Where to go from here

[paycheck]

Prince difficulty.

This is turn 105, I finished destroying the mayans at 103 turns. I'm well over 40% of the world population - I still have a nice standing army and will probably go crush the chinese next (they build the GLH, and I want it!), however longterm I'm not sure what to do. There is one more Civ I haven't met, and monte is somewhere out east.

I have pyramids, and I ran a scientist in my second town real quick, which ended up putting the academy in the fish town I took from zulu, I then got another GS and got an academy in that town, so my capitol is reserved for production, along with the town directly to the east of it, which is pumping wealth right now to pay for all my expansion (since my army is still in solidish shape, and I didn't want to pay for more units). My research slider has been at zero for about 20 turns, but the two research cities are doing just fine, and I'm bringing another 1 or 2 of the captured cities online in a few more turns.

What I need help with is - how do I win? Should I just upgrade a little more, get some calvalry and roll the whole world? That is about the only thing I even know how to do in this game. If I were a vet would I fill in the gaps in my land with cities? I tend to avoid this after conquest because cities cost even more money, and I never know if it is worth it, longterm it probably is if i cottage (but I don't even have pottery yet!) and I just never know what to do from this stage on... half the time I quit (and do it all over again), half the time I just roll the earth.

What would you do?

Edit: screenshots.

Also, I'm rushing up to civil service because a few of my production sites are fairly food staved, and I guess I did pick up pottery recently (though I forgot, and have 0 of my own cottages, I jacked a few from zulu)

 

[lymond]

A few thoughts:

1) You should get pottery sooner

2) Why work unimproved tiles vs. 2 merchants in Athens

3) Why no library in Athens? Always get that up first thing - whip it out. It allows you to run scientists early and boosts the research. Get a granary in there too.

4) Build 4 or 5 more workers...you need quite a bit of improvements in your older cities. Athens is not a bad cap by the way

5) Up slider to 80% and finish CoL...I would get construction next...then CS for bureau/chain farms.

6) You can fill in a couple of cities now - clam/wine and marble/wine. that should be good for now while you build cottages or farms and recover economy

7) Switch to Judaism, but open borders with Monty right before switching. This will boost your happiness and relations with Peter/Mao.

Conquest/Dom is still certainly on option. Any VC is yours, But before fighting more, you need to scout more. I don't know where China is or why they settled that one city in the middle of nowhere - kinda weird. Is China on a land mass somewhere to the west.

Attacking Peter is risky now since he has construction and you don't know where China is. You can build up and do a Mace/Cat war a little later.

Monty has his eye on someone but I have no clue where he is.

 

[lymond]

Ulundi might make a nice Maoi city

 

[paycheck]

I feel pretty good about my game then I did pretty much everything you said before I read your post, except the diplo stuff w/ monty - I really suck at that part of the game, also I haven't filled in cities yet, just upgrading tiles / upping happiness cap, busting out courthouses etc. I switched to caste, and ulundi is a sick think tank w/ 8 scientists .

china got a horrible starting area, and is up in the tundra. It seems after a number of games that the map generator makes a map, and then picks sites for start locations and makes a semi ok start location there. So china has this ok capitol and then a bunch of worthless tundra... gonna go rip him up with my remaining army and start up those macemen.

I really do hate catapults , but of course, I still make them.

 

[lymond]

Well, I think this game is very winnable. You should dominate.

Make sure you only build CHs where you need them. My rule is around 5 maintenance cost. Mutal might make a better central cap later as you expand or another city. Mutal looked good.

Siege is so important. You can use spies too. Later Curs are an awesome way to put an end to everyone.

I wouldn't worry too much about Monty. I suggested opening borders first since it doesn't hurt you. The religion switch will, but that's OK. From what I saw Monty isn't that close and if he should attack you it would be from a distance and from experience the AI usually sucks at that, especially backwards psycho Monty. Just don't be caught off-guard.

 

[Gwynnja]

Prince difficulty.

This is turn 105, I finished destroying the mayans at 103 turns. I'm well over 40% of the world population - I still have a nice standing army and will probably go crush the chinese next (they build the GLH, and I want it!), however longterm I'm not sure what to do. There is one more Civ I haven't met, and monte is somewhere out east.

I have pyramids, and I ran a scientist in my second town real quick, which ended up putting the academy in the fish town I took from zulu, I then got another GS and got an academy in that town, so my capitol is reserved for production, along with the town directly to the east of it, which is pumping wealth right now to pay for all my expansion (since my army is still in solidish shape, and I didn't want to pay for more units). My research slider has been at zero for about 20 turns, but the two research cities are doing just fine, and I'm bringing another 1 or 2 of the captured cities online in a few more turns.

What I need help with is - how do I win? Should I just upgrade a little more, get some calvalry and roll the whole world? That is about the only thing I even know how to do in this game. If I were a vet would I fill in the gaps in my land with cities? I tend to avoid this after conquest because cities cost even more money, and I never know if it is worth it, longterm it probably is if i cottage (but I don't even have pottery yet!) and I just never know what to do from this stage on... half the time I quit (and do it all over again), half the time I just roll the earth.

What would you do?

pick your VC, win, then start a new game on monarch.

 

[paycheck]

I absolutely destroyed. everyone was capitulated by 1550, 85k points or something. Really the war machine got moving so hardcore that I had two full bars of units (mostly macemen, and some calvalry/catapults) when I dropped the Koreans. Fun game. Terra is a bit hit or miss for me though, sometimes i spawn in the middle of 3-4 with them on all sides of me, which makes it super difficult.

Edit: as for this game, sadly, this is the only type of victory I ever get... is that normal? I never even got far enough down the tech tree to get UN... Let me rephrase that.. I've NEVER gotten a UN ever. All my games end before then...

I'm scared of barbs on monarch : /

 

[Sian]

yes ... its normal when you're playing on a to easy level (unless you try aiming at something else ... i'm currently playing around with a game where i'm trying to get Dominion taking the least ammount of cities)

if you're to scared of barbs, don't play with them ... Personally i don't play with barbs (or Huts or Events), since they all (to differing degrees) is RNG screwers

 

[lymond]

I disagree about barbs...it changes the game a lot if you turn them off. There nothing to be scared of unless you turn on raging barbs. It's just a matter of spawnbusting appropriately which I do fine with just warriors.

I'm not necessarily saying Gwynnja is incorrect in recommending Monarch. It doesn't hurt to try it. You had a good win, but I still see some flaws in your basic game. I still think you should try out some different strategies and VCs on Prince until you really get comfortable with it. But sure, give Monarch a go.

As with each level, the AI bonuses increase on Monarch and your bonuses decrease. The kicker though is that this is the first level that the AI and Barbs start with Archery, so early rushes are not cakewalks.

 

[vranasm]

i love and hate barbs at once...

"working" with barbs is for me more function of map then function of skill...sometimes you get situation where you spawnbust easily and sometimes whatever you do you cant fight them...

 

[Gwynnja]

I don't like the events but it's so fun to pop a tech, especially if you don't have any beakers invested, or if it's something really cool like metal casting. Barbs are tougher on monarch for sure. just gotta make sure you use those warriors you build early on to spawn bust until you find metal, and do it a little bit quicker. It's not like bronze working is ever a tech you want to put off very far regardless of what level you play. It doesn't hurt to try, everyone gets kicked in the face a little when they move up a level, it's supposed to be that way. It's also fun to totally dominate the AI around on prince, but it starts to get old after a while.