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In article <1go6klz.j86so1p7e60lN%persifor@pyramid.com>, persifor@pyramid.com (Persifor) wrote:
>How the hell does everybody seem to get within finishing?
>No matter how I about it I am still in the middle ages when I reach
>2050AD
Pop every goodie hut you can. Free techs are nice.
Did you know that the first civ to research Philosophy gets a free tech? Pick
an expensive one. The kick butt way is to research Code of Law then Philosophy
and take Republic as the free tech.
Build roads every where. At a minimum, each tile that is being worked should
be have a road. It would be better if the next tile to be worked already had
its road before the city's population increases. This requires a lot of
workers, roughly 1 per city (some what less if you are playing and Industrious
civ.
Go out and find the other civs. Explore your home continent. Walk though one
civ's land to see what is on the other side. Build ships and explore th coast
line. Make suicide runs across open water along sea lans (not ocean) to
reach civs on the other side.
Trade techs with the other civs. Here is a completely unrealistic example
that shows why this really helps. Suppose 10 civs are each researching a
different tech at the minimum rate of 40 turns per. When the research is
complete suppose they trade with each other so they all end up with all 10 of
the new techs. On average each new tech took 4 turns. Any tech you can
obtain through trade is one less that you will have to research your self.
As part of the trading strategy build Harbors so you can trade resources with
the other civs even if there is no road connecting you.
Trading techs with the other civs also tends toward a more peaceful game. The
other civs will be building infra structure, not military units, so the number
and duration of the wars will be reduced.
Don't let the governor pick what gets produced. I flag both "produce last
item" and "ask what to produce next" in the preferences. Also pause at the
end of your turn and eye ball your civ. Your F1 screen is your friend.
Periodically sort it by production (blue shields) and research (beakers) to get
a sense of how you are doing. You can also sort it by what is being produced.
Build commerce enhancing buildings. A Marketplace is more valuable than a
Library so I build the Marketplaces first. The additional commerce then
becomes both beakers (research) and gold. The Colossus is the wonder that
produces a huge amount of extra commerce. Once the Marketplaces have been
built then you can build Libraries and Universities.
Reduce corruption. Build Courthouses. Build the Forbidden Palace. It is
possible to have your empire be too large. There is a number called OCN
(optimum city number) associated with each map size. When you are first told
that you can build the Forbidden Palace you have reached _half_ the OCN. Once
you go over OCN each additional city starts to drain your economy, not add to
it.
As soon as you have Marketplaces in your core cities switch to Republic. This
will increase your productivity. Virtually any other government is better
than Despotism.
Grab as many Luxuries as you can. This allows you to not use Entertainers.
This increases all of your cities' production. Trade with the other civs for
their luxuries.
On the F1 screen play with the sliders. Move the Luxury slider up (or
down) to just eliminate the Entertainers in your core cities. Move the
science rate up (or down) to increase research and reduce the gold per turn.
Gold in and of itself is of no use but huge stacks of it can buy techs from
other civs (which you can then sell). If you are selling techs to other civs
on a gold per turn basis (very yummy!) then _you_ will be doing most of the
research.
A risky point is that your military can be too large. The smaller your
military the less you have to pay in maintenance and the more you have for
research. The risk is that if your military is too small the other civs will
declare war on you. If you are thinking about doing this check the F3 screen
frequently. If your military is weak compared to a civ that shares a land
border, you are in danger and will need to increase your military. Offensive
units count for more than defensive units in this case.
If you run out of things to build, don't _just_ build military units.
Consider building wealth instead.
The tech rate is faster at the higher difficulty levels.
>Never have I got to a modern era.
>I concentrate on shields, I build many cities but stll takes forever to
>advance.
Good Luck!
Mike G
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