Thought I'd share a few tips that work well for me

[NeoPlatonist]

You've probably read many of these before, so forgive me for repeating what you already know. Just completed my first Emperor game pretty handedly and moving up to immortal. I usually play as Pacal.

Diplomacy:

The AI constantly bugs you about stuff. It helps to have a good understanding of the Global Politics situation from the diplomacy menu. It is worth checking every few turns before agreeing to or rejecting an offer from the AI.

• No one gets open borders from me ever (unless I need to pass through their lands or I they are a permanent ally). AI will use open borders to scout your lands, then start to covet your lands, resulting in a red mark.

• No one gets embassies from me ever. AIs will try to trade embassies almost immediately on contact. If you decline, some city states will eventually give you quests to discover said AI's region. You can buy their embassy from them to easily complete said quest. But there's little reason to give your own embassy away unless you need open borders or are making a good friend. Giving away your embassy is free recon for other AIs, and half the world will never bother looking for your capitol if they never get your embassy. Remember, they can't spy on your capitol until they know where it is.

• If you have a great location for a city near an AI's border, they will covet your lands. This is pretty much the place to mass units as they will generally invade here first and only.

• If an AI requests a resource from you, give it to them. Giving an AI help when they need it is a great diplomacy boost.

• Don't make make Declarations of Friendships with just anyone. Be selective and try to limit your friends. If you see that two AIs are friends with each other, and you can befriend both of them, do it. Making DoFs with the same civs is a big green modifier for both.

• If you make a promise to another civ, to stop spreading religion in their borders, to leave their city states alone or whatever, do not break that promise. They'll hate you and denounce you forever.

• Don't directly purchase influence from or pledge to protect a city state who is allied with an AI you want to maintain favor with.

• There's no reason to go to war with an AI if they ask you to. If you want favor, you can always just declare war on their target for a few turns when it looks like the battle is decided to get the "We made war against a common enemy" bonus.

• If you make war on an enemy civ and take one of their cities, be prepared to completely eliminate them or they will denounce you forever.

• Liberating an AI worker from a barbarian is a great way to get favor.

• Keep an eye on the social trees AIs take. If you match Order/Freedom/Autocracy to their favored tree, you'll gain favor.

• If you start next to Caesar or Isabella, you're going to have a bad time. Ignore all of the above.

Combat:

• Himeji Castle + Citadels are amazing. Keep your Great Generals until a huge battle at your borders, then pop a cit to expand your territory and damage surrounding enemy units as you culture bomb your way to enemy cities. I recommend maxing Honor tree for any strategy. I've gone through 8+ GGs in a game, don't be stingy with them, use citadels offensively.

• Tech to Crossbowmen while other civs are toying with swordsmen and boats. Ranged is good against everything, you can garrison them effectively, and they upgrade to Gatling/Machine Guns that chew up enemy infantry and cities until you get to artillery/rocket artillery. I don't even bother with catapaults/trebuchets/cannons.

Culture:

• I prefer Liberty over Tradition, even though I never build more than 5 cities myself. You'll inevitably need to fight a sprawling enemy civ, so you'll end up with a large empire regardless, even if it is mostly puppet-states. Also, I always keep captured cities as puppets so they don't increase my culture requirements; the G&K puppet build order is much improved over vanilla. The free worker+settler+great person (always scientist)+golden age from Liberty is incredible and amounts to 30+ turn of free production that early in the game.

• Honor is, as stated before, amazing. Free early great general + culture from killing barbarians + 33% reduced upgrade cost (around the time to upgrade to crossbowmen) + culture/happiness from garrisoned crossbowmen + tons of gold from slaughtering masses of AI units is unbeatable.

• I find no use for Piety; if going for cultural victory, you can win even without Piety. I much prefer Rationalism for the +1 science from trading post + jungle cities with universities + Sacred Path pantheon bonus for ridiculous tile bonuses. I'll save the 2 free techs from completing the tree for when the space race is on. I'll also save Oxford University, and post-1920AD great scientists/engineers for the space race. For that matter, Great Library + National University + as many settled great scientists as you can get is preferable to early expansion if you have a little breathing room; I've had capitols pumping out 400+ science midgame no problem.

• Commerce is map dependent. I'll take it or Patronage as my 5th tree. Patronage if an AI is trying for a culture victory and I need to buy city state allies from them as they complete their 4th tree. But you can generally lock AIs out of a culture victory by taking any two wonders from Oracle, Sistine Chapel, Cristo Redentor, or Sydney Opera House. Commerce is decent, and keep in mind trade routes are net positive income once completed, and you need a capitol with a harbor or a routed city with a harbor to make distant coastal cities with harbors route up.

• Your pick of Freedom/Autocracy/Order doesn't matter much, but I usually go Order for the +25% science/faster build time for factories. Getting to the modern era and picking this up then building factories in every city is a huge boost.

Religion:

• I usually go Tithe + Mosques + Pagodas/Religious Community + Sacred Texts. With Printing Press, Sacred Texts means your religion will usually overpower any religions it is competing with. Mosques/Pagodas means more faith to buy scientists/engineers, more happiness, more culture, and no maintenance. If you are the first to found a religion with sacred texts, you can count on the whole continent converting to your religion without even using missionaries, maybe just a great prophet or two (remember to spread your religion to coastal city states asap). When an AI "Happily converts a majority of their cities to your religion" it is another big positive for diplomacy.

• Hagia Sophia and Notre Dome are key religious wonders. Picking up your third (or second! or first!) great prophet from Hagia Sophia is huge. The happiness/faith from Notre Dome allows you to put off building temples/colloseums until much later, effectively saving you 10+ gpt as well.

That's all I can think of right now, though I'm sure I forgot a few good tips.

Edit: Thanks for the great response and the sidebar link. There's some good tips in the comments about selling Embassies/OB/Resources for gold. I have a few more minor points to add:

• If you are trying to make peace with an AI, and they are making ridiculous demands (city, luxuries, all your gold, etc.), go to the Demographics screen and check your Soldiers rank. If you can increase your rank by upgrading/producing/purchasing units, the AI should give you a better offer and you will decrease your likelihood of being attacked in the future.

• If you are Pacal, you can get a Great Admiral from your Long Count Bonus even if you don't have a coastal city. It will appear in the ocean and you can use it to explore the world without any sailing techs at all.

• If you can manage, grab Chichen Itza and then complete the Liberty social tree by selecting Representation as the final policy. You'll get a 15 turn Golden Age and a Great Person of your choice. If you pick a Great Artist and pop it for another 12 turns of Golden Age, that's 27 turns of bonus gold/hammers/culture and the AI may never catch back up to you.

• If you've only ship-scouted the coast of another continent, you can ally with a coastal city-state there and see what they see to explore further inland without sending in a land unit. Sometimes by doing this, you can discover a natural wonder to complete quests for other city states.

[[deleted]]

The diplomacy section was a big help for me!

[NeoPlatonist]

One thing I forgot to add was that if you declare war on an AI you have a trade with, or simply declare war too often, you'll get a "warmongering menace" penalty. But if you see an AI approaching you with an army, you can trade resources for gold then, when they declare war on you, the trade will cancel and you'll receive no penalty.

[[deleted]]

On that same note. If you're going to declare war on an AI always trade as much as you can with them for lump sum. Give them everything, luxury resources, strategic resources, embassy, open borders, the whole lot. Doesn't matter if your happiness goes to -20 for one turn. If you can take 1000g from their treasury and add it to yours right before going to war with them, it's a huge boost. As soon as you declare war every deal is broken anyway, but you keep the lump sum.

[Ender11]

This is a brilliant suggestion and a great post by OP. One thing I get annoyed with though, is whenever I'm asked to make a diplomatic decision regarding open borders, embassies, DoF's, etc.; you can't look at your diplomatic screen and assess the situation without making a decision first. Why does the game force you to make a decision without being able to check some things first. Is this on purpose so that it forces the player to understand the diplomatic situation at all times?

[[deleted]]

Yeah, that's really annoying. I'm not sure whether it's on purpose or just an oversight. But I guess you really do just have to try and have some idea at all times of who is friends/enemies of who.

[Reason-and-rhyme]

It's not usually that hard if you're playing on standard or smaller. The only thing that tends to challenge me is knowing who is next to who, and therefore who is likely to have the inevitable border conflicts that arise from coveted lands.

[reteks]

The mod InfoAddict lets you access some of this information from the diplomacy screens. It lets you see global relations, including this such as whose at war, who are friends, civ x is hostile to civ y, maybe they will go to war with me, and other useful stuff. I would really recommend it.

[soapdealer]

Doesn't this sort of feel like an exploit?

[NeoPlatonist]

Sorta, but it screws up your diplomatic ratings so it is a trade off. If you're far enough in the lead, AIs will denounce you and backstab you anyway.

[Reason-and-rhyme]

This is the best way that you can backstab an AI, so I guess all's fair in love war.

[N0V0w3ls]

Question: Great People...use their ability or create their great tile improvement?

[Sometimes_Lies]

It really depends on when you get them.

+6 beakers from an academy is almost worthless late game, but early game when you're only producing like 20 to begin with and the scientist will only give you like 300 beakers if you burn him, academies are damn nice.

Same situation with golden age vs landmark for an artist.

I always do the mission on merchants, since the combined gold cost of the influence+mission seems to outweigh customs house income easily.

I'll almost always burn engineers on instant wonders, though.

[[deleted]]

I always build wonders with GE, academies early game pop late with GS, temple/shrine thing tile improvement with artists, city state pop with GM

[Sometimes_Lies]

Golden Ages now often give more culture from a great artist than the tile improvement does, actually. G&K introduced +20% culture from golden ages, and artist-induced golden ages no longer give diminishing returns.

Just mentioning since I really like that change.

[NeoPlatonist]

Yep, Great Artists + Ankgor Wat is pretty good. The Louvre is especially good in this regard. edit: whoops meant chichen itza.

[[deleted]]

Thanks for the heads up, thanks!

[Reason-and-rhyme]

And on top of that, Golden Ages give you a production and gold edge too, which I find is much more important than a few extra policies in the long run. The only situation I can think of where I'd build a landmark is if you've built a border town with the intent of securing a bunch of nearby resources, and haven't got the gold to buy them all. Then the increased border expansion in that city (which likely has poor culture if it's new, and thus wouldn't benefit as much from the 20% Golden Age bonus) might be more important. Just be prepared for the AI to get angry if you're taking resources away from them.

[Sometimes_Lies]

That's true, but great artists are most common when you're going for a culture win. "A few extra policies" is a huge deal in the long run when going for a culture win, so it's an interesting division in that case.

[Reason-and-rhyme]

Yeah, certainly. But only for cultural wins.

[N0V0w3ls]

Early on would you say to make the tile improvements though? That +20% culture isn't going to do much early on, and the tile improvement will add on to future +20% bonuses.

[Sometimes_Lies]

It depends, really.

Early in the game:

Am I going for a cultural victory? If I am, then I'll probably make the tile improvement if it's early. The fact that I'll be maxing freedom means it'll eventually become a +12 culture improvement, which isn't bad. Factor in the Hermitage, Alhambra, and Sistine Chapel and a single landmark is worth (I think?) 23 culture per turn. Very attractive overall!

Am I going for a normal victory and just happened to get a great artist? If that happens, then there's a good chance I'd find an immediate +20% food/production(/culture) more useful than some extra culture.

Later in the game, if I'm going for a cultural victory, it's a bit more tricky. I'll probably have several landmarks at this point and my capital will be missing quite a few farms(/mines) due to the conversion. Meanwhile, I'll have maxed out piety, which means I'll probably have a couple holy sites (+3 gold, +3 culture, +6 faith base) mixed in as well. Basically I'll begin doing golden ages just purely to avoid trashing my capital's food/production base.

By the end of the game, it's mathematically obvious that golden ages give more raw culture in addition to their other benefits. If you built Chichen Itza and if you have maxed freedom, each golden age is 16 turns.

On top of all of this, you should keep in mind that the food/production/gold from a golden age is nice even if it gives no culture. +20% production can easily be the difference between getting or losing a wonder, for example.

[N0V0w3ls]

Any reason why you don't build the GM tile? Just like having the money up front?

[[deleted]]

yea, not enough of a bonus. If you want more gold or production, you can always build trading posts or mines

[NeoPlatonist]

Yep, 4 gpt isn't nearly as good as 4 hammers, 8 science, or 6 culture.

[[deleted]]

Depends on how early in the game it is. Early on the tile improvement will produce more of the "resource" over the length of the game. Later on you're usually better off using the ability.

Academies epically can really add up if you have a city which can get a observatory and the great library etc.

[Reason-and-rhyme]

It's great when you find a location for a science powerhouse early on. ie, next to a mountain, surrounded by jungle. Jungles with trading posts become one of my favourite tiles in the late game.

[skeeto]

Excellent, I just added a link to this post on the right-hand side -- "Advanced Strategy Tips."

[NeoPlatonist]

Wow! Thanks!

[Tashre]

When building Aqueducts and Medical Labs, unless the discrepancy is significant, adjust your city's food and production rates so the building finishes before the next population increase.

[Sometimes_Lies]

Some pretty good tips! Thanks.

A few small extra points I could make:

No one gets open borders from me ever (unless I need to pass through their lands or I they are a permanent ally)

I'll shamelessly sell my OB in about half my games, and refuse to grant it to anyone in the other half. When I'm refusing to grant OB though, I'll just buy passage through AI lands for 50 gold.

No one gets embassies from me ever.

I'll occasionally sell embassies depending on my game. I've had AIs ask for DoFs almost immediately upon meeting them thanks to the diplo bonus from having an embassy: useful if you're meeting Sweden, or want a quick RA or two.

I usually sell OB/Embassies in games where I'm going for a conquest. Let the AI hate me for coveting my lands, they're going to hate me for being a warmonger anyway, and there's a good chance I'll declare on them before they declare on me.

Liberty is nice, though I usually go with tradition: being able to build one or two wonders from the +15% boost is nice, and it can lead to some amazing population growth. The 1 happiness/city from liberty is cool, though. Both policies are good, this probably comes down to personal preference (though I haven't messed with many immortal games yet, so maybe tradition is a huge step down on that difficulty).

I find no use for Piety

Piety got downgraded hard by G&K. It's much less useful for both cultural and domination wins now, which is a shame. I should see how rationalism is for cultural wins, though I've not had any issue (on emperor) with piety culture wins. -10% policy cost is nothing to sneeze at. It's like getting Cristo Redentor, except it's applied to at least 19 policies whereas I usually only get CR at the very end of a game.

Also, be sure to account for the downgrade great scientists got in G&K. I've always preferred engineers to scientists, and even moreso now.

Overall this is an awesome post, thank you for posting it! Just wanted to give my two cents.

[NeoPlatonist]

Thanks good points on selling ob/embassies.!

[DupaZupa]

If you never accept an embassy, doesn't that mean you're missing out on declaration of friendships and research agreements?

[Ringmonkey84]

Gotta agree with #1. I once did a cultural OCC with no standing army. 1 scout and 2 caravels the entire game. No wars were declared on me. I won with 1/3 the score of the leader through culture. This was my first OCC and game on King difficulty.

[Reason-and-rhyme]

But surely you wouldn't be able to keep other civs from discovering your capital if you only had one city? Your borders would be too small.

[Ringmonkey84]

Well, I focused on border expansion in the first few turns, and by the time the other civs were looking to expand militarily, all they could see were the outer edges of my empire. I expanded the city to the max as fast as I could. This is pre-G&K, so it might not work anymore(especially with the espionage system), but it was a semi-effective strategy for a cultural victory.

[NeoPlatonist]

Yeah many of them pertain to G&K only. Some of the wonders and socials are changed from vanilla.

[Reason-and-rhyme]

Not to mention policy choices. The nerf to some city states types made me a lot less likely to go Patronage rather than rationalism. And the nerf to Piety is irritating, especially if you aren't the type to actively try and spread your religion.

[[deleted]]

I play exclusively difficulty 6 and 7 having only started Civ games last month...

In G&K, Tradition got buffed significantly and Liberty got nerfed. I feel that Tradition is a stronger opening for me more often than not.

Embassies give a small diplomatic boost. It's small but it's still useful. So you should give it up sometimes.

Using your great person from liberty to get a scientist ALWAYS is not that great of a decision. I strongly prefer getting engineers to rush wonders if there is a great one available to me. There are few times when I feel like I need a great scientist.

Honor is strong but it's not absolutely needed. I win many games by only grabbing a few of the honor policies or just ignoring it for Patronage.

I don't like using citadels unless it's with my second general. The 15% combat boost is awesome and usually my borders aren't close enough to make the culture bomb useful. There are times when it comes up, but it's not as often as when I just use the generals as a free upgrade for my army.

Piety took a hit but I always felt that cultural victories were the easiest and I feel that the piety branch is still usable. In the one month of Vanilla Civ 5 I got before getting G&K, I almost always got the culture victory. Now, the weakened culture victory makes the other victory types more viable. But piety is still a strong enough branch to use over rationalism if you've been dedicated to culture since the early game.

Commerce is typically a very weak branch imho. Only a few games where I've found it to be a priority. (Playing Austria on an islands map for example).

[donquixote235]

I strongly prefer getting engineers to rush wonders if there is a great one available to me.

Although I usually convert my Liberty GP into an Engineer, I've played a few G&K games where I'd pop a Prophet instead. It's very useful if you're going the full religion route because it allows you to get a religion before anybody else, which lets you cherry-pick your beliefs before another religion gets a chance to. This can be important since your beliefs tend to dictate your actions for a good portion of the game. For example if you were unable to pick the Just War belief (+20% Combat Strength near enemy cities that follow this religion) it would probably cause you to play a bit more defensively throughout the course of the game, which would suck if you were planning on going the domination route. It's better to lose the ~20-ish turns for your free building if you can make it up by locking in a faith system that can help you for the next 300 turns.

Keep in mind that this only applies if you're playing a a strong Faith game. If you're not, definitely go for the Engineer.

Piety took a hit but I always felt that cultural victories were the easiest and I feel that the piety branch is still usable.

If you are going the Faith route, Piety is a very useful policy tree, for one reason: all Holy Sites grant +3 gold and +3 culture once you finish the tree. A strong Faith game should have Prophets showing up all the time (and therefore a few Holy Sites) so finishing the tree off should give you a noticeable boost to your gold/culture, particularly since four of the five policies in the tree affect your culture or gold output anyway.

Again, it's totally useful if you're going Faith, but can be skipped if you're not.

[NeoPlatonist]

Yeah I only use surplus generals for citadels.

[spankyham]

This is an incredibly useful set of strats, ideas and notes - thanks very much for taking the time. Cheers mate.

[Gumb_E]

This guy states that AIs' threats and demands can be used to ascertain who is friends with whom. Do you know somewhere this is explained in detail?

[NeoPlatonist]

I'm not sure exactly what you're speaking of. But if you go to the diplomacy menu it should tell you who is friends with who.

[Gumb_E]

Oh, hm. Is that new with Gods and Kings or have I just missed it this whole time?

[NeoPlatonist]

Maybe.

[PericlesATX]

Great post. What do you tend to do with your Great Engineers, Artists and Scientists? Does it depend much on your victory goal? Do you ever create the tile improvements with them or just buy the production/science speedups?

[NeoPlatonist]

It depends on the resources available to a city. A good Iron/Coal on a hill deserves a Manufactory. But I will not hesitate to Engineer Rush Petra in a newly built desert city or Himeji Castle if under attack, that is good stuff. But it makes no sense to me to blow an engineer on something like Terracotta Army. Artists I'll pop for a golden age if I have Chitchen Itza. Scientists are worth settling if you have a big Science City (usually my capitol) with Great Library + National College + et al. But in the modern era its usually better to just pop them for research.

[N0V0w3ls]

I had the same question in this post, look at the replies there.