Starting out for a newbie?

[Foulwik]

hi

I've just played a few games on chieftain level and i keep getting whipped..


Should i build as many cities as fast as I can or concentrate on tech advances?

any hints for a newbie appreciated.

[alva]

Best help I can give you:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59216

* some of the info is a bit dated and might not be as effective anymore.
(due to patches, expansions (PTW,C3C))
Still, it should give you a more general idea.

[vmxa1]

The most common failing is to make enough workers and use them effectively. If you have at least one per city and have them improve tiles that are being worked by citizens, you wil be off and running.
Try to plan the movement of our workers to reduce waste movement. Look in the city view to see what tiles are best for improvements. You may even have to move citizens to another tile to get more out of them or to save movements by the workers. You often have a worker finish a tile and the next one being worked is not cloes. The tile closest is just the same as the one being worked, so move the citizen and save the time of the worker.

The next thing is to not irrigate every tile in sight. In most cases you do not need the extra food at that time, but could use more shields, so mine the puppy. Much later you can come back and irrigate if you need more food.

Post a save or a screen shot form around 2100BC or even 1000BC. Then people can get an idea of what is being done and what may need addressing.

[Purple]

You can pursue a builder strategy and build cities as fast as you can. That has nearly always worked well for me. The suggestions above on worker utilization are good. I would add that it's important to develop a road network to link all your cities so that military units and new settlers can reach your frontiers more quickly.

Lately, however, I've tried being more agressive and attacking a nearby civ early on, before it has a chance to found a lot of cities and defensive units. Wiping out a weak neighbor gives you more territory to expand into eventually.

[mrmitchell]

Taking one or two cities from an AI in the early game is like chopping off a guy's limbs. It is a killer, and you can go ahead and pick off the rest of what he recovered to later.

Keep in mind the Despotism food cap. If you can't squeeze more food out of it (95% of the time you won't need it anyways), don't. Mine it instead. Later on, there will be time to come back and irrigate if necessary.

[vmxa1]

I like to play with no respawn and then kill a civ at first contact, but this is hard to pull above emperor. I mean warriors, not archer.

As mrmitchell points out, even taking down a couple of cities hurts them at the ancient stage.

[Mountain Sage]

Fouldwik,
At what level do you play, and do you play C3C?
If it's C3C and let's assume your map is standard or above, don't build too many cities.
Why? first of all, the corruption bug. There is no point in building 15 more 1-shield production cities.
Then, if you try to outrex the AI from the very beginning, your cities will go from size 3 to size 1, then up to size 3 and down to 1 etc. This does not allow you to crank up enough scientists to research at the maximum speed.
Heed vmxa1 advice and build more Workers (1 per city is fine) ans specialize your cities (Settlers, Workers, military units, Wonders etc.).
Oh, and give us more details....

[Shogun Gunner]

another mistake is to build too many city improvements and not enough military. The AI will attack you if you have a minimum army....

[Foulwik]

newbie

Hi

yes i been going for improvements a lot because i didn't know if i should build a large army to start with...

Also i been going for a monarchy real early cause i heard somewhere to go for it if i want an early military victory.....


i notice my cities want to just keep cranking out military and I've been going for improvements and tech advances early....

and i get whipped....maybe 4 or 5 cities as soon as i can build them.

Tom

[Rhothaerill]

Re: newbie

Originally posted by Foulwik
i notice my cities want to just keep cranking out military and I've been going for improvements and tech advances early....

That could be part of the problem right there. It takes a while to get a good feel for balance in your build queue, but you can't let the computer decide what to build for you. You have to be proactive and change the build queue to suit your needs whether it is lots of military or lots of workers, or whatever. The computer isn't, errm, known well for selecting a great build queue.

[vmxa1]

One of the things that you can learn over time is how far to go with not making troops. I like to go a bit light, but some people can get away wiiith even less. It requires that you can out play the AI and can recoqnize when to gear up. I think Dominae showed an exterme case of that in teh AU demo game.

IOW the longer you can put off making troops and the fewer of them you can get away with in the early part of the game the better your empire will be. The trick is how much and when.

What the level of the game is and the map size and your neighbors are, all have an impact.

[ducki]

One other thing that has become a default opening for me is:
Set Research to 100% for Pottery(granaries) if you don't start with it.
Warrior-Warrior-Granary(or placeholder)-Warrior-Settler

You can nearly always(99%) finish Pottery before your placeholder is done. After that, I can, given just a couple of shielded grasslands with mines, leave my capital doing Warrior-Settler-Warrior-Settler ad infinitum, sometimes throwing in a temple or a barracks or a curragh.

This strategy sends out your first settler a (very) little bit later than without the granary, but every settler after that is coming out very fast indeed.

Oh yeah, this works at least up to Monarch.
Edit: first warrior explores, second is needed for garrison, at least at Monarch level since you want to research pottery asap. 3rd warrior is escort.

[Bonaparte]

I make as many cities as I can and at least one worker for each city. I connect each city with a road so that I can move the few military units I have to start with faster. I put my science research as high as I can go without losing money. I research map making as fast as possable so I can settle elsewhere in case I get blocked in by other civs or as a safeguard in case I start losing my cities. When I encounter another civ early I block there expansion with lines of units and cities and I always make sure to build along the coasts. I build temples as fast as I can so my territory expands. I usually stay on good terms with civs I meet early then they usually stay out of my way. Eventually I cut back on the cities and build military units to protect what I have.