what happened?

[Cyrus The Mike]

I don't understand what happened? I used to be good with Russia. Here's what I do, I play normaly all the way to close to gunpowder age. Then i quickly get gunpowder and military tradition. I take over a civilisation then I'm in a rut for the remainder of the game.

Now here's the second problem. I found like 3 citys then the map is taken over by everyone else. what do I do about that? I love playing Russia but I'm starting to go bad when I play them. All help is greatly appreciated.

[Solver]

If you only get to found 3 cities early on and run out of room, you're either expanding way too slowly or placing cities way too far apart. Probably the former.

As always, the best way of getting strategy advice is to post a savegame.

[Cyrus The Mike]

is there a guide that tells me how to do that?

[Solver]

You mean post a savegame? You do it by attaching it to your reply, see how it's done in this post:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=4874941#post4874941

[Cyrus The Mike]

ok, I think I got it.

could you show me a help on how to get screenshots too please?

[Solver]

You can attach screenshots in the same manner, one per post though.

[Solver]

About your save. I obviously can't comment on your early game from a 1968 AD save, but there is quite a bunch of things you're doing wrong.

1. WAY too few Workers. You only have 6 at this late point! That's for 8 cities. Early in the game, people usually want at least 1 Worker per 2 cities, though that's not always adequate, but can work if you go to war early (war brings Workers).

That's a cumulative thing, really. I assume you always had few Workers, so you didn't build enough in the early game. As a result, you were losing your advantage throughout the entire game, which is why you're getting outteched by some civs.

2. As a direct consequence of that - you are still working tiles that aren't improved. Novgorod is working several unimproved tiles. Rice one tile south of St. Petersburg hasn't been farmed - that should've been a top priority way early in the game. You need more Workers and to make more use of the land.

3. Your civic choices. You don't need or want Hereditary Rule now. You got enough happiness, and Representation would provide some anyway. Universal Suffrage is probably better, at least you can then use the money you're making (and reap the Kremlin's benefits). State Property is a good civic for huge empires, particularly those spanning multiple continents, not for your reasonably small civ.

4. Building choices. Why are you building an Aqueduct in Najran? It won't be unhealthy any time soon (20 health vs. 12 unhealthiness). Yet the city doesn't have a Granary and a Forge. I'd build those. Building Research at Novgorod isn't terribly useful right now. A Forge would be better. You probably also have the wrong selection of building choices early in the game, too.

That's from a quick look at the save, there's certainly more stuff. My advice would be (apart from building more Workers ) to read some of strategy articles in the Strategy forum. You may want to check out the great guides by Velociryx - those should give you a fairly good idea of how to play the basics. And, of course, ask any questions you may have.

[Cyrus The Mike]

about the rice, I had a war with England and they destroyed it. I guess I never got around to it.

I was building an aquaduct because I had no other usefull buildings to build... and I tend to shy away from buildings that have negative effects. I guess I should see how the city is before saying it will get sick once I build the building.

the tiles thing, I don't automate my workers untill late in the game. should I automate them earlyer?

ok on civic thing

the Reserch in Novgord, I got swamped one turn and just put it on it. I forgot (again) to build something.

sorry about the late start. I try to keep one or two saves so I deleted the other saves before I asked.

thanks for all your help.

[Solver]

about the rice, I had a war with England and they destroyed it. I guess I never got around to it.

Exactly the problem with having few Workers. If you had anywhere near enough, getting around to the rice wouldn't be a big problem.

I was building an aquaduct because I had no other usefull buildings to build... and I tend to shy away from buildings that have negative effects. I guess I should see how the city is before saying it will get sick once I build the building.

That's a poor idea. Forges, for example, are very useful, despite their health penalty. Plus it wouldn't have mattered in that city anyway. On low difficulty levels, health is easy to manage. And if you have nothing to build, don't build a useless building - build a unit or Research/Wealth then.

the tiles thing, I don't automate my workers untill late in the game. should I automate them earlyer?

Most experienced players don't automate at all. The problem is, again, that you just don't have nearly enough Workers. If you had more, you could improve all those tiles. In your save, I wouldn't feel comfortable without at least 15 Workers, although that wouldn't be enough either probably.

If you keep reading about strategy, though, you'll soon be stomping Chieftain like it's no tomorrow. You can attack those guys with Tanks while they barely get around to Gunpowder .

[Pinchak]

Cyrus,

Try to get into the habit of envisioning a city's use when you found it.

For instance, if it has alot of hills and or plains, that is an industrial city. Concentrate on buildings that improve production or lessen the bad health effects of production.

Citys surrounded by mostly grassland or floodplains should be your comerece / research citys. Don't bother with things like forges and factorys here. Build markets, librarys, bank, etc...

Coastal citys tend to lean toward comerece / research, but could be a production city if the land area it has allows for this. A coastal city with production capablitys is indeed valuable for ship production.

Bottom line is... don't treat all your citys the same. Decide on their focus, and customize them accordingly. Also, never just build a building because there is nothing else to build, that production could be going into filling your coffers, or reaching that next tech faster.

[Virdrago]

Originally posted by Pinchak


Bottom line is... don't treat all your citys the same. Decide on their focus, and customize them accordingly. Also, never just build a building because there is nothing else to build, that production could be going into filling your coffers, or reaching that next tech faster.

Or getting those military units (if needed). Listen to Pinchak and Solver, though. They make good points.

[Cyrus The Mike]

boy do I have problems this game was better, of corse I played as Rome so that might have done something. but once I finish that game I'll move on to a good game with Russia.

thanks for everyones help.

[Solver]

Citys surrounded by mostly grassland or floodplains should be your comerece / research citys. Don't bother with things like forges and factorys here. Build markets, librarys, bank, etc...

There it starts coming down to playstyle a bit. I want to have a Forge in every city at some point, even the commerce cities. Also note that whether you build markets or libraries should depend on your spending. Building a Market when you have 100% science spending is probably a waste of time.

Cyrus, you'll improve And by the way, you may want to play different civs, not just Rome and Russia. The more civs you play the better you'll become. You'll learn the advantages of the different traits, etc.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Yes, the key is taking a look at each city and building what is required to make the city more productive in what it's best at. For example, a city with lots of cottages/villages/towns and/or trade specials should usually get a library before a forge.

As for forges, they're almost always somewhat useful, except in the smallest or hammer-poorest cities. The -1 health is more than offset by the hammer bonus.

Besides, -1 health isn't a big deal at the lower levels, anyway. So you lose a food unit... it's not the end of the world. I'll add my aqueducts and harbours when I'm good and ready and when the city (or my nation) doesn't have a more pressing need.

You'll find that the first cities that you build libraries in should also be the first cities with universities and observatories. Ditto for cities with markets - those should get banks. And so on.


edit: clarification

[Pinchak]

There it starts coming down to playstyle a bit.

Very true.