Newbie alert... How to play it in early stage?

[ResFu]

Hi guys, new to Ctp2. I recently picked it up during GOG sale offer. I have problems playing even the "Beginner" difficulty setting - AI just makes tons of cities (leaving me with two starting) and im asking how to stop it? In mean do i really need rush tons of settlers to have cities? I know that this is not Civ (in which AI was more balanced on lower difficulty setting - leaving me place to live) - but cmon - how im suppose to learn to play it if AI on lowest difficulty spawns (this is how i feel it) settlers left and right... The second question can i automate exploring (it draws too much attention from other things - especially on big map)?

I dont want to leave this game i want to learn it and play it this is why i bought it, will you help?

[Edit] Is there possibility to change how close (so there is more space between me and them) spawns AI settlers on the beginning of game?

[ahmedabdo]

Hi ResFu. Welcome to CtP2. I'm also new to the game, but I liked it very much and I think Civ should have taken the path of this game instead of being relatively stagnant for the last two versions.
Back to the subject, I didn't notice the AI building that many cities as you mentioned. Since I didn't play it for some time now (I'm busy doing my masters in engineering), I can't recall the level that I played on, but something less than the "fair" difficulty level. As I have read, the game was not finished when it was released, therefore it was full with bugs, especially regarding the AI. However, the Apolyton patch fixed most of the game shortcomings and brought it (as I read) to the state that it should have been at release. The AI should have witnessed a complete overhaul by this community members. So, I recommend you download and apply the apolyton patch and see what you get.
Again, this game is a lost gem imo. You should not loose hope with it

[Zwisel]

Hello

Try the following for a start:

-Start the game with only 7-10 AIs on big maps
-make sure your city grows fast (set all workers to farmers until city=4. Reduce it then and build units).
-Check the empire settings (Empire Manager: Min Food, Max Work, Min wages; NO Public Work)
-build at least 3 warriors in every new city and build then 1 settler. After that, Archer and Warriors again. Use the warriors to attack nearby cities (often they are not protected) and to discover the map.
-it is important to grow. so build 5 cities asap.
-With 5-10 cities you can spawn warriors and Archer and attack your enemy. For that, group them in (at least) pairs. If you have 6 Archer and 6 Warriors, group them and you have a first, strong unit which can conquer a city which is defended.
-press 'm' for 'move' units. So you can click on the map and they will walk there until they reach the target or until they discover something new.
-when you have about 10 cities and feel happy, build in every city improvements and increase Public Work.
-Apply Apolyton SourceCode-Project patch

Hope this helps a bit.