I cannot beat this game on noble difficulty. I am always behind the other civs size-wise and also army-wise. I suck at diplomacy too because I can never get good deals from the AI civs and cannot get them to fight each other either. Any advice or help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Want to win on noble
- Thread starter whazzup81
- Start date
I cannot beat this game on noble difficulty. I am always behind the other civs size-wise and also army-wise. I suck at diplomacy too because I can never get good deals from the AI civs and cannot get them to fight each other either. Any advice or help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Rusty Edge
Deity
Relax. You're probably only a change or two away from success.
Can you post a save from a Noble game?
Can you post a save from a Noble game?
Metal Alloy Man
Back in Black
- Joined
- May 6, 2008
- Messages
- 761
I'm in the same position but on Prince, you'll get over the hump, don't worry.
Hortulanus
Chieftain
Check out the articles in the War Academy. There is a wealth of good information there. Also, I found following Sisiutil's "All Leaders Challenge" games to be very helpful for showing how the better players make decisions.
Hang in there.
Hang in there.
It took me 11 tries before I made it. You can do it, too. You just have to get used to having your butt handed to you for a bit. (And learn to handle it with some dignity. 
)
Keep trying, and let us know when you win!
)Keep trying, and let us know when you win!
champ82
Immortal Ruler
Without a save game I can't tell you what mistakes you're making. I can tell you what mistakes I made at first on noble.
1.Do you really really really like wonders? I love wonders. They're wonderful. The problem is, sometimes you can make them too much of a priority and neglect your military. Never neglect your military. Wonders go from wonderful to worthless without one.
2. Plan your National Wonders accordingly. If you have a holy city or found a corporation this is where you want your stock exchange. I usually build heroic epic in my 2nd or 3rd most productive city not my 1st my 1st is for wonders. Don't make this city the greatest place to live, make it a functional city whose job it is to make ass-kickers. Build Iron Works and National Park in the same city.
3. Keep an eye on your neihbors' religion. If they are near you and powerful, try to convert them (go for their capitol first). Sometimes you may need to convert to theirs, even if it's a pain. It helps diplomacy very much.
4. Keep an eye on how powerful the other civs are and who likes who. You won't be able to please everybody (most likely). Pick the people who trade techs (even if they're unfair trades, some civs don't seem to trade at all) to keep as allies. Decide who's worth appeasing and who is not.
5.Pay attention to specialists, free specialists, and wonders' great person impact. Example - You built the oracle, chitchen itza and your shrine all in the same city. You produce a lot of great people in this city. You could produce more with a national epic. Except.... a lot of them will be priests. Which gets old half way through the game and gets older later in the game.
6. Check out these forums. Upload your saves a lot of people will give you precise advice. A lot of people disagree. Smart people can disagree. But you'll see this forum is like Rome's Unique Building it increases great person output.
7. Expansion is expensive. Courthouses are key, much more key than market places if you ask me. Which brings me to point 8.
8. You don't need every improvement in every city. If you have a holy city w/ shrine, and you build a market, grocer, bank, harbor, customs house, airport on that city it will make up for 7-8 cities without them. A lot of hammer cities don't make much use out of marketplaces.
9. Check the tech trading page every turn. Re-evaluate resource trades every 30.
10. Don't give up I think it took me 6 tries. Don't go back to warlord. Noble is what separates the zeros from the heroes. If I'm ever talking to someone in real life about civ and they don't play on noble or above I pretty much lose interest. No offense to anyone who plays warlord. Nothing's wrong that, it's just if you don't ever plan to play on noble, I can't take your advice too seriously. Which maybe is how people who play on Emperor or above think about me. Oh well.
1.Do you really really really like wonders? I love wonders. They're wonderful. The problem is, sometimes you can make them too much of a priority and neglect your military. Never neglect your military. Wonders go from wonderful to worthless without one.
2. Plan your National Wonders accordingly. If you have a holy city or found a corporation this is where you want your stock exchange. I usually build heroic epic in my 2nd or 3rd most productive city not my 1st my 1st is for wonders. Don't make this city the greatest place to live, make it a functional city whose job it is to make ass-kickers. Build Iron Works and National Park in the same city.
3. Keep an eye on your neihbors' religion. If they are near you and powerful, try to convert them (go for their capitol first). Sometimes you may need to convert to theirs, even if it's a pain. It helps diplomacy very much.
4. Keep an eye on how powerful the other civs are and who likes who. You won't be able to please everybody (most likely). Pick the people who trade techs (even if they're unfair trades, some civs don't seem to trade at all) to keep as allies. Decide who's worth appeasing and who is not.
5.Pay attention to specialists, free specialists, and wonders' great person impact. Example - You built the oracle, chitchen itza and your shrine all in the same city. You produce a lot of great people in this city. You could produce more with a national epic. Except.... a lot of them will be priests. Which gets old half way through the game and gets older later in the game.
6. Check out these forums. Upload your saves a lot of people will give you precise advice. A lot of people disagree. Smart people can disagree. But you'll see this forum is like Rome's Unique Building it increases great person output.
7. Expansion is expensive. Courthouses are key, much more key than market places if you ask me. Which brings me to point 8.
8. You don't need every improvement in every city. If you have a holy city w/ shrine, and you build a market, grocer, bank, harbor, customs house, airport on that city it will make up for 7-8 cities without them. A lot of hammer cities don't make much use out of marketplaces.
9. Check the tech trading page every turn. Re-evaluate resource trades every 30.
10. Don't give up I think it took me 6 tries. Don't go back to warlord. Noble is what separates the zeros from the heroes. If I'm ever talking to someone in real life about civ and they don't play on noble or above I pretty much lose interest. No offense to anyone who plays warlord. Nothing's wrong that, it's just if you don't ever plan to play on noble, I can't take your advice too seriously. Which maybe is how people who play on Emperor or above think about me. Oh well.
champ82
Immortal Ruler
2 remember, only 2 national wonders per city. Plan ahead (I.e. don't build 2 national wonders in the holy city before you can build stock exchange.)
3 If you need to convert to your neihbors religion, you'll also need some open borders. This can be a very frustrating situation to be in. I've had it take longer than I wanted, but eventually it works out. Try to get open borders with whoever founded the religion they have the $ incentive to spread to you.
4- Each AI has their own unique personality. It is a topic often discussed on the forum and you can download a pdf that will tell you exactly how they are different. Over time you will see. Some are impossible to deal with, others will back-stab, some are much smarter than others.
8 I always want forges, courthouses, and latter factories in every city. Lighthouse necessary for coastal cities. Granaries are huge, but not necessarily the 1st priority some people would disagree with me on that one. The order of which to build first is highly circumstantial, and can be a really tough call.
9 It's OK to make some lopsided tech swaps. Not too lopsided, but somewhat is par for the course. It becomes even more important on higher difficulty ratings. Also, you'll learn which techs the AI gravitates towards and which ones they don't. IF you have Ais who are willing to trade, it can be to your advantage not to learn the most necessary tech, but to get a tech no one else has, and trade it to multiple civs for 2-5 different techs (from 2-4 different civs.)
New rule siege weapons are expensive, and short lived, but they are important for defense and necessary for invasions.
3 If you need to convert to your neihbors religion, you'll also need some open borders. This can be a very frustrating situation to be in. I've had it take longer than I wanted, but eventually it works out. Try to get open borders with whoever founded the religion they have the $ incentive to spread to you.
4- Each AI has their own unique personality. It is a topic often discussed on the forum and you can download a pdf that will tell you exactly how they are different. Over time you will see. Some are impossible to deal with, others will back-stab, some are much smarter than others.
8 I always want forges, courthouses, and latter factories in every city. Lighthouse necessary for coastal cities. Granaries are huge, but not necessarily the 1st priority some people would disagree with me on that one. The order of which to build first is highly circumstantial, and can be a really tough call.
9 It's OK to make some lopsided tech swaps. Not too lopsided, but somewhat is par for the course. It becomes even more important on higher difficulty ratings. Also, you'll learn which techs the AI gravitates towards and which ones they don't. IF you have Ais who are willing to trade, it can be to your advantage not to learn the most necessary tech, but to get a tech no one else has, and trade it to multiple civs for 2-5 different techs (from 2-4 different civs.)
New rule siege weapons are expensive, and short lived, but they are important for defense and necessary for invasions.
jahsoldier
Warlord
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2008
- Messages
- 203
If you just want to win, try peaceful victories. Cultural and space race are a piece of cake. I've won a cultural victory with just 3 cities (plus another 1 that I 'won' because of border expansion).
Have a production city and a GP farm and build wonder after wonder in these. Send all your GPs to the third city, which should be commercial, and have them join as specialists, unless they're artists, in which case get him to produce a great work there. Don't forget to keep your three cities stocked up with the latest defensive units - about 5 in each. Try to keep everyone as sweet as possible, and making whoever's top of the leaderboard your best friend is a good idea. Near the end of the game (~1800) set the culture slider to max and have all your cities produce culture.
Once one of your cities reaches legendary status, set it to produce a ton of military units to dissuade AI from attacking. Last time I did this with Saladin, I got a cultural victory in 1930 or so.
Have a production city and a GP farm and build wonder after wonder in these. Send all your GPs to the third city, which should be commercial, and have them join as specialists, unless they're artists, in which case get him to produce a great work there. Don't forget to keep your three cities stocked up with the latest defensive units - about 5 in each. Try to keep everyone as sweet as possible, and making whoever's top of the leaderboard your best friend is a good idea. Near the end of the game (~1800) set the culture slider to max and have all your cities produce culture.
Once one of your cities reaches legendary status, set it to produce a ton of military units to dissuade AI from attacking. Last time I did this with Saladin, I got a cultural victory in 1930 or so.
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
My advice for beating noble - build more catapults!
Banana Bunny
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2008
- Messages
- 36
I am now playing Prince and my current game is looking good for domination victory. I find that victory is determined by how focussed you are on a plan. Try doing it all and you get nothing. For me, what works is usually some early aggression to get land. Once you have the land, you are usually fine. For example, use Romans, beeline to Iron Working, spam Praets, and just wipe out two neighbours. Keep their capital and their next best production city, raze the rest. Then continue as usual. By that time, you should be number one in military, but you will suck big time on economy and tech, but your territory control should see you pulling ahead very soon. You will find it easier going if you pick off the aggressive neighbours such as Monty, Hannibal, etc.
Or play on an archipelago map, concentrate on naval and military tech, then pick a neighbour to kill (India or Mali are usual targets). The AI sucks bigtime on water maps.
Or play on an archipelago map, concentrate on naval and military tech, then pick a neighbour to kill (India or Mali are usual targets). The AI sucks bigtime on water maps.
Cats are fairly useless against cities when you get Macemen..Trebs are better
phungus420
Deity
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2003
- Messages
- 6,296
Use the Whip more. That advice will help you more then you can possibly understand. Seriously if a settler/worker/building is availbable, whip it. Just make sure you keep an eye on the happyness, don't whip yourself into a 1 pop city that's all mad citizens. But if you're playing on epic speed you should be whipping your cities every dozen turns or so, and always whip out a granary first and foremost, when it is imediatly available. Back off the whip when your cities get to size 8+.
That little piece of advice should put you over the noble bump all by itself. Also be more willing to give into AI demands/requests, is holding onto Poly really worth a -2 diplo hit? Chances are probably not, hand it over and take the +1 bump. This can be extended to trades with the AI, don't go looking for a "fair" deal, the AI will have none of it. Instead look at it as a way to acquire techs you need, or to get something for a tech that the AI will research anyway if you sell it. Be reasonable with trades, but be willing to take the short end of the stick, cause that's all the AI will give you.
Finally if you're not going for a specialist economy (which I highly doubt you're doing if you're having trouble on noble) be sure to build lots of cottages, build them early. Cottages are the backbone of your economy (if you're not going SE, which you're not), they start out weak, but they build fast.
That little piece of advice should put you over the noble bump all by itself. Also be more willing to give into AI demands/requests, is holding onto Poly really worth a -2 diplo hit? Chances are probably not, hand it over and take the +1 bump. This can be extended to trades with the AI, don't go looking for a "fair" deal, the AI will have none of it. Instead look at it as a way to acquire techs you need, or to get something for a tech that the AI will research anyway if you sell it. Be reasonable with trades, but be willing to take the short end of the stick, cause that's all the AI will give you.
Finally if you're not going for a specialist economy (which I highly doubt you're doing if you're having trouble on noble) be sure to build lots of cottages, build them early. Cottages are the backbone of your economy (if you're not going SE, which you're not), they start out weak, but they build fast.
One area of improvement is often micromanaging workers. Specialize your cities. If you have a city with a lot of hills, make a production city. Build farms wherever possible and mines. As far as imporvements go, besdies courthouses, build a forge. Other improvements may not be necessary unless you have happiness or health problems.
Learn which civics and techs impact improvements. Don't be afraid to bulldoze improvements later in the game.
For me, the hardest part of the game has been the expansion/economy issue. That is, you MUST expand, but if you do too quickly before your economy can support it, you will find yourself out of money and dead lost. Conversely, build your economy but don't expand enough, you will fall behind. I don't have any magical advise here, I find myself overexpanding or underexpanding on occasion. One key to the equation (as mentioned above) is courthouses. You can run your economy down somewhat if you know that the courthouses are close, that code of laws will be finished, and you can either build or slavery whip them out soon.
Best wishes,
Breunor
Learn which civics and techs impact improvements. Don't be afraid to bulldoze improvements later in the game.
For me, the hardest part of the game has been the expansion/economy issue. That is, you MUST expand, but if you do too quickly before your economy can support it, you will find yourself out of money and dead lost. Conversely, build your economy but don't expand enough, you will fall behind. I don't have any magical advise here, I find myself overexpanding or underexpanding on occasion. One key to the equation (as mentioned above) is courthouses. You can run your economy down somewhat if you know that the courthouses are close, that code of laws will be finished, and you can either build or slavery whip them out soon.
Best wishes,
Breunor
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Genv [FP];7301969 said:
Not if you build more of them
Trebs are quite expensive hammer wise and cats don't upgrade to trebs
But yeah, build more siege is a general rule of thumb I used to beat Noble.
Ometjabbe
Chieftain
A couple of tips which have helped me getting my first win:
- Keep trying and keep having fun.
- Specialize your cities
- Never neglect your military (Offensive and Defensive)
- Always try to think ahead and try to understand why you do the things you do.
- Try to familiarize yourself with the tech tree
- Keep trying and keep having fun.
- Specialize your cities
- Never neglect your military (Offensive and Defensive)
- Always try to think ahead and try to understand why you do the things you do.
- Try to familiarize yourself with the tech tree
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Trade for techs and research lines the AI don't go for (Philosophy, etc.)
TheMeInTeam
If A implies B...
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2008
- Messages
- 27,995
That's more monarch+ advice usually, since waiting to trade for useful things on noble can slow you down
.Probably the biggest things on noble is sufficient military, knowing how to improve with workers/city specialization (even if crude), and moderate diplomacy knowledge (such as aligning yourself with one AI and murdering another).
Just rushing the hell out of everything works pretty well on noble too...even the warrior rush (build after founding the capitol is warrior, warrior, warrior, warrior, warrior, worker while attacking with 5 warriors, which is comically even effective against a lot of humans somehow).
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
You are prbably right, it's a long time since I played noble (chieftain gauntlet game this week though, 400+ years behind, don't go for Philosophy).
There are tactics at lower levels to get early wins, that's for sure...
There are tactics at lower levels to get early wins, that's for sure...
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
TheMeInTeam, we should organise a forum multiplayer...
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