what am I doing wrong?

[dark_pretender]

this is my "main strategy" product of hours reading and seeking through war academy articles so I would like to know what am I doing wrong... the ai is still outresearching me, usually I can pass it once in late middle age, most of the times at industrial age besides that I can only win by SS or UN but I want to win by conquer (im atm at monarch lvl started playing C3C like 4 weeks ago)

I use to play at pangea maps 60% water standard

My main strategy is as follows

I use the capitol as settler factory according to the terain if possible 4 turn factory others at 6 turns

while researching potery I build a warrior to explore since I cant prebuild granary (I play with romans)

once the warrior is out I start building or prebuilding granary and exploring throug mountains to get more vision

first settler goes to the most important settle place usually next to a bonus resource or a luxury if it is a bonus resource this city will become also a setller factory.

I continue spiting settlers from my capital and if the second city has the condiutions to be also a setler factory it also produces setlers obviusly first granary then setlers

the rest of the cities first build wealth since sometimes they finish producing the necesary shields to build a worker for example in 5 turns but they will grow in 10 so if this is the case i build wealth during 5 turns then I build the worker and then barracks

after researching pottery I go straight for phyl without trading with the AI... once I got phyl I trade with them getting as most techs as I can, I continue researching till I get rep then I switch to rep once at rep I start building legions and something like 10 cats and I ram into my neighbour

I dont stop till I can get all the techs that that my enemy's trade window shows for peace... then I ram into another AI near to me to get luxurys, resources and more techs... if Im starting to get to much military I stop building military and start building temples and libraries but only in cities with pop higher than lvl 6 usually at 800 AC if possible im ending a war to gain control over GL (succesfully)... (if possible) sometimes the AI that builds GL is to far from me so a war is not really an option

During wars if my treasury starts to run low because the military or war weariness if there is I start to low the research.

Sometimes I can hit industrial age at 1000 ac but I remember one time when I got GL from incans at 870 ad and I got bosted from ancient to just one teach away from industrial but most of the times I hit industrial later ... last game I got really delayed so I hit industrial at 1600

any advice to improve my gameplay and eventually challenge emperor ???

just as reference im playing at C3C 1.22 using most of the times OCP

thanks in advance ...

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Form what you describe, I think you should be capable of challenging emperor. As some advise I would say
• scrap colosseums, caths altogether, and use temples only to gain a borderpop once in a blue moon
• scrap "optimal" city placement for a more efficient placement aiming at size 12 cities in your core. Elsewhere settle closer. Also don't let your core-cities grow by themselves too much, but instead build workers in highly corrupt towns and join them to your most prospective cities.
• make more use of units in the horseman-knight-cavalry upgradepath. Mobility is very good to have IMO.

 

[dark_pretender]

since english is not my mother language there are few terms that are unknown for me

"• scrap colosseums, caths altogether, and use temples only to gain a borderpop once in a blue moon"

are u recomend me avoiding building temps and cathedrals? ... what do u mean with "once in a blue moon" and "borderpop"?

since u r recomending me to stop using OCP it will be easier to maintain the population happy without those buildings but what about culture and research temples and caths produce culture ... I guess culture increases research right?

in fact I've seen that using cavalry and other faster units increases the speed of the invasion... but I use cats because it lowers the casualties and eventually I can cotninue improving my cities while im at war since im not getting too many casualties so i dont need to build too many units to replace the losses. but would faster units work better since the replacemets can reach the frontline faster ? I forgot to say that also I race most of the enemy cities I hate when the AI becomes gay and once they have only 3 or 4 cities left the recently captured cities start flipping so I usually put some settlers in my "stack of doom" to build new cities... I usually end with lots of slaves last game I had 93 workers only 6 of them were mine the rest were slaves

thanks for alredy shared knowledge

 

[WackenOpenAir]

From your description, it looks like you should be doing reasonably well on the expansion part.
Those 5 turns of wealth you talk about, make a warrior there for MP purposes. move the warriors you get like this to your biggest cities so that you can do with a lower lux slider.
Just don't delay settlers and workers for building warriors.

Culture does nothing for your research, so indeed, don't build any of that crap.

If you do properly on your population growth, you should have good commerce. Now it may be:
-Not properly roaded lands.
-Lack of tech trading with the AI's you are not at war with
-Too high expenses in city maintenance for buildings you don't need.
-Too high expenses in unit support because you build catapults. Only fast moving attackers conquer faster, are more expensive and thus you will fewer to pay upkeep for. Also disband obsolete units.
-You may forget to grow your population once you start fighting.

 

[dark_pretender]

niceeeeeeeeee now I know that I should stop buiding temps and caths for those annoying guys on my cities... and ... once in middle age should i stop using cats and start a "cruzade" using only fast units?

Hope im not becoming annoying with so many questions

 

[Lord Emsworth]

since english is not my mother language there are few terms that are unknown for me

Neither is it my mother tongue, but I'll explain.

"• scrap colosseums, caths altogether, and use temples only to gain a borderpop once in a blue moon"

are u recomend me avoiding building temps and cathedrals? ... what do u mean with "once in a blue moon" and "borderpop"?

Yes, I am recommending not to build those. "Once in a blue moon" means "very rarely" and "borderpop" is civer language for the cultural expansion of your city borders.

since u r recomending me to stop using OCP it will be easier to maintain the population happy without those buildings but what about culture and research temples and caths produce culture ... I guess culture increases research right?

Culture is only culture. Research is increased by libraries and universities.

in fact I've seen that using cavalry and other faster units increases the speed of the invasion... but I use cats because it lowers the casualties and eventually I can cotninue improving my cities while im at war since im not getting too many casualties so i dont need to build too many units to replace the losses. but would faster units work better since the replacemets can reach the frontline faster ?

Cats may lower the casualties that you suffer, but they also have to be built first. And having them travel from one war to the next is nearly unbearable, so eventually I gave up on using them at all.

I forgot to say that also I race most of the enemy cities I hate when the AI becomes gay and once they have only 3 or 4 cities left the recently captured cities start flipping so I usually put some settlers in my "stack of doom" to build new cities...

I almost never raze cities. Why would I want to? Cities flip, sure, but never on the first turn after capture. So just don't keep any units in there afterwards. If it flips, just retake it. And be quick, the free defender(s) is not yet fortified. The flips will stop once the civ is dead.

Bringing settlers along is a good idea nevertheless, if they can keep the pace, to fill up the far too loosely settled land and to provide save havens (=no flip risk) to heal up your units.

I usually end with lots of slaves last game I had 93 workers only 6 of them were mine the rest were slaves

You can build slaves from foreign population.

 

[dark_pretender]

thanks fto all for the explanations and the time taken to answer my questions especially u Lord... I guess now all my questions are solved so I can wipe the AI from the planet muahahahahah

 

[vmxa]

iirc a blue moon is when you get a second full moon in the same month. This occurs periodically, so it is not common, but is real. So to say once in a blue is to say not frequent.

 

[nc-1701]

Cathedrels are Not useless they give 3 happy (6 with sistines) faces for two cost thats much cheaper than using lux slider you can even selkl the temple afterwards if you want. Try other civs your'e problem could be with Rome. Don't use catapults total waste of time infact make no cannons either only start when you get to artillery. Always make stacks of bombers to soften up before you attack.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Cathedrels are Not useless they give 3 happy (6 with sistines) faces for two cost thats much cheaper than using lux slider you can even selkl the temple afterwards if you want. Try other civs your'e problem could be with Rome. Don't use catapults total waste of time infact make no cannons either only start when you get to artillery. Always make stacks of bombers to soften up before you attack.

Let's suppose you have a core of ten size twelve cities. All at about the same happyness level. Three of these cities are coastal.

Prize question: When will you be able to capitalize on the cathedrals by moving down the lux slider?

 

[vmxa]

nc-1701 you are looking at it backwards. It is not about happiness, it is about time. You spend a lot of turns making that 160 shield structure. You could have 2 knights with room left over.

That times how many cities is going to let you annex more land. You do not need cath, that is why they are useless. Happy faces is not my goal, winning is the target.

All those units you could have had would be bringing in some lux and that is better than cath. Not to mention, you have to make that temple in the first place. Now you have spend 220 shields, hard to make up that. Not to mention that the maint of a temple and cath pays for support of those units.

 

[nc-1701]

Oh I always have tons of extra shields don't need soldiers so I spend on cathedrels and stuff so are you saying I should be in a constant state of war? Cause if not then unit cost in republic will kill me.

 

[vmxa]

I am saying that after emperor you will need to change up or suffer. You can play anyway you want at emperor or less, but there is no need for cath at any level.

Unit cost only kill you if you have too few cities. No need for constant state of war, but annexing others land is a good plan in the middle ages.

 

[jb1964]

@Enterprise... (I've been watching Star Trek since 1969)

The responses you're getting here are from players that have recorded ridiculously fast wins. Wacken and his gang have won the SGoTM competitions multiple times against teams stocked with other incredibly brilliant players, like myself .

That being said, the objective is to have fun and none of the responses preclude, or even suggest that this is serious business. It’s not.

Anyway, the quickest way to just about any win is to clobber the snot out of all AI’s near and far. For Domination and Conquest this makes sense. For Culture and Space it’s more a matter of turning the outlying cities into culture and science churns. For Diplo, well, I’ve never really understood this victory condition so forgetaboutit.

Building up your military and taking your neighbor’s land normally means you’re also relieving them of their luxuries. Collect enough of these and temples, cathedrals and such simply become a method to make your populace goofy happy.

It is pretty well documented, and proven, that happiness building are not only not needed but that they slow down your path to victory. But if you want to, and can build ‘em, then by all means have at it. But the fact that you can build them at leisure means that you could have either won the game more quickly by military means or that you’re ready to move up in difficulty level.

Personally, all of the solo games I play are to escape the RW for a time and I'm normally not looking for a stiff challenge. So an aimless game of building just about everything and alternating which AI I'm currently eviscerating is fine by me.

Last comment… You overcome Republic unit costs by continuing to found cities, or by taking them, and getting those that are situated on fresh water to size 7. Additionally, if there is no more need for research you’ll have more coin than you know what to do with and supporting your forces will not be a problem.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Fastest victories for *some* forms of victory is done best by whacking the opponents - domination, conquest, 100K, histographic. well, you cant' get a fast histo win.

For space race and diplomatic, and to an extent 20K - it is often advantageous, especially at higher levels, to leave the AI civs relatively alone - why? Well, because games where getting to the modern age fast is important, having the AI do a lot of your research for you can speed up the game considerably, especially since techs cost the AI less than you - and the extra techs that scientific civs get at the era boundaries help even more.

But it sounds like you are doing well - you can probably, if you try and get good start positions, catch up to the AI in the early middle ages, but it sounds like you are doing fine on monarch.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

for space and UN, don't leave ALL AI's alone. Just leave alone the strongest 2 researchers, and leave any other scientific civ alive in 1 single city. That will allow you to conquer most of the world and turn them into scientists while you still have some good science trading from the AI.

 

[dark_pretender]

arggggg this is to much information but I can tell u guys my game got severily improved in my last try...my only mistake was getting engaged at war too early and started again building cats and legions and then realized that once being at 1 tech from middle age is better to wait for middle to get chivalry and use knights... then I tried again and I got a bad start and besides that I got surrounded by AI... I was able only to build 5 citys and screwded the game... I guess ill try it tomorrow with the new information im sure that ill wipe those annoying AI's from Caesar's world muahahahaha

 

[nc-1701]

Try playing on tiny or small worlds they play faster and are IMHO better for learning than large/huge ones.

 

[Little Corporal]

Try playing on tiny or small worlds they play faster and are IMHO better for learning than large/huge ones.

Standard is the best for learning, thats why its the default option when you open up the map generator.

 

[Rustwork]

one suggestion is the republic slingshot. first research code of laws, then philosophy; taking republic for free. this should give you a big boost.

i can easily win on emperor and i NEVER build catapults, or other forms of artillery. the higher difficulties i have read that they are important, but definately not on monarch.

get some horses and use them as soon as you can. i have proven to myself that fast units are the best way to fight a war. one exception might be immortals, twice the attack value is tough. i just noticed you like rome, i would bet money you would be more successful attacking hard and continuously with only horses (maybe some peace for gifts occasionly). use the legion only to get your golden age. want to have fun with war play as the iroqouis, mounted warriors dominate. i consider them to be one of the best civs for an early domination or conquest.

decide rather soon if you will play peaceful or war monger. if peaceful then build some infrastructure libraries and such. these buildings still require maintenance so you are not helping the treasury by not building units.