First game played

[Jon Miller]

I lost

I started out on a small island.. and was second for a long time

then I decided to go for culture.. but it is a lot harder then you would think (I ended up with one city at 55k and two at 25k and one at 15k)

also towards the end.. some people will attack you even if you are peaceful (and have almost no military)

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

I didn't go for culture until partway through.. when I decided that my cities were just not good enough to compete production wise (I had the highest science..)

it would have helped to go for it earlier.. and to have more then one city that could produce

Jon Miller

[alva]

Jon; What level?

Also, you need military!

No diplomacy without power.

[Urban Ranger]

Post your review in the appropiate forum, Jon. You bum

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
(and have almost no military)

Yup, that did it. No military == AI feeding frenzy.

[Jon Miller]

I was playing Noble or whatever

I was a little island nation... only had one city capable of producing..

I should have had some boats.. that is what messed me up (even if you feel safe because of the troops defending your cities.. you probably aren't safe)

current game have almost defeated the Aztecs.. but I think that someone somewhere is higher tech then I (I had to do 50% for quite a while because of how many cities I have)

Jon Miller

[alva]

I should have had some boats.. that is what messed me up (even if you feel safe because of the troops defending your cities.. you probably aren't safe)

muaahhahhhaaahhaaaa!!!!

And post some pics when you're being invaded or when you're invading!! Throw us a bone, will ya!!!

[Solver]

Pictures!

And yes, the AI isn't stupid to pass on a good opportunity. If you're a weak and juicy target, you will be attacked.

[Jon Miller]

I held off on a lot of research until I could trade for it easily to the AI

I don't think I got Archery until I had Mass Media

a lot of what stopped my expansion is that I Didn't go for boats real early.. and so when I did, all the islands arround mine were gotten by other Civs

in order for me to have competed in other ways.. I would have had to ge tmore land

but it wasn't that I really didn't have enough cities... the problem was that I didn't have enough resources or production cities

and the AI will really charge you an arm and a leg for a required resource (I had no resources needed for building units, not iron, not coal, not alumnim, not oil, not uranium, not ...)

when I was finially attacked (by a weak nation who was pissed off at me even through I was nice to them), I didn't really have any units because of the lack of resources (well, any sea units)... so I had to get oil for (cheapest) 252 gold per turn plus a nice tech

but I couldn't get it for less.. and there was no way I could fight without it (and I tried to surrender.. but she wouldn't talk to me (For a long time)) (I finially did surrender (peace for a lot of techs))

what makes small nations worth it is that you have so much gold.. and you can buy anything with the proper civics

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

on Great People

in the game that I finished, I had over 26 Great People

2 Great Prophets
1 Great Merchant
3 or 4 Great Engineers
the rest were about evenly split between Great Scientists and Great Artists

I think that making the Holy Building with the first Great Prophet is about required (I was Jewish btw, in both games, it may be the way to go (the compter rushes for the other two.. but if you head towards montheism you can often get it first)), the second I had join a city because I didn't know what to do with him

The great Engineers I had always rush wonders.. I suppose if you didn't have a wonder to rush you could add him to the city or do something else

The graet Merchant I added to a city.. that was probably a mistake, but the city needed food, and it was my capitol

I did lots of things with the Great Scientists, I made two Academies, joined 5 or so to cities, and learned a couple techs.. I still don't know what to do with these

The Great Artists I did several things with, I joined two, I think, and spent a number on Great Works of Art

In all I joined something like 10 great persons to cities.. in the late game it is always better to not join I think.. (unless you have nothing to rush (I think it is 760 hammers) with the Great Engineer

btw.. in my first game I also didn't ahrdly produce culture or have trade go into culture... (Because I was doing science and I didn't have hardly any production), I sort of think you have to do those things if you want to win on culture

I had very few specialists.. because I didn't have enough food to upkeep them (you don't have to spend food to upkeep Great People who join a city), but I would like more.. they seem fairly strong (Priests are really strong early.. but get weak later)

Jon Miller

[Solver]

You had 26 Great People? Hmm. I found that I can hit 20+ if I emphasize GP production - Caste System, lotsa food, Parthenon, Pacifism, did you do those things?

Great Prophets are best used for Shrines. Then again, sometimes they may let you discover a tech to found a religion, usually Christianity.

I have also used Great Engineers sometimes to rush Banks in coastal cities with a ton of commerce and no shields.

Great Scientists are interesting, you can really do lots of things with them. I usually, with my first Scientist, build the Academy in my top science city. Then again, sometimes these guys give you a critical tech.

So Jon, how the heck did you get so many GPs ?

[Jon Miller]

I didn't have cast system

I didin't have that much food.. but did get to size 12 in the late game (my cities generally had 2 foos squares at most... except for my capitol.. I had very few specialists (usually only the one given me by statue of liberty))

my capitol did have over +50 GPs per turn for (most?) of the game

I did have the Partenon and Pacifism

(all I had.. beside the capitol.. were coastal cities with no food or production (the capitol had production))

I built a lot of world wonders.. and some techs give a free GP to the first to reseearch it.. and I researched most techs first

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

I had over 26 GPs

it took 2700 to make a GP before the end of the game.. and I don't think that the ones you get from techs count towards the cost to make one

JM

[Solver]

What Civ were you playing as? Philosophical? Wonders are great for GPs, though.

By the way, you'll get better results for GPs if you have not one city with 50+ GPPs, but a few cities with high points. Like, I would have 2-3 cities with 40+ GPPs, and my best city with 70 GPPs.

[Jon Miller]

my others were ~20 GPPs

I was playing a Philosophical Civ

my capitol fluctuated in time (I don't know why...)... but had over 50 for almost all the time

JM