Getting over the Noble Hump

[jeff5]

I'm a Civ noob, having just got my first civ game a couple of weeks ago. I was able to dominate fairly easily on the easier settings, but I'm having problems with Noble. I've read through many of the threads here, and they helped me alot during the early game. I seem to loose ground though around 1000AD. (I'm talking about the time victory score on the right hand side) Other Civs just start passing me, I don't have anymore room to grow, although I try to expand, its not easy to do so without galleons etc. What am I doing wrong? The first part of the game I used the chop/cottage strategy, and established two reglions and that helped immensely. But now I'm lagging behind. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Quillan]

I wouldn't worry too much about the score, as it really isn't a good indicator of your chance of winning the game. I've had games I've won while down on the list, and had games where I've been 1000+ points over the next closest score and almost lost. What do you mean by "losing ground"? Do you mean that the scores of the others start passing you up, or something else? The middle of the tech tree is a wide open area with lots of different paths through it. The various AI civs all research in their own directions and trade off with one another, so gaining or maintaining a tech lead in that time period is difficult, if not impossible.

What you have to do is pick a goal and work towards it. A common path I take is to try to be the first to Liberalism (for the free tech) and Economics (for the Great Merchant). I succeed a lot at this, but while I'm working on that path, someone else has long since snagged Music and the great artist, Replaceable Parts and started building lumbermills, and Nationalism or Divine Right and started working on the Taj Mahal or Versailles. Decide what you really want and concentrate in that area. Don't hesitate to trade techs with the AI; it's the only way you're going to keep up in the long run. At some point in the middle of the game, you're going to need to decide on how you want to win, and concentrate on that. Spaceship requires a lot of research and production to do. Diplomatic requires really good relations with the bulk of the world's population. Cultural requires you to really work on it to the exclusion of everything else from about this point on. Military requires just that.

[Crossfire]

You really need lots of commerce in the later game. I hope you are building shrines for those 2 religions you founded and that you are trying your best to spread them far and wide. You also need quite a few cottages. Beelining in the tech tree will gain you techs that no one else has and you can often trade that tech 4 or 5 times with the AIs to gain what they have researched. Without tech beelines you just can't keep up.

I think that floodplains tiles are the most important resource for your commerce city. If you have a few in a city's fat cross you usually have enough food to put cottages on all the floodplains. This is a huge boost! They also provide some extra so you can get some specialists generating great people. You are maximizing great people output aren't you? They generate enormous wealth and research.

[jeff5]

Thanks you two. I really didn't beeline any techs so I guess thats my one mistake. I did build a ton of cottages early and I think that helped.

So let me ask, what exactly is the score on the bottom right of the screen? Is it just a composite score for the greatest civ? When I choose a custom game, I chose just a time victory, is that a mistake or should I just leave them all checked?

[Vynd]

It sounds to me like you were sort of generally dominating the game on the easier settings. On the higher settings it pays to have a pretty well-defined strategy. The earlier you choose one, the better.

In fact if you're finding the higher difficulty settings troublesome it might be a good idea to pick a victory method for yourself before even starting the game and then select a good starting civ and map type to make that victory happen. For instance, if you want to try for a military-style victory then pick a nice aggressive civ like the Mongols and choose a map without a lot of water or rough terrain.

Doing this sort of thing will give you experience with developing long-term strategies and give you exposure to the AI's capabilities at the higher difficulty level. Once you've become comfortable with this you will be able to play with random civs and map settings and know how to make the best use of what you find.

[billones]

When I choose a custom game, I chose just a time victory, is that a mistake or should I just leave them all checked?

It Depends.

"Most people" play for one of the victory conditions. (Usually Space Race, Conquest, or Cultural. I haven't seen many AARs that brag about a Diplomatic victory.) The game was designed with different Civs that have different strengths and weaknesses, and each of them tend to be suited to a different victory condition. Turning off their "best" way to win would hinder them a bit. (It's also worth noting that a win by victory condition often reduces the length of the game by 50-100 turns. That's not a bad thing.)

The score in the bottom right is primarily based on your civ's population, land area and techs known. It doesn't take into account your standing army. The Civ with the highest current score may not be in the best position to meet a particular victory condition.

But, ultimately, if you're playing single-player you should be playing the game you enjoy. If you enjoy playing with those settings, keep it up. If not, then change them

[Crossfire]

I struggled for a long time at Prince. I could slam the AIs at Noble, but got beat every game at Prince. I finally put it all together and my last game my score was 50% higher than the next civ and I launched my spaceship in 1843. My god, I was amazed. I did 5 things better that game.
I built more cottages earlier.
I had 4 other civs running my religion.
I executed the civil service, music, and liberalism beelines to perfection.
I prosecuted a war with authority from about 1000BC to 1300BC against Monty (he attacked me).
I played a successful diplomatic game. I had 3 key friends (surrounding me) and together we attacked everyone else the whole game thru. I participated in those wars only very slightly because I was shielded by my buddies. As my war buddies fell behind in techs I gifted some to them. This made them happier and kept them ahead of our enemies.

What I could still improve on is getting some specialists working earlier so I generate more GPs. I did this pretty well after my war was over but I should have started about half way thru it when the outcome was already determined. I have now moved up to Monarch and of course I am losing again. But just barely. A little better start and I will start winning again.

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by Crossfire
I prosecuted a war with authority from about 1000BC to 1300BC against Monty (he attacked me).

Well if you are fighting BC wars and already have time-travel tech then I imagine it would be an easy win

[Crossfire]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take out the extra 1 in 1300. It wasn't really a long war but it took a long time to take his capitol. Of course he couldn't do anything or build anything but hide there so it wasn't a big rush. My maintenance costs were already killing me without adding that one more city until I was ready.