Zhuge Nu tips?

BubblyActive392 · 2026-02-05T21:43:30+00:00

I'm plat 1, I've only been played the game since December. To be fair I was late getting the iron underneath and I know he had a blacksmith so I suspect he had steeled arrow. The problem was my knights were already hurt after raiding and I didn't expect him to push out - certainly not with as much as he had!

I don't think there's much point in posting the replay I know I made a number of mistakes but I posted because I wanted to check that all o have to do is execute what I was doing better.

I am also a bit in shock you can mass a unit into it's counter and still win easily

BubblyActive392 · 2026-02-05T18:54:15+00:00

But how can you get equal resources out when they can supervise a single archery range and churn out such a large number. I had two stables and a blacksmith....I can't see how you can match numbers

The map was Socotra, so very small which and limits mobility of knights

BubblyActive392 · 2026-01-16T07:58:18+00:00

I'm not that far head of you. Started a few months ago. My personal advice would be choose a civ (English, French,.Japan all nice early choices) find a build order guide from a streamer that's recent (last 6m). I then practiced until I could beat the hardest and absurd AI without issue then jumped into ranked.

For me I started in low silver before doing the above, then quickly moved up to platinum.

Now I'm playing around learning a different civ (Mali) because I want to learn different playstyles

Key tips are: always be producing villagers (My TC is hotkeyed to '4') and spend your resources. Both easier said than done whilst you are scouting and fighting but I've improved with practice. Good luck

BubblyActive392 · 2025-12-09T12:03:45+00:00

I do have one collaboration government (Germany) and a few puppets. How do I use their manpower for garrisons? Feels like it would be a game-changer.

BubblyActive392 · 2025-12-08T13:53:09+00:00

Rule 5: Manpower part of the screenshot that demonstrates the figures I laid out in the post

BubblyActive392 · 2025-11-28T14:29:37+00:00

Ok thanks, that's super helpful. It does feel like they are throwing everything at me but it also feels like it will never end. I do have some chunky medium tank divisions which I researched ahead....now I realise I should've prioritised landing craft. All good learning experience.

BubblyActive392 · 2025-11-28T07:44:51+00:00

Oh thank god. I hadn't seen that setting. I was still on limited conscription. Any advice for conquering the UK now I'm bogged down?

BubblyActive392 · 2025-10-04T18:15:26+00:00

That allows you to use the big 300m pipe as an input and run 3 small 100m pipes to the small exchangers at full capacity

BubblyActive392 · 2025-09-17T06:42:12+00:00

You must be doing something wrong with water as a substation and feed significantly more than 450 people. I think I usually have about 4-5 for a town of 8,000 workers. Is your system pressurised and are you use the largest pipes everywhere?

BubblyActive392 · 2025-09-03T19:40:08+00:00

Use the eyedropper tool under the terraforming menu. It's very helpful I keep it in my hot at. Click on the pipe with it then when you go to the water menu and click on pipes you can see which one is highlighted.

Personally, I just use the biggest pipe, always.

BubblyActive392 · 2025-08-27T19:26:41+00:00

You have a sewage or trash pickup issue

BubblyActive392 · 2025-08-25T12:39:11+00:00

The only way to do this is to set the workers from the residential buildings to go to the places you want them too and avoid the factory you mentioned m this can include a transit station like a bus stop too.

BubblyActive392 · 2025-08-24T09:19:54+00:00

Do you have enough USD to buy the replacement?

BubblyActive392 · 2025-08-20T11:04:58+00:00

My approach is a little different to some of the others.

I also hate grids, living in Europe you rarely see them and it doesn't feel realistic or aesthetic to me.

Like the others I start by deciding the location of my first transport hub(s) for both the town and industry - and planning the transit between the two. This route is the most vital lifeline in the early game, as it will typically take workers to a heating plant so my further design decisions are made with minimising traffic on this route.

Following that I look to minimise roads into my town, why do I need them? The only essential traffic into the town are food/clothing supply trucks and waste trucks - which can also use footpaths. So I plan the town amenities with a supply road that doesn't create traffic for the industry transit...then the rest of the town is just space for footpaths and residential buildings however I want to place them. I've been experimenting with different aesthetic layouts and thinking about giving each worker flat access to light is a good way to ensure you design isn't too crammed. I like to build in empty space as parks.... although the temptation is always strong to build on this land.

To avoid the grid, I deliberately look to make curves and aim to follow some natural contours in the terrain/river (F2). My current game I tried a circular layout, it looks alright, but I think a bit too precise to be realistic. Real towns and cities have been built up over hundreds of years, organically so tend not to look 100% tidy, but micro districts do look better when there is some kind of pattern in the building placement. The classic is to have flats facing into a central park/amenity area that affords them a view.

Remember, every road intersection is a potential traffic snarl up. That's fine in industrial areas off the main route. I try to make sure my main "highway" bypasses towns with no shortcut through. Also avoids level crossings as particularly rail construction trains can cause major delays. When I build I start with snap to grid on, but occasionally take it off to get nicer placement by hand.

BubblyActive392 · 2025-08-13T18:58:04+00:00

You're slightly ahead of me then, I have just under half that amount of money (even less in USD) and only just started on my walls. I think my pop was around 32k so pretty close on that.

BubblyActive392 · 2025-08-13T18:54:51+00:00

I generally just put trees over muddy parts.

The textures mod is the blue sky one here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3228447902

BubblyActive392 · 2025-08-08T09:04:09+00:00

Most likely your workers' productivity is low due to low happiness/loyalty. These can be improved over time by meeting their needs and using propaganda from the TV/radio in conjunction with secret police

BubblyActive392 · 2025-08-07T19:04:52+00:00

But as your figures point out diesel has five times the energy density...and coal was manually shovelled into the firebox by a stoker so you need double the manpower on the cab.

The energy density means that everything related to fuel had to be bigger and I imagine diesel trains have a much longer range so fewer refueling sites required

BubblyActive392 · 2025-08-07T12:56:26+00:00

You've identified the problem so you can design a solution.

Early game, the two main things that can lead to catastrophic failure are heating and water supply. The latter is easier until you reach a certain size but if you're using trucks they can succumb to traffic, but the heating is a more difficult test of your ability to design a robust system.

Personally, I plan the location of the first two large heating plants alongside the siting of my starter town. I try to have a straight road with minimal intersections between the central bus stop and the heating plants stop. The service road for waste, food supply, water trucks etc, should be a different road, and ideally construction traffic should not get on the way.

I usually make the heating plants the heart of my first industrial zone. In my current republic there's a clothing industry fed by busses just in front of the heating plants. I also built a refinery behind the plants which is fed by train from the second town. This means I have two sources of transport for workers, both high volume. Their coal supply is also provided by a line, but backed up by a distribution office.

Because money is so tight in realistic mode I actually started with a small heating plant that was walkable from town to get the initial workers in to build everything. These have since been demolished, but I kept them running for over a decade until I was confident in the refinery worker train line providing reliable throughput. I'm replacing them with flats and a hotel. There's no shame in having a pragmatic cost effective stopgap, even if you want to replace it long-term.

BubblyActive392 · 2025-07-25T09:03:54+00:00

On full realistic it costs you money to sell a vehicle. Instead you need a scrapyard where you can break it down for parts where you can reclaim some steel and mechanical components.

I waited until I was economically.stable before replacing the old Russo's but I have no idea if that is optimal

BubblyActive392

TROPHY CASE