Rhye's and Fall of Civilization generic strategy
From Rhye's Mods Wiki
Strategy Guide (monarch) by Pacifist
I don't pretend to have the last word on the generic strategy for playing RFC, since there are multiple civilizations requiring different tactics. For the last 6 months or so, I think I've improved significantly and can reasonably be first or second place each time I play monarch (of course except for specialized civs like Mali, Khmer and the New World civs). My playing style is markedly different with RFC as compared to just playing Civ 4 due to the specialized world map, so the following will not apply to your generic BTS game. So here goes...
Civics
- Labor: Starting with slavery is usually important for getting buildings done quickly, so I switch whenever I can. If you start out with a specified piece of land that needs to be improved quickly (like Japan) OR if you have a lot of forests to chop your cities in shape (Russia, Vikings), you can start with serfdom and then switch to slavery later when your city are close to their happiness/health limit. Emancipation is useful to expand your territory in early Modern age, but not any sooner.
- Government: The corollary is hereditary rule to keep the population happy. I try to get to Representation ASAP for science and stay there until most of my towns have grown, and when I have lots of discretionary cash to rush things I switch to democracy. Police state is almost never right before late game world domination (Cristo Redentor is important) unless you need immediate stabilization of your empire due to size.
- Legal: In general bureaucracy is most useful unless you need an early start with good military (in which case vassalage can be a TEMPORARY solution, especially in the middle ages where it provides some stability points). Nationhood is not very useful (too much unhappiness drafts and you can only use it once or twice per city before they'll refuse to go to war) unless you have Cristo Redentor or play as India or you're going for a domination victory (combine with police state). Free speech is for late game to expand your borders.
- Religion: If you have no religion (New World civs) or a lot of religions (Mongolia, Turkey and sometimes Japan) the best solution is not to choose a state religion, and get either Shwedagon Paya or Liberalism (or even both) for free religion. If you start out with 1 or 2 religions (like most of Europe, China, Arabia), organized religion is good to start with for infrastructure. The AI likes theocracies for military but I usually just try to stick to barracks and settled great generals for experience.
- Economy: unless I have a large empire, I usually wait for free economy before I switch, to minimize anarchy. If I'm in jungle land (Inca or Mali) or my cities are really big (America in late game) environmentalism is very good for growth.
- Expansion: This will depend on your civ.
- Viceroyalty: Turkey, civs with lots of potential vassals (Japan, Germany, Spain, Rome, China)
- Resettlement: England, France, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal
- Occupation: temporarily usually for expanding civs (Mongolia, Turkey, Germany, America). Persia's power is equivalent to occupation without the expense.
- Commonwealth: I switch to this together with another category (to avoid extra anarchy) in almost every other civ that doesn't expand much usually (e.g. Khmer, India, Ethiopia, the New World civs)
Certain combinations are complementary. Obviously the democratic ones go with free religion and free trade. If you have a large empire or vassals, or need great people quickly to build certain wonders, mercantilism (free specialist), pacifism (double great people generation) and representation (3 bulb per specialist) will be good, since you won't need foreign trade routes. Police state/communism/nationhood is suboptimal unless you have no corporations and have workshops everywhere (extra food with communistic workshops); police state/nationhood/occupation/mercantilism is a five-star civic for large empires acquired from conquests.
In a typical pacifist game I will usually do the following changes:
- Slavery/Hereditary rule (unless I need slavery quickly)
- Once I get religion, organized religion.
- Bureaucracy ASAP
- After banking and constitution, representation/mercantilism
- After economics and liberalism, either free speech/emancipation, free market/free religion, (if I still need a good production city I keep bureaucracy), or emancipation/free speech
- After democracy and after substantial tech lead, free speech/emancipation or universal suffrage/emancipation (to avoid unhappiness)
- I squeeze in the expansion civics if I can avoid a turn of anarchy (e.g. free market and resettlement for England, free market and viceroyalty for Turkey).
With a conquest game, I do everything up till when I have tanks and bombers/fighters (I never use artillery) and build Cristo Redentor, then switch to police state/nationhood/occupation/mercantilism and declare war on everybody (as long as you can defend against everybody, each nation you're at war with gives you extra stability!), and no peace until I win domination, diplomatic victory or conquest!
Science and economy
This is key to achieving almost everything and is tied closely to how good your economy is, how prepared you are for war and how high your score will be.
In general, when I have the tech, unless I'm strapped for production power, I build windmills and cottages in tiles without resources. Any city founded in a reasonable spot should have some production from nearby mines or quarries and enough water tiles for food, so I'm not too concerned about production early (also see below on whipping). Once you get universal suffrage and emancipation you will be glad you didn't build a mine or a farm. Of course there will be exceptions (e.g. due to the late appearance of certain resources you may have to probably build a mine or a farm where later corn will sprout). I emphasize economic and scientific buildings in specific cities first to maximize the gain (e.g. I will build library/observatory/university in one city and market/grocer/bank/custom house in another, and then go back do the same sequence switching the two cities). "If you chase 2 rabbits you will lose them both." I always include a library as one of my first buildings: both for the culture and for the science. Whenever I get a great scientist, I invest in academies in my most scientifically productive cities. Unless I can bulb a free tech that gives me another free tech I rarely bulb, because the long term benefits of academies far outweigh the immediate benefit. Towards late game I settle all great scientists in cities with academies and other science buildings.
Your tech pathway will differ depending on your civ. I will divide them into two categories: "advanced" and "backward" civs (no disrespect but just how you start will determine which you will be).
- Advanced civs are those that are European or have a lot of time and land to get their science going: Japan, China, England, France, Germany, Arabia, Vikings, Rome.
- Backward civs are due to either a (relatively) late start or they are a New World civ: Ethiopia, Inca, Aztecs, Maya, Mali, Khmer, Mongolia.
Then there are some that will certainly need work but can easily be pushed into the advanced category: Turkey, America, Portugal, Netherlands. Note I did not include the 3000 BC civs that require you to win the UHV early but they can certainly be played as advanced civs like China and Japan: Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Egypt, Carthage, India.
Advanced civs
Your trump card is history. Rhye made it so that your civ has enough time to develop a tech lead or you're historically going to be advanced no matter what you do (Europe). Therefore you need to get to the techs that give free bonuses, such as religion founding techs, free techs from getting the Oracle with Priesthood or Liberalism, or the techs that give free great people (Music, Economics, Physics, Communism, etc.). You will have plenty of time to develop the military techs but usually keeping one ahead is a good idea (physics counts as one of them with airships).
Backward civs
You have been dealt a bad hand because you're in the Americas or you spawned late. You need to research techs that the AI hasn't acquired (e.g. Biology, Medicine, Superconductors). With one good tech you can trade for all the older techs. For example as the Inca I traded Medicine for basically 10 techs in one round. Another case is Mali with Divine Right; an expensive tech that will net you several cheaper techs from several civs. Once you get a new tech, trade it with everybody you can find, usually combining your map and some money, and even if it's not an completely even trade, do it, because your bargaining chip will go away once the AI trades it with somebody else. If the AI will only give you a map and money, hold off until the next round after you've traded (because you can't immediately trade something you learned that round from another civ) when you have something that they don't have. Trade often and you'll find yourself being held back (the AI will say "we're afraid you're becoming too advanced")...
Military
The AI in RFC tends to hold off on very aggressive invasion on multiple fronts. If you have a large force (7-10 units) in your border towns sometimes they don't even declare war. (I once had 50 units in Beijing and Mongolia never declared war.) Unless I need to invade quickly (e.g. Arabia) I tend to build a unit, and alternate with a building. I upgrade to riflemen and infantry ASAP (the early upgrades tend not to be too useful and are too expensive; the only exception is upgrading from trireme to caravel). Tanks are crucial in capturing cities, with their 2-moves and double attacks. I never use artillery (too slow, and bombers do more damage and have far greater range).
Whipping your city infrastructure
The key to whipping is to combine it with a chopped tree. Unless you have a large population, whips are often too expensive (costing 3-4 pop) and early whips are often not available until half the hammers are in. Make sure your city can grow quickly again before whipping (e.g. granaries and harbor if not built automatically). Again, using monarchy and building units alternating with military units will allow you to keep the population happy. If you find that you're at your happiness/health limit, switch to either a worker or settler to avoid overgrowth and then resume your building. Building the Opera House in a non capital city that can grow quickly (e.g. Rome, Athens, Hangzhou, New Orleans, Baghdad, Jakarta) will allow you unlimited whips.
Land grab
When you start with any of the later civs with >1 pop per city, it is always a good idea to whip out a monument the next move. Very cheap way to expand your city crosses and you'll not regret it. Conversely, do not get calendar until you absolutely have to (as the Persians and Mongols I only got calendar until after I've built all my initial cities and needed to work those plantations). Later on theaters are good, and if you happen to have the AP's religion go for the monastery first then the temple for the hammers.
Politics: conferences and vassals
The international conferences are a nuisance mostly, unless you play nice to everybody like Netherlands, Portugal and Mali. Most of the time (like Japan, Russia and Mongolia) you will have war because you refused to hand over a city. My solution was to sign defensive pacts with almost everybody the turn before the conference so that if I do get dragged into a war I'm not alone. (I experimented with and without pacts and sometimes that averts war from the AI if you have powerful defensive pals close to them.) With BTS 1.18 you'll have world wars every 15-20 moves and those defensive pacts do not expire, so be careful who you want to be on your side. I try to build the UN quickly so that those conferences expire. Dealing with vassals can be tricky. First thing to do is to open borders and ask for all their resources in exchange for usually a production resource (stone, copper, iron, horse). Repeat again (because they may still have some duplicate resources; I say that 4-5 resources for 1 extra stone you have is good). Ask them to research something you're not planning to (obviously keep the valuable ones for yourself) so that you can exchange techs with them. If you research the military ones (which the AI values much more than their scientific cost), you will get the better end of the deal. I sometimes "jumpstart" their research by selling them civil service cheaply, and also "giving" them the prerequisite tech (e.g. I sold Khmer Divine Right so they can research nationalism for me). If you have a vassal spawn who controls less land than you but is more advanced, you may have to hold back their research (e.g. I kept diverting Persia's research away from Mass Media so I can build the wonders myself). If you have to keep certain vassals (e.g. for Turkey), make sure you're not squeezing your vassal too much. Arabia tends to collapse if it loses any more cities, so I gave them assembly line to counter the Mongolian invasion.
How to beat the AI on building wonders
If you know who's building a wonder you need for your UHV, you need to declare war on that civ. If it's still early sometimes just occupying the facilitating resource (stone, marble, gold, copper) with a unit will do (retreat and encamp on and off the tile). If you have enough population, reload a save and whip your wonder out. If it's late (e.g. you're France and Germany is building the Eiffel Tower), you need to have a real military presence on their soil so that they will hold off on the wonder. I lost about 6 American infantry on French soil to innumerable French riflemen and cannons so that I can research Electricity, Radio and Mass Media to beat them to the UN; thankfully they collapsed midway through my research on Mass Media.
Space Victories
This is for people who do not want to win the UHV and play some late games. The key is not the particular civ you start with, but the amount of productive land you can grab. You need at least 6-7 productive cities to build a spaceship in time. You also need aluminum (in France, Russia, Texas, and Australia). Techwise, aiming for the Internet is crucial since you'll have a large empire and your tech cost will be higher than smaller nations. If you're south enough you should build the Space Elevator. Tactics for civs are divided in to 3 groups: the locals, the imperialists, and the migrants.
The locals (includes Arabia, Turkey, America, Germany, Russia, China, Aztecs, Inca, Rome and Persia)
You're blessed with great stretches of productive land (or at least the opportunity to conquer them) and don't need to migrate elsewhere to get your cities. Just expand leisurely and keep good cities and nobody will be able to beat you. Make sure your science is up to par by trading and cottaging.
The imperialists (includes Greece, France, England, Spain, Japan and Vikings)
You start out with decent land but there's not enough of it. Collapsing your neighbor is doable but takes a lot of effort. What to do? Build some colonies overseas and choose the most productive spots. In general this means: any city in Brazil, any NA city that isn't going to be flipped by America, Canberra/Sydney, and 2 cities in southern/southeastern Africa. Build them SLOWLY so that your tech cost doesn't go up too quickly.
The migrants (includes Ethiopia, Babylonia, Egypt, Netherlands, Portugal, Maya, India, Khmer, and Mali)
You start out with terrible or small amounts of land (or can't expand to land that eventually isn't going to be taken away from you). Or you start quite late and all the good land is already taken. You have to go to 4 places: northeastern South America, southern Africa, North America and Australia. Build those cities quickly since the imperialists will beat you to them if you don't. Communism is good for production once you have all your cities to decrease your empire costs, switch after you have corporation (+1 for the trade routes) and plan to build lots of workshops (for extra food and production).
A note on colonizing NA: the key is anticipating the spawn of America. The best way to do it is to build New Orleans (has oil and aluminum), and then expand upward northeasterly until you have built Chicago and Fort Albany. The AI will build cities on the east coast and eventually America will take them away. When America does spawn, give them a map (so they'll be pleased with you) and then when they try to expand westward they can't (since they typically don't open borders with you). If they want to be your vassal so much the better: they will build cities all over the east coast and your culture will not be impacted by them since they're your vassal. Trying to collapse your neighbors is also a good strategy but hard (e.g. India collapsing Persia).
It's also a good idea to get a golden age/triumphal arch with the 2/3 UHV criteria: choose 2 that will harm your economy the least. (For example, as England, go for being the first in industrial and modern era and circumnavigating and not the 15 overseas colonies).
