Argh! What do I do?!?

[padillah]

OK, here's the situation (my parents went away on a week's vacation) (sorry, I hear that in my head all the time)

I'm Saladin, on Warlord (hey, I suck at this game) Pangea, 8 civs.

It's 1360BC, I've got two cities (one from a popped settler ).

I've got Wheel, Agr, Myst, Minig, Med (got Buddhism), Poly (lost Hinduism), Mass, Monotheism (got Juaism), BW, and I'm one turn away from Pottery.

I lost my original warrior but I've got one in each city (none scouting). I've got one worker near my capitol and some forest.

I've got Stonehenge and I'm 47 turns away from Pyr. and 76 away from Parth.

I just popped a Great Prophet! I can either build the shrine or lightbulb Priesthood. What do I do?

I could build the shrine for some gold, but I've only got two cities.

I could lightbulb Priesthood but I'm so far away from Oracle would it really help right now? Do I "save" him for when it will help?

What do I do?

Tom P.

[Jaybe]

That 5 gold per turn with the prophet in the city would really be great, SHORT Term.
Long Term, BUILD THAT SHRINE and spread whichever religion you build the shrine for.

Waiting for the next GP can really be a pain (especially at Marathon speed).

[Blaupanzer]

With only two cities, don't build two wonders. Spread out before you get crushed by the AI.

[Urban Ranger]

Build a shrine (pick one).

On Warlords you should have about 8 cities by now

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
With only two cities, don't build two wonders. ...

Very True (unless you are going for a cultural win MAYBE).

[Verrucosus]

My vote goes to the shrine as well. It should go to the city where faster border expansion would be most useful.

Having your entire production tied up by wonders for the next 47 turns is an intolerable restraint. (The wonders will finish faster because the cities will probably grow and produce more hammers, but it's still a awfully long time.) On a pangea map in particular, there might not be a lot of territory left once you can resume expansion. Also, the special benefit of Stonehenge is more or less wasted.

Of course, the real question is what you can do about it now. If you've not invested too many hammers (say less than 30) I'd go as far as to suggest to abandon the construction of that wonder for the time being in favour of building more scouts, settlers and workers. There is a danger that someone else snatches the wonder first and you lose the hammers invested, but I'd consider that a price worth paying to get your expansion going again. If you've already invested lots of hammers (for the Pyramids perhaps?), you should probably go ahead, but speed up the production by clearing some forests.

Having said that, part of the fun of playing the lower levels is that you have much more room for experimenting. Staying the course, finishing the wonders and trying to recover later is a viable, but probably more challenging option. You should check the demographics (F9) to find out whether and how far you've fallen behind your opponents.

In any event, please continue this game. It's often more rewarding to get out of a difficulty situation than to play a game where everything goes "according to plan". Good luck!

[padillah]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
On Warlords you should have about 8 cities by now

And usually I would but I'm trying to take a different route. I just am not getting how some of you guys can dominate these games like you do.

There's just too much for me. I can't build units AND settlers AND wonders AND workers AND everything else in the game AND keep research at 90%.

How the heck do you guys do that?

Tom P.

[Blaupanzer]

More cities first. Then you can do all those things at once.

[PaganPaulwhisky]

Definitely do not burn the prophet for Priesthood. That is such a waste of a GP as priesthood is a very cheap tech. You may want to save him to lightbulb something better, but I would probably just settle him in the capital and use the next prophet to build a shrine.

There's just too much for me. I can't build units AND settlers AND wonders AND workers AND everything else in the game AND keep research at 90%.

I never build 8 cities that early. In fact the most I ever build is 5 or 6 (on normal map). I prefer to let the comp build them and then take by force. I think you are concentrating too much on wonders at the beginning. If you only have two cities then don't tie both of them up building wonders. You will delay your development way too long. Prioritize pyramids above all others (if you have stone). If you have this one you don't need the oracle. I rarely build the parthenon unless I have marble. Ideally you want one city making a wonder and the rest pumping workers/settler to expand or units.

Obviously you cannot build all that stuff with only two cities. So you need to either stop building wonders so early (with the exception of maybe one) and start pushing to expand or get bronze and pump axemen to expand by taking cities. Don't be afraid to pop rush for settlers/workers and units if you need them.

My advice is to stop building both wonders and expand to 5 cities. (You definitely should drop parthenon at least since you are philo you don't need this so early). If you get pyramids then construct some temples and libraries (via org. religion) to get some specialists and speed up your science. The game is basically over on low levels if Saladin grabs the pyramids. The comp cannot keep up with the specialist driven research. You can probably drop your science rate to 50% and still outresearch all of them. Then focus on building up your military once you get CS and machinery.

[allybhoy]

Parents away for a week! Turn the PC off and have a party man, big fun world out there

Either that or build the shrine if you plan to expand quickly after you build your wonder so the expansions costs are offset. Wouldn't lightbulb priesthood, as someone says its too cheap to waste a GP on

[LzPrst]

imo first of all, play noble, I find it a better learning level, you get too many freebies on lower level, on noble you get nada, but neither does the AI. doesnt nerf your playstyle by making you dependent on easy-level bonuses.

and furthermore, I know this may be controversial, but build lots of farms in one of your first cities. a large population will allow a large production, as well as the possibility to put some cityworkers on gold/production only tiles. also, it helps you build workers and settlers faster. let city nr 2 or 3 focus on cottages and the like.

also, try specializing your cities. your capital should have allround capabilities, focusing on food early on then production and maybe a few gold producing tiles. a city built on a river should produce cottages as the extra gold from river tiles will be very advantageous. and have one city (possibly your capital, depending on starting land) be a production centre focusing on wonders and\or units. also, if you have the potential for a city with a lot of food production you could go for great people, building the parthenon if you can get it, or the at least national epic.

a little food for thought I believe...

[samspock]

You don't have masonry yet so research Priesthood and lightbulb Code of Laws. With those relgions do some expanding and try to get one city to have a few temples in them. Set up some priests to get some more prophets. You are way too small to be bothering with wonders that late.

[padillah]

I do have masonry.

Tom P.

[Urban Ranger]

Priesthood is very, very cheap in terms of beakers (they are flasks, darn it ).

Anyway. Losing your original warrior is kinda bad, because of the time it costs you to make another one. Don't forget to explore as much as you can. I usually turn out a bunch of scouts (3 or 4 usually) before I build the first settler unit. This way you can see a lot more, and more importantly, explore more tribal huts. You may not get a lot from them, but at least you deny the computer players from popping them. And on Warlord you could get things such as workers and settlers. Hurray! Gold is nice too. It means you can keep 100% research for that much longer.

[spammurabi]

GP, if you don't have a Shrine: MAKE A SHRINE.

Or, use him for an expensive tech, like COL, Civil Service, or *maybe* Theology, especially if you don't have a religion founded.

I agree that 2 cities is way too few. Building wonders in both is probably a bad idea- your military is not expanding, nor is your city base.

If I'm going to be building 2 wonders simultaneously, I would really prefer to have at least 4 cities, so I have new settlers, workers, and military units being produced while I'm wonder-building.

Also, Parthenon kind of sucks. Don't build it unless you're planning on using a heavily GP/specialist-oriented strategy, which you could with Saladin, and would be great if you got Pyramids for Representation. But yeah, have the parthenon city pump out settlers and units instead for a while.