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Level: Monarch
Map Size: Standard
Map Type: Continents
Player's Civ: Americans (Ind/Exp)
AI Civs: China, Babylon, Zululand, Germany, Japan, France, Iroquois
My continant was made up of two big ovals connected by a Peninsula. Instead of initially Rex-ing, I build 3 cities, then cranked out archers. The Chinese were just a little to the north. I took them out, and got all of their techs. Then I rex-ed. It was like a kinda delayed rex. When I reviewed it on the retire screen, I acquired more cities by capturing them, than any other AI civ did by building them. I also got 2 workers. So heres observation one.
1. If the nearby civ doesn't have an early game UU, you can destroy them. It is more profitable them just REX-ing because you get all of their cities (if you play it right) and you get techs (I got 3) and a few workers.
After taking out the Chinese, I started to settle the entire oval. I put a city on the Peninsula at a point where there is only one Square (therefore ships can pass east to west.) I called it Philadelphia. My starting city was the best place I have every had. It was on a river. To the west there were 4 square of forest, 2 of them which had game. On the river were two cattle square. Then I build the Great Library. I got mapmaking, and sent out a ship to find all the other civs. Also sent explorers to the southern oval. Soon I had found all of the worlds civs. This gave me a wealth of information. Point 2 and 3 follows.
2. Exploration is the key to staying with everyone else tech wise. Civs pay a bucketful of gold for contacts with other civs, and for a reason: they can sell techs to the other civs. If you know were everyone is, but no one else knows where they are, you can act as a middle man. During Roman times, the Arabs were those middle men, which increased the price of the spices/silks/etc that the Romans got. You too can act as a middle man and get rich that way in the ancient era.
3. From this game, it seems to me that the Great Library is more important than the Pyramids. The Pyramids is a wonder for those civs who are isolationist. The Great Library is an international sort of wonder, but only reaps its full benefit when you have contact with every civ. If you don't know everyone, then you should pay for contacts with other civs. This will be payed back triple by all of the free techs that you get.
So I cruised along peacfully through the middle ages, until Education. Once I lost the Great Library, I started to fall behind by about 2 techs. I had the second highest culture. (Babs were first.) All of my cities were straining to build universities and libraries. Washington managed to build both Copernicus' and Newton's Wonders. That pushed me back up to around the leader tech wise. Unfortunatly, all of my cities were building improvements, and not units. My power slipped and I slipped to 2nd on the standings. None of those buildings seemed to increased my science drastically, which brings us to point 4, and 5.
4. Build both Corpernicus' and Newton's in the same city. It is quite hard to do, but if you beeline for those tech's, you may have a chance.
5. (might be controversial
) I thought that universities in every city would make a big difference, but they did not. What seems to do the trick is to take you best 4-6 cities (called core cities) and build lots of improvmenets in there. This is where your science/productivity/culture/population is centered. Build your wonders, universities, factories here because they will have the most effect. You are always looking for more bang for your buck.
The next set of cities, one step down, can be called your specialist ciites. For example, if one city is close to lots of forests, build things like factories there. It specializes in productivity. Out of these cities will come the bulk of your units. To keep your power graph up, you can create cities which are designed for the output of units. Cities with barracks, and high productivity, medium population, and rather low culture. You might even put a Heroic Epic, or Military Academy, or the Pentagon here, if your core cities are too busy with other essential things. Other specialist cities might be commerce (put marketplaces, banks.) These might be where you get quite a lot of money (not as much as core cities, but more than any other ciites.) They may eventually grow to be core cities, but you shouldn't push them too hard. The lowest level of cities are the ones build in bad lands (desert/tundra/jungle.) These are your resource cities. The only reason you build them there is because there might be some oil in the city's area. Because they will never grow, you should put the bare minimum in them. Temples, maybe a library, and city walls. If the AI has also put cities in the desert, the little culture that you have *may* be able to assimilate them.
As the game progressed to the Industrial age (around 900 AD), I again made the mistake of building factories everywhere. Philadelphia was the center of huge battles between the Babs and my civ. I managed to hold off their Infantry with my Riflemen, and I got a leader (George Washington). I made an army, and then layed siege to a Bab city which they had founded on my oval. I made an army of Infantry. I made 10 artillery units, and then bombarded the Bab city. After reducing it from 12 to a 1, my 10 cavalry attacked and only managed to get the two defending Infantry to Elite, and to give the Babs a leader. (they did not manged to bring him out for some reason. The Babs had put half of their fleet in there which meant like 5 battleships, and 3 cruisers. I did not have a single ship to my name. Maybe Soren could do something about this. ) The in two turns, my army crushed the opposition and sunk half of the Babylonian Navy. I got a bunch of techs from them, which again put me back up to par with the leader.
6. Use massed bombardment units. Those 10 artillery units really destroyed that city. Later on, when you get Bombers, fighters, Radar Artillery, you should built tons of these puppies. As you will see, later on massed artillery renders armies obsolete. A good infrarstructure also helps because you can rush the units from one end of your civ to another. With my Industrious workers in Democracy, you can build railroads over plaines/grassland in one turn, and build roads on hills and forests in one turn.
7. Using the leader to make that army was the best thing I've ever done. Usually I use it to rush a wonder, but in this case, it payed off to make an army, win a battle, then be able to build Heroic Epic and Military Academy.
I put the Heroic Epic in Beijing, and the Military Academy in Washington. Again, this was a mistake. Later in the game, I was building the Apollo Program in Washington, the Zulu declared war. Then I wanted to build an Army, but I couldn't because it would waste too many shields. 1700 AD, the end of the Industrial age, was also the end of the Babs and the Germans. The Babs were taken out by the Zulu and the Germans by the French. It was around this time, that I decided that the only way to win would be either spaceship or diplomatic. I didn't build the UN, and I did not have 25% of land or people, so that option went out of the door in a hurry. So I was left with the Spaceship. I got Rocketry and Fission from the Babs right before they died (using the trick I described in the PTW cheat tread.) To reduce the number of turns it takes to discover Spaceflight, I reduced science to 0 for a few turns. After 5 turns I had over 1200 gold. Then I cranked up science to 90% (the other 10% being luxeries) and I ran a huge deficit. However, it took only 5 turns to get spaceflight. (5+5=10 turns total, much less than the traditional method of research) After spaceflight, I went for Satellites. Around this time, the Zulu attacked me. They brought in about 30 modern armor and mech infs to invade Philadelphia. I moved my 10 artillery there, along with my 5 bombers and 3 f-15 fighters, and 2 workers to repair the roads in case they bombed them. The terrain around the city is jungle and hill, so I had two turns to attack this group with artillery. All those airstrikes and artillery so decimated them, that they turned back. Chicago made a tactical nuke, and I waited for them to come again. This time, they had litteraly over 70 units. When you clicked on the stack, you could scroll and up and down forever. Since they were 2 sqaures away from Philadephia, I used a tactical nuke on them. All of the units there except for 20 of them died outright. The remaining twenty were at 1/2 strength. The Zulus power chart took a hit, but everyone declared war on me. Next turn, the vote for Secretary General took place, and Joan of Arc won with 3 votes (Shaka had 1 and I abstained.)
8. You core cities should be decentralized, and allow a great deal of flexibility. Identify beforehand where you are going to place those wonders, so you can build the Military Academy elsewhere. Unless you are going for a cultural win, the don't worry about putting everything in one city. This decentralization of wonders in your core cities will keep those either/or decisions from happening.
9. Tactical nules: god bless em. Because when it comes to talking about the Zulu, thats the only thing worth talking about. Everything else doesnt do the trick to stop em. Of course, everyone else declared war on me, but since I had every single Resources, and 3 huge piles of luxeries I did fine. (also having all 4 of the worlds uranium also helped prevent *ahem* drastic measures by the AI.
Hope this helps your game.
Final Score: 1195 (yeah I know its low. Its not my highest either)
Map Size: Standard
Map Type: Continents
Player's Civ: Americans (Ind/Exp)
AI Civs: China, Babylon, Zululand, Germany, Japan, France, Iroquois
My continant was made up of two big ovals connected by a Peninsula. Instead of initially Rex-ing, I build 3 cities, then cranked out archers. The Chinese were just a little to the north. I took them out, and got all of their techs. Then I rex-ed. It was like a kinda delayed rex. When I reviewed it on the retire screen, I acquired more cities by capturing them, than any other AI civ did by building them. I also got 2 workers. So heres observation one.
1. If the nearby civ doesn't have an early game UU, you can destroy them. It is more profitable them just REX-ing because you get all of their cities (if you play it right) and you get techs (I got 3) and a few workers.
After taking out the Chinese, I started to settle the entire oval. I put a city on the Peninsula at a point where there is only one Square (therefore ships can pass east to west.) I called it Philadelphia. My starting city was the best place I have every had. It was on a river. To the west there were 4 square of forest, 2 of them which had game. On the river were two cattle square. Then I build the Great Library. I got mapmaking, and sent out a ship to find all the other civs. Also sent explorers to the southern oval. Soon I had found all of the worlds civs. This gave me a wealth of information. Point 2 and 3 follows.
2. Exploration is the key to staying with everyone else tech wise. Civs pay a bucketful of gold for contacts with other civs, and for a reason: they can sell techs to the other civs. If you know were everyone is, but no one else knows where they are, you can act as a middle man. During Roman times, the Arabs were those middle men, which increased the price of the spices/silks/etc that the Romans got. You too can act as a middle man and get rich that way in the ancient era.
3. From this game, it seems to me that the Great Library is more important than the Pyramids. The Pyramids is a wonder for those civs who are isolationist. The Great Library is an international sort of wonder, but only reaps its full benefit when you have contact with every civ. If you don't know everyone, then you should pay for contacts with other civs. This will be payed back triple by all of the free techs that you get.
So I cruised along peacfully through the middle ages, until Education. Once I lost the Great Library, I started to fall behind by about 2 techs. I had the second highest culture. (Babs were first.) All of my cities were straining to build universities and libraries. Washington managed to build both Copernicus' and Newton's Wonders. That pushed me back up to around the leader tech wise. Unfortunatly, all of my cities were building improvements, and not units. My power slipped and I slipped to 2nd on the standings. None of those buildings seemed to increased my science drastically, which brings us to point 4, and 5.
4. Build both Corpernicus' and Newton's in the same city. It is quite hard to do, but if you beeline for those tech's, you may have a chance.
5. (might be controversial
) I thought that universities in every city would make a big difference, but they did not. What seems to do the trick is to take you best 4-6 cities (called core cities) and build lots of improvmenets in there. This is where your science/productivity/culture/population is centered. Build your wonders, universities, factories here because they will have the most effect. You are always looking for more bang for your buck.The next set of cities, one step down, can be called your specialist ciites. For example, if one city is close to lots of forests, build things like factories there. It specializes in productivity. Out of these cities will come the bulk of your units. To keep your power graph up, you can create cities which are designed for the output of units. Cities with barracks, and high productivity, medium population, and rather low culture. You might even put a Heroic Epic, or Military Academy, or the Pentagon here, if your core cities are too busy with other essential things. Other specialist cities might be commerce (put marketplaces, banks.) These might be where you get quite a lot of money (not as much as core cities, but more than any other ciites.) They may eventually grow to be core cities, but you shouldn't push them too hard. The lowest level of cities are the ones build in bad lands (desert/tundra/jungle.) These are your resource cities. The only reason you build them there is because there might be some oil in the city's area. Because they will never grow, you should put the bare minimum in them. Temples, maybe a library, and city walls. If the AI has also put cities in the desert, the little culture that you have *may* be able to assimilate them.
As the game progressed to the Industrial age (around 900 AD), I again made the mistake of building factories everywhere. Philadelphia was the center of huge battles between the Babs and my civ. I managed to hold off their Infantry with my Riflemen, and I got a leader (George Washington). I made an army, and then layed siege to a Bab city which they had founded on my oval. I made an army of Infantry. I made 10 artillery units, and then bombarded the Bab city. After reducing it from 12 to a 1, my 10 cavalry attacked and only managed to get the two defending Infantry to Elite, and to give the Babs a leader. (they did not manged to bring him out for some reason. The Babs had put half of their fleet in there which meant like 5 battleships, and 3 cruisers. I did not have a single ship to my name. Maybe Soren could do something about this. ) The in two turns, my army crushed the opposition and sunk half of the Babylonian Navy. I got a bunch of techs from them, which again put me back up to par with the leader.
6. Use massed bombardment units. Those 10 artillery units really destroyed that city. Later on, when you get Bombers, fighters, Radar Artillery, you should built tons of these puppies. As you will see, later on massed artillery renders armies obsolete. A good infrarstructure also helps because you can rush the units from one end of your civ to another. With my Industrious workers in Democracy, you can build railroads over plaines/grassland in one turn, and build roads on hills and forests in one turn.
7. Using the leader to make that army was the best thing I've ever done. Usually I use it to rush a wonder, but in this case, it payed off to make an army, win a battle, then be able to build Heroic Epic and Military Academy.
I put the Heroic Epic in Beijing, and the Military Academy in Washington. Again, this was a mistake. Later in the game, I was building the Apollo Program in Washington, the Zulu declared war. Then I wanted to build an Army, but I couldn't because it would waste too many shields. 1700 AD, the end of the Industrial age, was also the end of the Babs and the Germans. The Babs were taken out by the Zulu and the Germans by the French. It was around this time, that I decided that the only way to win would be either spaceship or diplomatic. I didn't build the UN, and I did not have 25% of land or people, so that option went out of the door in a hurry. So I was left with the Spaceship. I got Rocketry and Fission from the Babs right before they died (using the trick I described in the PTW cheat tread.) To reduce the number of turns it takes to discover Spaceflight, I reduced science to 0 for a few turns. After 5 turns I had over 1200 gold. Then I cranked up science to 90% (the other 10% being luxeries) and I ran a huge deficit. However, it took only 5 turns to get spaceflight. (5+5=10 turns total, much less than the traditional method of research) After spaceflight, I went for Satellites. Around this time, the Zulu attacked me. They brought in about 30 modern armor and mech infs to invade Philadelphia. I moved my 10 artillery there, along with my 5 bombers and 3 f-15 fighters, and 2 workers to repair the roads in case they bombed them. The terrain around the city is jungle and hill, so I had two turns to attack this group with artillery. All those airstrikes and artillery so decimated them, that they turned back. Chicago made a tactical nuke, and I waited for them to come again. This time, they had litteraly over 70 units. When you clicked on the stack, you could scroll and up and down forever. Since they were 2 sqaures away from Philadephia, I used a tactical nuke on them. All of the units there except for 20 of them died outright. The remaining twenty were at 1/2 strength. The Zulus power chart took a hit, but everyone declared war on me. Next turn, the vote for Secretary General took place, and Joan of Arc won with 3 votes (Shaka had 1 and I abstained.)
8. You core cities should be decentralized, and allow a great deal of flexibility. Identify beforehand where you are going to place those wonders, so you can build the Military Academy elsewhere. Unless you are going for a cultural win, the don't worry about putting everything in one city. This decentralization of wonders in your core cities will keep those either/or decisions from happening.
9. Tactical nules: god bless em. Because when it comes to talking about the Zulu, thats the only thing worth talking about. Everything else doesnt do the trick to stop em. Of course, everyone else declared war on me, but since I had every single Resources, and 3 huge piles of luxeries I did fine. (also having all 4 of the worlds uranium also helped prevent *ahem* drastic measures by the AI.
Hope this helps your game.
Final Score: 1195 (yeah I know its low. Its not my highest either)
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