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Hi everybody,
I summarized below some tips to play (and win) a game with the French on a Huge map (continents and age set at random), 8 Civs random, sedentary barbarians, pacifist style of playing if possible, at Monarch level.
The purpose of this is first to encourage some of you to play the French, which it seems are not wildly appreciated, and try to play them as a ‘builder Civ’. The second purpose is to criticize my approach, since I will be soon start playing at Emperor.
Ready for a long text? Ok, here we go.
A successful game means to max out the opportunities provided by the environment (map size) and the special abilities of the French, that is:
- You play in a Huge world,
- Large cities produce extra shields,
- Large cities produce extra commerce,
- French workers (Wo) work 2x faster,
- Corruption is lower.
Ideally, you wish to achieve 4 goals (which can be contradictory) in the Ancient Times:
- Expand the boundaries of your Empire as far and as fast as possible,
- Have your cities grow as fast as possible,
- Build units and improvements,
- Build Wonders.
This is ONE way of achieving all this:
1. Playing a Huge map
Playing a Huge map (with 8 Civs) means (with exceptions):
- The next Civ is at least 20 tiles away,
- Exploring and contacts with other Civ take much longer. You will probably contact some Civs only during the Middle Ages.
- All Empires will have 30+ cities (except on a small isolated continent),
- The AI will fill any empty terrain anyway.
2. Use and abuse your Workers
The main goal is to create a basic and mixed infrastructure (modified of course by the terrain characteristics) for a city up to size 6 in as few turns as possible.
With your 1st Wo (the one you get for free in your Capitol), irrigate 2 tiles and mine 2 others, all with roads. This should take you about 22-26 turns to complete. Start your improvements in the direction where you think your second city will be built, in order to connect them and avoiding backtracking as much as possible. Once finished, Wo1 will build a road away from the axis of the first 2 cities and towards luxuries/resource or a likely spot for the next city.
All other cities build systematically a Wo as one of their first priorities.
Two more tips:
- If you are on a continent/island: have two Wo ‘ring’ the continent with a road, 1 tile away from the seashore. You want to settle on the coast first, in order to block foreign Settlers.
- Portable irrigation: do you have a big patch of grassland or plains without a river? No problem! Since all your cities are already connected by roads, have a Wo build irrigation along it; it takes only 2 turns/tile and benefits the cities immediately. You can even bring irrigation along as you build your road.
3. The early cities
On a Huge map, you can be picky: take your time to choose the best spot and space your cities as far as possible. You can be assured that there is plenty of space enough and that nobody will attack you for the next 40-50 turns (unless…). An Empire of 30 cities is a must, but one of 60+ is a mess to run, believe me.
The following building sequence should take simultaneously all 4 goals into account, but beware, it’s slow going in the beginning (the 1st Settler factory is only your 3rd city), but this will be compensated by the early 2 Wonders you bag, the speed of your Settlers (upon roads) and the terrain improvements. If your city cannot become a Settler factory, replace it by the Capitol or the 2nd one, but you might lose a Wonder.
Capitol: Wa, Wa (scouts), S1, Wo2, Pyramids.
2nd city: Wo, Wa, S2, Palace.
3rd to x city: Wo, (Wa), Settler factory E-REX style (except those build for strategic purposes which cannot grow over size 2 fast enough).
You can also use nbarclay’s tip and build a Granary first in some of your Settler factories. It slows down the beginning of the expansion but this is less relevant on a Huge map.
4. Science
As stated, a Huge map implies that you will make contacts with other Civs much later in the game. If you are on a continent or archipelago, most likely after Map Making or even after Navigation!
Therefore, the strategy of putting the Science bar to 0 or 10%, cash in and buy the Techs is not really a valid option, you’ll fall to far behind. Then, of course, once you make the first contacts you realize that all other Civs have at least contacted 2 or 3 more Civs, and that they all researched different techs, and that they had already traded them, and you are still farther behind!
My advice is to always put the Science bar at the highest setting. Don’t forget that you are Commercial! Even if researching at the maximum speed, you should easily still have 400-500 Gold by the end of the Ancient Times.
5. Tech research
Tech leads to better units, improvements and Wonders. So, which one to choose? Consider the following:
- You are not going to war any time soon, so forget Bronze and Iron Working, the Wheel, Warrior Code and Horseback Riding.
- If you are on an island/continent, you NEED Map Making for the Great Lighthouse, or you might get stuck like myself until Navigation.
- You play Commercial, so you should increase your Gold for fast research and for all improvements.
- If you are isolated, you need the Great Library.
- With all the fast terrain improvements, your cities will grow quickly after your E-REX.
- Despotism sucks. During E-REX, you will never use the ‘Despotic whip’.
- You should have some ‘valuable Tech’ (meaning more advanced) to trade with 2-3 other ‘lesser’ techs.
My opinion is to research as follows:
- Pangea: Literature, then Republic, then Construction, then Currency.
- Island/Continent: Map Making is your 1st priority, then as above.
- Archipelago: sacrifice even the Pyramids for the Great Lighthouse.
Don’t forget that you have good chances to get Bronze and Iron Working, Pottery, Ceremonial Burial etc. from goodie-huts.
Even if you discover Iron and Horses late, it will take your Wo only a couple of turns to link then, since your road network will already be well established.
6. Wonders
Of the Ancient Times Wonders, the most important for me is the Pyramids, since it will fuel your expansion, and you need to build anything between 30+ cities.
Feel like Robinson Crusoe? Go for the Great Lighthouse asap.
No water in sight? Go then for the Great Library, if only to prevent another Civ to grab it.
Since your first two cities will start on those Wonders very early, you have good chances, even at Monarch level (I get them now 3 times out of 4).
What? No Colossus, when the French are Commercial? Well, it’s probably a heresy to say it (it reminds me what happened to the real Joann of Arc), but forget about it. Most Civs go for it as their first Wonder, so at Monarch you are not sure to get it, except if your Capitol is on the seashore, but then you might miss the Pyramids or the Great Lighthouse.
As for the Oracle, I prefer to beeline for Republic and use the increased Gold income to keep my subjects (sorry, respected citizens) happy.
7. Military
Ah, the military! Very simple: don’t build any, you don’t need them yet, the nearest Civ is 20-30 tiles away (unless…). Later on, go for Spearman in cities (it updates very nicely) and Horsemen as a mobile reserve (3 tiles/turn with all your Empire roaded…
Of course, forget all above if you still want to go to war on a Huge map after 10 turns.
The biggest drawback of this is that you won’t get many GL, so no speeded-up FP or Wonders, but since you’re playing the French, you planned to build them from scratch anyway, isn’t it?
8. City improvements
I am a builder. This is why I play Civ. If I wanted to play a game of gore and blood (no offence intended to the warmongers!), I’d play ‘Panzer’. (Well, D&D is bad enough for me). Therefore, I play the French,
Therefore, I build pretty well everything in sight. And I can afford it. Every single improvement, and more. An example? I won a Space Race in AD 1180 having build everything I could, including stupid things like barracks and coastal fortresses on coastal cites when I had 45 subs to protect my continent/island and not a shot was fired for the whole game, and of course libraries and universities in all my cities. I still had over 14’600 Gold.
The later game
There is not much to say about it, except that you still should play the strength of the French and of the map. So:
- Beeline for Economics (banks) to get Smith Trading Co. and Wall Street. Marketplaces + banks + Smith + WS =
- When the basic of your terrain improvement and your road network is done, give your Wo a zone implant (I call it shift-A). Managing 30+ Wo is tedious and they can’t make that many mistakes any more. Just take it out when you get Steam Power because YOU want to build the railroad network (the automated Wo tend to build it like they were all stoned).
- If you’re on an island/continent, adopt Duke Leto’s strategy, rule your world by sea- and airpower alone.
- Use the MAR doctrine against the first stupid Civ who starts a war with you because they politely asked you ‘Give me or else…’ and you told them to somebody else (being a pacifist doesn’t mean you have to drop…, well, you understand). Oh, MAR stands for Massive Allied Retaliation. You contact all other Civs and bribe them to go to war with the offender. In the Middle Age you should manage it with your World map and 300-400 Gold/Civ (another beauty of being Commercial). Then relax while the poor Civ is at war with the other 6 and everybody else has to scale down their Science to pay for their military expenses. Don’t bother to build many more military units. That Civ won’t bother you again.
- Don’t research Recycling and don’t build Mass Transit (even when you can afford it). You have 30+ Wo working 4x speed (French + Replaceable Parts). A pollution tile? Fine, the next turn you have 10 idle Wo on it and it’s gone.
Well, that’s all for now (I can hear your sighs of relief from here). I really hope that some of you will try my ‘poor’ French at least one (on a nice archipelago for a change?) and even have fun…
Don’t forget to criticise all the above. That’s why I posted it. I just started on Emperor today and I already see the thunderclouds, locusts, barbarians, bloodthirsty Civs and other assorted vultures bearing down on me…
P.S. The Civver who tells me how to change that ghastly colour of pink of the French deserves my eternal gratitude.
Personal message for Arrian: I will pray every day to firaxis that you read this thread and try ONLY ONCE to play the pacifist French. Maybe you are not completely lost to the Dark Side. Remember your UP thread? Maybe this is the answer. Hi everybody,
I summarized below some tips to play (and win) a game with the French on a Huge map (continents and age set at random), 8 Civs random, sedentary barbarians, pacifist style of playing if possible, at Monarch level.
The purpose of this is first to encourage some of you to play the French, which it seems are not wildly appreciated, and try to play them as a ‘builder Civ’. The second purpose is to criticize my approach, since I will be soon start playing at Emperor.
Ready for a long text? Ok, here we go.
A successful game means to max out the opportunities provided by the environment (map size) and the special abilities of the French, that is:
- You play in a Huge world,
- Large cities produce extra shields,
- Large cities produce extra commerce,
- French workers (Wo) work 2x faster,
- Corruption is lower.
Ideally, you wish to achieve 4 goals (which can be contradictory) in the Ancient Times:
- Expand the boundaries of your Empire as far and as fast as possible,
- Have your cities grow as fast as possible,
- Build units and improvements,
- Build Wonders.
This is ONE way of achieving all this:
1. Playing a Huge map
Playing a Huge map (with 8 Civs) means (with exceptions):
- The next Civ is at least 20 tiles away,
- Exploring and contacts with other Civ take much longer. You will probably contact some Civs only during the Middle Ages.
- All Empires will have 30+ cities (except on a small isolated continent),
- The AI will fill any empty terrain anyway.
2. Use and abuse your Workers
The main goal is to create a basic and mixed infrastructure (modified of course by the terrain characteristics) for a city up to size 6 in as few turns as possible.
With your 1st Wo (the one you get for free in your Capitol), irrigate 2 tiles and mine 2 others, all with roads. This should take you about 22-26 turns to complete. Start your improvements in the direction where you think your second city will be built, in order to connect them and avoiding backtracking as much as possible. Once finished, Wo1 will build a road away from the axis of the first 2 cities and towards luxuries/resource or a likely spot for the next city.
All other cities build systematically a Wo as one of their first priorities.
Two more tips:
- If you are on a continent/island: have two Wo ‘ring’ the continent with a road, 1 tile away from the seashore. You want to settle on the coast first, in order to block foreign Settlers.
- Portable irrigation: do you have a big patch of grassland or plains without a river? No problem! Since all your cities are already connected by roads, have a Wo build irrigation along it; it takes only 2 turns/tile and benefits the cities immediately. You can even bring irrigation along as you build your road.
3. The early cities
On a Huge map, you can be picky: take your time to choose the best spot and space your cities as far as possible. You can be assured that there is plenty of space enough and that nobody will attack you for the next 40-50 turns (unless…). An Empire of 30 cities is a must, but one of 60+ is a mess to run, believe me.
The following building sequence should take simultaneously all 4 goals into account, but beware, it’s slow going in the beginning (the 1st Settler factory is only your 3rd city), but this will be compensated by the early 2 Wonders you bag, the speed of your Settlers (upon roads) and the terrain improvements. If your city cannot become a Settler factory, replace it by the Capitol or the 2nd one, but you might lose a Wonder.
Capitol: Wa, Wa (scouts), S1, Wo2, Pyramids.
2nd city: Wo, Wa, S2, Palace.
3rd to x city: Wo, (Wa), Settler factory E-REX style (except those build for strategic purposes which cannot grow over size 2 fast enough).
You can also use nbarclay’s tip and build a Granary first in some of your Settler factories. It slows down the beginning of the expansion but this is less relevant on a Huge map.
4. Science
As stated, a Huge map implies that you will make contacts with other Civs much later in the game. If you are on a continent or archipelago, most likely after Map Making or even after Navigation!
Therefore, the strategy of putting the Science bar to 0 or 10%, cash in and buy the Techs is not really a valid option, you’ll fall to far behind. Then, of course, once you make the first contacts you realize that all other Civs have at least contacted 2 or 3 more Civs, and that they all researched different techs, and that they had already traded them, and you are still farther behind!
My advice is to always put the Science bar at the highest setting. Don’t forget that you are Commercial! Even if researching at the maximum speed, you should easily still have 400-500 Gold by the end of the Ancient Times.
5. Tech research
Tech leads to better units, improvements and Wonders. So, which one to choose? Consider the following:
- You are not going to war any time soon, so forget Bronze and Iron Working, the Wheel, Warrior Code and Horseback Riding.
- If you are on an island/continent, you NEED Map Making for the Great Lighthouse, or you might get stuck like myself until Navigation.
- You play Commercial, so you should increase your Gold for fast research and for all improvements.
- If you are isolated, you need the Great Library.
- With all the fast terrain improvements, your cities will grow quickly after your E-REX.
- Despotism sucks. During E-REX, you will never use the ‘Despotic whip’.
- You should have some ‘valuable Tech’ (meaning more advanced) to trade with 2-3 other ‘lesser’ techs.
My opinion is to research as follows:
- Pangea: Literature, then Republic, then Construction, then Currency.
- Island/Continent: Map Making is your 1st priority, then as above.
- Archipelago: sacrifice even the Pyramids for the Great Lighthouse.
Don’t forget that you have good chances to get Bronze and Iron Working, Pottery, Ceremonial Burial etc. from goodie-huts.
Even if you discover Iron and Horses late, it will take your Wo only a couple of turns to link then, since your road network will already be well established.
6. Wonders
Of the Ancient Times Wonders, the most important for me is the Pyramids, since it will fuel your expansion, and you need to build anything between 30+ cities.
Feel like Robinson Crusoe? Go for the Great Lighthouse asap.
No water in sight? Go then for the Great Library, if only to prevent another Civ to grab it.
Since your first two cities will start on those Wonders very early, you have good chances, even at Monarch level (I get them now 3 times out of 4).
What? No Colossus, when the French are Commercial? Well, it’s probably a heresy to say it (it reminds me what happened to the real Joann of Arc), but forget about it. Most Civs go for it as their first Wonder, so at Monarch you are not sure to get it, except if your Capitol is on the seashore, but then you might miss the Pyramids or the Great Lighthouse.
As for the Oracle, I prefer to beeline for Republic and use the increased Gold income to keep my subjects (sorry, respected citizens) happy.
END OF PART ONE
I summarized below some tips to play (and win) a game with the French on a Huge map (continents and age set at random), 8 Civs random, sedentary barbarians, pacifist style of playing if possible, at Monarch level.
The purpose of this is first to encourage some of you to play the French, which it seems are not wildly appreciated, and try to play them as a ‘builder Civ’. The second purpose is to criticize my approach, since I will be soon start playing at Emperor.
Ready for a long text? Ok, here we go.
A successful game means to max out the opportunities provided by the environment (map size) and the special abilities of the French, that is:
- You play in a Huge world,
- Large cities produce extra shields,
- Large cities produce extra commerce,
- French workers (Wo) work 2x faster,
- Corruption is lower.
Ideally, you wish to achieve 4 goals (which can be contradictory) in the Ancient Times:
- Expand the boundaries of your Empire as far and as fast as possible,
- Have your cities grow as fast as possible,
- Build units and improvements,
- Build Wonders.
This is ONE way of achieving all this:
1. Playing a Huge map
Playing a Huge map (with 8 Civs) means (with exceptions):
- The next Civ is at least 20 tiles away,
- Exploring and contacts with other Civ take much longer. You will probably contact some Civs only during the Middle Ages.
- All Empires will have 30+ cities (except on a small isolated continent),
- The AI will fill any empty terrain anyway.
2. Use and abuse your Workers
The main goal is to create a basic and mixed infrastructure (modified of course by the terrain characteristics) for a city up to size 6 in as few turns as possible.
With your 1st Wo (the one you get for free in your Capitol), irrigate 2 tiles and mine 2 others, all with roads. This should take you about 22-26 turns to complete. Start your improvements in the direction where you think your second city will be built, in order to connect them and avoiding backtracking as much as possible. Once finished, Wo1 will build a road away from the axis of the first 2 cities and towards luxuries/resource or a likely spot for the next city.
All other cities build systematically a Wo as one of their first priorities.
Two more tips:
- If you are on a continent/island: have two Wo ‘ring’ the continent with a road, 1 tile away from the seashore. You want to settle on the coast first, in order to block foreign Settlers.
- Portable irrigation: do you have a big patch of grassland or plains without a river? No problem! Since all your cities are already connected by roads, have a Wo build irrigation along it; it takes only 2 turns/tile and benefits the cities immediately. You can even bring irrigation along as you build your road.
3. The early cities
On a Huge map, you can be picky: take your time to choose the best spot and space your cities as far as possible. You can be assured that there is plenty of space enough and that nobody will attack you for the next 40-50 turns (unless…). An Empire of 30 cities is a must, but one of 60+ is a mess to run, believe me.
The following building sequence should take simultaneously all 4 goals into account, but beware, it’s slow going in the beginning (the 1st Settler factory is only your 3rd city), but this will be compensated by the early 2 Wonders you bag, the speed of your Settlers (upon roads) and the terrain improvements. If your city cannot become a Settler factory, replace it by the Capitol or the 2nd one, but you might lose a Wonder.
Capitol: Wa, Wa (scouts), S1, Wo2, Pyramids.
2nd city: Wo, Wa, S2, Palace.
3rd to x city: Wo, (Wa), Settler factory E-REX style (except those build for strategic purposes which cannot grow over size 2 fast enough).
You can also use nbarclay’s tip and build a Granary first in some of your Settler factories. It slows down the beginning of the expansion but this is less relevant on a Huge map.
4. Science
As stated, a Huge map implies that you will make contacts with other Civs much later in the game. If you are on a continent or archipelago, most likely after Map Making or even after Navigation!
Therefore, the strategy of putting the Science bar to 0 or 10%, cash in and buy the Techs is not really a valid option, you’ll fall to far behind. Then, of course, once you make the first contacts you realize that all other Civs have at least contacted 2 or 3 more Civs, and that they all researched different techs, and that they had already traded them, and you are still farther behind!
My advice is to always put the Science bar at the highest setting. Don’t forget that you are Commercial! Even if researching at the maximum speed, you should easily still have 400-500 Gold by the end of the Ancient Times.
5. Tech research
Tech leads to better units, improvements and Wonders. So, which one to choose? Consider the following:
- You are not going to war any time soon, so forget Bronze and Iron Working, the Wheel, Warrior Code and Horseback Riding.
- If you are on an island/continent, you NEED Map Making for the Great Lighthouse, or you might get stuck like myself until Navigation.
- You play Commercial, so you should increase your Gold for fast research and for all improvements.
- If you are isolated, you need the Great Library.
- With all the fast terrain improvements, your cities will grow quickly after your E-REX.
- Despotism sucks. During E-REX, you will never use the ‘Despotic whip’.
- You should have some ‘valuable Tech’ (meaning more advanced) to trade with 2-3 other ‘lesser’ techs.
My opinion is to research as follows:
- Pangea: Literature, then Republic, then Construction, then Currency.
- Island/Continent: Map Making is your 1st priority, then as above.
- Archipelago: sacrifice even the Pyramids for the Great Lighthouse.
Don’t forget that you have good chances to get Bronze and Iron Working, Pottery, Ceremonial Burial etc. from goodie-huts.
Even if you discover Iron and Horses late, it will take your Wo only a couple of turns to link then, since your road network will already be well established.
6. Wonders
Of the Ancient Times Wonders, the most important for me is the Pyramids, since it will fuel your expansion, and you need to build anything between 30+ cities.
Feel like Robinson Crusoe? Go for the Great Lighthouse asap.
No water in sight? Go then for the Great Library, if only to prevent another Civ to grab it.
Since your first two cities will start on those Wonders very early, you have good chances, even at Monarch level (I get them now 3 times out of 4).
What? No Colossus, when the French are Commercial? Well, it’s probably a heresy to say it (it reminds me what happened to the real Joann of Arc), but forget about it. Most Civs go for it as their first Wonder, so at Monarch you are not sure to get it, except if your Capitol is on the seashore, but then you might miss the Pyramids or the Great Lighthouse.
As for the Oracle, I prefer to beeline for Republic and use the increased Gold income to keep my subjects (sorry, respected citizens) happy.
7. Military
Ah, the military! Very simple: don’t build any, you don’t need them yet, the nearest Civ is 20-30 tiles away (unless…). Later on, go for Spearman in cities (it updates very nicely) and Horsemen as a mobile reserve (3 tiles/turn with all your Empire roaded…
Of course, forget all above if you still want to go to war on a Huge map after 10 turns.
The biggest drawback of this is that you won’t get many GL, so no speeded-up FP or Wonders, but since you’re playing the French, you planned to build them from scratch anyway, isn’t it?
8. City improvements
I am a builder. This is why I play Civ. If I wanted to play a game of gore and blood (no offence intended to the warmongers!), I’d play ‘Panzer’. (Well, D&D is bad enough for me). Therefore, I play the French,
Therefore, I build pretty well everything in sight. And I can afford it. Every single improvement, and more. An example? I won a Space Race in AD 1180 having build everything I could, including stupid things like barracks and coastal fortresses on coastal cites when I had 45 subs to protect my continent/island and not a shot was fired for the whole game, and of course libraries and universities in all my cities. I still had over 14’600 Gold.
The later game
There is not much to say about it, except that you still should play the strength of the French and of the map. So:
- Beeline for Economics (banks) to get Smith Trading Co. and Wall Street. Marketplaces + banks + Smith + WS =
- When the basic of your terrain improvement and your road network is done, give your Wo a zone implant (I call it shift-A). Managing 30+ Wo is tedious and they can’t make that many mistakes any more. Just take it out when you get Steam Power because YOU want to build the railroad network (the automated Wo tend to build it like they were all stoned).
- If you’re on an island/continent, adopt Duke Leto’s strategy, rule your world by sea- and airpower alone.
- Use the MAR doctrine against the first stupid Civ who starts a war with you because they politely asked you ‘Give me or else…’ and you told them to somebody else (being a pacifist doesn’t mean you have to drop…, well, you understand). Oh, MAR stands for Massive Allied Retaliation. You contact all other Civs and bribe them to go to war with the offender. In the Middle Age you should manage it with your World map and 300-400 Gold/Civ (another beauty of being Commercial). Then relax while the poor Civ is at war with the other 6 and everybody else has to scale down their Science to pay for their military expenses. Don’t bother to build many more military units. That Civ won’t bother you again.
- Don’t research Recycling and don’t build Mass Transit (even when you can afford it). You have 30+ Wo working 4x speed (French + Replaceable Parts). A pollution tile? Fine, the next turn you have 10 idle Wo on it and it’s gone.
Well, that’s all for now (I can hear your sighs of relief from here). I really hope that some of you will try my ‘poor’ French at least one (on a nice archipelago for a change?) and even have fun…
Don’t forget to criticise all the above. That’s why I posted it. I just started on Emperor today and I already see the thunderclouds, locusts, barbarians, bloodthirsty Civs and other assorted vultures bearing down on me…
P.S. The Civver who tells me how to change that ghastly colour of pink of the French deserves my eternal gratitude.
Personal message for Arrian: I will pray every day to firaxis that you read this thread and try ONLY ONCE to play the pacifist French. Maybe you are not completely lost to the Dark Side. Remember your UP thread? Maybe this is the answer. Hi everybody,
I summarized below some tips to play (and win) a game with the French on a Huge map (continents and age set at random), 8 Civs random, sedentary barbarians, pacifist style of playing if possible, at Monarch level.
The purpose of this is first to encourage some of you to play the French, which it seems are not wildly appreciated, and try to play them as a ‘builder Civ’. The second purpose is to criticize my approach, since I will be soon start playing at Emperor.
Ready for a long text? Ok, here we go.
A successful game means to max out the opportunities provided by the environment (map size) and the special abilities of the French, that is:
- You play in a Huge world,
- Large cities produce extra shields,
- Large cities produce extra commerce,
- French workers (Wo) work 2x faster,
- Corruption is lower.
Ideally, you wish to achieve 4 goals (which can be contradictory) in the Ancient Times:
- Expand the boundaries of your Empire as far and as fast as possible,
- Have your cities grow as fast as possible,
- Build units and improvements,
- Build Wonders.
This is ONE way of achieving all this:
1. Playing a Huge map
Playing a Huge map (with 8 Civs) means (with exceptions):
- The next Civ is at least 20 tiles away,
- Exploring and contacts with other Civ take much longer. You will probably contact some Civs only during the Middle Ages.
- All Empires will have 30+ cities (except on a small isolated continent),
- The AI will fill any empty terrain anyway.
2. Use and abuse your Workers
The main goal is to create a basic and mixed infrastructure (modified of course by the terrain characteristics) for a city up to size 6 in as few turns as possible.
With your 1st Wo (the one you get for free in your Capitol), irrigate 2 tiles and mine 2 others, all with roads. This should take you about 22-26 turns to complete. Start your improvements in the direction where you think your second city will be built, in order to connect them and avoiding backtracking as much as possible. Once finished, Wo1 will build a road away from the axis of the first 2 cities and towards luxuries/resource or a likely spot for the next city.
All other cities build systematically a Wo as one of their first priorities.
Two more tips:
- If you are on a continent/island: have two Wo ‘ring’ the continent with a road, 1 tile away from the seashore. You want to settle on the coast first, in order to block foreign Settlers.
- Portable irrigation: do you have a big patch of grassland or plains without a river? No problem! Since all your cities are already connected by roads, have a Wo build irrigation along it; it takes only 2 turns/tile and benefits the cities immediately. You can even bring irrigation along as you build your road.
3. The early cities
On a Huge map, you can be picky: take your time to choose the best spot and space your cities as far as possible. You can be assured that there is plenty of space enough and that nobody will attack you for the next 40-50 turns (unless…). An Empire of 30 cities is a must, but one of 60+ is a mess to run, believe me.
The following building sequence should take simultaneously all 4 goals into account, but beware, it’s slow going in the beginning (the 1st Settler factory is only your 3rd city), but this will be compensated by the early 2 Wonders you bag, the speed of your Settlers (upon roads) and the terrain improvements. If your city cannot become a Settler factory, replace it by the Capitol or the 2nd one, but you might lose a Wonder.
Capitol: Wa, Wa (scouts), S1, Wo2, Pyramids.
2nd city: Wo, Wa, S2, Palace.
3rd to x city: Wo, (Wa), Settler factory E-REX style (except those build for strategic purposes which cannot grow over size 2 fast enough).
You can also use nbarclay’s tip and build a Granary first in some of your Settler factories. It slows down the beginning of the expansion but this is less relevant on a Huge map.
4. Science
As stated, a Huge map implies that you will make contacts with other Civs much later in the game. If you are on a continent or archipelago, most likely after Map Making or even after Navigation!
Therefore, the strategy of putting the Science bar to 0 or 10%, cash in and buy the Techs is not really a valid option, you’ll fall to far behind. Then, of course, once you make the first contacts you realize that all other Civs have at least contacted 2 or 3 more Civs, and that they all researched different techs, and that they had already traded them, and you are still farther behind!
My advice is to always put the Science bar at the highest setting. Don’t forget that you are Commercial! Even if researching at the maximum speed, you should easily still have 400-500 Gold by the end of the Ancient Times.
5. Tech research
Tech leads to better units, improvements and Wonders. So, which one to choose? Consider the following:
- You are not going to war any time soon, so forget Bronze and Iron Working, the Wheel, Warrior Code and Horseback Riding.
- If you are on an island/continent, you NEED Map Making for the Great Lighthouse, or you might get stuck like myself until Navigation.
- You play Commercial, so you should increase your Gold for fast research and for all improvements.
- If you are isolated, you need the Great Library.
- With all the fast terrain improvements, your cities will grow quickly after your E-REX.
- Despotism sucks. During E-REX, you will never use the ‘Despotic whip’.
- You should have some ‘valuable Tech’ (meaning more advanced) to trade with 2-3 other ‘lesser’ techs.
My opinion is to research as follows:
- Pangea: Literature, then Republic, then Construction, then Currency.
- Island/Continent: Map Making is your 1st priority, then as above.
- Archipelago: sacrifice even the Pyramids for the Great Lighthouse.
Don’t forget that you have good chances to get Bronze and Iron Working, Pottery, Ceremonial Burial etc. from goodie-huts.
Even if you discover Iron and Horses late, it will take your Wo only a couple of turns to link then, since your road network will already be well established.
6. Wonders
Of the Ancient Times Wonders, the most important for me is the Pyramids, since it will fuel your expansion, and you need to build anything between 30+ cities.
Feel like Robinson Crusoe? Go for the Great Lighthouse asap.
No water in sight? Go then for the Great Library, if only to prevent another Civ to grab it.
Since your first two cities will start on those Wonders very early, you have good chances, even at Monarch level (I get them now 3 times out of 4).
What? No Colossus, when the French are Commercial? Well, it’s probably a heresy to say it (it reminds me what happened to the real Joann of Arc), but forget about it. Most Civs go for it as their first Wonder, so at Monarch you are not sure to get it, except if your Capitol is on the seashore, but then you might miss the Pyramids or the Great Lighthouse.
As for the Oracle, I prefer to beeline for Republic and use the increased Gold income to keep my subjects (sorry, respected citizens) happy.
END OF PART ONE
). I really hope that some of you will try my ‘poor’ French at least one (on a nice archipelago for a change?) and even have fun…
I have played the French. The first game I played as France was a "peaceful builder" style game (on my usual map settings). I did quite well. I expanded well, I built up well, I traded well. Then something happened: a war erupted on a nearby continent. China vs. Persia. Persia began to win. And I made a mistake: I traded iron (and later horses, and then even saltpeter) to China pratically free of charge, figuring I could prop them up. Nope, they got crushed, and so did my reputation. Once Persian troops cut my trade connection with China, I was a "cheat and a liar." So I landed Cavalry over there and conquered former China and Persia. Doh! It appears I strayed from the light.
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