The Turn-100 blues

[ShakaKhan]

First, quick noob question. When you complete a district, do existing trade routes instantly increase their yields, or does that not occur until you re-start the route? makes a big difference if you're about to complete a district, whether or not to wait with TR's for a few turns until it finishes.


So I've played the game through up to turn 100 and keep running into the same problem (OK, so it's more like turn 70-85, but I digress.) Seems I always hit a point where there is too much to build, all of which needs to happen immediately. Commercial hubs and Industrial zones often come on subsequent techs, and both need to be up in every city right away - they should be the next two builds in all your cities. But, there's also some expansion left, and you need those settlers out before you lose the spots, plus there's the workers that you'll need both for the new cities and the core that is working unimproved tiles. Then there's all the traders for the routes you're now getting. Then there's the military that you need to reinforce the war that you have on one flank of your empire as well as the military that you need because civ on the other flank of your empire notices that all your troops are far away. It just seems that I always hit a point where a production finishes and I look at the build que and see five or seven things that must go up immediately and I'll be losing if I don't get them. Advice?

There are a few things that I'm assuming I should do differently:

1.) It seems imperative to have at least 6 cities (unless you have some tall-based strategy), before hitting this point. That way you can cycle - these three cities work on their districts while the other three make whatever the policy discount is (settler/worker/military)
2.) For non-religious civs, don't found a religion. I try to get a religion every game even though I don't think it's worth the investment simply becausei it seems that if you don't found one, you cannot defend against a religious victory. I imagine I'm overestimating their chances, but it seems quite plausible in a game where you're just aiming to bulldoze the map with military and ignore religion entirely, you get a few turns away from finishing and suddenly find that you lost to religion. How real of a threat is this?

Any other tips to deal with the turn-100 blues?

 

[Kelmort83]

Have an army early.

Which mean not every city should get those district. Have a few cities focused on working 2-3 gold tiles with growth disabled while building Archer; maybe a single commercial hub

Have somes cities to build worker; and other to spam settlers.

I also find that Pottery -> Writing -> Currency is often the best tech path for cheaper district, even if mining first result in more productivity. By skipping a turn 1 worker, you can end up with an early settler (turn 18) or 2-3 slinger. Overall your district will come online a little bit later but your empire will be in better shape.

 

[fortydayweekend]

My priorities in this phase:
1. Enough builders to connect luxuries, chop rainforest and marsh, build mines and pastures and bonus farms
2. Enough military to take out 2 closest neighbours and useless city states by t100
3. Placing CZ and IZ (at 4 pop) and CD (at 7) (for science victory)
4. Settlers to fill the gaps, aiming for 16-20 cities as close to t100 as possible
5. Finishing districts

Completing the districts doesn't seem necessary until the expansion phase is over - the ROI from conquest, builders and settlers is much higher. One CZ for a GS for the education boost and try to capture a holy site and theater district for the mathematics boost.

Once expansion is over, CD + trader is better short term payback, but you need 3 IZ + workshops quickly for the industrialization boost and beelining factories seems to be the best play. Spare cogs go into CZ / library / uni. CD comes last.

I usually start ED + Colliseum in a city before t100 too - probably too early but I hate missing out on it when it's 80% complete.

Capturing a holy city is usually easier than founding a religion

Hope this helps.. main point is don't sweat cometing districts until you've finished expanding.

My main questions for this point of the game are:
- is it worth buying rainforest and marsh tiles to grow cities to 7 pop to place a cheap 3rd district? Is it worth holding off settlers and building granaries too?
- as Rome is it better to go iron working before or after apprenticeship? Earlier legions vs cheaper IZs?

 

[Kelmort83]

My main questions for this point of the game are:
- is it worth buying rainforest and marsh tiles to grow cities to 7 pop to place a cheap 3rd district? Is it worth holding off settlers and building granaries too?
- as Rome is it better to go iron working before or after apprenticeship? Earlier legions vs cheaper IZs?

1) I think you are better off buying a Monument or slowly build one, Slower border growth but less expensive in the long run.
2) As Rome, I like to bee-line for Themes, it's 3 or 4 tech away and enable catapult which is a great start for a domination victory. With such a start I would go for iron Working because it's open up Mecanization, which you can get the eureka early, and will improve your production by a lot, and much sooner than going to apprentiship (6 tech +1 for mining)

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

After the patch, IZs aren't as important as they were, because Factories and Powerplants don't stack anymore. So, you'd need mostly 4 pop cities with CHs and your victory district. Some might go taller for IZ and/or EC.

How you juggle those priorities is part of the game. I like fresh new cities starting with Builders or Traders, then moving on to either a district or another Settler. My core cities might be building their second or third district, producing buildings in my Victory District, or generally helping my sattelite cities to develop a bit faster with additional Traders or Builders. My military is mostly consolidated at this point, but I might build a bit more too if I feel I need it, or an awesome unit comes around this time.

 

[MyOtherName]

It just seems that I always hit a point where a production finishes and I look at the build que and see five or seven things that must go up immediately and I'll be losing if I don't get them. Advice?

That's how it's supposed to be. You're not 'supposed' to be able to build everything -- not even everything you think you absolutely must have. You need to learn to prioritize the things that are most useful.

This probably requires questioning assumptions; e.g. some possible forms of tunnel vision are

• Your city doesn't have to keep growing -- maybe you can avoid growth and focus on other tile yields and put off the buildings that would increase your housing/amenities
• Your city doesn't have to have an industrial zone -- maybe you can spend the cogs you would have otherwise spent on something that will return on the investment more quickly
• Your city doesn't have to have a commercial zone -- same deal

et cetera.

 

[Chibisuke]

You will have to prioritize. Generally, I prioritize IZ and/or campus because I think great engineers and great scientists are so strong in this game, much stronger than Civ 5. That being said, you do still need militar and settlers. So what I do is:

Start off with builder

Make military next - keep these guys alive and upgraded for rest of game

Make settlers from capital next, with bonus production to settlers civic

Keep making settler from capital until somewhere around turn 100. Possibly insert a campus in there somewhere.

Othe cities are rotating Campus, Industrial zone, builders, and supplemental archers as needed.

Once capital is done pumping out settlers, start improving capitals infrastructure.

Other cities should be pretty strong now and can start adapting to current needs.

All this time, military you built at the start should be capturing closest neighbors.

 

[joncnunn]

After the patch, IZs aren't as important as they were, because Factories and Powerplants don't stack anymore. So, you'd need mostly 4 pop cities with CHs and your victory district. Some might go taller for IZ and/or EC..

I would somewhat disagree with this; if anything hammers are now somewhat harder to come by and so things that boost hammers are even more important.
What's it's done is:

1. Relocate every cities IZ tile from one of those tiles tied with reaching the most cities to one of those tied with maxed out adjacency bonuses.
2. Having every one build a workhouse (which only benefits the city that built it) shortly after getting the tech is still important.
3. After the tech comes for Factories, instead of building every one; plot out the fewest IZ that between them all cover all your cities and only build those factories.
4. Internal Trade routes providing hammers have become even more important (decreasing desirability of foreign trade route); and the IZ in the destination city is one of those things boosting hammers.

Also remember that unless the latest patch has changed this, you can still lock in future district costs by putting one turn of work into them and then switching to something else until you're ready for the district.

 

[MyOtherName]

IZs aren't free; they cost a lot of cogs. The return on your investment for building an IZ has decreased. Thus, IZs have become less important.

Cogs are harder to come by, which makes it more important to make sure you're spending them on the most useful things.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

I would somewhat disagree with this; if anything hammers are now somewhat harder to come by and so things that boost hammers are even more important.
What's it's done is:

1. Relocate every cities IZ tile from one of those tiles tied with reaching the most cities to one of those tied with maxed out adjacency bonuses.
2. Having every one build a workhouse (which only benefits the city that built it) shortly after getting the tech is still important.
3. After the tech comes for Factories, instead of building every one; plot out the fewest IZ that between them all cover all your cities and only build those factories.
4. Internal Trade routes providing hammers have become even more important (decreasing desirability of foreign trade route); and the IZ in the destination city is one of those things boosting hammers.

Also remember that unless the latest patch has changed this, you can still lock in future district costs by putting one turn of work into them and then switching to something else until you're ready for the district.

I've been thinking over this, and I came to the conclusion that what I said isn't really true too, albeit for different reasons.

Growth must be stimulated in areas with good production Lots of woods along rivers, plenty of hills, Petra city with desert hills, coastal resources with Auckland suzerainty, these should be good to grow a bit taller. You can fit then an Industrial Zone with the higher pop.