OMG this game is hard. Please help me..

[WarpStorm]

Slave labor is free.

[Keeper of Hell]

Drafting

Originally posted by Iron Giant
I got real tired of having some enemy come up and take my entire city with one puny guy, or having the barbarian hordes pillage me. Am I overreacting? To tell you the truth, I don't know how to draft a unit... Is that a better solution than leaving one unit in each city? With walls and one spearman, my citys are pretty safe, but maybe its not worth the investment?

The draft option does not become available until you research Nationalism. Therefore, it's really not a big part of anyone's Ancient Times strat. About the walls: they help a bit, but not too much. As others have said, putting plenty of defenders in your border cities is really all you need to do, especially if your civ is well-linked by roads. When you get to RRs defensive planning ceases to be a problem except in cases of surprise attacks, especially RoP violations.

[Thrawn05]

Re: Drafting

Originally posted by Keeper of Hell
especially RoP violations.

One way to counter this is not bother with RoP unless you REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAALLLY need it.

I never do... really. I consider any enemy units that enters my boarders an act of war and treat it as such.

[Keeper of Hell]

RoP betrayal

Originally posted by Thrawn05


One way to counter this is not bother with RoP unless you REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAALLLY need it.

I never do... really. I consider any enemy units that enters my boarders an act of war and treat it as such.

The memorable occasion that converted me to your way of thinking was an incident in which Russia used my rails to raze Berlin. Quite infuriating... though fortunate that Catherine wasn't smart enough to move Cossacks next to all my undefended cities and get them. I paid through the nose and pulled together a five-nation coalition to take care of Russia and ended up personally annexing about half their empire with my Panzers. The lesson though, has stuck: I now only make RoPs if *I* need them to get through a civ's territory or if I get a deal that I just can't resist (if you're in a superior military position, the AI is sometimes willing to pay you handsomely for an RoP, rather than just marching through as if your civ is just an extension of their own).

[Thrawn05]

Re: RoP betrayal

Originally posted by Keeper of Hell


The memorable occasion that converted me to your way of thinking was an incident in which Russia used my rails to raze Berlin. Quite infuriating... though fortunate that Catherine wasn't smart enough to move Cossacks next to all my undefended cities and get them. I paid through the nose and pulled together a five-nation coalition to take care of Russia and ended up personally annexing about half their empire with my Panzers. The lesson though, has stuck: I now only make RoPs if *I* need them to get through a civ's territory or if I get a deal that I just can't resist (if you're in a superior military position, the AI is sometimes willing to pay you handsomely for an RoP, rather than just marching through as if your civ is just an extension of their own).

I devised a "One way RoP pack". What you do is get a bunch of cheap units and line them accross the boarder to civ that you signed the RoP. This prevents settlers and workers from going into your country, and gives you a first line of defense from an attack.

[Kingof the Apes]

Originally posted by Iron Giant
Thanks for the help(s):



I got real tired of having some enemy come up and take my entire city with one puny guy, or having the barbarian hordes pillage me. Am I overreacting? To tell you the truth, I don't know how to draft a unit... Is that a better solution than leaving one unit in each city? With walls and one spearman, my citys are pretty safe, but maybe its not worth the investment?

I usually have at least 2 defenders in each city, sometimes more on border cities. never build walls, instead build a spearman.
once you get nationalism, only draft if you absolutely *have* to, as it reduces you population and causes unhappiness.

[YC4B4U]

You may be finding the game more difficult than other players because you may be playing with more opponents on the smaller maps, or you could be playing with less land.

I found that when I was learning the game it was harder with more opponents and less land. Once I learnt the finer points of the game I could move onto more interesting game setups.

IMO

1. Automate workers in the second half of the game. The first half is too important to leave to chance.
2. I only have stacked workers for pollution.
3. Walls = waste of shields.
4. Spacing is good but depends on the map (corruption).
5. Automate happiness (it saves so much time).
6. Go for the great library on minimum research - that way you get the techs and also money to spend spend spend.

Good luck.

[vmxa1]

Conscripts get 2 HP, not much use, except in dire situations.

[WarpStorm]

Re: Re: RoP betrayal

Originally posted by Thrawn05
I devised a "One way RoP pack". What you do is get a bunch of cheap units and line them accross the boarder to civ that you signed the RoP. This prevents settlers and workers from going into your country, and gives you a first line of defense from an attack.

In one memorable game I did this too. I had a natural choke point where I only needed 2 tiles with units to block it off. The Aztec bastards actually used helicopters and paratroopers to get by the roadblock.

[WarpStorm]

I don't automate happiness. Sure, it saves time, at a cost of about 25% of your productivity. The governor is an idiot. He's always trying to increase food (it doesn't matter if you tell him to emphasize production) and doesn't understand the concept of WLTKD and it's benefits.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
I don't automate happiness. Sure, it saves time, at a cost of about 25% of your productivity. The governor is an idiot. He's always trying to increase food (it doesn't matter if you tell him to emphasize production) and doesn't understand the concept of WLTKD and it's benefits.

My words. Especially the fact that I can't tell him to maintain WLTKD makes me to have him (the governor) switched off all the time. I feel so sorry for the poor AIs... apparently, they have no choice but to use these *beeeep* governors...

[Thrawn05]

Re: Re: Re: RoP betrayal

Originally posted by WarpStorm


In one memorable game I did this too. I had a natural choke point where I only needed 2 tiles with units to block it off. The Aztec bastards actually used helicopters and paratroopers to get by the roadblock.

Sometimes, having a roadblock of 2 - 5 layers help.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
I don't automate happiness. Sure, it saves time, at a cost of about 25% of your productivity. The governor is an idiot. He's always trying to increase food (it doesn't matter if you tell him to emphasize production) and doesn't understand the concept of WLTKD and it's benefits.

I general don't automate until industrial age... at that point I automate food production, since more food 99% of the time means more people which means eventualy means more shields.

That, and have 10 cities at a time under pollution, after the clean up is a pain to return the people to that tile... so I let the governer do it.

[Moonsinger]

I don't automate anything until pollution start popping up in every turn. Frankly, I'm really sick of pollution; in my next game, I will build cities as close as possible and try to keep them at size 12 max.

[vmxa1]

Plus once your city gets to around 20 or so I would like it to stop going, so I do not want anymore irregation or workers on tiles making more food.