Hello!

[Blaupanzer]

Builders seem to like the Incas. Once you've begun to master the financial stuff -- the key to winning -- then Mali is another popular SP choice. Japan is a real solid warmonger alternative to Rome. Those Samurai can often win a battle before the other guy even gets a shot.

One alternative way to play is to select marathon mode, which permits many more turns and showcases the value of particular technologies and military units. Epic is also longer and therefore more rich, than the regular game. Note that costs and therefore production times are correspondingly greater in these modes, but unit movement remains the same.

[AmericanCitizen]

Thanks for all the tips I hope that the person who downloaded my game will also come and offer some more specific pointers...

[AmericanCitizen]

Well, I concluded the game finally. Maybe I underestimated the power of specialists...After the Aztecs declared war on me, I was able to go down to 0% research (to upgrade my Praetorians) and was still getting techs every 6 turns or so, which maintained my tech lead over the others.

It helped me use my relatively small number of cities (compared to Carthage!) to win a space victory.

Lessons I learned:

1. Don't be afraid to go to war.
2. Don't be greedy in war.
3. Slavery isn't all that bad!
4. Representation + Caste System + Scientists = Wonderful
5. Pyramids + Great Wall + Hanging Gardens = 7-9 engineers.
6. Expansion is very important!

[Proteus_MST]

You´re learning fast

btw.
what mapsizes and speed do you play?

[Datajack Franit]

If you want to LEARN use Marathon, Large Continents

[Snotty]

Why Datajack Franit?

I would have thought playing many small quick games in the same time it takes to play 1 large marathon would help a player learn quicker

[Proteus_MST]

Both helps.
Large or huge maps take slightly other approached than small/standard maps. Same goes for game speed.
Best for him to try both, quck games on smaller maps as well as marathon games on large/huge maps.

[Datajack Franit]

Snotty,

playing on Marathon makes you aware of any microscopic mistake you have made, let it be choosing the wrong tech beeline or focusing production on units that cannot counter the special units of your enemies. Also, playing for 2 hours of gameplay with a very short choice of units and building bonuses can really throw you into LONG battles that can only improve your strategic skills and your understanding of the terrain/experience bonuses.

Just waiting for the next age and using those powerful units against weaker units doesn´t work if your final goal is to be able to counter a huge enemy using only your brain and your scarce resources. I loved fighting against Catherine and learning how useful a little strategy can be, like:

-offering her two of her previous cities so that the troops are automatically redeployed inside my borders and attack her core cities instead
-learning for how many centuries a Preatorian makes the difference (switch point is cavalry anyway)
-having more time to spread religion rather than saving queue and gold for the next upgrage

[Japher]

Hello I just thought I would introduce myself.
I'm kind of new to the whole Civilization thing...

reel him in guys!

[Willem]

Originally posted by Japher


reel him in guys!

It sounds like he doesn't need our help.

[AmericanCitizen]

Civilization is my life now

I typically play the smaller maps and faster speeds.

[Willem]

Originally posted by AmericanCitizen
Civilization is my life now

Are you playing with Warlords or vanilla Civ? If you don't have Warlords yet, go out and get it. It doesn't add alot to the game but what it has is good.

I typically play the smaller maps and faster speeds.

Try Marathon/Huge maps for the full Civ experience. It's the only way I'll play.

[Cort Haus]

AC, I checked out your game. OK, so you went on to win anyway but I noticed a few things from that snapshot that might be relevant to stepping up from Warlord difficulty.

Civics

You were running Rep, but not really emphasising specialists, and had loads or well-developed cottages not being worked, so it was neither one thing nor the other.

Bureaucracy instead Free Speech would have helped.

You were running Cast System, but in no city were you running more Specs than the buildings would allow anyway.

You were running State Property, but the Empire was not that large (~8/9 cities?) and you were using few workshops & watermills, it looked.

Economy

Cities were well below their happy caps - you could have sacrificed some science in the short term to grow cities and either run more specs or work more cottages.

One scientist per city won't generate any GPs when the capital is pumping 60GPP per turn.

So not enough commerce tiles worked neither enough specialists and cities too small.

Exploration

The only part of the world you'd discovered when 4 turns from Physics was you're own empire!

Diplo

Nobody likes you, but at least you have two trading partners. Nurture these two with gifts and trades, perhaps a shared fave civic if possible (I didn't check what these were).

Hardly anyone has a 'Worst Enemy' so you can gift and trade techs & resources and open borders for city commerce without things getting worse.

They all have loads of spare cash which you can be mopping up with selling old tech.

City Focus

Too many barrracks & stables everywhere, and too many observatories in high-hammer, low-commerce cities. Pisae & Birka could have been dedicated unit pumps, and cities like Cumae should have had Universities and Observatories as priority. Oxford in the main science city (usually capital) should be a focus after Education, which on that map means 7 Unis. Build Unis before Observs for this reason.

[AmericanCitizen]

You were running Rep, but not really emphasising specialists, and had loads or well-developed cottages not being worked, so it was neither one thing nor the other.

You were running Cast System, but in no city were you running more Specs than the buildings would allow anyway.

I kept switching back and forth between slamming all of my cities on scientists and not doing so (like when I thought I was going to war). That just happend to be an "off time". In the save that you saw, I took off most of the specialists so that the cities could build the observatories and universities in a timely manner, because with specialists they were taking forever.

Would it be better for me to switch between the civics at the appropriate time? I kept debating it, but it seemed like I'd lose so many turns that way...

Bureaucracy instead Free Speech would have helped.

Should I always run Bureaucracy? Free speech seems like it'd have a larger effect (since it goes to more cities).

You were running State Property, but the Empire was not that large (~8/9 cities?) and you were using few workshops & watermills, it looked.

I usually run free market (I don't know why, I just do ) but I did try to use watermills and workshops a little more (it helped a lot later on!), but I read that State Property is the best among the choices, and since I had a couple workshops and watermills...

Also, I left a lot of the forests and stuff intact so that I could put lumber stuff on it later. Is that bad?

Cities were well below their happy caps

I don't know what those are (though it seems self-evident)

One scientist per city won't generate any GPs when the capital is pumping 60GPP per turn.

During a typical scenario, I would devote all of the no-food, 1-food, and occasionally 2-food workers to science specialists (so most of my cities would either stagnate or lose a minor amount of food each turn). But that was mainly to increase research, not to generate great people. Is this a bad strategy? It worked out well when I was in war and needed to upgrade my military.

Nurture these two with gifts and trades, perhaps a shared fave civic if possible

Gifts! Is that wise? Whenever I do give gifts, it has no effect, so I just thought that gift-giving made me weaker.

too many observatories in high-hammer, low-commerce cities.

Don't I need those, though, when I put specialists in? It increases their effect, doesn't it?

Also, I don't know...should I even build cottages, or stick with developing a specialist-based system? I mean, later on, the Aztecs declared war on me, and so a lot of those cottages were just pillaged out of existence. Farms seem like they'd be easier to replace.

[Willem]

Originally posted by AmericanCitizen


I kept switching back and forth between slamming all of my cities on scientists and not doing so (like when I thought I was going to war).

It's kind of pointless to start specialists then put them back on the land later on. The main reason for having them in the first place is so they can generate Great People. You're kind of defeating the whole purpose if you stop generating the GP points.

but I read that State Property is the best among the choices, and since I had a couple workshops and watermills...

State Property is mainly effective with a larger empire, since it cancels the distance from Palace factor for maintenance. If you have a small empire, that's not really a big issue, so you might be better off using something else instead.

Also, I left a lot of the forests and stuff intact so that I could put lumber stuff on it later. Is that bad?

No, actually that's good. Each Forest square provides .5 health, so your cities will be better off. Just make sure that you're leaving the right ones. Don't just save them for the sake of saving them. Myself, I chop all my Grassland and use them for either Farms or Cottages, and only save Plains Forests and Hills Forest that aren't next to a river. Having that extra gold from just being next to a river can help alot.

I don't know what those are (though it seems self-evident)

It's just the point where unhappy citizens are equal to happy ones.

During a typical scenario, I would devote all of the no-food, 1-food, and occasionally 2-food workers to science specialists (so most of my cities would either stagnate or lose a minor amount of food each turn). But that was mainly to increase research, not to generate great people. Is this a bad strategy? It worked out well when I was in war and needed to upgrade my military.

It is a bad strategy. You want your cities to grow, not stagnate. Only run specialists if you have cities that can create lots of food. If it's just marginal, don't bother. You're better off having everyone work the land.

Gifts! Is that wise? Whenever I do give gifts, it has no effect, so I just thought that gift-giving made me weaker.

It depends on how you want to play the game. If you'd like to have solid allies with the possibility of getting a Diplomatic victory then gifts are a good idea. Myself, I don't give anything for nothing. I still do alright diplomatically, though not good enough to win a Diplo game.

Don't I need those, though, when I put specialists in? It increases their effect, doesn't it?

A city's research amount is determined by the amount of commerce it's producing. If it has lots of Hills and not producing much money for you, it's not really worth it to build something like an Observatory etc. Save those for cities that have some Cottages or are on Rivers. Use the high production cities to build your army instead.

Also, I don't know...should I even build cottages, or stick with developing a specialist-based system? I mean, later on, the Aztecs declared war on me, and so a lot of those cottages were just pillaged out of existence. Farms seem like they'd be easier to replace.

You need Cottages, lots of them, if you want to do well at higher levels. The AI is going to blow you out of the water in tech research if you don't. Also, you need to make money in order to support a larger army, and Cottages are what give you that. If they get pillaged during a war, just rebuild them afterwards.