with 2 musketeers in a city. They'll bring a properly sized invasion force to do the job. Be prepared.
WARFARE - Much different than previously observed. You need a stack, even if it's not technically a stack but all individual units moving in a mass. Let your bombardment units soften up the city or unit position, then move your high attack units to finish em off. Defensive units should be brought along just as support for everything else. At least two. Fighting between two equal units (musketeer vs musketeer) is pointless. Pick a defensive position and hold it. The AI will attack you and give up the bonus.
Hope this helps someone. Hope someone can help me. I still haven't actually won.
WEALTH - You don't hafta be the most advanced, biggest, or strongest if you're the wealthiest. Gold is used for everything, and with the new diplomacy you can buy your way to victory. Money money money.
SPECIALISTS - I have yet to see a specialist other than an entertainer do what they're supposed to. They earn more money and science by sitting in their square working than they do assigned to a specialist position.
UPGRADE - It's vital to upgrade when you have the money. When you're at war your economy has already suffered and you'll be behind the curve. Having your pikemen overrun because you were too lazy to upgrade is silly, and will make you mad. Here's an easy hotkey too ... SHIFT-U upgrades all units of that type that are currently in a city with a barracks. One key, one price. Easy as pie.
HOTKEYS - Start on page 197 of the manual, if you read nothing else. There's some great stuff in there that it doesn't mention anywhere else, like specific automation of workers, etc.
LUXURIES - For some reason, they spawn in groups. You'll have 5 silks surrounding one city, but no other luxury resources in your entire empire. Very frustrating. They really want you to trade for other things, and it seems to be wired for that. If you have plenty of luxuries coming in, make sure you have a marketplace in your larger cities. The happiness bonus alone will be worth the cost.
STRATEGIC RESOURCES - While I love the realism and extra strategy this gives the game, it's killing me. My huge, thriving civilization is advanced and powerful, and then I exhaust the one iron mine in my territory and I'm reduced to spearmen. In later stages if you find you don't have rubber or oil, you'd better get AT LEAST ONE source by hook or crook. Make a trade for it and stockpile a huge army, even if you don't need it right away. When a world war starts (and it usually does around the modern age) you'll need those resource-hogging units to do their thing. Secure a permanent source by force, propaganda, or by trading for a city or you'll be sorry. It is very difficult to find a resource you need just waiting on you on the open market. Often any extras are being traded back and forth amongst the AI who treat you like a poor country cousin and can't break their existing treaties to sell to you at ANY price.
TECH - Unless you're playing on chieftain level, you can forget about the old civ where you'd be 10 techs ahead of the rest of the world. You're doing good if you're 2 techs ahead. Those techs are powerful bargaining chips. Don't waste them. As soon as you learn something that has a wonder you need, start building. After a suitable head start, trade it to EVERYONE at once for the most they're willing to give you. Even if it's a poor civ and you don't wanna give it to them for 3 gold a turn, it's better than nothing. As soon as you've traded it to one civ, they'll all have it within 5 turns anyway.
TERRITORY - Don't be a pig. In only one game have I had a large landmass all to myself and I pumped out settlers constantly to fill it up. By the time I finished all my cities were still squandering down at 2-4 and I was several centuries behind on tech and city building when suddenly I spot an American frigate off my coast You can dominate the game with 10 well-placed cities sitting on strategic resources and fertile soil. If you can have 20 awesome cities, then do it, but don't ignore quality. It's more important to be well-placed, rich, and well-defended than it is to grab that extra bit of fields before your neighbor does. Make expansion a side-effect of growth instead of trying to create your ultimate nation too early and then scrambling to fill in the border gaps.
UNITS - In previous Civs, a war might involve 5-10 units. Now with the unit costs going into civ overhead and no city-specific resources required for maintenance, the AI may throw 50 units at you at any given time. No longer will you be able to hold off an invading army with 2 musketeers in a city. They'll bring a properly sized invasion force to do the job. Be prepared.
WARFARE - Much different than previously observed. You need a stack, even if it's not technically a stack but all individual units moving in a mass. Let your bombardment units soften up the city or unit position, then move your high attack units to finish em off. Defensive units should be brought along just as support for everything else. At least two. Fighting between two equal units (musketeer vs musketeer) is pointless. Pick a defensive position and hold it. The AI will attack you and give up the bonus.
Hope this helps someone. Hope someone can help me. I still haven't actually won.
This is absolutely stupid. Leave out the fact that I don't see how he can have the culture lead he's supposed to have, as I have been focussing on it all game, have about 12,000 in one city, etc, etc.
