Standard Civ IV versus Civ VI BTS

[Willem]

The main difference I have noticed is how much more city and unit maintenance is. 6 cities, I'm at zero science running a deficit!

You're not doing something right. With only 6 cities there's no way you should be at 0% with a deficit.

 

[Nestorius]

Well, its pre-Code of laws, I'm beelining to Monarchy, and I got one or two Scientist specialists in each city so the tech rate is not too bad. The main reason its so low I think is that right now I have zero luxuries so most cities are size four. I'm also located in the holy land and I had to found three cities in a descending line to the South in order to get horses and to place a bottleneck super growth city that mines my bronze. So the distance is a little far. But once I get Code of Laws, I can start settling the vast empty safe grasslands to the north. When I get Monarchy I can start building more cottages, too. Militarily I'm safe for now, which is nice. I probably overbuilt troops but I'm still one of the weakest civs.

 

[Nestorius]

OMG the stacks! I'm watching my friendly Persian Southern buffer neighbor get taken over a city at a time by a 15+ unit French stack of Swordsmen and Catapults. Its only 400 AD. I'm 20 turns away from Code of Laws, a pre-Feudal Monarchy, still at zero science, seven growing cities, zero luxuries, and still plenty of settling space in the empty North. I plan peacefully building as long as possible to see if this strategy works on Emperor.

 

[ranger101]

I play Monarch/Epic with Solver patch (improves AI) with Raging Barbs, Random personalities and 2 extra AI civs, so I rarely have the chance to get an early religion as I need to get archery and either Horses or Bronze hooked up fairly early. You don't need a religion to win, but a good one to get is either Code of Laws (which you need for courthouses) or Philosophy (which you lightbulb from a Great Scientist once you have all of alphabet, code of laws, math and meditation; you might have to build the Ankor Wat to get the Great Prophet though). While the income from a shrine is nice, if you build enough cottages and run enough scientists, you can keep your tech rate up.

I find the early religious techs don't help much if you don't get the religion. The key early techs for keeping your research up are Pottery & Writing for cottages (especially riverside or on a flood plain) and scientists. Sailing helps more for Financial civs but in any case you need to get your commerce from somewhere. Monarchy is the key tech at the end of the early religious techs as it allows your cities to grow much larger. Currency and Code of Laws are other key techs. However, you must play the map. If you have jungles, then iron, sailing, math and then calendar become more important. (I disagree with the one of above poster re plantations - you can trade the resource to the AI for more plus you get the commerce right away) If you have a lot of coastal cities, sailing and and masonry are of greater value if you want the Great Lighthouse) or Metal Casting (for Colossus if you have Bronze) and Trireme's to protect your fish. If you have lots of wine, you lean towards monarchy.

Wonders can be addicting, but they cost a lot. Unless you are Industrious or have the 50% resource coupon (cost is often halved if you have a certain resource), so you should think very carefully whether you need them. Maybe building a library, courthouse, a worker for the new city you will found and a few more troops to keep the AI Civs/Barbarians off your back will help you better.

If I was to offer 2 pieces of advice, I would say (a) more cottages/specialists and (b) play the map and to a certain extent your leader as well.

 

[Nestorius]

You're not doing something right. With only 6 cities there's no way you should be at 0% with a deficit.

You were right. That slowed me down. Then I got stuck in wars on my Southern/Egyptian border retarding my growth and commerce for centuries while I was trying to research Code of Laws. Eventually 1200 AD, the Dutch came storming into Anatolia (my unprotected sparsely settled front) and overran with stacks of knights and macemen my barely protected bottleneck city while I was still barely researching Machinery. If only I had another 100 turns to build and catch up, I would have been impregnable. Bah, I could stick it out a few more turns, but maybe I will restart a second Emperor game and make sure I get some starting luxuries and resources.