Ultra fast strategy for moving up as a newbie

Ision · December 16, 2003, 17:26

Hold your breath newbies, but there IS 1 sure fire way to move from Chieftain to Regent or Monarch in record time!!

Unfortunately, you WILL NOT like my advice.

The advice is simple:

Play games to the bitter end, and LOSE them

I have learned 10 times more from my defeats than my victories. As a newbie I would always linger at each difficulty level until I was sure I could advance. No one likes to lose, no one plays to lose – and don’t you either. But, believe me when I tell you that if you ever play a long drawn out game in which you fight life and death to your very last unit, to your very last city – you will have gained more than 10 wins and reading 5 expert strategy articles.

Here’s another thing that you will also find interesting, the only memorable games you will ever play will be nail biting victories and bitter defeats. The games I have won or lost by a single turn – to a Space race Victory, or a bitter war in which I am vastly outnumbered, or snatching (or barely missing) a Modern Age cultural/diplo win as one of the smallest Civs in the game –those are the only ones that make the game worthwhile. The rest of the games are ‘fun’, but no big deal – at times they may even be tedious.

Of course I haven’t said a thing in this post that any of you don’t already know – lol-
As a newbie I already knew it as well – but failed to heed my own advice for far too long. Don’t be like Ision and take an eternity to win your first Emperor or Diety game – heed your own advice –

Go down in flames today – and you won’t tomorrow!

Sincerely, Ision

Dis · December 16, 2003, 18:01

I like to win. what can I say

Ision · December 16, 2003, 18:06

lol

I would say - that you clicked on this post because you also like the idea of moving up in level -

I guess my advice was not exactly what you were looking for!

lol

Ision

vee4473 · December 16, 2003, 18:16

nice boobs dissident

vmxa1 · December 16, 2003, 18:32

One can learn from a loss, but it is not a given. If it were that easy, then we would not be seeing all the threads that say I am always getting my head handed to me at whatever level you want.
So I would also suggest that if someone wants to advance, they try some of the games in AU or the threads that talk about the level they are interested in. Like the ones MS puts up. YOu have a starting game and some reports on various stages to check yourself against.

If it is a true newbie, then post a some saves for people to chime in on.

BTW Dissident the first thing I thought of when I saw your post was : how can you lose with the stuff you use.

MrWhereItsAt · December 16, 2003, 21:20

Not so much, but if there is a game you are not sure you will win, or even are convinced you will not win, do not instantly give up in the hope of a better game next time.

If there is something you can do, maybe a last ditch military effort to test your strategy against a technologcially or numerically superior enemy, or perhaps a campaign of sabotage and bombarding city improvements - try it, as it should yield some good info on what you could do in that situation and you were in contention for a win. If you are stuck on your island and any efforts you make are feeble, things are bad and looking worse - if you are not having any fun, don't force yourself. In hopeless cases like being stuck in the early Medieval when everyone else is in the mid-Modern you are unlikely to have any opportunities. The key is to seek the opportunity to do something besides existing. If you can (and most of the time you should be able to, even if you know it is inviting suicide), then it's worth checking out.

Whatever you do, however, if you find yourself not having fun you may want to stop and try something else. The last thing you want to do is stop playing because of mind-numbing depression whilst in a hopeless situation.

Perhaps the best thing to try might be to go back to an earlier save from the same game and redo some of your major decisions. You will be able to learn which worked in the situation you are facing, and then you know that for next time. I often will save at a critical decision point, make the decision and play for 100-odd turns, then go back, make a different decision and see which one is the best in the circumstances.

Theseus · December 17, 2003, 01:18

Even better: Post a game you are losing in the Strat forum.

But don't wait until 1950AD or so... if you feel like things are going badly, post ASAP, and a bunch of us will jump in and try to recover. Either we all lose in the bargain, or we all learn from multiple efforts.

Hmmm... that inspires me!

Cookie Monster · December 17, 2003, 14:45

I happen to believe that if one sets aside emotion there is a lot to learn from losing. If you keep your head you will see what you did wrong and not do it again the next time. Wash rinse repeat until all the little tidbits you learn add up and you start consistantly winning.

Keep in mind however there is an element of luck in this game and not just combat luck. Starting position, available resources, etc...

Wittlich · December 17, 2003, 15:05

I concur that there are other factors involved in learning how to move up the "experience ladder" ... but Ision does make a valid point. You're not going to learn very much if you constantly restart a game when things don't go your way. IMO, Ision's advice of sticking it out to the bitter end is a sound one, even if it can be rather painful at times!

vmxa1 · December 17, 2003, 19:28

I would suspect that most would agree that sticking it out can be a useful process for learning. But you have to be able to figure out why you lost and know how to correct it to improve.
This is not always so easy to do, especially if you have very little experience wiht the game.

You can learn to not attack a superiour force for instance, but will you be able to see that the reason they were stronger was because you failed to mine enough at the start for instance (if that was one of the causes).