Tips on Emperor level?

[ozo]

Hi. I'm kind of new to Civ I, only played a new game. I've mostly played Freeciv and Civ II. When I play Emperor level, 7 opponents, should I first go for monarchy or for republic? I tried republic but got huge unhappiness problems. What other techs should be high up on my priority list?

 

[Zwelgje]

Hmmm, I'm not a great player at emperor level either but what I've done so far is this: research to knights and sails and then stop research (maximum tax) and just slam your oponents and buy cities with diplo's if you have the money as this will give you units as well. Also it's important to expand, build cities like your life depends on it (and in fact, it does!) and keep them small (size 2/3/4 as long as you can keep them content, you're OK).
I've got the feeling that when you succeed winning in this way you can start with trying to win in a more civilized way (building city improvements and actually researching), I've not yet reached that level.

 

[ozo]

Ok, so I shouldn't research republic but monarchy instead? I built as many cities as I could, like 8-10, but I got attacked almost immidiately

 

[Zwelgje]

I always stay in despotism so I research monarchy to get knights only.

 

[ozo]

Now I have played a bit better. I changed to republic and built J.S. Bachs Cathedral to limit the unhappiness. I'm the Greeks, but I have two civs surrounding me so I don't know if I'll survive. We'll see

 

[eq1]

I remember one way of almost always beating emperor, though it gets a bit boring. It involves only building a few cities, researching only enough to get chariots and sails, and then setting the slider to full tax. Spend all money on building chariots/sails/baracks and nothing else and then spread and conquer. Use conquered cities for the same use. I have conquered the world very quickly. As a student this was very useful before going out - start a game at 6pm with a couple of beers and be done around 9-10 in time to go out.

 

[cheater]

Start as the Russians so you may have 2 settlers. Build as many cities as you can, one space from one to another and build an army, no improvements, only army. Stay in despotism so your units use less resources and build many roads. Build many cities. Build even more cities.

 

[GoldBerg]

I remember one way of almost always beating emperor, though it gets a bit boring. It involves only building a few cities, researching only enough to get chariots and sails, and then setting the slider to full tax. Spend all money on building chariots/sails/baracks and nothing else and then spread and conquer. Use conquered cities for the same use. I have conquered the world very quickly. ... ...

THAT should work at empereor level?
can't believe it, sorry

it's imho (just) 'the standard Ai tactic' for ZULU and MONGOL civilizations
and will just work at biggest continent
when you are already located there,
with every turn in game time that strategy will 'burn' more and more.

you won't win with chariots
against musketeer/city wall defended cities
(...just with the savegame cheat after 10's of attacks...)

...it's a bit like a contrary EARLY SPACESHiP STRATEGY
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2083272&postcount=61
but carniflex is 'a little more' specific --->

... ...
Principles:

• 01. Build as much cities as geography makes it easy to
• 02. Enlarge your cities with "we love president".
• 03. Dont discover sciences (fix science rate=0%) unless all your cities had nothing profitable to build. Make money and buy improvements.
• 04. Build the improvements in all your cities in the same turn so as to be able to modifiy tax/lux/science rates with maximum effectiveness. ex: cathedrals in all cities + Michelangelos Chapel in the same turn so as to reduce lux rate.
• 05. Accumulate gold before building science improvements. Build them and fix science rate=100% in the same turn [or 80-90% if you need luxuries])
• 06. Build all happiness improvements and wonders when needed so as so lower luxuries to the minimum
• 07. Note that if you build many cities, wonders who apply to all cities are VERY profitable (Hanging Gardens, Oracle, Michelangelos Chapel, BACH's Cathedral, NEWTON, SETI, HOOVER, CURE FOR CANCER)
• 08. Conquer your continent as quickly as possible or find an isthm easy to defend. Then, you'll be able to reduce military expenses.
• 09. Build caravans so as to build the wonder the turn after the science needed discovered
• 10. Never discover communism. People are ... ... content and productive in the reign of religion and Michelangelos Chapel

 

[Wil]

Actually, I think it's one of the surest tactics to win the game at emperor.

 

[punkbass2000]

I agree. Chariots are ridiculously powerful. I believe that's why they were severely nerfed for Civ2.

 

[trada]

But chariots were ridiculously powerful in real history, correct?

 

[punkbass2000]

I don't think so, but I don't think it's important anyway.

 

[EmperorGandalf]

I belive that (although ive never played emperor level in any civ game, and note that this is a good strategy for any level ) that you must expand as rapidly as possible, research frantically, use diplomats to catch up on tech and later bribe cities. i find that it is best to only go aggressive once you gain a massive technological and production advantage.

 

[Zwelgje]

You have to be a really good player to be succesfull with that strategy Gandalf. If you're not that good, you'll never be able to keep up techwise as the AI cheats in more ways than you can imagine and gets appointed wonders in a random way. When you're not that great of a player, there's still a way to win: destroy the enemy before they can research the more powerfull military techs like armor, conscription, battleships etc.

 

[EmperorGandalf]

yeah, youre probably right. ive never played Emperor level, so i guess i wouldnt know. what i do know is that you can get chariots pretty early, and their nice for early conquest! (on prince level i conquered planet with one chariot )

 

[pendell]

I have played emperor and won by conquest -- simply crank out barracks, chariots, diplomats, settlers (to build roads) and sail. Enough chariots (attack strength of 4) will wipe out any unit in the game that isn't behind walls, and quite a few that are. If you encounter a city that is too well defended, send in the diplomats to either A) incite revolt or B) sabotage the city walls. Then grind them down into dust.

How to win by space on Emperor? I offer the following suggestion: Conquer the entire world using strategy above until there is one city left. Surround it with a wall of phalanxes. Then convert to a republic or democracy and play a conventional research game. With 50-70 cities producing research, the advances come pretty quickly.

Hmm .. someone asked about chariots in the real world ...

... IIRC, chariots were the tanks of the ancient world. However, they were not nearly as effective over broken ground or in hills, forests, mountains. Give them a nice, flat plain and they were unstoppable. So the other side quickly learned to fight their battles somewhere other than on flat plains and the chariot's utility diminished.

Another problem is that chariots require multiple horses, which are expensive due to the immense demand for fodder. Also, chariots are machines and have all kinds of parts -- tongues, wheels -- that break easily. That's why the knight took over from the chariot -- an armored knight has all the shock power of a chariot, but needs fewer horses, doesn't require as much maintenance and can actually function on broken terrain. A cheaper solution that is actually better. And so the chariot disappeared. Or so I've been told.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

 

[trada]

Precisely.
Although the Knight didn't just go and replace the chariots just like that... the chariots were first replaced by just general horsemen which were, although weaker, much quicker and cheaper to produce and kingdoms could muster great number of them (think the Romans)...

 

[Craig_San]

The more interesting question is why chariots were ever useful in the first place given that they are more expensive, difficult to make, need more horses etc.

The answer is that the original wild horses were only as big as dogs and at the time that chariots were popular, the domestic horse was not big or strong enough to be ridden.

When they bred a bigger stronger horse, the chariot got the boot.