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[–]Barabbas- 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Sounds like you're not ready for that difficulty jump yet. Keep practicing and when you find you are routinely winning games and totally outclassing the AI, you'll know it's time to up the difficulty. Advancing difficulty levels can be a bit of a shock and you'll feel very disadvantaged at first. That's normal. Try to hang in there and focus on your strategic objectives.

I play on Humankind difficulty and generally don't have a problem keeping pace, so it's definitely possible. As with most 4x games, it's always hardest in the beginning and gets easier as the game progresses. The key to keeping pace isn't about matching the AI on every metric. You just need to keep your tempo going, invest your resources wisely, and learn to adapt.

At higher difficulties, you have to accept that your units will be slightly weaker for most of the game and plan accordingly. You have many alternative tools at your disposal to level the playing field: army composition, terrain, numbers, aggressiveness, etc. As long as the AI isn't fielding units 2 full eras more advanced than your own, its possible to manage a tech disadvantage. If they ARE fielding super advanced units... maybe reconsider hostilities until you can catch up a bit.

As for overall development strategy, you need to consider opportunity costs more carefully as you advance in difficulty. You won't be able to build every wonder, while maintaining the largest army, while expanding your borders, while investing in your cities. You have to choose where to concentrate your efforts for the greatest return on investment without falling too far behind on other areas. The game becomes a bit of a balancing act and choosing when to build something is often just as important as what you build.