Technology and Rep on DemiGod

[MonkeyBusiness]

hey there,

I'm playing on a Mac (Complete), so that may change things a bit, but I still thought that this would be the most appropriate place to post. I just upped difficulty to Demi-God (which is one of the top two or three) and changed to Archipelago, which is also new challenge.

I'm playing as the Swedes because i thought their unique unit would be rad for the Arch map.

Anyway, I kinda got screwed with my starting position, got off to a slow start, have successfully declared war on my nearest neighbor (Arabs - using horseman, and immediately nabbing their iron source), dragged their other neighbor (the English) into it, and now have a reasonable number of underdeveloped cities.

My problem is that I'm getting my ass kicked in techs. Really. Its embarrassing. I've tried tech trading, but am now so far behind that catching up seems near imossible- i can pay through the nose for republic, but then cant sell it too anyone.

But the thing its that when I up my tech to about 90 percent, the number of turns required for rwepublic drops from 50 to about 45, how does research work on tough difficulty levels? Is there a specific number of beakers required for each tech, but with an automatic max of 50 turns? It seems that way.

And I've raized a couple of Arab cities. Has that trashed my rep? Would driving them to extinction save my rep again? Now it seems no one will trade with me on gpt. And after the Arabs I was planning on attacking the English, who are the cultural leader, which means holding a city will be bordering on impossibility - thus I'll by burning my way through their territory followed by a bunch of spear/Pikemen and settlers. Will that also blow my rep?

Here is my save, although i dont know if it will work on PCs, although I dont see why not (its still a .sav).

http://rapidshare.com/files/259853642/Ragnar_Lodbrok_of_the_Vikings__170_AD.SAV

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Arexander]

Welcome to CivFanatics!

Razing foreign cities does always trash your reputation if over 25% of the population of city is foreign. I'm not so good that I could advice you on other matters but I can say that.

 

[Optional]

But the thing its that when I up my tech to about 90 percent, the number of turns required for rwepublic drops from 50 to about 45, how does research work on tough difficulty levels? Is there a specific number of beakers required for each tech, but with an automatic max of 50 turns? It seems that way.

You've got that right. Max research time for each tech = 50 turns, for any difficulty level. This means that even if you would spend only 1 beaker on science each turn, you'll still get the tech in 50 turns.
But difficulty level affects the amount of beakers required for each tech. You might know that difficulty level normally gives a bonus to the AI. On Demigod the bonus is 30%. This means that the AI only needs 7 shields instead of 10 to build a warrior, only 14 food to fill the foodbox instead of 20, and so on.
But with tech cost it's exactly the other way round: not the AI gets a bonus, but the human gets a penalty. So the techs are 30% more expensive for you. They did this to prevent the game from racing through the ages.

And I've raized a couple of Arab cities. Has that trashed my rep?

No. That only gives an attitude hit, which means the AI will like you less. You must have done something different to trash your rep, like attacking the Arabs while being in some sort of deal with them.

Would driving them to extinction save my rep again?

No. That would only work if you would have managed to do that before they could meet anyone else. Even if they had only met one other civ, that other civ would have briefed everyone else.

Here is my save, although i dont know if it will work on PCs, although I dont see why not (its still a .sav).

Whoops! I didn't see that. I'll take a look at that as well. By the way; for uploading a save you can just use the 'manage attachment' button that is available when you're making a post; no need to use an external host.

 

[MonkeyBusiness]

thanks for the clarification. Any other tips you've got after seeing the save would also be good.

Another question - ive kept playing have have wiped out the arabs, and am sizing up the english. the problem is they have that temple of zeus - the one that makes ancient cavalry every five turns.

They need ivory to build it, but do they need ivory to keep building the units? They have sod all resources except ivory, so I was planning on pillaging their 3 ivory sources to screw their trade, but will it also stop new units of ancient cavalry from being created.

Any other tips for taking on ancient cavalry? Use Swordsmen since my horsemen are crapper and no longer retreat? Any hints?

 

[Optional]

I'm getting errors when I'm trying to load your save in game, don't know why. Also I haven't got much time now, but no more Ivory = no more Ancient Cavalry.

Also, where I thought of regarding our possible rep issue: if you're offering gpt, you must be at lest making that amount every turn, otherwise the AI will never accept it, even if you have a million on the bank. But you can lower your science slider, make a deal, and immediately put it up again.

Fighting Ancient Cavalry seems tough, they're as strong as knights, I don't know if you should do that. It would help if you have forested borders, so that a fast unit like an AC has to stop one tile before your cities. Then you can redline them with artillery before attacking them in your own turn. If you're facing a stack and have a lot of artillery you can make a good kill rate. Usually it's best to leave the last unit in the stack if you haven't got a unit that can attack and retreat in the same turn.

 

[Spoonwood]

Fighting Ancient Cavalry seems tough, they're as strong as knights

Ancient Cavalry have an attack of 3 and a defense of 2 with a movement of 2 like the *Gallic Swordsman*. Knights have an attack of 4, a defense of 3, and a movement of 2. I agree though, that fighting ACs too early can pose a problem. Although, the AI only gets 1 every 5 turns.

 

[MonkeyBusiness]

Thanks for that. I'll wait it out and prepare a bit more and take out all their ivory first turn. I dont have knights yet either. I have been at war ay too long and am so far behind with techs its a joke. Thanks for the advice though.

 

[Optional]

Ancient Cavalries have that extra hitpoint. They're stronger than Gallic Swordsman.

 

[Spoonwood]

Thanks for the correction Optional, I forgot about that.