Ways to "step my game up"?

[CiVAnthony]

I'm consistently finishing 2nd in my GK games. I resign a lot because I'm in a very far behind 2nd place (ex. I have 1047 pts as Theodora, Bismarck has 2400 pts). Oftentimes, I keep up in science and culture but watch as the war mongers steam roll other civs. In vanilla I used to finish 1st or 2nd, but more so 1st. The AI seems to play Bismarck, Hiawatha, the Incas, and Alexander perfectly.

Any OVERALL suggestions to help me improve my play?

 

[Civologist]

Points don't dictate who is going to win the game. Points weigh heavily land area and # of cities. You can beat them with science or culture victories but be way behind in points. Tall empires will almost always be behind in points.

Suggestion:

Don't pay attention to points.

Play it out and see where you stand. All you have to do to win domination games is take the capital. If your really trying to see how your strategies hold up play multiplayer.

 

[Peacemongerer]

If you're Byzantium, you need to take full advantage of the religion mechanic. I always go in this order:

Pantheon: Faith Healers (Lets your units heal a TON of HP adjacent to your cities)
Founder: Tithing (1 gold per 4 followers will translate to 50+ gold late in the game every turn)
Bonus Belief: Defender of the Faith (+20% in friendly territory if your cities follow your religion)
Enhancer: Just War (+20% in enemy territory if their cities follow your religion)

A +20% combat buff in basically any territory near mine plus healing is extremely potent. Bismarck once had me severely outteched (I mean Modern Infantry vs. Riflemen and Gatling Guns outteched) and I still repelled his forces. Using this to your advantage should yield you a tremendous advantage militarily. Use that to conquer a few early civs and attack warmongering AI to drag-down their numbers and you should be dominant.

 

[CiVAnthony]

In my Byzantium gameI'm the dominant religion for sure, no one else even has one (I spread it early). I'm a tall empire, 3 cities. Bismarck is extremely wide (conquered Spain + Greece) and is making 200+ GPT, I'm making 100 GPT.

 

[KevinJK]

Always play to your civlization's strength. Byzantium has no faith bonuses and yet gets a bonus belief. Because King and above starts the AI with Pottery, this means a player-controlled Byzantium is greatly weakened on higher difficulties. Play against Celts and Ethiopia and you may not get access to the good beliefs, rendering your ability quite poor.

For this reason, Byzantium is best if you stick to Prince or lower. They're really not meant for higher settings. Make sure to rush for Pottery and start building Shrines right away. Expand as much as you can afford to in happiness so you can build more Shrines - religion benefits greatly from expansion with no penalty.

For that extra belief, try to combine things that work well together, and always take a Founder or Enhancer belief because they're more powerful. Taking Religious Texts right away as your bonus and then snagging Itinerant Preachers later makes for a wonderful combination that lets your religion spread without much effort on your part.

 

[CiVAnthony]

I'm on Prince right now, if someone tells me how to take an in game screen shot (is it the same as normal?) I can show you guys.

 

[timeasymmetry]

A +20% combat buff in basically any territory near mine plus healing is extremely potent. Bismarck once had me severely outteched (I mean Modern Infantry vs. Riflemen and Gatling Guns outteched) and I still repelled his forces. Using this to your advantage should yield you a tremendous advantage militarily. Use that to conquer a few early civs and attack warmongering AI to drag-down their numbers and you should be dominant.

If you don't have the +20%, another way to stay alive if you're outteched is to try to build walls, castles, military bases, etc., as well as get oligarchy and universal suffrage suffrage social policies. if you're lucky, the attacking civilization will get tired of the losses and move on.

 

[Adjuvant]

Burn his cities and watch his score drop.

 

[Kabloosh]

Well I like to expand a lot for more luxury and strategic resources. High points, a strong army, and a beasty economy just naturally comes with the territory when you have all that land. While I build massive empires I tend to play defensively unless there is a resource I want. Such as uranium. I know its in my best interest to have as much of it as possible.

Smaller empires you should mainly focus on boosting your culture and take advantage of that aspect. Science, armies, and everything else might be difficult to keep up with a small nation.

They both provide very different challenges.
Small ones may have to deal with aggressors more often, and the lack of resources and fall behind if the cities aren't massively populated.
Large ones have large borders to protect, happiness is a massive factor, doesn't gain access to policies as quickly, higher upkeep, and may have to be a bit more aggressive so being involved in many wars.

 

[Flying Mathias]

I'm on Prince right now, if someone tells me how to take an in game screen shot (is it the same as normal?) I can show you guys.

If you're using steam, press F12.