Winning Early: What do YOU do?

[Lord Merciless]

I think Great Library is a superb wonder, because having it allows you to set the tax rate at max, fight wars to generate Great Leaders, and use those Great Leaders for Wonders that become available through it.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Originally posted by Catt
also note in your little black book that the account will need to be settled some day ).
Catt

I've got a file on my computer which lists civs and my griefs against them. Next to it is the number of times I have destroyed them. As I destroy them, I remove the griefs from the colomn

*On standard maps, the super super super early archer rush is unstoppable. Hit 'em while they are still growing. Any militaristic civ is good for this (start with warrior code)

*On a large map, archer rush is still a factor, but not as useful or effective as a later Horsemen rush. Also, since archers are not upgradable past longbowmen, they can be seen as wasted resources, while horsemen go all of the way to Cavalry.

*Wonders: I always try to get the Colossus. Its cheap, and its effects last till the end of the Industrial. At higher difficulty levels, the extra commerce will mean more money which means you can buy techs faster.

*City Improvements: Temples, Marketplaces, barracks are all musts. Libraries in some of your border cities to keep the culture up. I usually have a low priority for them because I don't do much research. I will usually build them early-middle middle ages, and libraries at the end of the middle ages. Colloseums are good, so are cathedrals, but putting the luxery slider to 20 or 30% is what I prefer to do.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Arrian
A discussion of early wonders... ahh, yes. I'm on it:

Great Lighthouse: 1 extra movement point for ships, galleys can traverse "sea" tiles safely (NOT ocean). Expires w/magnetism. 300 shields. More map dependence here. This is extremely useful on archipelago maps. It is next to useless on pangea maps. It's so-so on continenents maps.

Let me comment on the very last sentence of yours, Arrian.

There is a pretty common situation on continental maps, which the Great Lighthouse may help one tremendously in. At least, it helped me many times (Regent/Standard/Continents is what I've played most so far).

If I am behind in the tech race (happens often to me in the ancient times...), I will do my best to build this wonder. Discovering the other continent(s) usually nets in several techs and nice extra cash for me - some gained in exchange for communications/maps, some by trading techs known on one continent and not the other - allowing me to catch up (usually never falling back again). I have done this so many times that I consider the strategy pretty useful and worth mentioning (more useful for builder types than warmongers, of course.... I know you are going to beat the techs out of the poor AIs on your continent... ).

The prerequisite for this scenario is, of course, playing a map with two to three large continents with roughly the same number of civs... Unbalanced continents tend to yield less in terms of what I have just written.

[Theseus]

Thanks vondrack, you inspired me to explain something...

The new visitor to Apolyton will see the mention of 'killer AI civs' and have one of a couple reactions:

1. Are they crazy?! That's the last thing I need!!
2. Should I turn off my computer after playing?
3. Fascinating, Captain.
4. Cool, that's what I want as soon as I'm good enough.

vondrack mentions 'unbalanced continents'... in a way, as you get better, you'll start to appreciate what that means: one or more of the AI civs there took off, while the others stagnated. You don;t see it all that often, but when it happens, that's usually a killer AI civ.

Don;t worry... they're killers to the other AI civs, and a human player can learn to handle them. When you're ready, they're the most exciting thing in SP.

[Barchan]

Originally posted by Velociryx
* Guard your elites! Let them take down the wounded, never let them lead an attack!

This is very true in game terms, yet it makes absolutely no sense when taken out of context!

In just about every military around the globe, elite units are the hardest, toughest, best equipped and most capable units in the force. They're exactly the ones you choose for the tough assignments and they're exactly the ones up front leading the regulars into combat (hence the motto "Rangers Lead the Way").

I just think it's hilarious that in CivIII, elite units are to be coddled and protected like little children, and only allowed to beat up on units weaker than they are. I imagine the conversation going along these lines:

Cleopatra: My Caesar, those are some impressive looking troops there.
Caesar: Ah, yes! The Praetorian Guard, my finest soldiers. They’ve received the most training and newest equipment, and are the very best of the Roman Army.
Cleopatra: Ooooh! I’ll bet they’re very powerful opponents on the field of battle.
Caesar: *shrugs* I guess. They haven’t seen a really tough battle since they fought off that barbarian incursion a few centuries ago. Uh, frankly, for the last 250 years, their main task has been to finish off the wounded and dying after the regulars have attacked. Brutus over there is particularly adept at killing off the weak and infirm; we all have high hopes he’ll become a Great Leader someday….

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Barchan
This is very true in game terms, yet it makes absolutely no sense when taken out of context!

At the battle of Waterloo, the elite French Old Guard was saved for the final blow against the British. It did not succeed. Bad randomizer result. Napoleon is reputed to have uttered, "Stupid randomizer! D*** you Firaxis. Not fair, not fair." The Old Guard had to form a square around Napoleon to escort the defeated Emperor from the battlefield.

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Barchan
Caesar: Ah, yes! The Praetorian Guard, my finest soldiers. They’ve received the most training and newest equipment, and are the very best of the Roman Army.

True, and yet the Praetorian Guard were not normally used in battle. They were personal body guards for the Emperor.

[jshelr]

Research Direction

Depending on your civ, you have a unique starting tech set. One way to keep up on tech early, possibly on the way to some Knight wars, is to use that unique start to research in an "undesirable" direction that the AI won't take, putting your slider on "one science."

The idea is that you will buy early techs, possibly including wheel, warrior code, and iron, with the gold that accumulates and trade unique techs that you are researching as they are discovered across a number of neighboring civs for a bundle of earlier techs. Make sure you explore and meet all possible civs to fully leverage this approach. This often really works well, particularly on small maps with fewer AI civs. On larger maps, they might beat you to your target techs, and then you are screwed.

[GI Josh]

Use of the luxury slider?

I'm interested in hearing how some of you use the luxury slider in the early years. I never do - I set my tax rate to 100%, make 1 scientist to get the 40 turn techs, and try to buy my way out of the inevitable tech hole in emporer. Some of you have mentioned using the luxury slider. Can you give some more detail on the considerations in using it?

[Arrian]

GI Josh,

There are a couple of times I will use the luxury slider:

1) Early expansion/exploration. I may not station any troops in my capitol, so there is no military police effect. In order to prevent revolt, I will use luxuries.

2) Large cities are productive cities. When wonderbuilding I want every available citizen producing shields. Entertainers need not apply.

A lot of times, 10% luxuries will not effect the small cities anyway, because they just don't bring in enough commerce. It only matters where it helps: your size 9 capitol that is working on the Pyramids. So you don't actually lose much money or beakers.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

I'd rather find 2-3 luxuries anyway.

Edit: Let me explain that a bit, in the context of this thread, the early game up throuh the first wars.

One of the first bad habits that has to be overcome, whether from Civ2 or just "common sense," is regarding the placement of early cities.

There is a tendency to want each city site to be the best all around, for the long term. Well, the long term doesn't matter if you don't do really well early on (the whole point of this thread).

So for your earliest cities, you want good food and good production from a limited number of tiles... at least 1 really good tile, and prefereably 3-5.

That's fine at the city level, but now let's look at what one city can do for your empire. Connecting one luxury or resource (in your territory) brings the benefit to ALL of your connected cities. So by getting 1-2 luxuries connected EARLY, you are spreading happiness across your empire very efficiently.

In breaking away from a nice steady REX, this is more important to me than anything, other than maybe key chokepoints.

In a deity game I'm playing, this allowed me to beeline for Iron Working, and grow to 8 cities with a formidable military force before I built one temple.

[Arrian]

Good points re: luxuries. Clearly they are very valueable, and the faster you get 'em hooked up, the better.

As for city spacing... well, you know how I am about that I've adapted a little bit, but I still tend to have minimal overlap. Religious civs are the most forgiving in this regard, because early temples are quick builds, which will allow "perfectionist" spaced cities to use their full radius. What I mean by that is if you want to be able to use a particular tile, say a cow, but the optimal city site is for whatever reason 2 tiles over, a non-religious civ has a real dilemna: build the city in a suboptimal spot to use the cow tile, or build it in the optimal spot and use less juicy terrain until you expand your borders. The religious civ can just plunk down the city in the optimal spot and rely on the 30 shield temple to get to the cow.

-Arrian

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Barchan
Cleopatra: My Caesar, those are some impressive looking troops there.
Caesar: Ah, yes! The Praetorian Guard, my finest soldiers. They’ve received the most training and newest equipment, and are the very best of the Roman Army.
Cleopatra: Ooooh! I’ll bet they’re very powerful opponents on the field of battle.
Caesar: *shrugs* I guess. They haven’t seen a really tough battle since they fought off that barbarian incursion a few centuries ago. Uh, frankly, for the last 250 years, their main task has been to finish off the wounded and dying after the regulars have attacked. Brutus over there is particularly adept at killing off the weak and infirm; we all have high hopes he’ll become a Great Leader someday….

Barchan, that's hilarious! Rolling on the floor, laughin'...

[Meldor]

Timing is everything

One of the biggest mistakes I made when I ffirst started was to quickly get my units up next to the unit I wanted to attack even if I couldn't attack on this turn. I learned the hard way that the victory most often goes to the attacker. Time your units arrival so that your have the momentum. If there is a sword and an longbow, either one can win if they are the attacker, but will most likely lose if they are the defender. Know what the other guys movement is and make him come to you so that you get to attack and not the other way around. If possible stop on terrian that is favorable to you, even if you don't use all of your movement points.
If the AI comes at you with a stack of four archers and you are in a city with two horses and a spear, it better for you if your horses attack the archers before they atack you. You will at least damage some of the units, which the AI will attempt to withdraw. Your city will then see less attackers and therefore stand a better chance of defending. You can then pick those damaged units off, when it is safe. Be smart about picking those units off though. Using a fully healed horseman to pick off a one hitpoint archer, but then leaving him to be attacked by a longbow may not be a good move.
Along the same line, if at all possible, send one or two defneders along with your attack force. Nothing will take the sail out of your bold attack against your neighbor than to watch 2-3 archers pop out of nowhere and pick off half of your troops. One of my favorite units for this in the early game is the swordsman. I don't build many of them, but instead upgrade those 4-5 warriors I built when they where the only game on town. They not only give you the attack of 3 but a nice defnese of 2, which can be used to safeguard those early horsemen and archers.
Swordsmen also make great early death traps. Park them on a mountain near the AI and he will spend a lot of shields trying to get them off. When the time is right they can come down off ofthe moutain and help in the attack. They may not have a long shelf life, but what else are you going to do with all of those 1.1.1 warriors. And, you can still disband them in the city of your choice to hurry along a needed improvement once pikes start showing up in mass.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Originally posted by Barchan


This is very true in game terms, yet it makes absolutely no sense when taken out of context!

In just about every military around the globe, elite units are the hardest, toughest, best equipped and most capable units in the force. They're exactly the ones you choose for the tough assignments and they're exactly the ones up front leading the regulars into combat (hence the motto "Rangers Lead the Way").

I just think it's hilarious that in CivIII, elite units are to be coddled and protected like little children, and only allowed to beat up on units weaker than they are. I imagine the conversation going along these lines:

Cleopatra: My Caesar, those are some impressive looking troops there.
Caesar: Ah, yes! The Praetorian Guard, my finest soldiers. They’ve received the most training and newest equipment, and are the very best of the Roman Army.
Cleopatra: Ooooh! I’ll bet they’re very powerful opponents on the field of battle.
Caesar: *shrugs* I guess. They haven’t seen a really tough battle since they fought off that barbarian incursion a few centuries ago. Uh, frankly, for the last 250 years, their main task has been to finish off the wounded and dying after the regulars have attacked. Brutus over there is particularly adept at killing off the weak and infirm; we all have high hopes he’ll become a Great Leader someday….

In fact, this IS EXACTLY HOW THE ROMAN FORMATIONS WERE BUILt! They had the most inexperienced units attack first, then the second rows were more experienced units. The elites only had to fight when the battle was going badly.