Hey there, civ veterans and experts. I'd like to ask you to share your experience. I read various articles and threads here, but I'm not even sure about those abbreviations that I read, so I am a noob, and I need some guidance, although I play it since civ 2, and should be quite a veteran, but I'm not!..
I play mostly on earth pre-set maps (downloaded here from pre-made maps), mostly with fixed resources, fixed starting locations and fixed CSs. I don't know why but I feel like playing some historic maps, not just standard ones, although I do realize that these are specific and sometimes you can't get to use civ full power and UAs at their best.
So, I generally play at immortal level (I think the level above king is this), and I do manage to stay on top of the game, but I think I have some things that I don't understand.
So I'll start listing my concerns:
1) At the very beginning, I tend to found my capital at the exact location where my settler stands. Do you find it better to move it and find a better spot and found the capital 1-2 turns after the beginning?..
2) I never make a worker and I go for a liberty. But even there, I'm making the free settler path, not a worker. Several times, I've stolen a worker from a city-state but I'm not sure whether this is a good thing to do. My question is, when should I make a worker, and more than that, could you please write a normal build order for a standard gameplay? Last time I played as Bismarck.
3) I don't usually make scouts... I don't know if they're that important or not. I go for a monument and then a granary (Obviously I do pottery first). Should I start making scouts? Are they cost-effective at the very beginning?
4) Religion - I'm not fully into it, and I don't know if I should build a shrine and when to build it. With Bismarck, I could choose a fine founder belief, that is +2 science with interconnected cities, but I never made it to the religion. I kind of view these shrines as waste of hammers, or shouldn't I? Even when I had religion with celts, I was not sure what to do with it, I do not understand the concept of "pressure" and how it works and I do not know what beliefs to take (I understand they vary in accordance with the terrain I face).
5) Please list a standard tech tree, in many alternate cases (or victory condition aims). I have a general approach to almost any civ. When I played on King difficulty, I had big cities (I always encourage growth, I don't even know if this is right) and I tried to get the hanging gardens for the food bonus. With Bismarck on Immortal, I managed to build a Great Library and an Oracle, no other wonders. I obviously realize that construction is something to be achieved ASAP, because when I build wonders and I tend to prosper, neighbors declare war on me and I need those composite bowmen for defense. However, I now have a good tech lead (at least compared to my neighbors) and a fine army, however currently battling against Byzantium, Austria (which is very weak already) and India (which is no real threat, although is the game leader in terms of points). To sum up, I need a general recommendation about the tech tree - in the current situation I just beeline rifling and will soon be there, I think it will make sure I'm not losing any wars.
6) My general aim is to go for wars and conquer lands. I don't actually know what penalties I actually take when adding cities (I mean I don't exactly know) and when I should found a city or not. I'm not sure when to expand or not and how I should decide on that. I'm not sure when to build a settler. Could you please tell me general guidelines about them. I usually tend to win by science victory after my empire is very wide and I have tremendous science. I don't know how to play otherwise. Please tell me some tips about going "tall", not wide.
7) Military tactics: Obviously I try to build barracks and then train army. That is not applicable to the situation when I'm defending, but does when I'm on offense. However, I find it really hard to take cities, at least the ones that are not backward in the tech tree. How do you usually take cities? I find AI smart enough to attack my ranged units first (and in certain situations my catapult/trebuchet just can't hit the target because the city defense destroys it first). Is there any cost effective tactic, that would, for instance take the focus of enemy city on your infantry rather than ranged unit? (which generally dies faster).
8) Improvements - Almost on all grasslands and plains I place farms. I am particularly not aware of the benefits of the trading post - I don't place them. Only on marsh or other unimprovable tiles I do. I place mines and quarries on resources (and mines on hills as well). And forests - I do not know if I should remove them or not, I generally don't remove any of them and place lumber camps, unless there is an improvable resource, which requires me to remove the forest. Is there some way that people do it? Should I start doing trading posts? Is growth of cities the ultimate thing to achieve? (Because I find it difficult to stay competitive in terms of hammers with low pop cities).
9) How can I improve my play, generally, are there some types of recorded games that I can watch? I am an age of empires player at high level, so I used to watch recorded games there. I don't know if such things are possible here.
10) Citizen management: I generally manage citizens so that they focus on food and growth. I do not manage specialists - should I? I don't even know the basics of it...
11) Conquered cities - I usually puppet them and continue as puppets. Do you take them under your direct command? If so, how do you manage with unhappiness it provides?
12) Diplomacy - I usually ignore those requests of "free resources" and stuff. I also tend to declare protection of city-states and spoil my diplomacy with other civs in favor of CSs. Even if I'm not befriended with them. All in all, I don't pay much attention to diplomacy. I don't even know the mechanics of denouncing - how it works. Does it mean that when a civ denounces you it will declare a war at least after a certain number of turns? Or does it just affect other leaders and is only a diplomatic turn? And how to deal with "don't settle near me" situations, should I do "I settle where I please" or promise them not to do so and then break a promise?
I'm done at this point. I guess there are lots of more to come, but I'll write them from time to time. I know it's a long read, but I'd be thankful for any hints, and you can answer me on certain sections, not on the whole set of questions:) Thanks for reading this in advance! I just want to improve and get to understand some things which I don't.
I play mostly on earth pre-set maps (downloaded here from pre-made maps), mostly with fixed resources, fixed starting locations and fixed CSs. I don't know why but I feel like playing some historic maps, not just standard ones, although I do realize that these are specific and sometimes you can't get to use civ full power and UAs at their best.
So, I generally play at immortal level (I think the level above king is this), and I do manage to stay on top of the game, but I think I have some things that I don't understand.
So I'll start listing my concerns:
1) At the very beginning, I tend to found my capital at the exact location where my settler stands. Do you find it better to move it and find a better spot and found the capital 1-2 turns after the beginning?..
2) I never make a worker and I go for a liberty. But even there, I'm making the free settler path, not a worker. Several times, I've stolen a worker from a city-state but I'm not sure whether this is a good thing to do. My question is, when should I make a worker, and more than that, could you please write a normal build order for a standard gameplay? Last time I played as Bismarck.
3) I don't usually make scouts... I don't know if they're that important or not. I go for a monument and then a granary (Obviously I do pottery first). Should I start making scouts? Are they cost-effective at the very beginning?
4) Religion - I'm not fully into it, and I don't know if I should build a shrine and when to build it. With Bismarck, I could choose a fine founder belief, that is +2 science with interconnected cities, but I never made it to the religion. I kind of view these shrines as waste of hammers, or shouldn't I? Even when I had religion with celts, I was not sure what to do with it, I do not understand the concept of "pressure" and how it works and I do not know what beliefs to take (I understand they vary in accordance with the terrain I face).
5) Please list a standard tech tree, in many alternate cases (or victory condition aims). I have a general approach to almost any civ. When I played on King difficulty, I had big cities (I always encourage growth, I don't even know if this is right) and I tried to get the hanging gardens for the food bonus. With Bismarck on Immortal, I managed to build a Great Library and an Oracle, no other wonders. I obviously realize that construction is something to be achieved ASAP, because when I build wonders and I tend to prosper, neighbors declare war on me and I need those composite bowmen for defense. However, I now have a good tech lead (at least compared to my neighbors) and a fine army, however currently battling against Byzantium, Austria (which is very weak already) and India (which is no real threat, although is the game leader in terms of points). To sum up, I need a general recommendation about the tech tree - in the current situation I just beeline rifling and will soon be there, I think it will make sure I'm not losing any wars.
6) My general aim is to go for wars and conquer lands. I don't actually know what penalties I actually take when adding cities (I mean I don't exactly know) and when I should found a city or not. I'm not sure when to expand or not and how I should decide on that. I'm not sure when to build a settler. Could you please tell me general guidelines about them. I usually tend to win by science victory after my empire is very wide and I have tremendous science. I don't know how to play otherwise. Please tell me some tips about going "tall", not wide.
7) Military tactics: Obviously I try to build barracks and then train army. That is not applicable to the situation when I'm defending, but does when I'm on offense. However, I find it really hard to take cities, at least the ones that are not backward in the tech tree. How do you usually take cities? I find AI smart enough to attack my ranged units first (and in certain situations my catapult/trebuchet just can't hit the target because the city defense destroys it first). Is there any cost effective tactic, that would, for instance take the focus of enemy city on your infantry rather than ranged unit? (which generally dies faster).
8) Improvements - Almost on all grasslands and plains I place farms. I am particularly not aware of the benefits of the trading post - I don't place them. Only on marsh or other unimprovable tiles I do. I place mines and quarries on resources (and mines on hills as well). And forests - I do not know if I should remove them or not, I generally don't remove any of them and place lumber camps, unless there is an improvable resource, which requires me to remove the forest. Is there some way that people do it? Should I start doing trading posts? Is growth of cities the ultimate thing to achieve? (Because I find it difficult to stay competitive in terms of hammers with low pop cities).
9) How can I improve my play, generally, are there some types of recorded games that I can watch? I am an age of empires player at high level, so I used to watch recorded games there. I don't know if such things are possible here.
10) Citizen management: I generally manage citizens so that they focus on food and growth. I do not manage specialists - should I? I don't even know the basics of it...
11) Conquered cities - I usually puppet them and continue as puppets. Do you take them under your direct command? If so, how do you manage with unhappiness it provides?
12) Diplomacy - I usually ignore those requests of "free resources" and stuff. I also tend to declare protection of city-states and spoil my diplomacy with other civs in favor of CSs. Even if I'm not befriended with them. All in all, I don't pay much attention to diplomacy. I don't even know the mechanics of denouncing - how it works. Does it mean that when a civ denounces you it will declare a war at least after a certain number of turns? Or does it just affect other leaders and is only a diplomatic turn? And how to deal with "don't settle near me" situations, should I do "I settle where I please" or promise them not to do so and then break a promise?
I'm done at this point. I guess there are lots of more to come, but I'll write them from time to time. I know it's a long read, but I'd be thankful for any hints, and you can answer me on certain sections, not on the whole set of questions:) Thanks for reading this in advance! I just want to improve and get to understand some things which I don't.