Warlord to Noble transition: glass ceiling

[Harfang]

Update

I tried a few more games. Still hit-and-miss, though the strangled economy is not so bad. I seemed to have tried to grab too much land too fast.

The early rush: how? Do you produce units to the exclusion of all else? Do you neglect founding a second or third city before? I'm a natural builder and I hate producing units just to overwhelm the enemy with heavy losses.

I put more effort in the Julius Caesar game. I was half-way through breaking Saladin, but the other top dog, Brennus, is now coming to the Arabs' rescue with his two vassals in tow. I have musketmen and knights; they have macement, knights and elephants. I looks like it's gonna be a long, drawn-out one.

[Ming]

If I have a civ that starts VERY close to me, the first thing I consider is an early rush. I usually build a worker as early as possible, and depending on where the resourses are, build a second city if needed to get the resourse required for the the attacking unit. Otherwise, I'm building a small stack (whip, chop) as fast as I can.

When you consider it, building an army is like building that settler and supporting unit that will go with it. If you can rush the enemy capital, you get a city that usually is in a good location. If you are really lucky, it might even be home to an early religion. And, a few squares around it may even have been worked, and you might get a free worker. And you still have some of the army left at the end of the day. This really jump starts your civ. Also consider that you now probably have more room to expand since an AI is now not in the game. It's worth lossing a few units to get this kind of an early advantage.

[Harfang]

Frustration

OK, I've had two good starts so far.

The first is my Caesar game, currently at a standstill. Romans. Can you say 'easy mode'?

The second I took a bottleneck and barbarians gave me Nidaros on a silver platter!

So I'm faring better, but I need to get really lucky on my starting location and civ. By the time I start settling I typically have most worker techs and have located both horses and copper. I'll normally make warrior/archer + worker + settler in my capital until I have founded three other cities. City #2 is for troops. Then I usually find I am in the pack. How does one lead the pack without becoming a military pushover?

[rah]

In an sp game, if you beline bronze and AH, you can probably ignore archery till much later, unless you find there are no strategic resources near you and it will take too long to hook them. You can usually hook copper or horses before the barbs become a problem and the AI shouldn't be attacking you that early.

[prelynmax]

I have the exact same problem.
The idiots at CivFanatics were on me saying it's my fault.
I still can't manage to break through the glass ceiling. I need coaching, not morbid and harsh (and useless) critizism. I don't learn through that crap.

[wodan11]

Well if you can give a lot of specifics about how you play and what strategies you use, we can try to give advice.

[rah]

Yeah, we thrive on that stuff here. We're not shy here and love to speculate and theorize on different strats and methods.

[Boracks]

Things I have learned from reading this forum:

1. Build more units, pay attention to the power graph, not the score.

2. Use specialists, especially early for science. I have actually run at 0% science and kept up with others a number of times since I learned that here.

3. Privateers may not seem that useful but if you can get them to combat III then blitz and then upgrade to destroyer... Wow! Even if not, build a couple since they start with extra sight range, very useful to have a couple destroyers with that.

4. Keep checking your cities. If one is producing excess food and shouldn't grow, make a specialist.

5. Specialize some cities. Have a military pump, a science pump, a gold pump, plan the national wonders accordingly.

6. Figure out your victory early and then plan for it. Stick to the plan while looking for opportunities.

More stuff, I know but its so automatic now its hard to remember what exactly some stuff I learned is.

[Blaupanzer]

Well in MP, most players b-line to construction... and there is a good reason for it

Agreed on the idea, fuzzy on what gets skipped. If you b-line first to AH and BW, then most of the time you can skip archery before construction. However, elephants need HBR and HA need Archery, so those units must wait too. Quite a few religious techs can be skipped if you are not spiritual or if you are creative. Construction requires masonry, so you can't skip that.

Skip any other early techs (sailing, steel working, pottery)? Do you skip any first-row basics (poss hunting, agriculture)? I know these depend a lot on map, city placement, neighbors, UUs, and leader traits, but as I have been trying this recently, I find the whole civ crashing and burning about the time I start Construction research. I look very attractive to my neighbors despite my number of units, so clearly I am trimming too much tech.

[rah]

Archery is sometimes skipped. Always go BW and AH first.
If I have no food specials that require agr and not much fresh water I will delay it.

Since you need construction for elephants, I'll do construction before HBR. (build cats while researching HBR)
Unless I'm going a sea economy, I'll hold off on sailing. (fishing too if I start in the middle of the land mass)
Iron works waits.

If you're quick the AI is still expanding and not looking at targets yet.

[Arrian]

I usually get archery & HBR *after* I have feudalism and guilds, typically b/c I decide I want knights and longbowmen. I tend to trade for those techs, using techs I don't mind giving the AI (those are few in number).

I can't tell you the number of times I get deep into the middle ages and suddenly notice that although I have ivory, I have no WE's and say oh, right, I need HBR for that!

-Arrian