What am I doing

[chisox1976]

I thought I would see if there was any tips you guys could give me. I play on BTS and want to move up to Prince level but not sure if it's time to move off of noble. I use a CE economy and usually play with Inca's or Elizabeth. Prefer the starts with Inca's.

My first war is usually around 100 A.D., I like to wait til I get 4 good cities going and construction. Used to the CS slingshot so usually rush to it and find confucism but with oracle now i use it to get forges (metal casting) . Than I usually wait til mace men for the second war and then Calvary to take out the rest.

After I capture two empires, I usually then use those cities to finance my big empire by trying to get one or two cities that run a merchant great person farm, while my heroic epic runs scientist great person farm. Also my capital is used as my super science city with cottages spammed with Great library and a couple science specialist. I also usually have one or two more all cottage cities. I try to have 2-3 production cities also depending on what I get from the AI.

So that is my by around 1500 AD and usually on my way to calvary by then.

I usually have alot of great scientist pop and usually build one academy, should i build more or continue to use the rest to pop a tech. Also am I running a CE economy, SE economy or Mixed economy. How many soldiers should I have before my first war. Another question is that my civics don't change much, Rep when i can but hereditary otherwise. the 100% gpp religion, Caste, Mercantilism when i get it, and bureacreacy for most of game. I also never build windmills watermills either. Should i build those more and where. I like farms instead and mines.

 

[Silence101]

You're overall strategy doesn't sound too different from mine, and I usually do fine on Prince. Just make sure you don't stop expanding - don't over expand, but your expansion in general should be pretty aggressive for most of the game. (Especially beginning - mid-game.)

I personally don't do SE's... some people swear by them, but I've always had trouble getting that to be effective for me. I'm a big fan of the good old CE. As far as expansion through war goes... if you wait to build up your army before declaring war, you'll never go to war. (In my case anyway... it's easy to waste a lot of time "preparing" for war.) You should always have a sufficent city defence anyway, so why no just declare war and let the enemy come to you? Right after declaring war, I focus my production cities strictly on building military and let the AI throw everything they have at me. After they've destroyed their army, I'll take my army full of recently promoted veterans and recently produced units and go hunting.

I usually do build a lot of watermills and windmills... especially watermills in a production city - oh man, I swear by those. Windmills I think are better for you commerce cities - I'd probably go with mostly mines for a production city, but it just really depends on the circumstance.

As far as GP goes, I do lightbulb a lot - especially in the early game... but with a great scientist, I might do an accadamy first. If I get a great prophet and own a holy city, I definately have him build the religious wonder. So, it kind of depends on who the GP is and what the circumstances are, but lightbulbing is something I do quite often.

 

[AlessioCerci]

Strategy sounds quite sound, you should do ok on prince. Some pointers:
1. 4 cities by 100AD (which is what you implied) is not that many, could have more
2.Since you're financial the best way to research is cottages, keep your specialists and GP production to one city with the national epic. Pacificsm is ok, but i tend to prefer OR. In general you want either specialists OR cottages not both. The reason is that civic favour one or the other. e.g. rep vs universal suffrage or caste system vs emancipation. Free speech i awesome in most circumstance for a CE, use it.
3.(post electricity) Watermills with state propety and windmills with environmetalism are both very good. (but dont build them over cottages)
4. Lightbulbing is only worthwhile if you can trade the lightbulbed tech around, if not then build an academy.