Stuck at Emperor and looking for advice.

[Razzlesnaff]

So I comfortably play on King. Damn near 100% victory rate I'd say so far. I decided I'd bump it up to Emperor, because everyone complains about how easy this game is and Emperor can't be that much harder than King.

I played as China because it's one of the Civs I'm comfortable with. I did an early horseman rush on England. Which caused basically the whole world to think I'm a warmongering sociopath. Destroy one Civ and I was hated for the rest of the game.

I was having trouble keeping up in tech even though I was trying for Space Race. I had Rationalism all filled out, Libraries and Universities. I was always 3 techs behind Darius and 2 behind Hiawatha. However my techs were more spread out. I was teching mostly into the top of the tree. I would come down to the military section of the tech tree when I felt I needed to keep my troops up to date.

Turns out that Darius had b-lined straight to Replaceable Parts and had Infantry. I had just started building Rifleman. I was overwhelmed by Hiawatha from the South and Darius from the west.

I hear about people who play Deity that the game is too easy. I'm having a fairly rough time on Emperor. Can someone suggest away to keep a tech advantage? How to not be overwhelmed by the opposing civs military? I don't really believe in cheating or modifying my map to fit my goals. I also don't do ICS or any strategy like that. I prefer to brute force my way to victory.

 

[Ashwind]

Never destroy an AI civ. That helps you manage the 'diplomacy' pretty well. Leave one city alive and if you can, make sure another AI does the killing blow. Get everyone else to hate this AI, rinse and repeat. Once you get bigger and have more military, you can just ignore the AIs' pathetic demands and DoWs.

If you can get an AI to declare on you, so much the better. You can escape the supposed diplo hit from war declare.

Puppet all conquered cities and trade post every usable square.

Head for banking and get Forbidden Palace.

Pick associated specialist policies. Run max Scientist specialists. Sign RAs with all faraway AIs.

 

[DaveGold]

The balance problems are such that the simplest, narrow strategies are too effective and developed strategies are too weak. If you're playing without a military rush and without ICS then the happiness bonus given to the AI can create supersized nations which the AI has to misplay to lose, typically through excessive maintenance or appalling troop movements.

If you want a play tip I'd suggest trying to propel yourself forward through the linear parts of the tech tree with great scientists or even the great library. Moving forward an era can open up better policies, better techs, and better maritime bonuses.

 

[avl8]

Razzlesnaff: From what Ive read Im pretty sure you are already beaten emperor difficulty.
The one little mistake is lack of military power while your teching to victory.
And ofc lack of diplomacy experience.
Both flaws are really small and easy to deal with.

Like Ashwind told, try to not kill any of the civs. Leave them a small and bad city and watch them try to survive till the end of game. They will be terrible outteched and outproduced means no harm for you. You can even sell them something others wont buy.
By doing this you wont get "bloodthirsty warmonger" tag over you head. And other AIs will trade with you without horrible trading penalties. Surely your closest "partners" wont like you, still for the rest of the world youll be a good fellow. Which means you can easily sign PoCs/PoSes with distant partners. Get RAs with them if you want.

And if you already outteched your main challenger, its easy to keep your military good enough to defend.
Good luck, im sure your revenge will be bloody and efficient

 

[diz2]

I was having trouble keeping up in tech even though I was trying for Space Race. I had Rationalism all filled out, Libraries and Universities. I was always 3 techs behind Darius and 2 behind Hiawatha. However my techs were more spread out. I was teching mostly into the top of the tree. I would come down to the military section of the tech tree when I felt I needed to keep my troops up to date.

I tend to be behind in tech a lot of the game and then just blow by them when you get libraries/unis/specialists in enough cities and 500+ science per turn plus lots of Great Scientists.

On continents I usually try to take out everyone on my continent with horsemen before focusing on science and cities. You can easily get good relations with civs you do not border even after completely eliminating 2 or 3 civs. Just interact with them on a regular basis and worst comes to worst just give them something of low value. Give them things like 1 horses or 2 gold every couple turns. Ater a while they will start calling you friend instead of bloodthirsty warmonger.

Based on my experience, I'n not sure it's possible to have good relations with someone you border who has a good military of their own. Even if they've been calling you friend for centuries they attack you at some point anyway.

 

[biohazard72]

Horse rush should work well on Emp - make sure you launch early! At such a low difficulty you should be able to take out two civs with them, then a third with Knights.

Build Colosseums and expand to the happiness cap. Build Libraries and Universities and stock them with specialists! Grab Freedom and other specialist boosters if you can.

People claim Deity is easy because blindly applying the above strategy will make you win with any decent starting location, if you play well.

 

[Paeanblack]

I hear about people who play Deity that the game is too easy. I'm having a fairly rough time on Emperor. Can someone suggest away to keep a tech advantage? How to not be overwhelmed by the opposing civs military? I don't really believe in cheating or modifying my map to fit my goals. I also don't do ICS or any strategy like that. I prefer to brute force my way to victory.

In all honesty, you aren't going to regularly beat Deity by playing 'nice'. The computer will just outtech and outproduce you if you hold back on expansion and conquest. Even if you manage to survive playing defensively, the Spaceship is getting launched somewhere between turn 250 and 300. If you want to win, you need to either beat that clock or pound on the AIs.

You really do need to exploit at least one of the following on Deity to succeed:

1) Beeline to a specific tech advantage and hit the AI hard while you have the edge. This works with Horsemen, Longswordsmen, Rifles, and Artillery. All of those units completely outclass the opposition if you are the first one to get them.

2) Settle lots of cities. The math behind the game rules dictates that horizontal growth is much more efficient than vertical growth. Packing those new cities close together decreases road costs and makes your empire easier to defend. That's ICS, and it yields the most hammers, gold, and science. It's not a "strategy"; it's just optimal play.

3) Actively use the diplomacy system to keep the AIs at war with each other. This alone won't win you the game, but it will keep you alive long enough to try.


The reason people are saying Deity is easy is because, barring extreme exceptions, any random game you start is winnable, unlike Civ4. That doesn't mean you will automatically win the game...you still need to play the advantages you have.

 

[basta]

^Paeanblack, ummm, he's asking about Emperor, actually....

At that level, to keep up techwise, you should sign as many RAs as you can, and also trade all your extra luxuries all the time, as well as OB and unused strategic resources, so that you keep your rival Civs as poor as possible, thus preventing them from signing more RAs than you do.

Also, with the money you earn, in a virtuous circle, you can check in on them and hit them with an RA that will set them back negative balance for a good while--with their own money.

As rapidly as possible, found your first 5-6 cities, so that you can get the resources to sell to exploit the above, and always build monuments and libraries asap--libraries in all your early cities are essential to keep you in the teching game. After they're in place, then start building horsemen and longswordsmen for an offense war against your nearest, biggest neighbor around turn 80.

 

[harry_flashman]

The one big thing for me: scientists. Massively powerful.