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I like to play on reasonably standard maps, which are not always easy to play on when playing the highest levels. I have played about 10 games as Tokagawa (aggressive, organised) on a standard pangaea map with low sea level, 7 AI's, epic speed. 5 games I played out to the end, others I abandoned early due to unsatisfactory starts.
Lesson 1 was that I needed to expand much quicker, ignoring the civic, city costs, early in the game it is possible to fund science through negative cash flow, and gaining the cash from city capture. In the final game that I won I built 2 cities, then chopped out axes initially, then swords and captured 5 cities, destroying the Aztecs who at that time was the civ with the highest score. This brought my GDP down to -2, but I still ran 90% science almost till I learnt alphabet. Eventually I had to drop to 20% science, some rushed cottages had brought my GDP above zero.
Lesson 2 is that being seriously behind in technology is not the end of the game. I was the 3rd civ to learn alphabet and therefore only traded it for about 4 early techs, and by this time may have been as many as 15 techs behind the leaders. I almost gave up, but because my hammer production was very good and I had the largest military decided to persevere a bit longer. I decided to attack the Mongols and captured about 4 cities from them, razing 2 I think that were in tundra. I razed my science to 40% relying on partial deficit spending funded by conquests and beelined to Code of Laws. A peace treaty gave me several more early techs. An assault on Arabia followed with 2 cities captured. By this time my swords were fighting longbows, but sheer numbers of swords were allowing me to capture cities with 40% defence bonus. I now learnt Code of Laws and consolidated my empire with courthouses all around, also managed several trades with Code of Laws with some backward civs.
At this time the first of 3 assaults from the Russians commenced, a civ who had the largest land area, they came at me with knights and elephants, I still relied on spears, axes and swords, it was along war which only finished after about 100 turns by me counterattacking and capturing a city of their's, with the help of cats by that time, but mostly I held them off with lots of spears attacking knights in multiple numbers, my high production allowing me to build enough spears. After peace I fought again against the Mongols and took about 3 more cities, followed by a war that wiped the Arabians out, capturing Mecca in particular which held the Bhuddist shrine. About this time I learnt Paper and now traded my way the within several techs of the leaders, the first civ to do so( with larger cities now and mature towns, I could now run a science rate of 60% with a sustainable deficit, about 13 cities) I captured all the Mongols cities in an renewed attacks, then attacked the Spainish in anger after they stole 2 cities through culture that I had captured from the Mongols. Captured 3 cities, lost a separate city, then recaptured it. Just before I recaptured the city Russia attacked for a 2nd time with Cossacks, best I had where muskets and grenadiers. Fortunately within 2 turns I learnt democracy, the first civ to do so and gave this to Victoria to bring her into the war. This gave me a breathing space as now Russia totally focussed on Victoria in a battle between redcoats and Cossacks (Russians did not have riflemen, English did not have cavalry) Engish lost an early city before the war stalemated as I made peace with the Spanish and entered the war in earnest. Ther was no longer any tech trading in the game as the Russians and English were significantly ahead of all other civs in tech and their war prevented trading. I however seemed to be researching a separated line from the English and therefore traded a number of techs with them, bringing the 2 of us to a significant lead over the Russians, a lead we never lost. This war continued for a very long time until I learnt Assembly Line and captured several Russian cities with Infantry (promoted to City Attack3, relics of sword and mace age), cities which I razed as too close to English culture for comfort.
When peace was finally signed I switched all my attention to the Spanish who I now had a substantial tech lead over and wiped them out totally, now leaving only 3 civs in the game, Russians, the largest AI, English, the most advanced civ, but with fewer cities and myself with largest GDP now, double the production of all the others and in excess of 20 cities, and about 45% of the land mass.
A 3rd assault by the Russians followed, I initially lost 1 city, but soon learnt Industrialisation, giving me tanks, they were now well behind on tech, fighting with cossacks and riflemen still. Regular city captures now followed at intervals of about 6 turns, until they only had 1 city left on an island, at which stage I made peace, waited for a city cultural to expand which finally gave me my domination victory in AD1890.
In all earlier games I expanded slower at the start, keeping science above 40%, reaching alphabet first and grabbing tech parity at that point and maintaining tech parity until Assembly Line, a tech I always reached first. But all 4 earlier games which I played to the finish, my tech growth slowed at that point because I was not large enough with enough cities, 35% - 40% 0f land mass is not enough by that stage of game to maintain a suitable tech learning rate and therefore was usually 3rd to tanks not first, and things went worse after that, finally losing to gunships, and Modern Armour battles, usually surviving to an AI launched a space ship but being unable to prevent it or gain a domination vidtory first. I would gain up to 55% of land mass, but on those settings 64% was needed and I could not achieve that.
Lesson 3 if I can call it that is that hammer production in the end achieved much more for me than GDP, and in fact GDP could only get advanced by use of the swords etc produced by hammers, therefore the focus at the Immortal level must be to get high hammer production early and then make it the highest, just keeping your civ out of bankruptcy through enough city captures and the money it gives (razing if city not a big benefit).
I built 2 cites only, by the time of victory I had close to 40 cities, could run science at 70% without deficiting, good hammer production generating weapons took me there, even though at times early in the game, my weapons were outdated significantly, attacking in big enough numbers I could still win.
Lesson 1 was that I needed to expand much quicker, ignoring the civic, city costs, early in the game it is possible to fund science through negative cash flow, and gaining the cash from city capture. In the final game that I won I built 2 cities, then chopped out axes initially, then swords and captured 5 cities, destroying the Aztecs who at that time was the civ with the highest score. This brought my GDP down to -2, but I still ran 90% science almost till I learnt alphabet. Eventually I had to drop to 20% science, some rushed cottages had brought my GDP above zero.
Lesson 2 is that being seriously behind in technology is not the end of the game. I was the 3rd civ to learn alphabet and therefore only traded it for about 4 early techs, and by this time may have been as many as 15 techs behind the leaders. I almost gave up, but because my hammer production was very good and I had the largest military decided to persevere a bit longer. I decided to attack the Mongols and captured about 4 cities from them, razing 2 I think that were in tundra. I razed my science to 40% relying on partial deficit spending funded by conquests and beelined to Code of Laws. A peace treaty gave me several more early techs. An assault on Arabia followed with 2 cities captured. By this time my swords were fighting longbows, but sheer numbers of swords were allowing me to capture cities with 40% defence bonus. I now learnt Code of Laws and consolidated my empire with courthouses all around, also managed several trades with Code of Laws with some backward civs.
At this time the first of 3 assaults from the Russians commenced, a civ who had the largest land area, they came at me with knights and elephants, I still relied on spears, axes and swords, it was along war which only finished after about 100 turns by me counterattacking and capturing a city of their's, with the help of cats by that time, but mostly I held them off with lots of spears attacking knights in multiple numbers, my high production allowing me to build enough spears. After peace I fought again against the Mongols and took about 3 more cities, followed by a war that wiped the Arabians out, capturing Mecca in particular which held the Bhuddist shrine. About this time I learnt Paper and now traded my way the within several techs of the leaders, the first civ to do so( with larger cities now and mature towns, I could now run a science rate of 60% with a sustainable deficit, about 13 cities) I captured all the Mongols cities in an renewed attacks, then attacked the Spainish in anger after they stole 2 cities through culture that I had captured from the Mongols. Captured 3 cities, lost a separate city, then recaptured it. Just before I recaptured the city Russia attacked for a 2nd time with Cossacks, best I had where muskets and grenadiers. Fortunately within 2 turns I learnt democracy, the first civ to do so and gave this to Victoria to bring her into the war. This gave me a breathing space as now Russia totally focussed on Victoria in a battle between redcoats and Cossacks (Russians did not have riflemen, English did not have cavalry) Engish lost an early city before the war stalemated as I made peace with the Spanish and entered the war in earnest. Ther was no longer any tech trading in the game as the Russians and English were significantly ahead of all other civs in tech and their war prevented trading. I however seemed to be researching a separated line from the English and therefore traded a number of techs with them, bringing the 2 of us to a significant lead over the Russians, a lead we never lost. This war continued for a very long time until I learnt Assembly Line and captured several Russian cities with Infantry (promoted to City Attack3, relics of sword and mace age), cities which I razed as too close to English culture for comfort.
When peace was finally signed I switched all my attention to the Spanish who I now had a substantial tech lead over and wiped them out totally, now leaving only 3 civs in the game, Russians, the largest AI, English, the most advanced civ, but with fewer cities and myself with largest GDP now, double the production of all the others and in excess of 20 cities, and about 45% of the land mass.
A 3rd assault by the Russians followed, I initially lost 1 city, but soon learnt Industrialisation, giving me tanks, they were now well behind on tech, fighting with cossacks and riflemen still. Regular city captures now followed at intervals of about 6 turns, until they only had 1 city left on an island, at which stage I made peace, waited for a city cultural to expand which finally gave me my domination victory in AD1890.
In all earlier games I expanded slower at the start, keeping science above 40%, reaching alphabet first and grabbing tech parity at that point and maintaining tech parity until Assembly Line, a tech I always reached first. But all 4 earlier games which I played to the finish, my tech growth slowed at that point because I was not large enough with enough cities, 35% - 40% 0f land mass is not enough by that stage of game to maintain a suitable tech learning rate and therefore was usually 3rd to tanks not first, and things went worse after that, finally losing to gunships, and Modern Armour battles, usually surviving to an AI launched a space ship but being unable to prevent it or gain a domination vidtory first. I would gain up to 55% of land mass, but on those settings 64% was needed and I could not achieve that.
Lesson 3 if I can call it that is that hammer production in the end achieved much more for me than GDP, and in fact GDP could only get advanced by use of the swords etc produced by hammers, therefore the focus at the Immortal level must be to get high hammer production early and then make it the highest, just keeping your civ out of bankruptcy through enough city captures and the money it gives (razing if city not a big benefit).
I built 2 cites only, by the time of victory I had close to 40 cities, could run science at 70% without deficiting, good hammer production generating weapons took me there, even though at times early in the game, my weapons were outdated significantly, attacking in big enough numbers I could still win.
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