Emperor Games: how to improve your skills

[Mountain Sage]

Re: Worker in screenshot

Originally posted by jkelly
Mountain Sage,

What's up with that Worker unit? Why are they off building a road to the east? It's not improving a square that you'll be labouring on anytime soon, nor is it speeding up an expansion route.

I hooked the dye as to save an early temple and a second warrior. Maybe not very smart but effective.

I'll wait a few days before I post some screenshots, as not to spoil your discoveries.

[Mountain Sage]

Theseus, thanks, I will play it as my next game.
Oh, anybody interested in a Viking game (standard, small continents)?


Let's see some interest from my second French game:

France – 1870 BC

For those interested, let’s look at the big picture and forget this time the micro-management. Of course, you should do this at every level of play, but this gets even more important on Emperor and above.

Landscape:
- The terrain around the capital looks promising: grassland, cattle, 1 dye, forests, hill and gold.
- Grassland and forest around your second city, with hill and gold.
- You can found another city east of your second city, on he peninsula.
- North of your capital, you can found a city on the NW with hills and gold and another dye.
- Another city can be founded NE of your capital, on the dye by the sea.
- You’ll have a total of 6 dyes, great for trading.
- The terrain N looks not very promising (1 dye and 1 gold), but you might get some interesting resources later.
- No rivers.

Neighbours:
- You are obviously on a smallish island (expected, since we play on archipelago).
- The good news: you have only 1 neighbour.
- The bad news: Scandinavia is very aggressive.
- There is another island NE.
- The Viking land looks very promising: flat with ivory and a lake (irrigation).

Your immediate strategy:
The Scandinavians are very aggressive. The have already blackmailed you twice. Therefore, you have two priorities:
- Prune back the Viking (you are building a ‘strong’ military (4 Warriors, 4 Archers), a second barracks is being built and a road is already in place).
- Rex between building military units. You should first expand N, then S.
- Since you are industrious, 1 or 2 Workers should be sufficient for now.
However, this will not be easy, since Scandinavia has probably more and better land S. This will be tough and will take a lot of time.

My long-term strategy:
When I play on archipelago, know that I will be contacted ‘soon’ by other civs. Since other civs have usually more contacts already, they should have more techs than me. To avoid lagging behind in techs, I often use the following strategy, which I applied here:
I researched IW at max. speed, then researched Literature via Writing (the French already have Alphabet, remember?). Literature is a great trading tech and the source of the Glibrary. Once you get the Glibrary, I go for Republic (skipping Monarchy). Once in Republic, I upgrade my 2 Warriors I have in each city (ex military police) and will then take out the Vikings. Techs like HR etc. will be traded or bought.

Now, will this work?

[ToeTruck]

Second French Game

I finally got around to doing a bit of playing. I had a blast with Theseus's game and with MS's second French game.

Here is a zoom map from 2030BC in the second French game:


And, here's a snippet from my log:

*****************************

3750BC: This game begins with the capital site and first research tech already chosen.

Since Writing is being researched, I'm somewhat committed to 40 turns of building treasury - which is a fine way to start until the picture becomes clearer. Once Writing is discovered, I'll have a better idea of what to do next.

Goals:
- Research Writing at 1 beaker/turn.
- Establish a couple of cities to build units.

3600BC: Contact with Scandanavia.

Trade Masonry and Alphabet for Warrior Code, Pottery, Ceremonial Burial and 10 gold. Excellent!

Goals:
- Build Granary and establish Settler Pump

2070BC: Researched Writing.

Vikings want Writing and 87 gold for Bronze Working.

I could then research Iron Working, but instead I've decided to hit the Vikings hard with an Archer Rush. I will research Literature - not to build the Great Library but to use as trade bait and build Libraries. I will still do the trade.

Traded Writing and 87 gold for Bronze Working.

Right now, I have three cities which I have named as follows:

SettlerPump - The capital city with a Granary, a Cattle, and a Wheat.
FirstBarracks - Southern outpost with low corruption and high production.
SecondBarracks - Northern outpost with low corruption and high production.

Goals:
- Establish two more low corruption cities with barracks.
- Build Archer/Spearmen teams.
- Research Literature as quickly as possible.

Vikings established an embassy.

*****************************
My strategy at this point was to build a core of 5 cities consisting of a Settler Pump and four military cities cranking out units
*****************************

That's it. Since I've finished the game, I'll wait a bit to give MS some time to post.

Talk to you later.

- TT

[vmxa1]

Writing and 87 for BW, ouch. Do you think that if you had spent some of the money, you could have gotten the trade for less. IOW the reason they asked for 87 was that you had it to give? This is one of the reason, I am leary of piling up cash before the contacts.

[ToeTruck]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Writing and 87 for BW, ouch. Do you think that if you had spent some of the money, you could have gotten the trade for less. IOW the reason they asked for 87 was that you had it to give? This is one of the reason, I am leary of piling up cash before the contacts.

Yeah, vmxa1, that *was* a big "ouch". At first, I didn't want to make the trade. My knee jerk reaction was "that's not worth it." Then I thought about how I really needed the Spearmen and how many turns it would save overall...so I pulled the trigger.

I also agree with you that the AI considers how much cash you have on hand and what your current income is when making demands.

I suspect in this case, however, the Vikings were close to researching Writing anyhow so it really wasn't worth much to them. I say this because Expansionistic civs stuck on an island almost always beeline to Map Making. BTW: The price they demanded also indicated no other civ was on our continent.

- TT

[vmxa1]

Sounds right to me, thanks.

[Mountain Sage]

About Theseus' game...
Well, that one was a crazy one.
I wanted to play it 'chaotically', meaning without a set strategy (warmonger, PP, PUP etc.).
Some results:

1450 BC:
We have a better idea of what's going on: mountains, jungle and more mountains. No Horses! Persia and the Zulus as neighbours.
Ach! another wasted PP game...
Techs-wise: we got all 1st tier techs + Mysticism and IW. Writing soon. 326 gold.
Military: 6 warriors, 4 archers, 5 spears.
Goal: expand N and SW (what else?).

[Mountain Sage]

10 BC (a few years later):

The rexxing is over. Missed the spices and dyes N, but at least my 'empire' is consistent.
We are in the Middle Ages with Monotheism and Feudalism. We have discovered the other civs but the two blocks are kept separated.
Now we have 900 gold and Engineering in 20 turns.
Military: 13 archers, 9 spears, 7 swords, 5 pikemen. Pitiful, I know, but things will become more lively soon...
Our neighbours include Babylon now... even better...

[Mountain Sage]

1180 AD:

Babylon and we are at war (guess why?) Those stupid Persian let them pass by... Now they are also at war with the Babs...
I just captured Pasargadae (with the Sistine Chapel!!!!), but I knew I could not hold it (too close to Babylon and the Persian capitol). Then the Persians made peace with Babylon and I feared they would declare war to me with all my troops far north (imagine my troops like Napoleon's in Russia...).

So, what to do? INSTANT TELEPORTATION.

I massed my troops in Pasargadae, and tried to sell it to somebody else. Imagine! nobody would even spend a gold piece for the Sistine
So I gifted it to Russia...

[Mountain Sage]

And now they are cosy in my capitol

[Mountain Sage]

1010 AD:
Another few years have passed by. I annexed all of the Zulu lands (me, imagine!) after they declared war one time too much. Now they have only 1 city left.
On the minimap you can still faintly see the sole Russian city of Pasgarade with its precious Sistine Chapel.

[Mountain Sage]

1180 AD:
Persia had the brilliant idea, after declaring war to Babylon, also to declare war to me.
And therefore, my 8th or 9th war will start. This time, as shown, I am ready...

[Mountain Sage]

1745 AD:
Persia has been history for a long time. Now its Babylon and me. The last Zulu city declared war on me. Now it's only smoldering ruins...

[Mountain Sage]

1841 AD: the end of the game.
Did you notice the small red blob on the map? It's called KAI Babs.
This pic shows why I am VERRRY nice to them.
BTW, I am still in Monarchy! Well, armies are expensive, after all...
And you know what? I never had 190 military units. Even Arrian's mighty armies look like Boy Scouts....

[Mountain Sage]

But of course, the real danger did not come from Babylon.
To win this game, I had to steal Superconductor, Satellites and the Laser from the French. At least I had those 12'000+ gold to spend.
And still, it was a close call...

Theseus: thanks again