Originally posted by Rancidlunchmeat
Ok.. I tried it, and I even tried it as Saladin, just to follow exactly what you guys have been saying works..
And.. Nope, failed miserably.
In addition to the questions above... such as when do you found your additional cities and when do you start on building the early wonders, I've got additional questions..
Following the science path of : Poly, Min, Bronze, Masonry, Mono, Moving to CS Slingshot (writing and CoL), theology, alphabet, lit, Philo, etc..
Where's agriculture? Where's Animal husbandtry? I tried putting those off since they werent in the 'order' and my cit(ies) were still growing and producing without them.. you still get screwed and I've done much better researching them earlier.
Also and maybe most important, where's meditation on your list? I've managed to pop out two prophets and neither can provide me with Liberalism because they always both want to give me meditation.
Finally, on my last test, I only had one AI in contact by the time I finished the Pyramids, Stonehedge, the Oracle and the Slingshot... and he wouldn't give me JACK. Agriculture? 'We don't want to start trading this yet', Pottery? The same thing.
I couldn't trade alphabet or CoL or CS or anything because all my options were just redded out. ARRRGH!
I'm thinking I need to research meditation earlier in order to remove that from my GP's list of things to 'pop', but its not in you guy's lists anywhere.
Ok.. I tried it, and I even tried it as Saladin, just to follow exactly what you guys have been saying works..
And.. Nope, failed miserably.
In addition to the questions above... such as when do you found your additional cities and when do you start on building the early wonders, I've got additional questions..
Following the science path of : Poly, Min, Bronze, Masonry, Mono, Moving to CS Slingshot (writing and CoL), theology, alphabet, lit, Philo, etc..
Where's agriculture? Where's Animal husbandtry? I tried putting those off since they werent in the 'order' and my cit(ies) were still growing and producing without them.. you still get screwed and I've done much better researching them earlier.
Also and maybe most important, where's meditation on your list? I've managed to pop out two prophets and neither can provide me with Liberalism because they always both want to give me meditation.
Finally, on my last test, I only had one AI in contact by the time I finished the Pyramids, Stonehedge, the Oracle and the Slingshot... and he wouldn't give me JACK. Agriculture? 'We don't want to start trading this yet', Pottery? The same thing.
I couldn't trade alphabet or CoL or CS or anything because all my options were just redded out. ARRRGH!
I'm thinking I need to research meditation earlier in order to remove that from my GP's list of things to 'pop', but its not in you guy's lists anywhere.
yes, I have been writing those posts from work so they are more just approximation from memory, than a precise guide ...
anyhow just to chip in... Agriculture and/or Animal Husbandary I squeezed in after the slingshot, but in principle it is not "fixed" as I am still learning. I usually have enough forest to chop or mines to dig until than. Most important are cottages though for fast cultural victory. A full "town square" in the end game was worth 30 culture per turn in my last game, so 6-7 of those is about 200 culture regardless of buildings you have.
I just managed to finish in 1795 today I played continents map with high water, so I was the only one on the continent. I just managed to squeeze 9 cities in, and acquired 5 religions in all which was good for 5 shrines or " cathedral type buildings" in each city. Apart from that I got 24 great people in total, some kind of mix between great prophets and great artists with 2-3 great engies. I only managed to get one great merchant and that was the free one with economics, so this part of the idea was not used.
For great people, I never yet used the prophet for science pop. Greath prophet finished as an addition to the city boosting shield and money, and it is always useful so at the end you can be at 90 or 100% culture and survive money wise. Greath Prophet science rush always gives me meditation too, and I never bothered to figure out, or ask what is the way to get a science you actually need.
I usually discover meditation on the path to Philosophy, or exchange it in the middle ages when other civs get to me.
OK I am just blabbing, but perhaps sometime later I will actually bother to write up properly this style that I play. Now I got it to 1795 I am still certain it can be pushed quite a bit earlier at least on that level (Noble/Normal map etc)... A few regions I can see great improvement is actualy playing a diplomatic game withing lots of civs and thus getting the science much faster while avoiding war. In this game all of the essential ones I discovered on my own and I only filled in the gaps with tech trading somewhere in Middle Ages. I did get a benefit that I had almost no army in this 1795 game though. Still it can be better, trying to get great merchants early should speed up the finish as well, not to mention than now every turn is 5 years so only 20 turns to 1600's finish which should be doable under right conditions . In this game two cities finished in 1780 and the third one 1795, I think I could have pushed the first one to 1780, but highly doubt it that I could have finished earlier than that in this game, still 1700's technically I did have stone as resource which was kind of essential IMO for such a quick finish, hard to imagine finishing so early without both Stone and Marble. Still stone is better than Marble between the two as it gives a boost to wonders that I prefer and find more important
Just to go back to world wonders. I do Pyramids - they are most important from my perspective for three reasons - science boost with Representation, ability to buy buildings with Universal Suffarage and generating early great engineers.
So in last two games I spread early wanders out in the following way. First wander is Stonehenge and that is in second city. Chop rushed - 2 turns. So that happened when I found the second city next to Stone resource. Pyramids chop rushed in the capital city too. Switch to representaion imidiately, and by that time I can make a Library in the capital while I am finishing Oracle in the second city. So chop rush as required because the CoL takes quite a bit to create. In that game I did get Agri, and Anim Hus before going for Alpha and Literature. Great Library was built in second city. While slightly dubious decision it did help me offset the great prophet people generation in that city and not pollute the great engineer and great artist generation in the capital city. The capital finished having Parthenon (fairly important for 50% great people boost), Sistine Chapel, Notre Dame and Hanging Gardens, but it was the city finishing the latest at the end, as I did not pay enough attention to it towards the end. Still this was one fairly optimal game with regards to buildings I built (even on Noble). What I can improve I'd say is to generate a few great merchants if I mange instead of great prophets to enable me to buy required buildings earlier, plus earlier diplomatic science exchange could speed me up foir a few extra turns.
As for the culture buildings, in the three culture cities I build them all, and every one of the other 6 cities has all the temples built to enable me to get the "cathedral type buildings" in all three cities.
Will see how it goes on again, I need to improve about 20 turn to gain another century ... It should be possible, but will have to see.. kind of doubt that I can speed it up even earlier, but you never know if the start would be exceptionally good than maybe.
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