Emperor level and Romans

[wertyu70]

For my very first try at Emperor I decided to try what I considered an "easy" scenario: pangea map with Romans, Epic speed. And since we are in July, I took Julius as Leader.

Things are not going well, but I think I can recover a bit once I start conquering but
I'm expecting to lose this game (I need to learn the new level).

At any rate, I have a general question about tech order.
I researched Agriculture first (I have 1 Corn and 1 Cow in my Capital BFC)
then BW (lot of forests to chop) then IW (to locate Iron).

Usually in my "standard" monarch games I delay a lot IW, usually after Currency or even Code of Laws, but for Romans iron is a must, so I decided for a research beeline.
Now I feel I did a mistake: researching IW took a lot of time,
probably I'd better to reaserch at least AH and Pottery before IW.

What is the standard practice at higher level?
Iron ASAP or delayed?

[Surprise!]

Personally given the same situation I would have teched AH before any b-line, I have learned my lesson on starting second cities right out of reach of the popped horse that could have been.

That being said I think you are right that you went way to far in the other direction of delaying IW. I would want it in same situation before $ or CoL

[trev]

Pottery may be a good one to learn prior to IW, the ability to cottage can speed up your research quite a bit on many maps.

[Blaupanzer]

The early techs are map dependent. You had cow in the capitol BFC, so AH ia a must. Usually BW, AH, and the wheel are critical pre-iron, even for the Romans. With the Romans specifically, I wouldn't wait for much else before IW.

Thinking Romans on Pangea to test new level is a bit of genius. Can't do it with these boys, not quite ready for the level. Good thinking.

[Brael]

Some screenshots or a save game would help. Especially as you get higher levels and strategies have to become more and more focused on one particular goal, it becomes difficult to give general advice.

Without seeing the map, my gut feeling is IW for a third or fourth tech is a mistake. It's expensive and it usually takes too long to get. I realize praetorians are wonderful, but that's a lot of turns without cottage growth and missed wonders.

[Theben]

I'm thinking Pangaea might have made the go a bit more difficult- especially if he was in the middle. I've been playing Hemispheres on Emp level lately and found it to be rather easy. I even got the Oracle 2 games in a row! Both games I'm close to tech lead... one I'm militarily capable and the other working on it a bit earlier than normal b/c Darius just wiped the Ethiopians off the map pre-Construction. It's unusual for me to have 7 cities so "early" in the game but the Persians have 16(!) and own 1/2 the continent already.

[wertyu70]

After I resigned the Emperor game (maintenance was killing me),
I decided to play the same kind of map at Monarch: I won around 1450.
Today I will try again at Emperor.

[Hauptman]

Thats gonna be the biggest problem on emperor, city upkeep. Romans = BAD on emperor. IW is just too soon to expand... Japanese are better. Even better than that would be the english. Go for a big push in the gunpowder era when you can afford it.


Romans make city defense easier, but using a UU for defense against whatever minor wars you might have that early is a bit of a waste.

Now when you start talking teh japs... That's a perfect emperor game. Rush to Civil service via the oracle gives you both a religious holy city and prophet production to make it worth $$. Then on to machinery with your increased tech rate via bueracracy. Ive produced my first samies before Anno Domino and usually have some good quality time to use them before Longbows appear. Usually I conquer a continent and make the 'challange' be to fix the economy.

Now elizebeth is my stand by. Phy/fi makes all kinds of research help. As well as a UU that comes at the perfect time... and removes the grenadier threat. So even with tech parity you hold a good advantage. They can almost take on infantry, well with some cannon help perhaps. Its usually the gunpoder age that brings the first real war for survival. Those multi nation dogpiles that scare the poopies outta me.

[wertyu70]

About Japanese:
I don't like to play them, I feel they are too weak on the economy side

About English:
I consider Elizabeth and Victoria two great leaders, I played them a lot when my favourite strategy was Rifle rush. Now I prefer Steel rush, so they are a bit down in my favourite list.

About my second Emperor game:
Definetely better, I was cornered by Babilonians but I had space for 3 good cities,
I waited a bit to research iron working and then conquered easily Hammy best cities
(and Buddist holy city). I didn't eradicated him so far, he got a peace treaty for 4 techs.

Now it's about 0 AD, I'm waiting to get enough Pretorian to attack Darius, which is the tech leader but has only 3 cities and no Horses.

[MyOlde]

At these higher levels, how many cities do you build inititally?

[wertyu70]

To MyOlde:
Speaking of Monarch level, Epic Speed, Standard size map
(these are the settings I feel confortable with):
4-5 cities before Currency/Code of Laws (included conquered cities).
6-8 with Code of Laws,
Later 12 cities is enough to win (rush to cannons and start a real conquest war).

[Theben]

About Japanese:
I don't like to play them, I feel they are too weak on the economy side

They do have 1 advantage- at start you have the Wheel. That makes it 1 tech to Pottery and 1 more to Writing. You can have an early jump on tech that way. Don't forget to stop off at Masonry to nab the Wall for a Great Spy to steal missed techs from a nearby rival (or on to CoL for the courthouse/spy specialist).