Leptomeninges
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2004
- Messages
- 97
A few thoughts on strategy playing Rome (on Emperor).
I've played several games as Rome over the last few weeks. The following are a few tips (probably most of them pretty obvious). I post these as much for myself just as a fun exercise and on the off chance they'll help someone new to the mod. They reflect my playstyle as much as anything (conqueror/builder).
1. City placement. Recognize that at some point you'll have more cities than you can handle and will consider abandoning some just to bring down corruption. On the other hand, the Italian peninsula from the area of Pisa to Naples is too attractive to stick with OCP. I usually pack five cities in pretty tightly around Rome on all those rivers. These will be your core production sites in the early to mid game. As I get more distant from the capital I spread my cities out more.
2. Tech broker - Contact as many other civilizations as you can. I make this a high priority and send archers and warriors out as early as possible trying to meet more civs. I actually took the time to figure out several paths through the barbarians and wolves that are usually safe. You should be able to contact Ibreria, Gaul, Germanic Tribes, Macedonia, Troy, Mycenae, Dacia, and Carthage without too much trouble. With some effort you can contact the Britons, Sythians, Kolchis, Goths, and the Huns. The Minoans, Phonecians and sometimes Sea People will frequently come to you. To contact others you'll have to build a boat (I usually wait for Tiremes -- those coracles get eaten up by barbarian pirates). Stockpile gold so that when you hit monarchy you can rush build your infrastructure and to trade for techs when you have no other commodities to offer. I typically try to get around 100 gold per tech in the early game although I'll take less if I know it is a widely-known tech. I also trade for workers whenever possible. With this strategy, I can usually obtain between 3000 and 10,000 gold before monarchy.
3. Military Conquests - You're Rome, so in picking this civ you presumably plan to conquer. In fact you'll have to in order to survive. There are three key parts to my early military strategy.
A. Wipe out the Etruscans fast. They are your biggest competition in the peninsula and Po river valley. Plus, they'll attack you first if you give them a chance. Luckily it's not too hard to wipe them out quickly. Although Emperor level difficulty will give them a ton of extra units, they typically send them out on barbarian crusades leaving only 2-3 units in Caere. In a few games I nursed them along for a while as a rump state hoping they'd build their wonder, Etruscan Pottery (granaries) that I could then control. In my games they never got around to it. Hit them hard and fast. Wipe them out. At this point I go to a fast expand phase until I hit point B.
B. In my games (and again, this may only reflect my playstyle and city placement -- I like to drop a city in the area of Marseilles to control the flax luxury there) the first major attack always comes from the Gauls. Every now and again another civ (Macedonia or the Huns) will declare war first, but it never amounts to much. But when the Gauls come they always mean business. Be ready for it. The key is building several archers to control the alps. Remember that only "light" units like archers can travel through mountain terrain. Don't be caught unready. This is a big fight when it comes. I rarely sack any of their cities in this war. It is all I can do to bloody them enough that they back off.
C. Once well established on the peninsula I usually next build tiremes and sack Mycenae (all those resoursces on that peninsula are just too attractive) on my eventual way up to Macedonia. But at this point you should be well into your game.
4. Cheap trick #1 - Leave at least one area of the boot of Italy uncolonized and camp there with several archers. The AI (usually the Minoans or Mycenaes) will repeatedly send settlers with one defending unit there. The AI is pretty predictable in where it likes to build. Hit the defender and every eight or ten turns you'll have another three workers. Your workforce will grow FAST this way. At some point you'll rush a settler to fill in that spot because you're feeling overwhelmed with workers.
5. Wonders - In my opinion there are three wonders that are pretty overpowered. The rest are just pretenders. Luckily of the three you'll only have to race the AI to one of them.
a. The Great Library. You guessed it. With so many other civs out there researching and trading, this is a real powerhouse. But you'll have to start prebuilding early in order to catch it. Once you have it, you can really dominate the tech trade and rush build your military and infrastructure even more. The only time this becomes worthless is if Babylon completely runs away on their own in the tech race leaving everyone else behind. Build this one first. Wait on the others until you're well established on the peninsula.
b. The Temple of Zeus. As you conquer it's obviously a pretty huge advantage to have instant temples in every city you sack. Luckily, the AI is a complete idiot about building wonders that have prerequisites (8 temples in this case). It's usually not too hard to build this one.
c. Military Training. Your civ specific wonder. You won't be racing anyone for this one. And why in this game in particular is this wonder such a big deal? Because for all other civs, barracks come in the late game. This is particularly important in that you'll be the only civ that can upgrade units. (Not that the AI normally takes advantage of that anyway).
6. Early research path -- I usually trade for agriculture and domestication as fast as I can (Macedonians usually have at least one if not both). Rome really only becomes a good starting site when you unlock the bonus resources there. I research pottery first to get granaries. (Usually the AI hasn't researched this and it has value as a trading commodity). I then trade for Nature Cult from the Guals and research Ceremonial Burial with the goal of reaching Monarchy. (The AI usually researches Chariots first and the Huns start with Horseback Riding so you can get both of those through trade). Of course an equally valid option is to go zero research and just trade for everything.
7. Destroy all barbarian camps on your peninsula. At some point any camps still present will spawn a ton of barbarian swordsmen. At one time I thought it might be OK to leave them in Sicily which I am slow to colonize. They'd harass the AI also, right? I'm not sure if I've just gotten the wrong impression, but it seems like barbarians attack me preferentially over AI civs. If I leave camps it seems like I end up fighting two enemies when it comes time to take over Sicily. At this point I kill them all if they're in a region I plan to colonize.
[Edited for spelling, clarity, etc.]
I've played several games as Rome over the last few weeks. The following are a few tips (probably most of them pretty obvious). I post these as much for myself just as a fun exercise and on the off chance they'll help someone new to the mod. They reflect my playstyle as much as anything (conqueror/builder).
1. City placement. Recognize that at some point you'll have more cities than you can handle and will consider abandoning some just to bring down corruption. On the other hand, the Italian peninsula from the area of Pisa to Naples is too attractive to stick with OCP. I usually pack five cities in pretty tightly around Rome on all those rivers. These will be your core production sites in the early to mid game. As I get more distant from the capital I spread my cities out more.
2. Tech broker - Contact as many other civilizations as you can. I make this a high priority and send archers and warriors out as early as possible trying to meet more civs. I actually took the time to figure out several paths through the barbarians and wolves that are usually safe. You should be able to contact Ibreria, Gaul, Germanic Tribes, Macedonia, Troy, Mycenae, Dacia, and Carthage without too much trouble. With some effort you can contact the Britons, Sythians, Kolchis, Goths, and the Huns. The Minoans, Phonecians and sometimes Sea People will frequently come to you. To contact others you'll have to build a boat (I usually wait for Tiremes -- those coracles get eaten up by barbarian pirates). Stockpile gold so that when you hit monarchy you can rush build your infrastructure and to trade for techs when you have no other commodities to offer. I typically try to get around 100 gold per tech in the early game although I'll take less if I know it is a widely-known tech. I also trade for workers whenever possible. With this strategy, I can usually obtain between 3000 and 10,000 gold before monarchy.
3. Military Conquests - You're Rome, so in picking this civ you presumably plan to conquer. In fact you'll have to in order to survive. There are three key parts to my early military strategy.
A. Wipe out the Etruscans fast. They are your biggest competition in the peninsula and Po river valley. Plus, they'll attack you first if you give them a chance. Luckily it's not too hard to wipe them out quickly. Although Emperor level difficulty will give them a ton of extra units, they typically send them out on barbarian crusades leaving only 2-3 units in Caere. In a few games I nursed them along for a while as a rump state hoping they'd build their wonder, Etruscan Pottery (granaries) that I could then control. In my games they never got around to it. Hit them hard and fast. Wipe them out. At this point I go to a fast expand phase until I hit point B.
B. In my games (and again, this may only reflect my playstyle and city placement -- I like to drop a city in the area of Marseilles to control the flax luxury there) the first major attack always comes from the Gauls. Every now and again another civ (Macedonia or the Huns) will declare war first, but it never amounts to much. But when the Gauls come they always mean business. Be ready for it. The key is building several archers to control the alps. Remember that only "light" units like archers can travel through mountain terrain. Don't be caught unready. This is a big fight when it comes. I rarely sack any of their cities in this war. It is all I can do to bloody them enough that they back off.
C. Once well established on the peninsula I usually next build tiremes and sack Mycenae (all those resoursces on that peninsula are just too attractive) on my eventual way up to Macedonia. But at this point you should be well into your game.
4. Cheap trick #1 - Leave at least one area of the boot of Italy uncolonized and camp there with several archers. The AI (usually the Minoans or Mycenaes) will repeatedly send settlers with one defending unit there. The AI is pretty predictable in where it likes to build. Hit the defender and every eight or ten turns you'll have another three workers. Your workforce will grow FAST this way. At some point you'll rush a settler to fill in that spot because you're feeling overwhelmed with workers.
5. Wonders - In my opinion there are three wonders that are pretty overpowered. The rest are just pretenders. Luckily of the three you'll only have to race the AI to one of them.
a. The Great Library. You guessed it. With so many other civs out there researching and trading, this is a real powerhouse. But you'll have to start prebuilding early in order to catch it. Once you have it, you can really dominate the tech trade and rush build your military and infrastructure even more. The only time this becomes worthless is if Babylon completely runs away on their own in the tech race leaving everyone else behind. Build this one first. Wait on the others until you're well established on the peninsula.
b. The Temple of Zeus. As you conquer it's obviously a pretty huge advantage to have instant temples in every city you sack. Luckily, the AI is a complete idiot about building wonders that have prerequisites (8 temples in this case). It's usually not too hard to build this one.
c. Military Training. Your civ specific wonder. You won't be racing anyone for this one. And why in this game in particular is this wonder such a big deal? Because for all other civs, barracks come in the late game. This is particularly important in that you'll be the only civ that can upgrade units. (Not that the AI normally takes advantage of that anyway).
6. Early research path -- I usually trade for agriculture and domestication as fast as I can (Macedonians usually have at least one if not both). Rome really only becomes a good starting site when you unlock the bonus resources there. I research pottery first to get granaries. (Usually the AI hasn't researched this and it has value as a trading commodity). I then trade for Nature Cult from the Guals and research Ceremonial Burial with the goal of reaching Monarchy. (The AI usually researches Chariots first and the Huns start with Horseback Riding so you can get both of those through trade). Of course an equally valid option is to go zero research and just trade for everything.
7. Destroy all barbarian camps on your peninsula. At some point any camps still present will spawn a ton of barbarian swordsmen. At one time I thought it might be OK to leave them in Sicily which I am slow to colonize. They'd harass the AI also, right? I'm not sure if I've just gotten the wrong impression, but it seems like barbarians attack me preferentially over AI civs. If I leave camps it seems like I end up fighting two enemies when it comes time to take over Sicily. At this point I kill them all if they're in a region I plan to colonize.
[Edited for spelling, clarity, etc.]
