Emperor Games: how to improve your skills

[ToeTruck]

Originally posted by Arrian
Well, to be fair, your buildling was set up by the early conquest of 2 other civilizations. Like you and many others, I destroy so that I may create.

Very noble of you, Arrian. I'll remember that.

- TT

[ToeTruck]

Too much gold?



I'm not raising this subject to be obnoxious, but instead because many people treat gold like it is part of the victory equation. As I see it, gold is a resource to be used up in developing your cities. At the end of the game, it doesn't count for squat.

In this game, I have just now switched to Democracy and am getting ready to build Theory of Evolution. But, I find myself with 6000+ gold that I have not used appropriately. That represents plenty of missed opportunities.

I figure a good builder doesn't need more than 1000 or so gold on hand for purchasing Luxuries and the occasional Coal or Aluminum. The rest should be spent developing your cities. Once every city has every improvement, then you can start amassing gold.

Next time I post, I'll have less than 1000 gold. I promise.

When you're behind, however, it's another story. You had better have the gold needed to purchase or steal techs. In those cases, 10000 or even 20000 might not be enough.

- TT

[Arrian]

As I see it, gold is a resource to be used up in developing your cities. At the end of the game, it doesn't count for squat.

I absolutely agree. I do tend to keep a couple of thousand in reserve if possible, though. Things can get surprisingly tight if a civ you're trading with declares war on you and you lose a luxury or two & a bunch of gpt income from deals. Plus the costs of fighting a war (usually rushbuilding improvements in forward cities, like walls/barracks/harbor/temple - my typical build order when I plant a city in hostile territory as an invasion beachead).

When I play Commercial civs and things go well for me, I often end up filthy rich. Some of that is a result of playing on Monarch, and since I intend to play more on Emp, I may not find myself with excess cash lying around. But I've ended games as Rome with well over $10K, despite rushbuilding tons of improvements and maintaining a large army.

In my current game (Emp, China), I think I have a little over 1k gold. I'm not commercial, I've got a big army, and I'm researching a 4-5 turn pace in the Modern Age, with 10% luxury spending on. Hence, I'm barely breaking even. Rushbuilds in newly captured towns have dropped me from ~2000g to more like ~1200.

-Arrian

[Master Zen]

Sometimes I find it rather easier to be rich on Emperor than on Monarch. Perhaps because I am more used to the tech pace of Emperor I usually find my opponents hopelessly behind in techs and short of cash in Monarch. On the other hand on Emperor there is usually no overall tech leader in my games until the early industrial era and during the medieval period there's a lot of trading going on to the point that once I get in the lead I can usually get very juicy deals from other rich civs for my techs.

[Master Zen]

Re: Too much gold?

Originally posted by ToeTruck
Once every city has every improvement, then you can start amassing gold.

I don't think it's necessary to build every improvement. What's the point of building more universities when you're already researching a tech every 4 turns? What's the point of building cathedrals if you got every luxury in the world, got JS Bach's and a generous slider? Decisions like improvement building are very game-dependent and one must know when a certain improvement is a necessity and not. Each improvement has an opportunity cost of not having built something else, and depending on the game situation and your overall victory objective can you decide whether a certain improvement (even once you're all-powerful) is worth it or not.

My 2 cents

[ToeTruck]

Re: Re: Too much gold?

Originally posted by Master Zen
I don't think it's necessary to build every improvement.

I agree entirely, Master Zen.

My point simply was that before you start piling up the gold consider spending it on more useful things. I used city improvements as my example; I could just as easily have said "Luxuries" or "Rights of Passage Agreements" or "Embassies" or whatever. The last two are weak examples, but you get the point: in Civ3, money is a "use it or lose it" resource.

- TT

[ToeTruck]

Originally posted by Master Zen
Sometimes I find it rather easier to be rich on Emperor than on Monarch. Perhaps because I am more used to the tech pace of Emperor I usually find my opponents hopelessly behind in techs and short of cash in Monarch. On the other hand on Emperor there is usually no overall tech leader in my games until the early industrial era and during the medieval period there's a lot of trading going on to the point that once I get in the lead I can usually get very juicy deals from other rich civs for my techs.

That has been my experience as well. It's kind of like under Monarch, you never quite reach critical mass.

Once you get used to the pace of Emperor (in terms of growth rate, tech rate, and building rate), the game just sort of flows.

- TT

[Theseus]

Damn...

My last several games have been HARD (AU 402, 208 and 209).

I remember the days of UP, of a gold cornucopia, of GWs at one's desire...

/me wipes a tear.

[ToeTruck]

I share your pain

AU208 was a killer; it totally ate my lunch.

- TT

[Rhothaerill]

Re: I share your pain

Originally posted by ToeTruck
AU208 was a killer; it totally ate my lunch.

- TT

Almost everyone did. I finished off Rome, Iroquois, and the English, but got my butt handed to me by the combined efforts of the other four civs.

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by ToeTruck
Sometimes I think playing builder at all in Civ3 is heretical enough without all you warmongers around.
- TT

That makes at least two us us.
Now, is two enough for a club or just more fuel for the bonefire?

[Mountain Sage]

690AD
I kept 8 Horsemen to be updated to cavalry as mobile reserve; everything else has been disbanded.
Got Astronomy, Education, Printing Press and Theology.
All contacts have been made, with embassies (that's why I only have 600 gold left).
I have a 2 techs lead (Printing Press+Astronomy). Some have Chivalry (I won't buy it).
Copernicus Obs in 15 turns.
You can see the pace of conquest (and building order) from south to north, from cathedral to temple (keep in mind that I conquered the Arabs later than TT).

[Mountain Sage]

1240AD
I started on Musketman as future defence in coastal cities 93 so far).
I got Chemistry, Economics, Theory of Gravity, Magnetism. Metallurgy in 3 rds, then I am in the Industrial Ages. 3 techs advance; the English have Free Artistry instead.
Wonders captured: Pyramids, Colossus, GLibrary, GLighthouse, GWall.
Wonders built: Sistine, Copernicus, Smith.

[Mountain Sage]

Gold: I have less gold than TT but I am researching at 80%. People seem happy. Democracy is just fine.

[ToeTruck]

A Tale of Two Cities

It's 1450AD and I'm seven turns away from Modern Times. Since I've pre-loaded Athens building the Palace (the Palace has been moved to Corinth BTW), I could take a 1485AD Diplo victory with Athens building the United Nations the turn Fission is discovered. That would be cool.

But I'm much more inclined to Launch, plus Mountain Sage might have disabled Diplo Victory to thwart people like me.

So, instead I've set myself up for a quick space race. Here's the zoom map:


Couple of things of importance:
1) Ephesus (Forbidden Palance) and Cornith (Palace) are both producing 100+ shields. Once you start the space race, you need at least two cities producing 80+ shields per turn.

2) Chengdu, Knossus, Sparta, and Athens are supporting cities producing somewhere between 40 and 80 shields. I'd like to get at least one of these to produce 80+ shields.

More soon.

- TT