Stepping up to Emperor

[Devlin]

Hello!

I'm currently winning about 90% on Monarch, so I'm trying to step up to Emperor, and I'm getting smashed. So I thought I'd toss out a few questions:

1) Do the computer capitols always start with crazy resource amounts; the only capitol I've taken so far had been founded on corn, coastal, with 3 clams and 2 fish. If all the capitols have that many resources, it might change the order I go after some cities in some cases.

2) How do your point totals usually look early/midgame? The one game I thought I was doing OK I was still being outscored by Monty and Toku 1400 to 700 by the time feudalism rolled around.

3) Do you always start obscenely close to at least one opponent on small & standard maps? I've been practically surrounded every time so far, and this is playing continents (I've only tried 4 times so far, so I have a small sample size to work with here). And in 3 of the 4 games my opening scout/warrior only had to make 1 move to see an opponent.

4) Any particular race/leader that might be better for getting my feet wet in Emperor? I generally just play random continents, but after seeing my poor health and the early fighting, I'm thinking that just picking Genghis (Agg/Exp) to start might be better for now; I never much appreciated Expanionist before.

5) Any additional tips you have especially if you had trouble stepping up from Monarch to Emperor and finally got it down would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[PaganPaulwhisky]

Yeah, I'm having the same problem. I usually win at monarch, but cannot get a grip on this level. I've been playing pangea standard maps with Rome and Japan, but being close to so many opponents makes it really tough in the beginning. I can usually take out one opponent and then my economy collapses or I get thrashed by another neighbor. The enemy capitals are extremely hard to take out at the beginning so it may be better to take as many perimeter cities as you can at first and then hit the capital later.

Lately I've been beelining to pottery and monarchy and then slinging to iron working or COL with the oracle (if I can build it in time). This approach has been working much better. I think I may be going to war too early, but I feel uncomfortable competing with only 3 or 4 cities for so long. Early pottery is crucial for keeping par techwise. I can usually hit CS and alphabet before the AI, but I cannot keep up in unit production. If I go for science someone attacks me and I lose.

I think genghis might work pretty well on this level. I have used him several times on Prince and monarch with great success, and he is one of my favorites. His trait combo is really powerful if you are going for domination. Expansive is a pretty good trait IMO as long as you get those granaries out fast. You're probably better off going with Rome, Japan, or Washington as organized really helps on this level. I still haven't come very close to winning so someone else can probably give better advice.

[couerdelion]

1) Do the computer capitols always start with crazy resource amounts; the only capitol I've taken so far had been founded on corn, coastal, with 3 clams and 2 fish. If all the capitols have that many resources, it might change the order I go after some cities in some cases.

This is exceptional and screams “GP farm!!!” at me.

2) How do your point totals usually look early/midgame? The one game I thought I was doing OK I was still being outscored by Monty and Toku 1400 to 700 by the time feudalism rolled around.

I would not concentrate too much on points. Technology and gold is where you should be more concerned.

3) Do you always start obscenely close to at least one opponent on small & standard maps? I've been practically surrounded every time so far, and this is playing continents (I've only tried 4 times so far, so I have a small sample size to work with here). And in 3 of the 4 games my opening scout/warrior only had to make 1 move to see an opponent.

I tend to play on large maps so rarely see rival civs in the first few moves. Having said that, the number of AI opponents should be consistent with the map size so that there should be that balancing factor that gives you space.

You should realise that the AI gets two scouts to begin with so they explore very quickly. You’re lucky if you get two huts at emperor level if you have any nearby civilisation. One thing you can always consider is striking out early (and I mean very early) against a rival civs scout. Only attack them in the open and I would tend to avoid any aggressive civ (and Caesar). Most times they’ll come and ask for peace after a short while so there is often no real danger to it. I’ve once been fortunate enough with a neighbour and managed to lay siege to Hatsheput for over 3000 years with one warrior.

Having close neighbours can help to suppress the barbarian threat although I tend to prefer having the barbarians nearby (so long as I can get bronze early enough). Those barb cities are the cheapest way for you to expand your empire.

4) Any particular race/leader that might be better for getting my feet wet in Emperor? I generally just play random continents, but after seeing my poor health and the early fighting, I'm thinking that just picking Genghis (Agg/Exp) to start might be better for now; I never much appreciated Expansionist before.

The expansionist trait is what I think of as a rather negative trait in that it deals with a problem that has other solution and therefore tends to hide the underlying problem of health. I would recommend looking at ways of addressing the problem head on by 1) choice of city sites 2) development of resources 3) buildings. Health problems are annoying but not a serious inhibiting factor.

If you are going to think of the aggressive trait as a defensive quality then I would also suggest that this is being used “negatively”. Once again, you need to figure out the ways of dealing with early fighting without relying on cheap barracks and automatic promotions (or ancient unique units). Best way of handling early war is to get Copper quickly.

For me there are three traits that stand out above the rest as valuable: Financial, Organised, Philosophical. Use these to their strengths and you should be able to build up a lead by Feudalism (although the relative point score will depend a lot on how much you have conquered by then). Of the three leaders who have two of these traits, Mao also has a useful Unique Unit.

Although some traits are more useful than others, it is also key to understand the strengths of your leader and try to play to them. Having thought a little about this you should then see what your starting position is and see what you need to do with this. Try to plan for the long term which is for you to start accelerating through the techs. The only time you should really worry about rival civ expansion in your region is if they steal your copper. Sometimes it’s cheaper to let the AI civ build your cities for you.

5) Any additional tips you have especially if you had trouble stepping up from Monarch to Emperor and finally got it down would be greatly appreciated!

Diplomacy becomes far more important so play it careful. At this level you don’t want to get caught unprepared or in a two-front war. If you don’t follow the same religion as them then they are gonna dislike you so don’t worry about getting your own religion if this is going to cause problems with your neighbours. Your diplomatic strategy will have to be flexible with the likes of Napoleon, Genghis, Monty, Alex and co about. In my experience, Isabelle is just a “studied on killing you” girl without much practical experience. Caesar is a completely different ball game though and if you have him as a neighbour then you’ll need to think of some way to protect yourself. I suspect he is almost programmed to go to war early since he Dowed me once when he didn’t even have iron.

With a little practice you’ll get used to Emperor. Just experiment with things and try out some different strategies.

[Mr Justice]

im in similiar boat myself,
tho personally i usually play bigger maps and at slow speeds (epic or marathon ).


i generally do alright when i play as Inca,
casue their UU is very useful for early rush to take out closest civ, tho it can leave u exposed when axemen barbs appear tho usuely need 3 quechas to take out 1 axeman (and they need to have promos).

personally i think the trick is one of focus,

on monarch you can play along without too much micromanaging, but at emp i find that i always have to keep my short/medium/long term goals in mind. every decision has to be made with those objectives well in the mind. you have to be ruthless on yourself, if its not needed then dont build.


another point i feel is that inreality war is your friend in emporer, you have no better way of improving you positiion in relation to another civ than thru war. whats my logic here?
to start off, early wars are fantadstic, no cuiltuyre defense bonus means that anycity is potewntial target. try leaving a warrior/archer (uin my case quecha) beside capital of rival civ, minute his worker gets into range declare and rob the worker. at its best you can take a rivils capital b4 hes settled any other cities

into the classical period then wars gets little more even imo, i find that this peoriod lasts long, its important that you have mixed units near your interface zones with enemy. cats are vital as well, sacrafice a couple of cats and their Stack o doom is less inclined to attack ur cities.
i find it more difficult to take on enemy civs in this period cause i gennerally dont have large stacks of cats available to launch attacks.

once bombard and collateral units come on stream in large numbers then you are sorted. and you need them in large nuymbers imo. especially if u fall behind in military tech.

as couerdelion said, barbs are good, once you factor in the fact that you just goto deal with them. they are good sources of promotions for early units. their cities are like free lunches. and AI is crap at dealing with barbs.

reaserch > obviously a well managed economy is vital, and you cant have those without plenty workers. you eitrher need lots of workers or you need lt your groth spread out over a time period so that you can maximise worker effeciancy in groups. but try avoid working unimproved tiles. cottages should be placed everywhere, thru City specialization doesnt come till much later so i think it important to maximise the number of cottages in your empire. certainly you should stick to ratio of 1/3 or 1/2 (numbers plucked from nowhere tbh, but you should keep tabs) tile improvements should be cottages.

i suggest cs slingshot, tho is hard to pull off. but otherwise make sure u got the techs to use ur tiles, religion is good at this level cause happines is vital, healt is not so, you only loose food, not worked tiles.

i certainly cant deal with emporer on all conditions, ive struggled with any other leader i try. so take what i say with pinch of salt, but once you develop a strategy for dealing with emporer it really dose look much easier.
key is that you are more limited in what you can pull off successfully as difficulty increases, my approach with the incas works for meh, but that doesnt translate into other civs so easily.

[uberfish]

Genghis' traits just don't work together very well. If you take advantage of the Aggressive trait to go conquering early you're likely to pick up Health resources and be capped on Happiness, so Expansive tends not to be very useful. And the UU doesn't get to take advantage of the free promotion from aggressive.

I'd suggest Toku, Caesar or HC as better picks to get you started on early war on Emperor, since they actually have good UUs and traits that help you pay the upkeep cost for your empire.

[PaganPaulwhisky]

Genghis Kahn's traits are really geared towards early conquering and no one does it better (except maybe Capac, but he is effective only at the very beginning). Expansive gives you free reign to chop away. The cheap granaries combined with the health bonus allow you to make extensive use of pop-rushing. He can field a large army quicker than anyone else. If you have an early source of bronze you can reak havoc on anybody with an axeman rush. I am usually able to take out two rivals early with this tactic. Granted it won't work as well on emperor, but will still be effective if you have some health resources.

His unique unit doesn't really work well with his traits, but is still a very useful support troop for harrasment and defense. If you like to go on the offensive early, Genghis is the absolute best option IMO.