What to do, what to do?

[Tapewormlondon]

So I have been reading up on the stratagy articles with the aim to moving up from warlord to noble. Having played the most recent nobles club and getting clobbered quite soundly, I decided that I need to play different maps other than continents and get my warlord difficulty well and truely nailed. I seem to do really well with continents, which I think is down to only havong 2-3 other civs to worry about for the first part of the game.

Anywho, playing a fractal map with Incans, and the story is as follows: I think i rexed quite well on my continent and have Ottomans, Sumeria, Romans and Korea as neibours, Byzantine on map but far away. The romans kept power parity with me whilst the rest of the continent was weaker. Romans kept demanding things, Koreans hated me and I knew they needed to go. The plan was cripple Korea taking Seoul and Peyong raisng the two cities to the south. sue for peace and then cripple Romans.

I declared taking one city razing another. Then unsiprisingly Romans declared on me. To even things out I got Sumeria to declare on Rome, he then decalred on Korea on his own. Byzantine then declared on me and although far away I knew all he had to do was go through Ottoman lands and so...... got the Ottomans to declare on them!!

So we have one big Hindu-Bud world war going on. I would like to ask if from the attached save and screenshots what I am doing right and or wrong - is my teching right, have I specialised my cities well enough etc. should I sue for peace now with Korea or try and take seoul (my initial invasion took more casulties than expected) - any thoughts most welcome!!

 

[kossin]

This game is won... you have a higher power than anyone by a fair margin, twice the GNP of the next and 33% more prod than the next.
Kill/vassal everyone and you've won.
Beeline the military techs and get yourself a big SoD and everyone will fall like leaves. (Engineering)

Anyway, some pointers...

Cuzco - it needs food to grow. Less cottages, more farms. When it's done growing, cottage over the farms. Try to aim at +6 food for growing.
Tiwanaku - you realize you have 2 unworked gold? Farm over everything that's not a hill and work the 2 golds.
Machu Pichu - again, needs more food.
Ollantaytambo - it's doing fine now, but plain cottages just don't cut it. Since your science slider is so high, library is a better investment than market.
Corihuayrachina - is ok. You could irrigate the corn though.

Improve your and resources that aren't in any city's BFC... for example wine.
You usually want to settle every good food resource.
You're in Caste System but aren't running any specialists!
Spreading your religion would allow you to use that nice Organized Religion bonus.

Keep smashing WK until he capitulates, cease fires with the others in the meantime, and then go after them.

 

[Tapewormlondon]

This game is won... you have a higher power than anyone by a fair margin, twice the GNP of the next and 33% more prod than the next.
Kill/vassal everyone and you've won.
Beeline the military techs and get yourself a big SoD and everyone will fall like leaves. (Engineering)

Anyway, some pointers...

Cuzco - it needs food to grow. Less cottages, more farms. When it's done growing, cottage over the farms. Try to aim at +6 food for growing.
Tiwanaku - you realize you have 2 unworked gold? Farm over everything that's not a hill and work the 2 golds.
Machu Pichu - again, needs more food.
Ollantaytambo - it's doing fine now, but plain cottages just don't cut it. Since your science slider is so high, library is a better investment than market.
Corihuayrachina - is ok. You could irrigate the corn though.

Improve your and resources that aren't in any city's BFC... for example wine.
You usually want to settle every good food resource.
You're in Caste System but aren't running any specialists!
Spreading your religion would allow you to use that nice Organized Religion bonus.

Keep smashing WK until he capitulates, cease fires with the others in the meantime, and then go after them.

Thanks kossin, little things like this is what i need to improve - those wines and dyes have been sat there ages - i just didnt see them (note to self to turn on the resource locater!!!)

In regards to the unworked gold i changed the city to full production and food for the time being as with the gold the city is stagnant - right or wrong thing to do?

I did have three science specialists running in Cori... seems to have changed to spy??? what automation do i turn of to stop that tomfoolery??

 

[Udey1]

if your aiming to move up your difficulty may i suggest avoiding the Incans. Getting used to utilizing their broken warriors is inviting bad habits.

 

[lymond]

Rome is a good CIV to try and take out very early.

 

[Yared]

You got some lands to backfill. Don't worry too much about cities sharing tiles.

 

[Supp]

Yeah, its 950 ad and before the war you only had 4 cities.

Expand more. I aim for 5 cities before 5 AD myself.

 

[Yared]

There's easily room for two more cities. Might not be best but that hardly matters.

 

[Shurdus]

Yeah, its 950 ad and before the war you only had 4 cities.

Expand more. I aim for 5 cities before 5 AD myself.

Better yet, aim for 6 by that time, or even better yet, aim for 10. Sure your economy will tank, but a nice bulb by a GP will get you back in the tech race easely if you can bulb somethink like philosophy or perhaps paper. After that, the settled land will become very solid with enough workers, and your economy will really take off. From there on, you are in pole position to win.

@OP: try to place your cities in places that are more usable. Right now your Machu Pichu is even ignoring the horses. That tile would have been worth grabbing. Also you need to pack your cities closer together. You have huge amounts of land yet only a handful of cities.

You do not have to settle prime locations only, it is ok to grab spots with maybe 10 worthy tiles. For the biggest part of the game the happy cap will be mayby 10 or somewhere around there so your cities will not need much more good tiles than that.

 

[ICNP]

I've learned that playing Warlord isn't the best way to set yourself up for a Noble game. The best way is to pick out one of the Stronger civs (especially militarily) and go after someone. Taking an early city (Early Medieval at the latest) is a great way to set yourself up for a win, especially if that city comes from a Culture/Wonderguy who built wonderful shrines and wonders for your armies to admire.

All Resources will be worked unless food (too much or too little) is an issue. If you aren't working every resource tile in your area there is probably something wrong. And overlap is fine as long as you aren't cramming in cities that own nothing of value.

 

[Tapewormlondon]

I've learned that playing Warlord isn't the best way to set yourself up for a Noble game. The best way is to pick out one of the Stronger civs (especially militarily) and go after someone. Taking an early city (Early Medieval at the latest) is a great way to set yourself up for a win, especially if that city comes from a Culture/Wonderguy who built wonderful shrines and wonders for your armies to admire.

All Resources will be worked unless food (too much or too little) is an issue. If you aren't working every resource tile in your area there is probably something wrong. And overlap is fine as long as you aren't cramming in cities that own nothing of value.

hmmm ok, I will deffo try this approach in my next game (won this game diplo, 1750, wiping out romans and Korea on route). I will be honest I never ever sttle cities if there BFC will overlap. I even raze cities i capture, if it will over lap another better looking city site I want. I was under the impression overlap was a big no-no

So in effect it is actually better to have a few tiles overlapping here and there, but have more cities working all decent resources in my culture?