This holds especially true at the emperor and deity levels. The AI has the production advantage on you and uses it to snatch everything away from the human player. I admit to being a perfectionist player (read: fish food), but it's absolutely insane how the AI can just build a wonder in three to six turns at the higher levels.

I can go without any wonders except happiness ones. If you don't have those at the emperor or deity levels, you had just as well trash the game and start over. I have better things to do with my time than tend to a crappy, stagnating civilization whose citizens are freaking out all the f*cking time 'cause their mommas didn't kiss 'em in the morning. Don't even get me started on Elvises or changing percentages. It barely works and it doesn't change the outcome: a stagnant, last-place civilization.

Without happy wonders, you're toast. Simple as that.

There are differnent government forms to choose from.

quote: Originally posted by Smash on 04-15-2001 07:49 PM well...there is more than one way to succeed. There are differnent government forms to choose from. You can build infastructure to keep citizens under control.Temples,colliseums,cathedrals all keep unhappy citizens content.2 for temple with Mysticism,4 more for colliseum and Electronics and 4 more for cathedral and Theology.Thats 10 without a drop of luxuries.Add in trade improvements and routes and it becomes difficult NOT to celebrate "we love" at 20%.

OK. Maybe I just hate the Aztecs then. All by their lonesomeselves, I didn't get any free techs and had only one settler. By the time I managed to build Marco Polo's Embassy, every civ was at least six to 12 techs ahead of me. And this wasn't even the modern era and my science was at 60 percent.

BTW, I think the king level is perfect.

quote: Originally posted by Smash on 04-16-2001 12:08 AM Play aggressively when trying to catch up.Do what the ai does to bug you first...become a pesky tyrant ....or die trying

Yes!

Send out a task force and capture a couple of cities with the happiness wonders you missed.

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SG(2)

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Scouse Git[1] -- git1@scousers.net

I limit myself to not stealing techs from AI civilizations. It's a handicap to make my games a bit more "challenging." As for playing aggressive, I suppose I'd have to break out of my perfectionist mode. Which is hard to do, since I love my big, well-defended and well-developed dozen or so cities. I do go warmonger later in the game, though. Usually not before 1500 AD, though.

CYBERAmazon

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Scouse Gits:

I would, except the Wonders are in Africa and the central Eurasian continent in well-defended Zulu and Russian cities. Moscow and Zimbabwe, to be exact. I'm sitting in North America with the Aztecs and warmongering numerous Sioux as my neighbors. Joy!

quote: Originally posted by finbar on 04-16-2001 08:08 AM I'm currently in a MP Deity-level game with Hydey and Alexander's Horse. I built every single one of the Happy Wonders and just about every other Wonder, to boot. We're late in the 19th century, Horse has just overtaken me in population, and he's only a handful of techs behind me. Which proves that a good player doesn't really need any of the Wonders. It takes a bit longer - and costs quite a few shields and gold more - but you can easily duplicate the effects of all the worthwhile Wonders.

Finbar:

I usually go that route if I'm by myself on a continent. But being behind early, having no happy Wonders *and* having the berzerker Sioux as my neighbors simply made that game miserable.

Hmm in your game the Sioux are still alive and you are the aztecs *shudder*. Little to cramped there for my style, the sioux would of been removed from my site as fast as possible .

quote: Originally posted by CYBERAmazon on 04-16-2001 07:03 PM Finbar: I usually go that route if I'm by myself on a continent. But being behind early, having no happy Wonders *and* having the berzerker Sioux as my neighbors simply made that game miserable. CYBERAmazon

I'd be miserable too. But if you research Construction, Monotheism and Theology, etc, you can build the Happy improvements that will, effectively, give you the Happy Wonders anyway.

I have yet to survive a deity game until the end, so maybe you have a point.

the unhappiness is what keeps me from playing at high levels, but that's one of the things that define it.

As has been said before, the true happiness (as opposed to mere contentment) creators are the marketplace/bank/stock exchange and superhighways working in conjunction with luxury setting/elvis and the steps taken to increase arrow production.

Try using the caravans you squander on building the Wonders on establishing good trade routes and you'll avoid lengthy stagnation.

I agree that there always does seem to be a period when things go slowly. IME this usually signifies that you should be considering a change of gov.t. But of course you need to have prepared the ground. If you've got the trade routes in and managed to develop your land to max arrow production try changing to representative gov.t, disband all those martial law units, turn taxes up for a while (so you can rush plenty of marketplaces et al).

Don't be distracted too much by WLT-Ds. They are far from essential.

In a game with a good start look to be doing this around 100AD.

Carry on building caravans and you'll soon be rolling in cash and ready for some military adventures. Sure, take the Wonders the A1 has been kind enough to build for you if you like. But you still needn't bother if you don't want to.

To be fair, this was the first bad game I've had at the emperor level in some time. Maybe I was simply due for one — and, boy, did I get it. First time ever without any happiness wonders and behind from the get-go. Ouch.

Perhaps SOL is needed for a Communist govt? The double martial law would help you immensely and allow you to field a large army.

I assume being a perfectionist that you would already have temples banks markets libraries etc.... is the problem your gold? Did you not have the money to support your cathedrals which would normally be paid for by Mikes chapel?

Perhaps you didn't have enough trade routes..... it takes longer without the happy wonders to go representative but not that much longer.

Did you handicap yourself by allowing the Aztecs and sioux to live..... i assumed they would be gone. in such a small space ..... you can takeout both countries with ease and not really miss a beat expanding your civ both upwards in NA and southerly towards the Aztecs

perhaps the Great library should have been built instead of marcos in this case. SP mode (mge) its not really necessary to build marcos... you already know the land forms... you know whom the major powers are.... and everyone hates you anyways.

quote: Originally posted by War4ever on 04-21-2001 12:23 AM I assume being a perfectionist that you would already have temples banks markets libraries etc.... is the problem your gold? Did you not have the money to support your cathedrals which would normally be paid for by Mikes chapel?

I wasn't even that far in the game ... solidly in monarchy and my cities were freaking out at size 8. Gold probably was the biggest problem eventually, what with coliseums costing 4 gold per turn and then having to add in temple and cathedral cost. Don't know if my finances would've lasted long enough until the arrival of stock markets and superhighways. I couldn't get any tribute from any civs, either.

quote: Perhaps you didn't have enough trade routes..... it takes longer without the happy wonders to go representative but not that much longer.

I build some trade routes, but don't focus on them exclusively. Self-initiated routes never mount to more than 12 to 16 on average.

quote: Did you handicap yourself by allowing the Aztecs and sioux to live..... i assumed they would be gone. in such a small space ..... you can takeout both countries with ease and not really miss a beat expanding your civ both upwards in NA and southerly towards the Aztecs

I was the Aztecs . The Sioux were my only neighbors in the Americas. I'm not much of a warmonger early on, so civs typically have a chance to take root when I'm playing. I've also moved the Sioux starting location further northwest than in the original Earth (Large) map. Unless a civ is really close by, I generally leave them alone because I like the challenge. But if they do bother me early, I go after them. In this case, the Sioux were actually ignoring me for the most part, so I ignored them.