Strategy discussion

[blizzrd]

I can vouch that they are all possible on Monarch difficulty.

Actually, the challenge of solving some of the diffucult ones definitely led to a marked improvement in my general skills at Civ4. Don't lose heart if you find them hard, they are simply problems that need to be solved and there is a solution to each one.

The easier ones were some of the European civs: Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, France, Vikings and Russia off the top of my head, and also Japan and Khmer are fairly simple. If you haven't already, try starting with those ones perhaps.

 

[RedRalph]

OK cheers man. Yeah I have already done France, England, Germany, Russia, Portugal at Monarch, and have come very close to doing Spains as well. Tried the Khmer one but found it impossbly hard.

 

[blizzrd]

The two key cities with the Khmer is to capture Patna and to start by building Jayakarta on the island of Java, and to use the whip a crazy number of times in your cities. Without these two cities and Slavery civic, Khmer UHV would be next to impossible.

 

[RedRalph]

The two key cities with the Khmer is to capture Patna and to start by building Jayakarta on the island of Java, and to use the whip a crazy number of times in your cities. Without these two cities and Slavery civic, Khmer UHV would be next to impossible.

OK, cheers. Judging by your sig you know what youre talking about. doesnt the whip adversely affect the population aspect of things though?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

The two key cities with the Khmer is to capture Patna and to start by building Jayakarta on the island of Java, and to use the whip a crazy number of times in your cities. Without these two cities and Slavery civic, Khmer UHV would be next to impossible.

Yes, but don't forget to switch to caste system (and stay there for at least 200 years) as soon as you get Jayakarta big enough to crank out those great artists.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

OK, cheers. Judging by your sig you know what youre talking about. doesnt the whip adversely affect the population aspect of things though?

Jayakarta grows by 1 pop every move when it's small (once you've hooked up all the seafood and banana), just make sure you have use your spare hammers after whipping for a warrior to keep people happy. (I never hook up the copper near Hanoi until I have 4-5 warriors in each city)
Never whip Patna or Pagan unless necessary (e.g. to get Baray and harbor in Pagan is necessary) since they don't tend to grow as quickly.

 

[RedRalph]

OK, cool. what are the best culture projects to go for? Wonders, or just pop to create more artists?

 

[blizzrd]

Just go for Great Artists. You'll almost certainly need 3x. I research Drama asap to be able to build theatres and hire artists. Caste System could get you a similar deal, but you really really need Slavery. Your production just sucks without whipping the citizens into action. I use Pacifism and Slavery and micromanage the specialists to focus on Great Artists.

 

[blizzrd]

Jayakarta grows by 1 pop every move when it's small (once you've hooked up all the seafood and banana), just make sure you have use your spare hammers after whipping for a warrior to keep people happy. (I never hook up the copper near Hanoi until I have 4-5 warriors in each city)
Never whip Patna or Pagan unless necessary (e.g. to get Baray and harbor in Pagan is necessary) since they don't tend to grow as quickly.

I just build two warriors in each city rather than 4-5, I prefer to get more workers going to hook up all the resources as fast as possible. But as Pacifist says, don't hook up the Copper too quickly. I don't have a problem with whipping Pagan or Patna, I usually give Pagan some of the food resources in Hanoi's area so that it can achieve something useful at some stage in the game.

The bottom line is there is more than one way to do it. Experiment, go with the strategy that suits you not anyone else.

 

[chococid]

The bottom line is there is more than one way to do it. Experiment, go with the strategy that suits you not anyone else.

Well, that only works sometimes. Some of the UHVs are extremely limited in terms of what you can do- Babylon's, for instance.

 

[RedRalph]

Hahaha.... well, sad to say but having had another go I just dont think China's in attainable for me at Monarch. I cant even get 8 cities with all religions in them by 1000, never mind all with temples and Cathederals. anyone who can do it, my hat is off to you. I'll give Spain another go

 

[chococid]

Hahaha.... well, sad to say but having had another go I just dont think China's in attainable for me at Monarch. I cant even get 8 cities with all religions in them by 1000, never mind all with temples and Cathederals. anyone who can do it, my hat is off to you. I'll give Spain another go

It's apparently possible on the 600 AD start. I assume you have to save every turn just to deal with the annoying "your missionary has failed to spread RELIGION in CITY!" garbage.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

It's apparently possible on the 600 AD start. I assume you have to save every turn just to deal with the annoying "your missionary has failed to spread RELIGION in CITY!" garbage.

3000 BC is possible, many have done it. The trick is to not expand too quickly.
600 AD is insanely easy now (with free Great Wall and already some temples built and religions spread, no need to research civil service yourself).

 

[RedRalph]

On the 600AD start you get what, 5 cities to start out with? how can you possibly build 3 new cities, 6 new missionaries and 4 cathederals in 40 turns? non stop whip? do you already have music?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

On the 600AD start you get what, 5 cities to start out with? how can you possibly build 3 new cities, 6 new missionaries and 4 cathederals in 40 turns? non stop whip? do you already have music?

see the wiki. You have 3 settlers (found Beijing, Guiyang and one in the north) and capturing Seoul is a 50% dice throw. Xi'an and Qufu build nothing but missionaries after the initial workers, while Hancheng (Seoul), Hangzhou and Guangzhou you have to whip and whip. Beijing should not be whipped at all (you will have ample production from bureaucracy) and in fact if you time it right you can build 2 cathedrals there.
I think you have to research music yourself.

 

[chococid]

In the current version you do already have music. I think the play is to switch to hereditary/slavery on turn one, bureacracy+organized religion as soon as you're done teching monotheism. And you have to crank out troops like crazy because Japan, Khmer, and Mongolia will all declare war on you at some point- and of course there's the 1600 AD uhv requirement. Mongolia will even declare if you have the same religion as them, so don't bother wasting the anarchy going for Taoism.

It's definitely doable, and probably isn't even that hard- you can start out with 9 cities if you reload a bit; though I'm not sure if it's worth it to get Lhasa as the city is truly terrible and just begs to be captured by random barbs that somehow get over there. (Though I did have one maceman kill 5 swordsmen on my first attempt.)

You start with 3 settlers, 2 cities will flip to you, and if you ignore Lhasa you can send 2 swordsmen and a crossbowman to Seoul. That's 6. Your horse archer can take Hangzhou because it's undefended. That's 7. The other coastal city has one spearman in it. That's an easy capture with a crossbowman and makes 8.
If you really want, you could try to raze Independent Hanoi to keep Khmer off your back, but Khmer is nothing more than an annoyance anyway and it's more important to build the cathedrals first.

 

[blizzrd]

Well, that only works sometimes. Some of the UHVs are extremely limited in terms of what you can do- Babylon's, for instance.

Very true, certainly of the Inca and Mali UHVs also. But with the Khmer, the puzzle is not as tight. There is some room for options.

 

[3Miro]

Hi, this is my first post in this forum. I have been playing RFC for some time now and have couple of comments.

As far as China goes, IMHO the most difficult part is to hold the stability until 1600AD. The economy gets toasted by the support of the huge army and it is incredibly annoying to see a city declare independence along with 20 - 30 units that were in it.

I failed on Khimer several times. The first two conditions are easy enough, however, spreading Buddhism was beyond me. I will get open borders with all of Europe, but those guys would run Theocracy 2/3 of the time and it takes forever for the galleons to get from SE Asia to Europe. Then stability over the long period of not growing causes pagan and other cities to flip. Does anyone have any suggestions about that problem?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

You know the trick about giving missionaries to civs that run theocracy? They will use that missionary and convert one of their cities (assuming the missionary was successful)
Building a base closer to the Europeans and getting to the American civs early are also good strategies.

 

[Virdrago]

When I won my Khmer, I converted the Inca (who grew many large cities), the Maya, and some of the Aztec cities. American civs are very useful. Give techs for open borders (Aztecs take a lot more). India was Hindu, but I did spread Buddhism to them and Persia. I spread into China before they collapsed; I had to declare war on Japan for this. Did the same with the Mongols when China collapsed. Japan was already Buddhist.