Static midgame, heading for space race, help requested

[vormuir]

Playing as Napoleon, Prince level, vanilla game. Got an isolated start on a small continent. Have now all that continent plus a large offshore island, for nine cities total.

Rival civs are on one other supercontinent. Alexander picked a foolish war and died early. Genghis has been bottled up on a small penninsula with three cities. So my real rivals -- in increasing order of power -- are Roosevelt, Hatshepshut, Saladin and Cyrus.

Cyrus is the biggest and most powerful, with about a dozen cities. However, he's Christian, while Roosevelt/Hatty/Saladin are a Buddhist bloc.

With vigorous trading I've managed to mostly catch up with the AIs on tech. We're all at roughly the Artillery - Steam Power - Communism level of development. The Buddhists trade with each other and so tend to be a couple of techs ahead.

I've been hoping for a world war of Cyrus vs. the Buddhists, but it looks like it's not happening. I'm the second strongest civ, so it's unlikely that anyone will launch a transcontinental invasion. And I don't want to start a war myself. So we're looking at a rather static midgame with no wars, heading for a space race finale.

So, my question: in a situation like this, with the human facing a couple of AIs that are equal or slightly ahead in tech and production, what's the best strategy going into the endgame? Is there a Space Race handbook somewhere?

I'm Napoleon, which means I have Industrious and... well, I have Industrious. Fast Wonders. I have rivals who are Financial and Spiritual and Philosophical, so I'm a bit handicapped otherwise. Not complaining, mind -- I think this is winnable. Just looking for good advice.

Thoughts?


Waldo

 

[Jorunkun]

If you want to avoid war and go spacerace, you need to get ahead in economy and tech asap. The first step is to cottage up all suitable land and go democracy to get the money rolling in.

For space race, there's a been a bunch of good posts over in the strategy article section, just search the forums. The main thing is to time your component builds right.

You might also want to consider inciting war between the buddhists and Cyrus with tech bribes, if possible. Also consider using spies to sabotage enemy production.

Good luck,

J.

 

[DutchJob]

You are NAPOLEON!

 

[vormuir]

I'm Napoleon, but stuck on an island continent, and past my UU's sell-by date.

As it turns out, it looks like I'll be able to pull this off. I have two very good production cities and am keeping up on tech.

This article:

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/peaceful_space_win.php

is very good, though I might critique a couple of points. (I'd make Satellites the last or next-to-last tech, since that damn Engine is so expensive.)

Key point: I don't need to get ahead on tech; there are techs I can skip altogether, like Military Tradition and Flight, and others that I can put off for a long time, like Satellites. I do need to make my builds in an orderly manner, though -- get Laboratories up before finishing Apollo -- and I need to snag the Space Elevator.


Waldo

 

[Heeringas]

If you play russia, go straight to computers and build those magical research labs fast, and then go back to older techs and no one can stop you, if you have couple of good production centers...

 

[cabert]

I'm Napoleon, but stuck on an island continent, and past my UU's sell-by date.

As it turns out, it looks like I'll be able to pull this off. I have two very good production cities and am keeping up on tech.

This article:

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/peaceful_space_win.php

is very good, though I might critique a couple of points. (I'd make Satellites the last or next-to-last tech, since that damn Engine is so expensive.)

Key point: I don't need to get ahead on tech; there are techs I can skip altogether, like Military Tradition and Flight, and others that I can put off for a long time, like Satellites. I do need to make my builds in an orderly manner, though -- get Laboratories up before finishing Apollo -- and I need to snag the Space Elevator.

I'm no expert at all in space racing, but here is my advice :
- try to rush to communism asap
- cottage up the place
- get a nice production city
- build the kremlin while teching to rocketry
- try to get one or more great merchants
- time your production queues in secondary cities so that you can $ rush in a row a factory 2 turns before apollo is ready, a laboratory one turn before apollo, then start easy parts in those secondary cities with a small head start.
- chop the final parts to get the last one as early as possible. A good chop in a nice IW city with aluminium is worth a lot ! For this you need to lumbermill those forests and start workshopping them (don't chop directly, you would lose production for a turn!) as soon as you start this final part.

Note that a captured AI city often has more forests around it than your own cities . Maybe you should consider a little conquest when the buddhist block falls apart (Free religion).

 

[svv]

Has anyone built Verseilles? It's often a good idea to pick whoever has Verseilles as your enemy, and go and take a bunch of their cities (including the one with Verseilles, of course).

 

[cabert]

Has anyone built Verseilles? It's often a good idea to pick whoever has Verseilles as your enemy, and go and take a bunch of their cities (including the one with Verseilles, of course).

right! list of targets :
early on :
- pyramids
- shrine (any kind)
- resources

later on :
- colossus
- great library
- great lighthouse
- notre dame
- sistin chapel

late game :
- versailles
- best shrine
- good production city
- resources

 

[vormuir]

Guys, guys. It's evolving as a very peaceful game.

I have two good production cities -- a capital with lots of hills and Bureaucracy, and an IW city. One is building Apollo and the other is getting ready for the Space Elevator.

I went on a late-game GP binge. After several GPs in a row I finally scored a GE. A turn too late for Three Gorges, darnit, but the AI civs are doing their usual substandard teching -- oh yeah, Mass Media, that's crucial -- so it looks like I'll get ahead of them on the techs that matter.

This won't be a beautiful win, but that's no matter.


Waldo

 

[vormuir]

Okay, done.

It wasn't a beautiful win at all... 1980s launch, 8000-some points. I showed the leadership potential of Simon Bolivar, woo. Still, any win is a win. And for an isolated start on a continent that was mostly jungle, this wasn't too bad.

Cyrus beat me to the Three Gorges Dam, darnit, but otherwise the win was never in doubt after about 1920. Had the Space Elevator built at almost the same time as Apollo, and factories and laboratories in almost all my cities by then.

That article is good. Space-racing is much easier and faster when you go at it in an organized way.


Waldo

 

[Orion071]

Okay, done.
That article is good. Space-racing is much easier and faster when you go at it in an organized way.


Waldo

Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. A Space Race win is actually pretty easy since the AI is usually so horrible at teching and production. They like to research useless techs like Composites and Mass Media. Plus, they never have specialized production cities. If you stay on a focused path, you'd have to be pretty far behind the AI's entering the modern age to lose.