Only Civ on Continent

[Dactyl]

I'm playing at the Monarch level and I'm finally getting the hang of it, except when I find that I'm the only civ on a continent that is not within galley distance of any other civs. There I'm at a loss as to how to play it. I always fall so far behind in the tech race that there's no hope of catching up. If I make a beeline to optics, that just cripples me economically because it means that I'm neglecting other techs. Then, when I finally encounter other civs, military conquest isn't a viable option because they're so far ahead of me in tech.

Does anyone have good suggestions?

[Blake]

Beeline writing.
Build a library
Make 1 or 2 science specialists
Use the Great Scientist to make an Acadamy.

Other things to do:
Snag the Pyramids.
Use the Oracle to slignshot your tech, to Civil Service.

With an early Acadamy and some creativity you should be able to keep up with the AI's tech-wise and maybe outpace them. I suggest that extra Great Scientists be turned into super-specialists in your capital, unless you have a really good 2nd city that would benefit from an Acadamy. (giving that you are isolated and probably don't have good trade, that's doubtful).

[Cort Haus]

Ditto to Blake's advice - and I'll add that a dash for Optics to get out and meet the other Civs is also a good idea.

The Great Library is nice to have as well in the Acadamy city.

[Datajack Franit]

also adopt slavery and sacrifice population for libraries and markets- set science slider at at least 70%

[Arrian]

Hmm, that's one thing I've yet to do in Civ4 - poprush. Are people getting good results from it? Is there a basic forumla, btw (1 pop = x hammers)?

-Arrian

[Drachasor]

On most maps when you are the only civ on a continent, that means you can usually fit about 9 or so cities there. The technique I use is to produce warriors until I am size 2. Then I make a settler, then a worker (I am told a worker first is better however). Then I usually build Stonehenge (very easy to get even without stone most of the time). Then I make cities until I have about 9 total, making workers as I go along. Then you need to focus on your commerce. Have perhaps one production city, but in all other cities cottage any non-resource square that produces 2 or more food. Farm all other squares. Occasonally you might want to farm a 2 food square for
faster growth.

In the past I have gone for a religion first, then infrastructure (wheel, cottage, farm in that order unless I have a special resource that needs something else). Then I get bronze working (get iron if you have a lot of jungle). After that it is straight to the great library, then markets. Then research metal casting. Basically focus on economic improvements. After metal casting you can usually afford optics. Then go for banking, then liberalism (but if you miss that get the printing press before education). Usually this has allowed me to exceed the AI in terms of tech. If you make it to Caravels, make sure that you build two so that you can send one caravel in each direction, halving the time it takes to go around the world.* If you meet other cultures try to buy their world map, which might cost a tech (often the AIs won't have some relatively cheap technology, like literature, which you can afford to give away by the time caravals are around). Never trade your world map. This will help you circumnavigate the glove easier.

As for barbarians, just make sure you have enough workers to cover all or most of the fog of war areas. As long as any dark areas are only a square or so large I've found that no barbarians will spawn. Once you do this (which can be done pretty early), then you can expand very rapidly to 9 or so cities since you don't need to build *any* military (eventually you'll want a warrior in each city for happiness though). Also warriors at the outskirts tend to make barbarians attack them instead of attacking your cities. It shouldn't be too hard to get to 9 cities well before the AI manages it.

Usually I find that games where I start on my own continent are the easier ones. The AI is so inept at sea warfare that you can largely neglect a military until you are ready to attack (often when you are a tech grade or two ahead of the civ you are attacking). A fleet of ships is enough to stop any attempt to invade your borders. If you do go with low military at home, remember to attack any transport carrying troops towards your continent. I've had the AI declare war on me and land troops in the same turn. It is better to declare war on them first and stop it from happening.

-Drachasor

*Note that the game grants you circumnavigation a bit oddly. Consider the game map (x by y squares). If for every vertical line of squares across the map you have an explored square, then you circumnavigate the globe. So even if your ships don't meet up, you'll get circumnavigation when the more southern ship passes the northern one (even if they are 200 squares apart north-south). It works something like this, as I've had ships cross as I just mentioned and gotten the bonus.

[khumak]

Originally posted by Arrian
Hmm, that's one thing I've yet to do in Civ4 - poprush. Are people getting good results from it? Is there a basic forumla, btw (1 pop = x hammers)?

I do it in the early part of the game for cities with lots of food and not much production. Early in the game your happiness cap is generally pretty low so you might as well get a production boost through sacrifice. For cities with lots of mines or forest handy I don't think it's worth it but if you're sitting on flood plains or grassland with little to no hills/forests/plains nearby then pop rushing is great.