What to do next?

[Dubzilla8]

Hello everybody. I started a game tonight with Darius (my quest to play all leaders, alphabetically continues) on Prince, Big and Small, Standard map. I felt like I was doing really well at the beginning, but now it seems like Im not doing anything to improve my situation.

A little recap: I popped out my first few cities pretty quickly - the 2nd city went between me and Ragnar as a buffer, the 3rd claimed the bronze to my left, the 4th grabbed the silver to the NE, and the 5th was just south of my capital. I picked up the great wall (never built it before really), and I was trying to avoid Stonehenge just to switch it up, but it was only a 6 turn build or so, what the heck right? I was determined to get the Colossus, and I succeeded. Even the Pyramids came pretty easily. I originally wanted to divide them by what type of GPP they gave, but I had to mix them up.

I spent my great spy on infiltrating Ragnars capital. All Ive used this for thus far is stealing CoL. Im sure I could do alot more with it. Or maybe I should have gone for the Scotland Yard?

I was thinking about attacking Ragnar, as he is blocking the only land Im aware of at this point. But I cant help but shake the feeling that it will be a disaster (two cities on hills, equal tech level).

So, any suggestions from the civfanatics out there? The more specific the better. I really think I should be playing Monarch by now, but Ive just been stuck lately. Thanks for any tips!

 

[Cam_H]

I think that you're in a good position and while small, your empire's got nice specialisation and a pretty decent spread of resources other than happiness ones, which you're countering with Hered' Rule.

I share your concern re. Longbows fortified in cities on Hills but nonetheless I would be inclined to act now - you have to grow. You can look at trading Metal Casting for Monarchy + Archery ... Monarchy is a step towards Feudalism so you can make him your Vassal, while Archery will give to access to Crossbows, otherwise you might wait too long and he'll start spamming Berserkers ... admittedly trading him Metal Casting will get him one step closer to Machinery.

Unfortunate re. no Immortal rush.

Best of luck with it!

 

[Belisar]

I have not looked at your save so I will just comment some details.

I spent my great spy on infiltrating Ragnars capital. All Ive used this for thus far is stealing CoL. Im sure I could do alot more with it. Or maybe I should have gone for the Scotland Yard?

On difficult levels like Prince the AI won't have a tech lead if you play your cards right, so early GSpys should be settled to get the most long-term. (EP points can be adjusted flexible) Later, Scotland Yard is an option.

I was thinking about attacking Ragnar, as he is blocking the only land Im aware of at this point. But I cant help but shake the feeling that it will be a disaster (two cities on hills, equal tech level).

It sounds like you have past the point where Immortals are an option BUT cities on a hill, holy cities, big culture-cities... and equal tech doesn't mean you can not attack. Siege weapons, city revolts from spy and concentrated forces can take every city.

 

[Dubzilla8]

Thank you both for the reply.

As it turned out, I waited a while before attacking Ragnar. When I got macemen, I took him on and captured the Confucian Holy City of Uppsala (I hope Im not mixing up the Capital with the holy city...). I took his Capital, but failed to hold onto it, so I made peace and waited to attack again.

He ended up declaring on me and made the mistake of leaving his stack next to all the units I had saved on his border while waiting to declare on him again. With better units, and lots of seige, I buried most of his military in a turn. It eventually cost him his capital and the cities to the North and South.

By the time other civs started popping up, my technology lead was disgusting. As it sits now, I have maybe 2 or 3 techs left for the space ship and only one civ is even close to rocketry (I think third place is around industrialism). Its been a crazy game for the AI: Ive seen several wars with 4 or more civs in it.

As far as the Great Spy I used; I think it might have been better to settle him, but I did end up stealing 5 or 6 techs from Ragnar that I had bypassed. I really never used that aspect before and Im glad I did as I understand it much better now. Later, I had 10% in the espionage bar and I could see everyones tech, so I think it turned out alright. I do agree, in the early game, settling him might be better at Prince.

Im glad to hear my city specialization was good. The one thing I still debate on is whether to cottage hills or mine them. I like to be able to produce out of those cities, but I know that cottaging them would lead to much more science.

The really odd thing about Prince for me is this: This will be my 11th game on BTS, and, most likely, my third win. I think thats a good ratio as far as challenge; if you win even 50%, I think its too easy and thats why you see a lot of people complaining about the late game being boring. However, my three wins have been landslide victories. My 8 losses have, for the most part, been crushing defeats. Any comments on win ratios, etc?