Strategy discussion

[Riker]

northwest of Moscow

I'ts kind of diagonal (up and right) from Moscow.

Right is east, here it's why I couldn't find them....

 

[kairob]

I am well confused, where is right not east?

 

[Elhoim]

I am well confused, where is right not east?

When you are looking south...

 

[kairob]

but your not on the map, the map is pointing north, right? :S

 

[Elhoim]

Of course. I was only joking.

 

[Riker]

northwest of Moscow

Quote:
I'ts kind of diagonal (up and right) from Moscow.

Right is east, here it's why I couldn't find them....

I am well confused, where is right not east?

Northwest and up and right are not the same....

 

[kairob]

it is in this context as the map north is also true north, and map north is always up on a map meaning east will always be right...

 

[Riker]

damn.

North west. Up and right

North west means up and left. I won't quote again...

 

[fearuin]

I have played a game with egyptians, and I can assure the Yerushalayim and Sin issue are very important. In my case, I didn't rushed to South Africa for iron, but to Marocco. The result was not bad, but to the end of the game, I started to fade down as long as I had a lot of improductive terrain. I've finished in sixth position in points, though I was the only Civ in Africa, except for Malinese, which I just couldn't beat. How pitiful! But they've got infantries and cavalries, but me not.

Next time I'll try your way.

EDIT: some little more explanations (the other time I was in little rush). I was the first in culture, the first in gold, and the fourth in tech... But I think my problems came because improductive land = little population = little specialists = less technology = less production = less wonders. Anyway it was a weird game because the civ most advanced was England, who were researching Fascism in the end of the game. There was only 200 points of difference between Americans (who won by time) and me.

I think that if I playback since the Middle Age (because I was on the lead until XVIII century), I will be able to make something better.

 

[GoodGame]

My 2cents on Egypt:

I agree that the position is relatively weak for starting due to nothing but a few quarrys and lots of sick floodplains, but with the UU, the early culture victory of 500 is attainable.

Two things to consider: A warrior rush can succeed against the fertile crescent to the east due to the fact they don't have defenses, and the barbarian archer defenders aren't built immediately (at least on Viceroy). Use the conquered cities to build more warriors, never using them in stacks of less than three, and only pause the conquest for archers.
Building settlers is expensive and Egypt has an early time-crunch----therefore be happy with the barbarian cities (to that note, I settle the first city right where it starts as there's lots of production bonus in the quarries, and fish can be gotten from the fertile crescent/Arabia anyway.

No need to research Monotheism, even if you aren't the first to Polytheism. Chances are you'll capture the founding city if you don't found the religion yourself.

Go straight for Animal Husbandry, wheel, and then crank out chariots to capture the fertile crescent before worrying about any wonders.

Then when you've built the Pyramids, the free obelisks with about 7 cities captured (I forget the #) is a shoe-in for 500 culture.

Recommended: capture to Hatsusas (its a nice region) and Shusan. Surrender Shusan to Persia---better to be their buddy..
Make nice with Greece and Persia (shun India and anyone else they want---it's better that way), through religion and trade. Through that, you can safely build the wonders and prepare for a coming war with the Arabs (they want the whole fertile crescent for themselves---and they ain't gonna get it!); Spearman in abundance of course to counter the Camel archers (albeit imperfectly, but with level-ups they are effective).

In my trial game, Ur got sacked, and on balance that only made Babel an even better sit to develop. Urshalim was
a nice spot for the Lighthouse (palestine) but it's vulnerable to the Arabs camel rushes.

Overall strategy:
downplay the Nile production weakness by simply not producing settlers when barbarian cities can be captured (warrior rushes work, then build chariots to finish up once archers arrive). Build culture through the conquered cities, using the Pyramids this way, for extra economic culture Be influential friends with the neighbors to avoid costly wars (except the Arabs) ; Use this time to finish the wonders and win the Arch. Don't be extra generous in giving free techs to the upstarts until you seriously outpace them. The rest is easy---try to get the world to stay the same religion as you, and keep friendly with your immediate neighbors at the expense of farther countries---keep a tech lead and settle in the obvious unchallenged direction---South-East Africa (Though expanding towards Russia/Siberia is wide open after the barbarians rushes are done).

Final note (something that didn't dawn on me until late in my trial game, but should have): the flood-plains are now great places to put Towns! (you can't irrigate them and production ecomics there is limited, but they guarantee that you'll work them due to food value and it works out that if you won't produce there then might as well settle towns there)

 

[kairob]

Some civs are made for war some arn't, if I was playing as the turks or the mongols then they sound like solid tactics, however as egypt I think the builder option is more viable, it is possible to win the HV with just two cities and without attacking anybody.

 

[McA123]

Ahh, but what if someone attacks you?

 

[kairob]

you win before most civs spawn, and before greace or persia manage to get past jerusalem, all you have to do it but-lick Rome and Cathage...

 

[fearuin]

In the game I played with with Egypt (btw: I have no saves, so it seems I will have to start from the beginning, what it's not bad, with all that feedback in mind) I was in war almost all the time, and only once I was the one which declared it.

At first, battling with barbs. Later on, I saw Yerushalayim very slightly defended (just two archers) so I took the initiative and made a blitzkrieg for it. Succesful, btw. But I didn't had a Great prophet all the game, so I wasn't able to build the Temple of solomon, or the Holy Building from hinduism (I founded it ). After that, the persians seemed to be so busy warrying with Indians that there was no counterattack, and peace was signed just about 10 turns later.

Just after that, barbs came along from Maghreb in hordes (about 20 camel archers). They caught me so defenseless that were able to raze two cities, one of them with the Great Lighthouse (a complete disaster, I don't know how I didn't quit in that moment).

So I repelled the invasion, and rebuilt the cities. And the arabs appeared. They wanted Yerushalayim. Obviously, my answer was 'NO'. War with arabs was not tought, but it took me a while to retake Yerushalayim, and a city they surprisingly take in south east Africa. I was really surprised. It was the first time that I've seen the AI to keep something more than a straightforward attack, specially the Arabs. But, finally, the colony and Yerushalayim were liberated. After that, I wanted revenge, so I went after Makkah, succesfully. Finally, the persians entered the war, and smashed the other arab cities, which were quite undeveloped.

But this was not the end. When I was about to settle in the area or Northwest africa that there's an iron resource, I saw a spanish city! I prepared the invasion, but they declared war on me first, and also Germany, and England. It was really hard to defend against the "crusade", but France helped a lot, declaring war on the Spanish (I think that because of some colony affairs in South America). Finally I razed the spanish colony, settle there, and got my Iron!! It was about the start of the XIX century.

Problems came again, when my iron colony revolted, and changed to Spanish. I was thinking in attack again, but English, which at all this time I was still in war, bribed the Malinese to attack me... I barely could contain them. I headed towards Timbuktu directly, and when my attacking army was completely destroyed, I sueded them for peace, which they accepted. Also the English. It was 2030. No time to win...

Conclusion: many times, in RFC, keep a defined strategy can be very very hard. I wanted a peaceful game, and my target was for a culture victory. My first capital (I moved towards south some time later in the game) reached legendary culture, it's true. But it was the only city which wasn't occuppied with military affairs.

 

[Agramon]

So far only on Viceroy.

Capital becomes Commerce City. Great Merchant factory so to say.

Athenai: Workboat-Workboat-Settler-Colossos

Research Masonry-writing-Alphabet...

Chariot straight to Niniveh(for Stone+Copper...). Build/Rush obelisk. Makes a good Science city but cottages hard to defend against later raids.

Niniveh: Obelisk-Warrior-Great Lib

Worker builds road via byzantion to hattusas. To connect stone.

1 Warrior patrols the forests in Thracia for Barbarians

1 Warrior for hut popping (Eurasia is quite big)

Phalanges to Hattusas(Production worker). Promote City raider. Raid the fertile crescent. Babel first for 2 Workers or Sur for XP.

Hattusas: Stonehenge(Pop'n Chop),


1st Settler founds Byzantion

Byzantion: Workboat-Warrior-Warrior

2nd Settler goes to North West (Fresh Water, Sea, Copper, Hill) to found Artist factory.

Don't remember the name : Parthenon(chop/rush)

The Tower (+100% GPP) gets build there too

Build Phalanges+Elephants(if you get them) to the East and Axes to the west.

Research Caravels (don't need open borders) and sail the seas. Try to keep open Borders with Egypt or Arabia, other wise you should better capture the Suez. Since you should have enough troups amassed by that time.

Don't move away too much from research path, I easily got beaten to that. May not work on Monarch. Stonehenge and GLib are very likely not yours.

You can also try the (pyramids+)forge for Great engineer production, Stonehenge might help here too.

P.S.: Stonehenge and Pyramids changed their specials . Didn't recognize that with Egypt earlier, since I built both .

 

[thenooblet22]

Here's a guide I posted in another thread:

It is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo easy to defeat Rome with Carthage. I choose Carthage for this reason 'cause once you have the Italian penensula, you automatically become a world superpower.

Here's some tipes (not specifically to you Hitti, just here for everyone)

First thing to do is to Unload your spawned Settler and send it west of your capital to later found a city. You can even set it to start build a wonder for future use or for future income if someone else finishes it before.

Next is to position your troops for the future invasion. Unload your two archers on the southern tip of the peninsula near the Roman spawn (yes both of them because your African cities won't have any threat until the Camel Archers spawn). Now before you end your turn, you can set your capital to work on anything you want (possibly another wonder) and change your civics (preferably just 2 for just 1 turn of anarchy).

Now you will recieve the message that the Romans have spawned and even though you might want to attack right then, you have to wait. Putting your Unique Power to use, you will have to buy your first mercenary. By then their should be a couple of good choices such as an axeman, a skirmisher or a war chariot. If you don't want to put too much strain on your economy, adjust your science output to 0%. Load your Numidian Calvary and your mercenary into your galleys and then you play the waiting game. What your waiting for is for Rome to start sending their Praetorians northward to their new city. If you time it right you can grab their worker as well. When there is only archers guarding Rome, send your fleet northward and land on the tile to the north of Rome (so you won't have to cross its river). Your archers are also stationed to the south. Your mercenary should be able to take out one of their archers while it may take both Numidian Calvary to finish the last one.

With Rome in your hands, your job isn't over. Heal your mercenary in the newly capture city. While you hold down the resistance, you should also purchase another mercenary. Again, there should be another good mercenary unit for hire. When purchased, it should arrive in Rome (I don't know if this is random or not). Send off your new army while holding down Rome with your archers. If you're short of men you can send an archer as well. The last city probably will have 1 or 2 archers with at most 1 Praetorian (I don't know where the Romans send the rest of their Praetorians; probably exploring or died battling the Gauls) It might take you two turns at the most, but the city should fall.

After the Romans are destroyed, disband your mercenaries; they will be straining on your economy about now. Finally, establish a city on the southern end of the peninsula before it gets consumed by the Greek culture. At this point, you can take your empire in any direction you want. You can become a peaceful wonder-grabber or a warmonger (conquering Greece, Babylonians and Egyptians should be quite easy with more Numidian Calvary and mercenaries). In the end, its a fun game after you've dealt with those pesky Romans.

Anyway, just wanted to give my tips. I should be able to get an Ottoman stradegy guide once I've had more games with them.

 

[Abegweit]

When I build my cities in England, I prefer to build England and Plymouth on England itself, skip Manchester and only build Dublin on Ireland, which can make use of all 3 fish resources. I usually send the leftover settler over to Scandinavia or occasionally to South Africa to get a head start on colonization. The problem with South Africa is that it's a huge drag on your economy at that point.

England is one of the easier civs to play. Inverness and Manchester are production powerhouses (so don't skip that site) and all cities generate plenty of commerce. You'll want to build libraries everywhere and hire plenty of scientists. Soon you will be far ahead in tech.

I use my settlers to found Manchester, Plymouth and... Aarhus (west side of Jutland south of the pigs). With your production and research capacity you should be able to take a big chunk of Europe with Maces and Cats. Colonization overseas can come after you've already carved out a massive homeland. Aarhus is a pretty good site in its own, too. Copenhagen looks better because of the cows but the Germans will grab them (make them pay!) and Aarhus is superior in other respects.

Dublin and Oslo come next about the same time. The former is simply a good site. The latter gets the silver - two luxes with forges, which are easy to get. Just kill three or four people. Which speaking of...

Also, I find caste system to be absolutely crucial.

Why? Slavery is far better in any game. And with the huge food surpluses you have everywhere, it is especially true when playing the English in RFC. Whip out libraries, forges. military and everything else. In general, you should follow the same sequence in every city except maybe Plymouth.

1. whip something expensive
2. grow back to the happy limit while building units.
3. hire scientists and engineers. Maybe build a settler or worker.
4. when unhappiness has worn off go back step 1.

Revolt immediately to HR and slavery so that you don't waste time in anarchy after the new cities are built (this is a general principle of RFC - your first action should be to set your civics). Later, after Christianity spreads to your lands, add Vassalage and Theocracy and get ready to kick some German butt.

Edit on the
Whip out work boats in Manchester and Plymouth the second you can. London and Aarhus get libraries, although it will take them some time to get up to size. Get a granary in Inverness. Then start right in on cats in preparation for the war (it has a barracks). When you get back up to size, get a library.

The general whip order for new cities should be granary-library-barracks (if appropriate) -forge-market. The library may be built first if border expansion is important, as in Aarhus.

 

[Lord Oden]

China can be an easy civ to play as long as you know your history (or foresight of planned events).

The main points:

1. Expand carefully - Expanding south of the capital too fast to fill in the mainland can make your research drop to 0% fast. Go after calendar fast to develop your lux resources.

2. BARBS! - Expect swordsmen from Tibet and horse archers from the north. Position your units accordingly. Have backup units ready to go. Once Tibet is conquered the raids will stop. The jungles in the south will block most unit movement, including Indian and Barbs.

3. Chokepoints - Use them. The barbs of Tibet can be stopped (temporally) by using a few axmen with woodsmen promotion in the wooded valley east of Tibet. Keep a medic in the group also. This should buy you some time to build a force strong enough to take Tibet, if you choose.

4. Japan - Keep an eye on him. He will declare war. Be ready for a landing of 4 units in Korea.

5. Resources - The copper in the south can be hard to hook up with in time. It may be faster to get the research for the iron near Beijing. Get Axmen and Spearman fast. Archers and warriors will not cut it for what will soon come.

6. THE KESHIK - The Mongols should be feared. Their mounted units can run through your foot units with impunity. Your best bet is to sweet talk India for one of their elephants. The War Elephant is the best answer to the Mongolian threat, but the Mongols will still be faster than you so you will need to be ready. The Mongols will declare war. Plan to deny them their horse resource.

If you live past the Mongolian war you should be strong enough to finish out the rest of the game.

 

[McA123]

Why? Slavery is far better in any game. And with the huge food surpluses you have everywhere, it is especially true when playing the English in RFC. Whip out libraries, forges. military and everything else. In general, you should follow the same sequence in every city except maybe Plymouth.

With Caste System, you can get scientists in cities that grow fast, but don't have such great production (Dublin is the prime example of this). Dublin always winds up having around 8 scientists early game for me, and usally before it could ever have managed to push out a library, and the problem with using slavery to get the library is that i doesn't provide the ability to hire as many scientists, and also decreases the population and makes the city unhappy for a while, and with how fast dublin grows, that can be a pretty big problem.

 

[Abegweit]

With Caste System, you can get scientists in cities that grow fast, but don't have such great production (Dublin is the prime example of this). Dublin always winds up having around 8 scientists early game for me, and usally before it could ever have managed to push out a library, and the problem with using slavery to get the library is that i doesn't provide the ability to hire as many scientists, and also decreases the population and makes the city unhappy for a while, and with how fast dublin grows, that can be a pretty big problem.

Part of your problem is that you skip the Manchester site. Not only does that lose production in England, it means that Dublin gets four big food tiles instead of three. I'm playing a game right now.

Dublin was found in 1100AD. As I speak in 1340AD, it has a granary, library, forge, lighthouse and temple. It is starting work on its university. Right now, it is only running one specialists but that will change soon.

Then there's the opportunity cost for what happens in other cities. Aarhus has a barracks, granary, lighthouse, forge, library, university, market and temple. Can you imagine how long it would take to build this stuff in such a poor production site without the whip? The hardest part was getting the initial library to bring in the fish. The work boat came from London. The rest just came by itself.

Inverness has a barracks, granary, library, forge, lighthouse, university, market and The Spiral Minaret (popped a GE ). I just whipped its amphitheatre. Even so, it is running three specialists and actually spends most of its time training soldiers to beat up the continentals.

Speaking of which... Germany is dead and France is reduced to one city. Spain and Rome are next in line. The continent should be mine by 1450AD. With a core like that and some whipped courthouses, the national objective is easy to reach.