Stuck between Noble and Prince. Now what?

[Agrajag]

Guys,

I like to take things slowly unlike a lot of people here who dive in and finish the game at the highest level 10 hours after it ships. <grin>

Anyway, on Noble level I win pretty much every game now and end up with an in-game score of around 5,000 with a game score of around 9,500.

I then decided it was time to move up to Prince level and the first two games I finished dead last and was never in the game except at the very beginning. I end up basically poor with research having to drop down to 60%. I have more land area than anyone but I'm always dead last in population.

Where should I begin to look for shortcomings in my approach?

I'm certain I'm not using Great People properly and I rarely touch anything in the City screens (except when I need to get something moving along more quickly). I also usually, but not always, take one of the recommended research paths. I NEVER found a religion and they seem to get those long before I can even think of going for one.

My big strategy now is to find out how I can close off a section of my land so that the other civs can't out-city me and then refuse Open Borders requests until I've built on all the available land.

In Prince level I'm also rarely getting any wonder. I get close but I generally end up with a lot of cash that I then need to burn upgrading units.

Any help greatly appreciated. If you feel the need to insult my lesser play, please, find something else to waste your time on. I'm playing to enjoy the game, not to gain bragging rights.

 

[MarcAntiny]

I would say continue to practice on noble until you can get your score a bit higher. Do you manage your workers early in order to optimize your growth? Also, city managers can be absolute boneheads!! I often have to go back an alter the tiles they are working regardless of what I set them to prioritize. Don't forget the money is huge when it comes to techs, more money in your cities, faster you can research. I would say that you should research things you need first rather than the generic recommendation. You have cows, get husbandry, you have deer get hunting, crabs, get fishing, etc... If you want more culture you need religions, oracle is a great way to grab Theology to get you started with at least one. Did I mention, pay attention to your workers.. Also, sometimes an early war is necessary to keep the AI occupied with fighting and not researching, I usually can leave a guy in their territory until I can get reinforcements up there. They will generally never leave less than 3 units in their cities so you can monitor this an know when a unit will be coming out... good luck

 

[Agrajag]

I do manage all my workers until it seems fairly obvious that they won't do any harm. However, I'm not sure the old habits help. I generally build either a farm, cottage, or mine (early on) and ALWAYS follow that with building a road.

I also wait until my city reaches a size of 2 before I build a settler and I rarely build a settler and worker back-to-back.

I am completely at a loss on city managers. I'm not using them at all that I'm aware of.

 

[Dragonlor]

Start out with a very simple Prince game and work your way up. Use a duel map and slug it out 1 on 1. When you beat that, add 2 comps, then 4 or whatever until you have the number you usually have.

 

[Bunion]

Take a look at this strategy article here, I used a lot of it and on the last game I played on Prince I easily one a space race victory http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=141825

 

[Olie]

You could try playing on the easier setting and making the game harder for yourself.

Try turning the agressive AI option on, playing on a smaller map (with the same number of civs - less space for expansion) or settling at one of your map's poles where terrain is harsher.

Otherwise, keep up at Prince - you'll get it eventually

 

[lances]

You might be building too many cities. In C4 you can win with 6 or 7 on a standard map. You might want to spend more time developing the cities you have, rather than building more.

Also, take a look at your cities on a regular basis. If there's room to grow (extra health and smiley faces), consider hitting the "emphasize food" button. If you're out of faces, consider slowing it down - turning a farmer into a specialist, for example.

Resources are everything. Trade for them, whenever you can. And when you're considering city sites, consider resources first.

Pay attention to your adversaries. Who likes you, and what do they think about each other? You want open borders - international trade can be very lucrative. But you may not be able to be friends with everybody. If it looks like there are a couple of different factions forming, consider joining one, and cutting off relations with the other. Also consider wonders, techs, and civics that increase your trade. A big rich city benefits tremendously from foreign trade routes.

There are a lot of synergies in C4. One well-developed city can produce more science, money, and hammers than several mediocre ones.

 

[cleverhandle]

You've already pointed to city management as one place you need to learn more about. That would be a great place to start - the AI is mediocre at best in managing city tiles and improvements, and by Prince you start needing some efficiency to get the most out of your cities. To get better at this you should really post a save game. There are way too many details in a game of Civ to talk about without being able to point to an example in a real game. If you post a save, more experienced players can (and will) quickly look over your cities, military, and other choices and tell you what doesn't look right to them. If you don't post a save, a lot of well-meaning people will make suggestions that may or may not apply to you that you may or may not know how to implement.

 

[jafink]

i'm also making the move up to prince, and i find that it is almost always impossible for me to keep up in the tech race unless i get a religion, and build its shrine. The extra gold really helps alot.

My main problem for prince is i plat too peacefully in the early game, allowing the AI to expand rapidly.

Another problem i have is with speciallizing my cities.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[The Duff Man]

Current Prince game (at about 1500 AD now)

China - decent starting position on a peninsula with horses nearby! Got horses hooked up and sent chariots out to harrass the enemy. Spain was closest, I razed all her improvements and kept her trapped in her two cities. All she had was Archers. Stolen workers at this point help also.

I was on a peninsula so I had no other civs to worry about. Allowed me to focus on infrastructure. Because I was Industrious I have all but two wonders up to this point. While working on the wonders STOP GROWTH. Manage the city to maximize your Hammers to make sure you get the wonder. I chopped a lot of forests too, we'll see how that plays out later in the game. While building libraries or other things that is the time to grow your city.

Financial trait combined with lots of water tiles combined with Colossus allowed me to stay in the lead in techs. With all the wonders I have gotten 2 great merchants (1300 gold each, used to upgrade units and stay at 100%) and 6! great prophets. Two I have used to build shrines, the other 4 are all sitting in my capital as Super Specialists giving me 20 gold/turn. One great artist from Music was used to expand the borders of Spain's captured cities once I got around to wiping her out.

My tips:
Manage your city, depending on whether you want to grow or produce
Harrass your closest enemy to prevent them from growing if possible, that will give you room to grow if needed