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Nor Me
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quote: Originally posted by alexman
Start with 3-4 |
The times I've played these settings, I've started with 1 and only built a settler after taking out my nearest neighbour with archers. On deity they probably have more starting units so more might be needed.
On a standard map, building is often best but on a tiny map fighting early is your only hope. It should be easy.
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Catt
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California - SF Bay Area
May 2002 time: 21:25
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I too would say forget culture early. If you're having trouble keeping up, don't waste the production of half your empire on culture. I am probably viewed as a proponent of early culture -- but in my mind, early culture means several early temples or early libraries (depending on civ characteristics) on a standard map -- culture can be powerful but it is more of a luxury than a necessity. If not playing a religious or scientific civ, you're probably much better off bagging any thoughts of culture entirely. All this is even more true, IMHO, on a tiny map -- go carve out a nice empire and then choose the method you'll pursue to victory.
Don't worry about falling behind in tech. You will fall behind, period. Warfare can yield some tech, but I think it's real value early is in securing a decent amount of land and hurting a neighbor. Tech backwardness, against AIs (i.e., in SP games) is not fatal - it is not even particularly harmful. Focus on land, on the ability to acquire more land, and on throwing as many monkey wrenches as possible into your neighbors' plans.
Catt 
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Robber Baron
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Commonwealth of Commonsense
Jun 2002 time: 00:25
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Speaking as someone who has recently made the jump from monarch to emperor level of play, I found that the most disruptive part of the change was adapting to lower unhappiness thresholds. You have to start playing with the luxury slider sooner. That, in turn, has a dramatic impact on either your research capacity or your revenue stream (unless you get lucky with luxuries). It sounds simple to spell it out so straightforwardly. But I think it took me some time to realize how sharply that was affecting various tactics and strategies I had internalized while playing at Monarch, and now had to reconsider.
It often becomes nearly impossible, for example, to keep pace with the AIs in research (assuming they are in contact with each other) from the middle of the ancient era through the late medeival or early industrial era -- which means you should abandon the effort, and compensate by collecting revenue more aggressively, brokering more creatively and more frequently, and selecting which techs you are buying much more rigorously.
You also need to weigh choices about city improvements much more carefully, to cut down on your upkeep expenses. Don't build that library until/unless you need it and are going to use it. Limit yourself to a minimum number of barracks. Etc.
In sum, if you don't need it yet, don't buy, build or research it. Make that a mantra, and repeat it at the beginning of each and every turn.
That said, for some reason my very first emperor victory came about on a tiny map while I was playing as the Arabs and following a varient rule under which I forced myself to buy, build, or whip mosques asap in every city I founded or captured -- and cathedrals in every city with a population of 6 or above.
Meanwhile, my ansars carved up the continent.
Which just goes to show, it is possible to conquer while establishing a respectable culture level.
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Robber Baron
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Commonwealth of Commonsense
Jun 2002 time: 00:25
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Follow up thoughts (sorry, still mulling this one over):
Another way to describe the transformation from dominant monarch to shrewd emperor is this:
You have to get comfortable with the idea of being behind, for long stretches of the game.
Behind in tech, behind in culture, behind militarily. Often in at least one category, sometimes in several at once. Learn to bide your time. You may feel horribly exposed -- with spearmen guarding your border cities, for example, as shiny knights and heavy-footed medeival infantryappear across your borders in foreign territories. Stay calm. Pay tribute, if you need to, or cultivate allies. Don't panic, just stick to a basic long-term plan. Build your revenue up, grow your cities, strengthen your infrastructure. Your time will come.
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vulture
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Leeds, UK
Jun 2001 time: 05:25
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I don't know about tiny maps, having never played anything smaller than standard, but I can keep up with the AI on emperor level without doing tech extortion. My current game, as it happens, is with the Ottomans as well. I was very lucky in one sense in being able to become the biggest civ purely in the REX phase - I had a peninsula blocked off at one end by the Germans, but they expanded terrible slowly. The nice size of my empire had little bearing on my tech strategy though.
My approach is to research the most expensive tech, and do so in 40 turns to rake in the cash. The first tech you chose to research is usually a choice between something like pottery in 30 turns vs writing or mathematics in 40. The AI isn't going to get the expensive techs any more quickly than you are, and usually doesn't research them first anyway. Net result is that you can get mathematics (as the Ottomans) and trade it for several other techs (including pottery, for instance). Then repeat with another expensive tech that only you are going to research (currency or construction - you should have traded for iron working by this point with a combination of maths and some of that gold that you've been storing up by virtue of having science at 10% all the way through). Since you are researching in 40 turns, it doesn't really matter how big your empire is - you won't get it significantly quicker with a bigger empire, you'll just have more cash lying around waiting rush-buying to become an option.
Doing this I managed to be the tech co-leader without having to extort any techs. My large empire kicked in around the late middle ages when my research began to outstrip the AI, but until that point I was never behind the AI except by 1 tech that I hadn't traded for (always wait for 2 AI civs to get a tech before buying it off them). You have to contact the AI very often to keep track of who has which techs to grab the opportunities for tech brokerage. But canny trading will almost always keep you at the front of the pack in research, at least for civs that can research expensive techs from the start (commercial are good, since they have alphabet to trade and can research writing immediately, industrious have masonry and can research mathematics - this gives you a good foot in the door of the research trade market - as the Ottomans you also get bronze working, which is a pretty good trade item too).
Doing this method, be prepared to fork out quite a bit of money for government techs (monarchy or republic) in addition to your nice expensive currency-branch techs. The AI demands a lot for them.
Beyond that - see what the others said. Go kill something early. With warriors upgrading to swordsmen if you get iron working early, or spearman/archer combos once you get warrior code. Since it is possible to keep up with the AI by tech trading, you only need barracks as infrastructure, and then lots of veteran units (and possibly city walls). Give in to demands from strong, nearby civs. Tell weak or distant civs to shove it.
And possibly the hardest lesson for the monarch to emperor jump - get used to being behind on the powergraph and in the game for much of the early game. If you are used to dominating from the beginning, it is too easy to get discouraged and give up. After playing a few games through you get used to it, and learn to be patient until you hit the late middle ages or early industrial where you really begin to pull away from the AI civs. Remember that in real terms, you are in a stronger position that the histograph indicates.
Hope this helps.
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Jamski
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lol ED&D is officially full PvP LOL
May 2002 time: 05:25
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I have a 5 ep plan for beating tiny Emperor mode. It relys on getting a reasonable starting position, ie no Tundra or Jungle etc, but it works for me.
1.) Start building a barracks, set the worker mining and roading, research (slowly) whichever you can from Warrior Code, Iron Working, Horseback Riding, Bronze Working etc. Basically a millitary tech. You can often get BWorking from a neighbour, its pretty common.
2.) When the barracks are built, then build a settler. If the city is not big enough yet, then change to vet. warriors untill it is.
3.) When the settler is built, change to vet. warriors untill the city is big enough to build a settler again. You should have used all these warriors to find your nearest victim by now. Use the settler to build a nearby city, and start on a barracks, as for the capital.
3.) As soon as the fourth settler is built, you should have an attack unit researched, and 3 citys with barracks. With luck you can upgrade all your many warriors to swords, but if not, then start all citys building archers/horses.
4.) You have built no defensive units, so now attack your neighbour VERY HARD ! Capture 2 or 3 cities and ask for peace. Get him to give you any small cities that would be destroyed if you had to fight for them. Then attack again.
5.) You are now the biggest baddest Civ in the world. Go to builder mode, or continue attacking the next civ.
-Good luck, and don't blame me if it doesn't work 
-Jam
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yxhuvud
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WoA:
Regarding building barracks first, I disagree. I usually build as many warriors I can to keep the people happy and exploring, and then time the first settler to complete the same turn as the city grows to size 3. After that, I might build a barracks if militaristic, or a temple is religious.
If I ain't either I usually wait another cycle and build the barracks when the second settler wave is complete. It does depend a bit on the map though, and on how much land you can settle without the ai getting there first. Generally the closer the opponent the fast I build barracks
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Wizard55
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Exactly where I'm at
Oct 2002 time: 23:25
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First of all I thank everyone for the info.
SO, the concensus here is to beat the crap out of everyone to win on a tiny map. To play on a Standard to huge map is the only way to win culture victory.
My last game was: Tiny map,
Me-Ottomans AI Civs- Persia, Aztecs, Egypt
I was ahead in land area and population.
My culture was even with Persia, ahead of the other two civs.
I have the Pyramids, Sistine Chapel, Great Lighthouse,
Sun Tzu's Aow
I was stronger militarily than Aztecs and Egypt. Equal in strength with Persia. It is 1060 AD Persia is Gracious with me, Aztecs are polite, Egypt hates my guts. Egypt declares war on me because I won't give them 50 gold and World Map.
I get an alliance with Persia and together we wipe out Egypt, I taking 3 cities, Persia taking 5 cities. Persia is still Gracious.
5 turns later our RoP runs out and Persia declares war on me for no reason I can thimk of. I give gems to the Aztecs they become Gracious, but will not help me fight the persians.
8 turns later our Rop with Atecs is over and they join Persia to wipe me out. it really sucked. I wish I knew what caused this.
My hat goes off to those who can beat Emperor!!!!
one more thing:
quote: Quote:Originally posted by Alexman
See Sir Ralph's archer rush thread for a timeline. Follow up the archers with swordsmen/horsemen. You can easily win before the ADs come along, giving you a huge score. |
Where can I find this?
Thanks for listening
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ducki
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Check the "Must Read" thread at the top of the forum...
In it is a link to "Timeline for Ultra-early Acher Rush" or something similar.
Actually, all of that thread is good stuff, if mildly dated.
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Dominae
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Wizard55, try not to listen to all these warmongers; if you want to beat Emperor culturally on a Tiny map, go for it! I see no reason why you should not be able to succeed..
Of course, under the given settings, it is probably easier to win by military force (hence all the comments thus far). But if you're trying to improve your game instead of just winning, the things that will help you win militarily will probably help you win peacefully as well.
What I'm saying is that there is more than one way to beat Emperor Civ3, on any map setting. Peaceful games are tougher, but possible.
This said, I suggest you pick the Chinese, chop some trees to build fast Archers, and got a-hunting. There will be plenty of time for peace later!
Dominae
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Mattaba
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I have one thing to add on the tips above, an early FP is a MUST on Emperor.
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joncnunn
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Maryland Heights, MO
Sep 2002 time: 23:25
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Merely being behind in tech doesn't mean you've lost on Emperor level.
In my current game, I only had half the ancient era techs when the AIs were all in the middle ages that turned out to be on a pangena map and come back to take a 2 tech lead going into the Industrial era. I anticipate getting a 1/4th era tech lead over the remaining AI by the time I win.
The keys to my come back were:
1. Taking advantage of the combined Aztec - Russia war vs Greece by buying all remaining Ancient Era techs + their WM for all 23 GPT (that was all my income)+ about 30 gold when Greece was down to Athens two turns before the Aztecs took it, canceling my debt.
2. Completion of the FP in the most suitable location. (Always is on Emperor.) In this case, my FP was greatly speeded up from triguring of my GA via wonder combo.
3. The subsequent Aztec - Russian war; largely brought on because Russia broke their alliance to sign a peace treay with Greece one turn before the Aztecs took Athens. This allowed me to buy tech from one for GPT and offset the costs selling to the other side for cold, hard cash. Evenually the Aztecs won, but at the cost of negleating their economy.
4. Flipping off 2 cities originaly built by Russia but captured by the Aztecs during their war. Sure, I had to abandon those cities during my first war with the Aztecs, but I was able to refound them in similar locations after the war, and in my second war, held the line by killing their Longbowmen with Calvary attacks within my Cultural boundary. This also produced a Great Leader.
Last edited by joncnunn on 25-01-2003 at 03:04
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Dominae
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HolyWarrior, if you're way behind in tech, the best thing to do (in my experience) is lay low and try to get some favorable trades with the less advanced civs.
Unless your lands are truly horrible (and even then...), you should be able to keep moving in the tech tree. Focus on those techs that bring things that have a long shelf-life: The Republic, Industrialization, Replaceable Parts.
Your main advantage against the AI is that it wastes a lot of time researching the weaker techs like Free Artistry and Espionage, while you can focus on the ones that will directly increase your power.
As you start catching up, try contacting the tech leaders to see if you can swing some nice deals. It just takes one sweet gpt deal with a big civ to put you back in the tech loop.
Eventually, through some nice trades and buildup of effective units (Cavalry, Infantry), you'll be in a position to compete. Maybe you will not be a tech leader right away, but as long as you're gaining strength eventually you will be.
Finally, do not discount the use of Spies. If you're worried about putting too much money into the enemy's pockets, Espionage is the way to go. Stealing techs safely often costs as much as the AI is asking for it (or more), but that money cannot be used by the other civ.
Dominae
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Theseus

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The warmonger formerly known as rpodos. Gathering Storm! Apolyton Spirit!!
Apr 2002 time: 00:25
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Ah, ahem, errr... I (sometimes) get myself into difficult, come-from-behind situations, where, uh, I may have a few little wars going on.
I haven't posted enough about it, but when I am well and truly screwed I've got an methodology using oscillating war, Machiavellian diplo, resource gifting, branch tech leads, etc., to get back into a position of geo-political parity and then power.
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vmxa1
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Oviedo, Fl
Nov 2001 time: 21:25
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quote: Originally posted by HolyWarrior
OK, so how do you keep the AI from dogpiling you when you're way behind in tech?
I had one horrible game on Regent where I was on a peninsula, cut off from the main continent by mountains--and NO iron. I tried to take some by force, then the AI dogpiled me and it was game over.
So how do you do it? |
The two most common reasons people fall way behind at Regent is 1) isolation (this means no contact and you do not get the boost from having many races that have learned a given tech, that would make it cheaper for you to learn and you are not traing techs. 2) lack of proper title use. This means not picking a proper site for the town in the first place and or not controlling workers to have them improve the correct tile with the proper improvement. It also means insuring that the ciizens are working the tile they should be and the city growing.
These are often the problem at Monarch and Emperor ad well, but other factors can come into play and it may be reasonable to be behind at Emp/deity at the early stage.
I will flat out state that with a good start location, you should not be far behind the AI for long at Regent. If you find that you are and you have a decent location, you should consider reading Crackers work on open moves.
Once you are behind, I agree with Dom, hunker down, get your cities in good shape and try to make contact and deals. If war comes to you, try to enlist some help. Pay what you must to get it. Even though they may not take an active roll in helping, they at least will not be jumping in on the other side. I love to get as many as I can in on the fight and see all my foes lose units to the war.
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AJ Corp. The FAIR
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Antwerp (the pearl of Flanders) Belgium
Jan 2002 time: 06:25
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quote: Originally posted by Wizard55
I was stronger militarily than Aztecs and Egypt. Equal in strength with Persia. It is 1060 AD Persia is Gracious with me, Aztecs are polite, Egypt hates my guts. Egypt declares war on me because I won't give them 50 gold and World Map.
I get an alliance with Persia and together we wipe out Egypt, I taking 3 cities, Persia taking 5 cities. Persia is still Gracious.
5 turns later our RoP runs out and Persia declares war on me for no reason I can thimk of. I give gems to the Aztecs they become Gracious, but will not help me fight the persians.
8 turns later our Rop with Atecs is over and they join Persia to wipe me out. it really sucked. I wish I knew what caused this.
My hat goes off to those who can beat Emperor!!!!
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Firts of all: YOU and only YOU should decide WHEN THE WAR STARTS (if given the option of course). When you're planning to attack weaker civs, plan your goals and build up the necessary military. I give in to small demands as 50 gold, even when they just ask it a couple of turns before my planned attack.
When war is progressing fine, like yours was, you shouldn't bother about the almost beaten/weakened civ anymore, but focus on the other civs that grew stronger, like Persia in your case.
ALWAYS consider that they might attack you, especially if you too grew too strong. ALWAYS have a defense plan for your empire. (good road network, immediate respons to his troop movements, perhaps leaving some inner cities temporarily undefended)
Be Macchiavellistic: crush your opponents- the Egyptians - and plan your second opponent - the Persians. When they joined your attack, you could have been satisfied with ending the Egyptian war earlier, leaving it more to the Persians, whilst planning and building up your defense/attack forces toward them. Let the Persians take more cities --> you'll get them back
Beating emperor is not so hard . When I started playing one year ago, monarch soon seemed too easy, deity still is not 'realistic' due to the enormous bonuses for the AI. Do what I did my first games: immediately quitting when game progresses too badly, restarting, learning, avoiding same mistakes, and doing the right things in early phase. and later on)
AJ
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laissez-faire
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Tokyo
Sep 2002 time: 14:25
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Nice post, AJ. Funny I, too, was just about to post an anti-Persian rant.
It's the 13th century, and the wind blows the purple Iriquois flag from coast-to-coast on my tiny pangea map. This is my best Emporer game yet.
The Turks just declared war on me and a massive knight battle ensued. My superior tactics took his horses out and I began whittling away at Turkish cities one-by-one.
Soon, the map looked like this:
Attachment: pre-persianwar.jpg
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laissez-faire
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Tokyo
Sep 2002 time: 14:25
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A pivotal move, however, was the MPP-ROP I signed with the Persians at the beginning of the war. The only way I could get him to fight the Turks with me (because I thought I needed it) was to offer the ROP. Well by the time he got his army across my territory to the front, I had the Turks well in check and didn't need him anymore (Xerxes, that is).
The fourth and final civ in the game (America) attacks me from the third direction. I sign a peace treaty with the Ottomans and shift everything to the light blue northern horizon. America takes three or four cities as they were only defended by spearmen. My knights finally make it up there and I take a few back, plus one more of Lincoln's. Persia is moving in along side me for the kill and everything is just hunky-dory.
Until...
Attachment: war.jpg
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laissez-faire
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Tokyo
Sep 2002 time: 14:25
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I decided to play it out and see if I could end the war quickly (I mean I did have half the map). Three cities fell in one turn; two more in the next. My discouragement peaked in a swift Shift-Ctrl-Q when I saw the image below.
I’m quite frustrated. I can’t help but look at this game (and many others on Emporer) and ask would France have turned and attacked Britain in the middle of WWII? I guess once past Monarch, you have to prepare your empire for the absolute worst (and most far-fetched). ARRGH. Off to bed.
Attachment: knights_v_infantry.jpg
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