Vanilla Emperor Advice Needed

[Trapper439]

Just started playing again a few weeks ago. I got my first 100k adjusted score last week, but I'm still (obviously) a lamentably poor player.

I've always had problems with the start at Emperor level. (My Hall of Fame says I've had 4 Domination wins at Emperor and a couple of Cultural and Diplomatic wins a few years back, but damned if I can recall more than a couple of them, and I don't really understand how I started those games so well that I won them, I think it was just luck).

So I started about the 20th Emperor game of this week, and somehow finally it has worked out kinda OK. Usually I find it hard to even get a decent second city. I've tried all kinds of starts (eg Worker-Warrior-Settler and Worker-chop 2nd Worker-chop Settler-Warrior) but getting a decent 2nd city is always a problem for me on Emperor.

In this game I couldn't get the second city site I wanted, as Toku founded Osaka thereabouts, so I built Memphis (founded 2200 BC) and Heliopolis (1840 BC) instead.

I built a rather crappy fourth city (Elephantine, founded 805 BC) and then took a Barbarian city (Assyriam) around that time.

Then I whipped the hell out of my main cities in order to gain an army and took out Tokugawa. This was probably the main thing I've learned from this game, that whipping one's cities into virtual oblivion can actually kinda pay off. Usually I'm more circumspect about whipping, but in this game I just didn't care how much the proles remembered my oppression.

So now Japan is eliminated and the Pyramids are mine, but at around 250 BC I'm way behind on Tech, and Genghis has built the Great Library. I've switched to Representation, but none of my cities seem to be worthy of GP Farm status as there's just not that much food around.

_______________

So if anyone would care to look at my savegame I'd like some advice, please.

1/ Should I immediately start warring again, or should I consolidate? And If I do go to war should I target the Russians or the Mongolians?

2/ What techs could I aim towards that I could trade for all the techs I'm missing? At this stage I'm thinking about beelining Paper and trading it around but I'm not even sure if I can reach Paper before the AIs do.

______________

Admitted weaknesses in this particular game:

1/ No GP Farm, but where would I put one?
2/ Haven't been building many workers until lately, as I was too busy militarily.
3/ Haven't taken advantage of the Open Borders agreements I have with my Buddhist brethren in order to explore their lands. This is possibly the first time I've ever cursed myself for not building a scout or two. I don't think I've ever built a scout in Civ IV, to be honest.


_______________

If anyone would be so kind as to load the savegame and critique what I've done I'd be very appreciative of their efforts. Sorry, but I don't know how to do screenshots.

 

[Cam_H]

(Note to thread viewers - this game has been saved with the 1.74 HoF mod for vanilla and the game requires this mod to be installed to open).

Trapper439,

Consolodate or War?

Consolodate in my view. On the plus side, you're #1 in land area (and can additionally re-settle the south west if you want, and/or a filler city toward Old Sarai if you're feeling brave), you have land where there's a heap of choppable forests, and you have The Pyramids to help things along and get you back on your feet. You're lagging quite badly in tech' and you're economy's in the hole. Your army is nothing great (more than one-third being Archers) and would probably run into Crossbows and Longbows pretty quickly. You don't have Construction and therefore no siege. Really, in my view, a combination of factors that point firmly to 'consolidate'.​

Technology lines?

You've got few good choices tech'-wise because the only monopoly tech' you've got a shot at is Drama which you'd have to sell for cash (and use the cash to run your commerce slider up) rather than exchange for needed tech's.

I tend to agree that Paper via Civil Service might be your salvation. Paper's 'bulbable' with a Great Scientist when you get its prerequisites if you feel time-pressured to get it (I acknowledge that bulbing Paper is sort of expensive given the unused beakers that get burned up, but this tech' might lead to a big catch up and therefore worth it).​

Farm

I acknowledge that you've got very few really good choices on this - usually when you take a foreign capital it makes a good -Farm option because inevitably it's going to be food-rich, but Kyoto's got a grand total of 1 food resource (and Plains Hill Sheep at that!), no Floodplains, and lots of Plains.

Two of the razed Japanese cities in the south west can run a less-than-impressive number of specialists when developed (Deer-Sheep-Iron could run 4, 6 with chain irrigation, while Deer-Fish could run 5) if you wanted to resettle one of those spots.

Likewise, 'nothing to write home about', but both Memphis and Assyrian have two food resources each (once you get Calendar) and riverside Grassland, making either a prospective 'average' quality Farm.

Possibly a decision that you need not make for a little while - you've not got Literature (National Epic) or Code of Laws (Caste for unlimited specialists), so setting up a Farm in the near future will be preparatory only.​

Workers

Yep - a few more would be good. 10 Workers for 8 cities isn't terrible, but you've got a lot of Forest and Jungle to address. (What's that Worker building a second road out of Assyrian for in light of the road on the Rice already doing the job?).​

Scouting your neighbours

I also agree that it might be handy to get an idea of the land-layout. If you don't want to build a Scout or a War Chariot, then maybe using three or four low-XP 1 units instead might be a way to do the job ... slower, but they can still do it. In light of 'consolodate' rather than 'war', this recon' isn't an urgent issue to address, but 'while the sun shines' you may as well 'make hay' (i.e use your loitering units to check out the world while you've got Open Borders).​

Miscellaneous small points for the immediate

Kill that Barbarian Warrior and spawbust the south west (unless you're hoping that a Barbarian city pops there?).

Drop production of The Hanging Gardens - at least while your Stone is unquarried and unconnected. I assume that this build was for 'fail gold' only.

Either whip Elephantine's Lighthouse or move the Plains Farm citizen to the Silver Mine.

Personally I wouldn't do this, but nonetheless one option to keep Genghis happy could be to churn out a Settler and found a junk city where that English Scout is standing to your east. Gift the city to Genghis, and you 'should' get a fair diplomatic modifier (I can't recall how well this works in vanilla Civ4) while he gets a largely useless city.​

I hope this is of some help. Best of luck.