Think I'm in trouble. Help? (Noble)

[BD1899]

Been awhile since I've played Civilization 4 or been on the forums. I've never been able to beat Noble but I'm giving it another shot. So far I have about 5 cities built but I'm losing commerce fast and am at only 30% research.

I managed to kill Saladin with a early game Axeman rush but I couldn't keep any of the cities because of my lack of funds. Isabelle is already starting to build on the territory I fought for and it looks like I'm not in a position to stop her.

I also can't help but feel that my city placement was horrific in this game. The only excuse I really have is that the island I ended up on was awkward to start with.

P.S. I am using Qin Shi Huang (picked random) and am playing the Vanilla version of the game.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Been awhile since I've played Civilization 4 or been on the forums. I've never been able to beat Noble but I'm giving it another shot. So far I have about 5 cities built but I'm losing commerce fast and am at only 30% research.

1) See the everyone's guide linked in my signature.

2) % Research is not a particularly useful metric. More important are (a) research rate -- how many beakers are you earning per turn and (b) what are your ranks on the demographics screen.

 

[jdros13]

You almost certainly should have kept at least Saladin's capital as well - a capital city is extremely valuable and would have almost certainly come close to paying for itself. It is basically one of the main reasons for doing an axe rush is to get another great city location like the capitals are 99.9% of the time.

You also aren't in trouble financially unless your slider is at 0% and you are still losing money. Everything else can be managed.

 

[Turin Turumarth]

Go straight for currency and then code of laws. Currency is probably the most important economic tech, probably the most important tech all around, and code of laws is great for courthouses. With those two techs there is no end to expansion. Yeah as previously mentioned, 30% is ok, if you're losing at 0% then you're in trouble.

 

[Ghpstage]

Theres no benefit to stockpiling so much gold, use it to fund defecit research at 100%. With the amount you have now you could fund 20+ turns at 100%!
Also, you can currently fund 50% research indefinately, theres absolutely nothing wrong with the ability of your cities to support your empire, even though there is a lot wrong with those cities themselves.

You ought to look to get more early to allow your cities to grow. Monarchy for Hereditary Rule is one option, and with those excessive garrisons throwing money down the drain this would have worked nicely. Alternateively you could have made a greater effort to connect your resources, right now you have 2 that aren't connected, and one of those is already improved.... just not roaded.

Why did you build your Academy in Shanghai by the way? It would have been much more effective in the capital or Guangzhou.

I also can't help but feel that my city placement was horrific in this game.

Your right here. When settling do not kill off food, and avoid settling 1 off the coast.

Shanghai unfortunately breaks both these rules, killing off a fish (a very strong tile) and in doing so prevents a good city claiming the silk, and being one off the coast newters 7 coast tiles. It would have been far better split into 2 cities, one 2 east of the currrent location, and the other either 1SW or 1NW depending on which city you wanted to have the pigs.
Another city should exist on the desert 2N of the copper near Shanghai, to claim the fish and work the plains cow.

Guangzhou is another horrid 1 off the coast city, but without seeing how the map looked at the start I can't say wether 1W or 2S,1W would have been better.
With its current position (or 1W) there should be anohter city on top of the sugar though.

 

[FlyingSwan]

as has been said currency is the priority tech here not drama,this gives you extra trade routes so you can bump up the slider and trade techs for gold.Its not usually good to build citys 1 tile from the coast,the area where shanghi is I think you could of built 2 citys on the coast,1 taking the copper,the other taking the pigs and fish.You get coastal trade routes then.

Its usually best to improve grassland rather than plains tiles 1st,working plains cottages in the cap will just slow down your growth rate and you wont be able to whip as much or run as many specialists.Running GM unlocked by markets and CoL can get you out of a financial hole.Even if your slider goes to 0% dont panic Ive never not been able to get the economy back on track by working the right commerce tiles,improving trade routes,running specialists,smart tech trades etc.

 

[Unconventional]

You should take advantage of your happiness resources ASAP, and you should trade your extra hapiness with AIs to boost your population. For instance you have two gems one mined and connected, the other untouched. Similarly two sugar, one has plantation but not roaded the other's just been built by your worker. And one silk untouched. You can trade one of your extra happiness resource with Kubilai for Ivory which brings you extra happiness and powerful war elephants. With elepthants you can take out pretty much everything until the middle ages. Yes you need to work on city placement and you can check out articles about city placement here on this forum. I dont exactly now if it was Saladin's capital but you shouldn't have razed the city with 2 wines already with wineries. I'd suggest you to stop building soldiers and build a settler to regain that city ASAP before Isabella gets it. And you dont seem to have a tech path in your mind which is pretty normal for now but you should make a list of the techs you need as you explore the territory. For instance if you dont have any calendar resources but some wines in your land, monarchy must be a priority rather than the calendar. In this particular game I think you should be heading towards Code of Laws rather than Drama. You can also read useful articles for difficulties like noble and prince. Have you ever tried Orion's Home School: Winning at Noble? Here is the link I hope it would be helpful :http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=246889 When you move up to prince level you can read Sisiutil's ALC Games series. He's a great player and his prince level games would be helpful for you.

 

[MarigoldRan]

Always, always keep capitals.

Also, what's the point of invading someone if you're going to raze everything?

 

[Xpl]

Always, always keep capitals.

Also, what's the point of invading someone if you're going to raze everything?

Expanding on this, it's usually good to keep capitals because the RNG placement tends to set spawn locations in a decent environment.

Although don't take EVERY city unless the placement is good. Keep holy cities or cities with lots of wonders, because when they're destroyed they're gone forever.

 

[King Pluto]

Furthering the "don't raze the capitals" point, most times your rush force comes at the expense of expansion. While rushing to cripple an opponent can be worth it, keeping one of their cities (usually the capital for reasons already given) makes up for the loss of a Settler due to your rush force production.

 

[Turin Turumarth]

If you also need infrastructure so you can recover, always remember WHERE THERE'S A WHIP, THERE'S A WAY!!!


Link to video.