Higher Difficulty Tips

[Archibald Meatpants]

I'd beaten the game on the difficulty mode right before Nation, forgot it's name. I figured I'd try out the Nation difficulty mode. My main problem is that whoever my neighbor is, regardless of their AI persona will proceed to attack me immediately. I have no problem with going on the defensive, but the thing is that they can spit out units like it's nothing. I'd just won a single battle after sacrificing some conscripts to weaken their military force and 2 turns later they come back with a force of 9 people. Not to mention the fact that no matter how much I explore or change up the world generation literally (and I'm not saying that just to say it) everyone else has horses except for me. So I get to sit there helpless as they pump out chariots or mounted scouts at me like some sort of zerg rush. I'm stumped on what to do so far, I even chose one of the militaristic cultures just to try and combat this. Anyone got tips on how to survive?

[Poop King]

Archibald Meatpants の投稿を引用：

Looks like I'm checking out Age of Empires then. Do you have a recommended game in the series? 3 looked neat to me because I've always loved the age of exploration aesthetic. I heard it wasn't all that great though.

2 is the best.

[Matthew]

Robin の投稿を引用：

Matthew の投稿を引用：

You generally just want to get to classical quickly and get iron and then kill your neighbor. Once you get 5 or 6 cities, all with several regions attached, you should have a good base to work from.

Persia is good because of the higher city cap, but don't worry about it if you can't get them. Just go over the city cap if you must.

Lol? 5 to 6 cities, that's when you end the game, how on earth are you ever supporting 5-6 cities that early without getting penalties?

Influence doesn't give you much in the second half of the game. My last game ended at 14 out of 8 cities cap, still positive influence.

[Dorok]

Matthew の投稿を引用：

Robin の投稿を引用：

Lol? 5 to 6 cities, that's when you end the game, how on earth are you ever supporting 5-6 cities that early without getting penalties?

Influence doesn't give you much in the second half of the game. My last game ended at 14 out of 8 cities cap, still positive influence.

It doesn't when in first half you blown anything from influence level, otherwise it's different.

During a military play, some AI was doing better for influence and for first time I quoted some mechanic, at first it's synergy with neighbors, which is cool as it can gives you free Research points, and if you research with many holes as I was doing, you also get full research for money. And later it started be political influence, at first only option to change a political option, later more forced to change a political option or in case of refusal get some pop happiness penalty (on a town).

So even if with this military play, I did some +2 towns during some time, for +3 I didn't delayed much destroy a captured town to make it outpost, when needing. Moreover go +2 towns soon, aggravate a bit the influence problem even if it's still low numbers.

EDIT:
About the usage of influence, it's double edge, when being influenced it makes AI request stuff, and reject it gives you tool to push them make war, and ensure some small war support penalty at easy turn isn't for you but for AI. But then you need capture towns before surrendering otherwise when not influenced by your influence they won't be offered for surrender.

[Dorok]

abonamente の投稿を引用：

I think in the beginning (Nation level) it is better to focus on economy and strategic expansion, not on military. A strong economy is the basis on which the future empire is built. The sooner you get it going, the better. A strong military has a limited usefulness at the time. Can deal better with one or two neighbours, be them other great civilizations or independent entities, but it is impossible to keep at it indefinitely: the game mechanics don't favour a quick and vast conquest/destruction, so, at some point, you'll seriously lag behind and it is difficult to recover from that.

I think too, but my current play, mainly military and on wars, is the most fun for now. I had troubles at first and did many starts, but finally achieved stop lag behind for the fame ladder (not using any exploit or not consciously), not be destroyed, and grow through successive wars.

Still, I could not win this play, but probably because I delayed too much sea expedition, but that's not easy when busy with successive wars.

Perhaps I could finish 2nd if I can't win, I'll see. That said it's also because it's harder and I struggle more that this play is more fun, so it confirms the difficulty to build an economy with conquests. But there are elements, like pick wonders natural or build for you, get towns with a lot of constructions but it's harder population wise and it's hard pick a town and all dependencies so it's less efficient than it was. Moreover this generates a lot of troubles with relationship because you'll get in conflict into alliances, trade broken that make AI upset, and more, all of that making trading very difficult with neighbors, and then happiness extra problems.

[Dorok]

Archibald Meatpants の投稿を引用：

I can understand the Hitties but the fact that Rome is a low tier culture was a bit of a shock. The AI for me also doesn't ever really pick Egypt. Although one question remains now, do I need to be selective of my cultures all throughout the game? Because I usually like to be the Franks and then the French just for fun.

I'm playing Assyrians start, for sure they certainly less worse than Hittite. Then followed with Roman, frankly they aren't bad, the +1 army slot is good to take soon, and the reduce maintenance cost of units is a good bonus for a military run.

I chained with Aztecs (sum of +3 speed for land units, very effective for military), then Venetians because I was hoping increase money income significantly but it was a very bad choice as I'm' still struggling to do many trades, wars in series don't help. And then Zulu, lol. good fun this "military run" but eventually I could fail end 1st, I'll see.

[Archibald Meatpants]

I often have to do a bit of a military run, as my neighbors just can't help themselves but to send me a demand every 3-5 turns (something I absolutely refuse to give in to), or as of recently, being jealous of my resources and large borders. It's impossible for me to keep a friend. The only way to keep them in check is to cripple their militaries the first chance I get.

[Archibald Meatpants]

Although there's still one thing I've never figured out. Is having influence over other nations only for demanding land that I have influence over? I was told in one of my discussions for religious issues never to choose polytheism because shamanism will always reign supreme. And for the entirety of the game so far (very early medieval era) I've been embarrassed by my neighbor's polytheism not only taking over me, but the rest of the continent. Something that happens literally every game. In the first one it took me till the industrial era to finally unlock the religious intolerance civic so I could forcibly convert my neighbors. I only have like 2-3 followers now so doing that is basically out the window. How exactly am I supposed to have a religious foothold? There's still some followers left, and they don't seem to be going away any time soon. But someone else's state religion is still the dominant one in my lands.

[Dorok]

Archibald Meatpants の投稿を引用：

I often have to do a bit of a military run, as my neighbors just can't help themselves but to send me a demand every 3-5 turns (something I absolutely refuse to give in to), or as of recently, being jealous of my resources and large borders. It's impossible for me to keep a friend. The only way to keep them in check is to cripple their militaries the first chance I get.

That's perhaps an influence problem, plus conquer anything at their frontier is feeling as an aggression, plus integrate an independent. But it's the influence that will generate a lot of requests from AI.

Some AIs will quickly enter in war but many won't even with a ton of request waiting. But for sure this can generate troubles with trades even without wars. But as soon as it's a non modal request, so you can ignore and play next turn, it should not block trades, but I don't know the exact rules.

So it's very dependent of AI selection at start, if you pick many aggressive AI, you'll have to manage wars quickly. And if you want generate wars reject their requests, otherwise ignore but later they could come in play. Sometimes you have the option to request a cooldown and you and the AI did request, but for me each time they refused but it aggravated nothing.

[Dorok]

Archibald Meatpants の投稿を引用：

Although there's still one thing I've never figured out. Is having influence over other nations only for demanding land that I have influence over? I was told in one of my discussions for religious issues never to choose polytheism because shamanism will always reign supreme. And for the entirety of the game so far (very early medieval era) I've been embarrassed by my neighbor's polytheism not only taking over me, but the rest of the continent. Something that happens literally every game. In the first one it took me till the industrial era to finally unlock the religious intolerance civic so I could forcibly convert my neighbors. I only have like 2-3 followers now so doing that is basically out the window. How exactly am I supposed to have a religious foothold? There's still some followers left, and they don't seem to be going away any time soon. But someone else's state religion is still the dominant one in my lands.

I don't know either, if not religion, couldn't it be related to Maritime AI trait, those focused on coasts?

I had a totally weird request like that, not influence related but the AI had this trait.

[Archibald Meatpants]

Based off memory I have people like Beowulf, Ancestor and Edgar. I think I already know which one of them is the warmonger.

[Dorok]

Archibald Meatpants の投稿を引用：

Based off memory I have people like Beowulf, Ancestor and Edgar. I think I already know which one of them is the warmonger.

Import players AIs to have more choices. Edgar? I have no Edgar.

Another possibilities are those AI focused on independents, they consider own all of them, sort of.

EDIT:
Another possibility is also a bug, from influence computing, for example consume many pops, it "will" change influences balances, and the AI consider already the result, but population grow and other factors won't allow a real influence change.

[Archibald Meatpants]

Back on the religion point, though. I read about someone having the exact same problem and apparently the fix is to become completely reclusive, not allowing anyone in your borders or accepting/offering trade treaties. I find that absolutely absurd, but then again I'm not the one who's own religion is the dominant one in my territory.

[Archibald Meatpants]

I don't know if anyone's still here, but what do I do about the political beliefs one's empire can lead towards? Like Progress or Tradition.

[mrpmg]

I'm usually able to spread my religion without being reclusive. Trade routes increase religious pressure in both directions. If you pick shamanism, the key is to increase your population. If you pick polytheism, you need to grab more territories. Polytheism will probably get you your first tenet faster, but shamanism is better long-term. If your religion is starting to struggle, you can build a holy site to toughen it up.

As for the ideologies, here are my opinions about each axis:

Collectivism vs Individualism: both are good; the first is for industry, the second for money, so it really depends on your goals for the current game. This is the axis with the best balance, IMO. Collectivism is probably more well-rounded, while Individualism is more tailored to a specific mercantile play style.

Homeland vs World: Homeland's bonus is better -- even if you're a pacifist, because your total combat strength affects the AI's attitude towards you and can deter or encourage their aggression depending on how yours compares to theirs. Most of the Homeland civics are good, too. World can be good if you have cultures with bonuses that scale off population. World civics tend to be better if you have a large empire. I default to Homeland, unless I'm trying a special strategy.

Liberty vs Authority: Liberty is 1000x better. Authority is a complete joke right now. I don't think any of the Authority civics are even worth the influence cost, and the bonus is completely useless, whereas the Liberty bonus can generate a ton of influence for you early on, and it has some really strong civics too.

Tradition vs Progress: Progress is better overall, but if you're doing a religion build tradition can be useful in the early game. The problem is that the early Progress civics are much better than the early Tradition civics, so a religion build for me usually goes Progress -> Tradition -> Progress, where I grab the influence boost from Progress, transition into Tradition for the religion boost, then switch back to Progress in the late game for the science when my religion is fairly secure. But for a normal game, Progress is better 9 times out of 10.

To summarize:
Collectivism for industry and balanced play, Individualism for money specialization
Homeland unless you're going for a wide high-pop build and have a very strong military
Liberty always
Progress almost always, Tradition occasionally and temporarily for fast religion gains

[Archibald Meatpants]

Thank you a lot for answering that, when I unlocked civic policies or made a decision in a random event I had no clue what the government styles even did, or if they were simply there for show. If you're still here, do you also know how the hell ranged units work? i'm being besieged at my capital by a foreign power and while I can defend myself no problem my crossbowmen are sort of useless right now. To paint you a picture, I'm going to define 3 types of tiles by a leveling system of 1-3. 3 being the tallest territory and 1 the lowest. All we need to focus on is this part of my territory, nothing else matters. So I have my crossbowmen on a level 3 tile, this has walls. I have a peasant stationed on a level 2 tile, also with walls. And on the level 1 tile is an enemy cavalry unit, no walls. For some reason this is "out of my range". How exactly do I detect what is in or out of my range? I don't want to risk losing my crossbowmen since they do have some powerful melee units.