What do I do when I have nothing to do?

[truenarnian]

I've been playing Civ most of my life, and recently I made a significant jump in skill level, winning a year ago on Prince, now winning on Prince 100% of the time, and now playing King and Emporer difficulties.

Part of the jump is due to understanding that wasted actions (like building a Barracks when I don't need one) is using up valuable production and time.

Recently I've started experimenting with ICS-ing, and I've encountered a situation that I realized I'm not sure what to do with. I'm playing with 11 other Civs, and I'm tied for the lead in points (me and Darius keep going back and forth). I have 19 cities (another about to go down in about 10 turns), two of them are sitting at 12 pop, three sitting at 2 pop, the rest 5-7 pop. I have a large standing military but only two other people on my continent, one north of me (strong, but not as strong as me), one south of me (last place on the leaderboard).

My question is: What do I do when I have nothing to do?

It's two parts really:

1. What should I be building in my cities when there is nothing in the build list that I really need? I have enough units, and any buildings I build will cost me money with little benefit. I currently have many of them giving me extra science, but that's a small contribution and seems like I should be doing something else.

2. What should I do to pull into the lead? Right now I'm just sitting around doing nothing. I don't really want to go to war with my neighbours (managing 20 cities is exhausting enough - I don't want more), and the two people who are in the lead with me are VERY VERY VERY far away. Attacking them is not practicable.

Currently I'm in the tech lead, and just about to enter the Renaissance.

Help?

 

[Civilopedian]

If you have easily enough cities then just make your cities put out or . If your military is doing nothing, go send them to take over your continent.

 

[Halcyan2]

My question is: What do I do when I have nothing to do?

It's two parts really:

1. What should I be building in my cities when there is nothing in the build list that I really need? I have enough units, and any buildings I build will cost me money with little benefit. I currently have many of them giving me extra science, but that's a small contribution and seems like I should be doing something else.

- Gold (with Guilds) or Research (with Education).
- Prepare hammer overflow so that you can quickly build something you want when it - becomes available.
- Tone down production and maximize food growth

2. What should I do to pull into the lead? Right now I'm just sitting around doing nothing. I don't really want to go to war with my neighbours (managing 20 cities is exhausting enough - I don't want more), and the two people who are in the lead with me are VERY VERY VERY far away. Attacking them is not practicable.

The lead scorewise? Techwise? Militarywise?

Unless you are playing for time victory, your score compared to the other civs doesn't really matter. In fact, you're better off not having the best score because other civs will dislike you if you are the highest. Score doesn't really mean much, especially since it favors wide empires anyway.

 

[truenarnian]

So using the "pure" Gold or Research options isn't wasteful?

How do I prepare hammer overflow? I know this is something I could find useful (so that I can buildings quicker when they become unlocked), but I've never heard of it, or how to do it.

I appreciate the first responders suggestion to "take over the whole continent" (and I could do that quite easily) but everyone on the other continent thinks I'm a peaceful guy and 8 out of 9 are friendly with me. Is it worth risking that to take over the continent? I would prefer not to acquire more cities, but I think I am going to have to keep expanding otherwise the empty space is available for others to grab later in the game (the south part of the continent is still empty because Money refuses to expand into it).

 

[LostInTime]

My question is: What do I do when I have nothing to do?

It's two parts really:

1. What should I be building in my cities when there is nothing in the build list that I really need? I have enough units, and any buildings I build will cost me money with little benefit. I currently have many of them giving me extra science, but that's a small contribution and seems like I should be doing something else.

Your build list is most likely wrong, or you are researching wrong. Early game you never run out of things to build. Also, what buildings aren't worth building because of gold maintenance? The only ones I can come up with are the military ones, the rest you most likely need everywhere. (harbors etc. excluded obviously)

Markets and banks will make all your city produce gold almost always, so don't worry about maintenance.

2. What should I do to pull into the lead? Right now I'm just sitting around doing nothing. I don't really want to go to war with my neighbours (managing 20 cities is exhausting enough - I don't want more), and the two people who are in the lead with me are VERY VERY VERY far away. Attacking them is not practicable.

Currently I'm in the tech lead, and just about to enter the Renaissance.

Pull into the lead in what? Score? That doesn't matter, but granaries and aqueducts and lighthouses in any coastal cities with fish resources and proper city management will increase your score tons. Teching faster as well so get science buildings up and any good wonders you can grab. That is what you need to do to just increase your score. Convieniently that should help you with a science victory as well.

(managing 20 cities is exhausting enough - I don't want more)

Start queuing in your cities. If you have to tell them what to do everytime, it gets exhausting. You can always prioritize something before your queue when key techs pops, or you get invaded or something. In my games, when there is no war, I usually press "end turn" all the time.

 

[Crafty Bison]

So using the "pure" Gold or Research options isn't wasteful?

How do I prepare hammer overflow? I know this is something I could find useful (so that I can buildings quicker when they become unlocked), but I've never heard of it, or how to do it.

I appreciate the first responders suggestion to "take over the whole continent" (and I could do that quite easily) but everyone on the other continent thinks I'm a peaceful guy and 8 out of 9 are friendly with me. Is it worth risking that to take over the continent? I would prefer not to acquire more cities, but I think I am going to have to keep expanding otherwise the empty space is available for others to grab later in the game (the south part of the continent is still empty because Money refuses to expand into it).

It is wasteful, but you haven't left much choice - you say you have enough army and don't want any more buildings. As you're v wide NW/WW's aren't on the table, so that's all that's left. My suspicions are:
1) You do not fully understand the value of the buildings you do not want to build.
2) You need to war more and need a bigger army than that which can just protect what you have.

Don't know which one it is, but going wide you never run out of useful buildings, and I'm not quite sure why you're so averse to war, if you are points leader why do you care what other people think? Are you going hard after a science vc and need the RA's? I'd just go beat a load of people up, mostly targeting the other continent. It's the best way of dealing with a runaway civ, and you'd be points leader.

 

[truenarnian]

Your build list is most likely wrong, or you are researching wrong. Early game you never run out of things to build. Also, what buildings aren't worth building because of gold maintenance?

Right now in the game, I am NOT building the following:
- Shrines/Temples, because I wasn't able to found a religion
- Constabulary, because some cities produce very little Science
- Opera House, because its maintenance cost is high and my borders are maxed
- Castles in my inland cities (I'd rather produce more Science)

What about Workshops? Are they ALWAYS worth building, even for a small city in the middle of nowhere with total production of 3?

 

[kamikazees]

What about Workshops? Are they ALWAYS worth building, even for a small city in the middle of nowhere with total production of 3?

I almost always build/buy workshops in every city. Even if you are only getting the 2, to me that is worth 2 in most cases. And the workshop gets better as the city gets bigger with the 10% additional .

 

[Arachnofiend]

You still want some faith production even if you don't found a religion. Once you get to the Industrial age you can buy Great People with faith depending on what policies you've adopted: Engineers with Order, Generals with Autocracy, Artists with Freedom, Scientists with Rationalism, and Merchants with Commerce. Since you went wide I would definitely start saving up for an Engineer to help you produce those awesome late game wonders like the Hubble Telescope and the CN Tower.

 

[truenarnian]

So as an ICS empire expands, it sounds like I have two "best" ways of winning:

DOMINATION: with so many cities, I can produce a lot of units and war is a real option

SCIENCE: with so many cities, I have a lot of pop to convert to science, teching up to win

With so many Civs on a far away continent, I prefer to go for Science.

 

[Crafty Bison]

Right now in the game, I am NOT building the following:
- Shrines/Temples, because I wasn't able to found a religion
- Constabulary, because some cities produce very little Science
- Opera House, because its maintenance cost is high and my borders are maxed
- Castles in my inland cities (I'd rather produce more Science)

What about Workshops? Are they ALWAYS worth building, even for a small city in the middle of nowhere with total production of 3?

Build workshops 1 hammer>1 gold. You get more than 1 hammer. Build faith for the GP. Not top of the list, but build opera houses, the order SP's will be super strong for your empire. Castles and Constabs are missable tho.

So as an ICS empire expands, it sounds like I have two "best" ways of winning:

DOMINATION: with so many cities, I can produce a lot of units and war is a real option

SCIENCE: with so many cities, I have a lot of pop to convert to science, teching up to win

With so many Civs on a far away continent, I prefer to go for Science.

Domination is a good option. Diplomacy is a good option too, as wide and TP spam = lots of gold.

Science can work both wide and tall, and is generally a high priority even if it's not your victory condition.

Cultural vc is the only one not for wide.

 

[Creepy Old Man]

Since you're tech lead, you should have no trouble getting Neuschwanstein when it comes. That makes castles in a wide civ very powerful. Enough that if you've got "nothing better to do", you should definitely be filling in castles in preparation.

Also, you don't necessarily need to take out entire civilizations. Go snipe some capitals. You may not want a lot more cities, but if you take each civ's capital, you only get good cities. This gives something fun to do with an army.

 

[TomasAnz]

If you don't know what to do, you're probably wasting turns losing. To win on higher difficulties you must make every turn matter.

- Do CS missions. Can you bully one for the other or clear barb camps?
- Research the right techs to build key buildings like universities, happiness buildings
- Move your military to strike. If you have it you must use it or else waste GPT maintenance. Disband or gift to cs if you really don't want to war.
- build more workers or work boats to improve tiles
- spread religion
- build happiness buildings
- explore the shores of the continent with triremes if you don't have caravels yet, there might be some barrier reefs for happiness there
- turn on hammers to gold if you have cities you must leave underdeveloped because of happiness issues.

Right now in the game, I am NOT building the following:
- Shrines/Temples, because I wasn't able to found a religion

Faith is useful for getting great persons once you unlock the right social policies.

 

[Browd]

I don't really want to go to war with my neighbours (managing 20 cities is exhausting enough - I don't want more)

Stampede your continent, and puppet the cities you conquer -- nothing to manage -- you can't control what puppets build, or what tiles their citizens work. Just set your army of workers to spam trading posts in your puppeted cities (so they can pretty much only work TP tiles) and watch the gold and, to a lesser extent, beakers and culture flow in (puppets have a 25% haircut on culture and science, but it is still a positive contribution -- I've gotten 300+ beakers per turn from a large puppet empire). With that many cities, you will need all the culture you can generate, including Opera Houses and Museums -- Order will be critical to your late game success.

Leave each other civ on your continent with one inconsequential city (not their capital), to avoid the genocidal maniac diplo modifier with your friends on the other continent. If and when you decide to conquer the other continent, you will want to annex one coastal city as your primary base of operations on that continent, but shouldn't need to annex any more than that.

And, yes, you want workshops in nearly every city -- they make even small cities productive, and are needed to build factories, which provide a 25% science boost at Planned Economy. Your only limitations may be how much coal you can scrape together when you hit Industrialization and deciding how to prioritize factories and schools (which you will hit at about the same time).

 

[Priah77]

A large part of the game is about balancing out hammers and beakers optimally. It sounds like you let your hammers get way ahead of your beakers. And I mean WAY ahead. Geez, Ive never even come close to a situation where I literally have nothing to build. But I play Deity and the games are over by turn 220 - 230.

Also, makes a lot more sense to run a ton of specialists than just build beakers... Cant you just manage your cities to essentially focus on everything but hammers? Shouldnt have much production if you do that.

 

[EditorRex]

Since you're tech lead, you should have no trouble getting Neuschwanstein when it comes. That makes castles in a wide civ very powerful. Enough that if you've got "nothing better to do", you should definitely be filling in castles in preparation.

Also, you don't necessarily need to take out entire civilizations. Go snipe some capitals. You may not want a lot more cities, but if you take each civ's capital, you only get good cities. This gives something fun to do with an army.

Just make sure you've got a decent city by a mountain, preferably one specializing in Merchant Greap People Points.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

1. What should I be building in my cities when there is nothing in the build list that I really need? I have enough units, and any buildings I build will cost me money with little benefit. I currently have many of them giving me extra science, but that's a small contribution and seems like I should be doing something else.

Help?

defensive structures (walls, castles, etc) are decent turn-wasters while waiting for the next tech and its available choices. no maintenance on them is nice.

 

[chazzycat]

I would go for science or Diplo based on how things shake out. Either should be attainable with that many cities.

Just keep acquiring as much happiness as possible, so your cities can grow. I assume you have a ton of luxuries, so most likely you should be pursuing protectionism under the commerce branch. Build tons of farms, granaries, etc. Extra pop is usually better than extra gold in the long term. If you want to go diplo, later in the game once you have economics you can switch some to TPs. It's all about the snowball effect during the midgame. If you keep building happiness & growing, with that many cities you should skyrocket to first place in most demographics some time around the late ren/early industrial era. Don't neglect your military tho.

 

[Matthew.]

Focus all your effort towards efficient tech towards battleships. Click next turn a hundred times. Send Battleships over to Darius and level his empire.

If you are tied with Darius you are probably actually ahead. A good chunk of his points is probably military and inefficient trash cities. As long as his empire remains static and you have a lead on science, you will reach battleships in time.

Sounds like you already won the game and it is now just a long waiting period until you can realistically finish off your only competition.

 

[tommynt]

Is this situation really possible?

If you build so much that there is nothing left, your have done huge mistakes before. Micro tiles to food and make sure u stay happy so u keep growing.

Monument, granny, coloseum, shrine, temple, theatare, circus/stables/watremill, lbrary, university ...

Thats so many shields, pretty much impossible that u built all.
As said if not your science HEAVILY suckz and u need to make sure u grow faster, can actually only happen if your unhappy most of the game.