A "Booming" strategy is one where nearly all of your resources go back into increasing your resource income. Since your economy will be constantly growing, the resources you're able to spend on increasing economy will be larger and larger, creating a somewhat exponential rate of increase. By the time your nation is threatened, it will require a large, concentrated army to defeat you. Your economy will generally be significantly larger than your opponent's when he chooses to attack, so your best advantage is that you're able to field a larger army than him - given enough time. Of course, that's your weakness: if he attacks, you'll fight a battle against time. Anyway, on with the strategy...
Early Game
- 1. Research Science I, then Civic I (queuing these both up at the start is a good idea).
- 2. Immediately send your Scout out in order to find as many Ruins as possible. (NOTE: There is a Ruin in each corner of land maps and it's generally a good idea to go for these since you know exactly where they'll be, then continue scouting normally.)
- 3. Create additional Citizens to fill up your starting Woodcutter's Camp and construct 2 additional Farms.
- 4. When that is done, create an additional Citizen who will make your 2nd City. Normal City-building strategy remains true here: if there aren't any good City spots towards the center of the map, you can always build backwards - but always have at least some forward border push to avoid allowing the enemy easy access to your capital City.
- 5. While your 2nd City is being created, research Commerce I.
- 6. Construct a Market and immediately make a Caravan.
- 7. Send out 1-2 Merchants if you've discovered some Rare Resources at this point.
- 8. Continue to construct Farms and/or Woodcutter's Camps to increase your income to +100.
- 9. When you reach this income, research Science II and then Commerce II at the Library (you may research Military I prior to this if you feel like the enemy may rush; otherwise, research it after Classical Age is reached)
- 10. Save your Food for Classical Age while constructing 1-2 Farms (and perhaps a 2nd Market) with your Timber. Don't spend much Timber after you've hit the Classical Age button.
- 11. After you press the Classical Age button, spend all the extra Food you get on more Citizens to work your Woodcutter's Camps (build more camps if your existing ones are full)
- 12. Once you reach Classical Age, immediately plop down a University at each of your Cities.
- 13. Research Civic II and construct a 3rd City.
- 14. Create two more Caravans.
- 15. Create a University at the 3rd City.
Mid Game
At this point, your basic economic needs are taken care of and you can play the game more by watching what resources you find yourself lacking. Based on what you know from reading the description of each resource type, continue creating additional Citizens and gather buildings (to send them to work at). Here's what you'll need to know:
Research
- Feel free to experiment with which precise Library research order works for you, but a good generic one is to simply research them from bottom (Science) to top (Military), and then get the preceding Age Advancement. For example, getting all of the 3rd column of Library techs before getting Age III (which is in the 2nd column).
- Military techs can arguably be put off until you need them, with the possible exception of Military II, which is helpful because it allows you to build Forts.
Military
- Even if you're not constructing a Military, construct at least a Stable so that you don't have to wait for it to be constructed if you get attacked.
- Research attrition techs when they become available and always keep a small army of at least 3-4 units that specialize in killing Supply Wagons (Light Cavalry through the early ages; planes in the later ones). This can do severe damage to your opponent's army while you scramble to produce a counter army, should you be attacked.
Defenses
- You should only construct 1-2 Towers and a single Fort if you plan on booming. Place the Towers so that they cover the largest number of working Citizens as possible and generally place them close to remote Mines or Woodcutter's Camps if you're forced to build outside of a City's radius. This allows your Citizens to garrison and be protected fast, as well as preventing your opponent from easily exploiting weak points in your defense.
- Similarly, each City you place should be placed with defense in mind. Each City should be very close to where you want to place your Woodcutter's Camp, so that your Citizens have a very short distance to run to get to the safe haven if enemy raiders approach. Farms should be placed directly adjacent to the City when possible, except if you plan on building a Fort behind the City.
- You'll end up meeting your opponent's border near the center of the map. The City nearest this border should have a Fort placed directly adjacent to one of your Cities, preferably behind the City. By doing this, you make it very difficult for the opponent to take the City or destroy the Fort (since garrisoning the City may allow you to attack his siege).
- Construct a Temple at your forward City. You can save Timber for other more important things by only constructing Temples at Cities you feel are vulnerable. Sneak attacks at your capital do happen, but very rarely if you've built most of your Cities forward towards your enemy. (just watch your territory to ensure you don't get border-flanked)
Resources
- If your Food income is low, build a Granary at any City with 5 Farms. Continue building more Farms until you have around 3-4 Cities full of them.
- If your Wood income is low, build a Lumber Mill at any City with 6+ Woodcutters.
- If your Wealth income is low, ensure that you have maxed your City Limit at all times and maxed the Caravan Limit. Also, building a Market at each City is helpful, though it costs a lot of Timber.
- Your Metal income will probably remain low, but if you have enough Food you should try to max out your Mines so that you can sell the Metal for extra Wealth.
- Harvest most or all of your rare resources. Not only do they give you useful bonuses, they often give you useful resource income. The first 3 Merchants are a steal for how many resources you'll harvest! It gets progressively less efficient after the first few Merchants, but that shouldn't stop you from getting 90% of the resources in your territory.
- If any resource income isn't maxed, remember that Gather Enhancer buildings have upgrades which give great increases in gather rates. Instead of building extra Farms, simply research the next Granary upgrade and all of the Farms that have a Granary at the same City will suddenly produce much more!
- Put almost all of your Wealth income into Scholars; sell resources for Wealth to afford even more. Remember, Knowledge is extremely important in teching above your opponent.
- Set aside Timber for when you advance an Age, since that's when the next University upgrade becomes available. Also recognize that these upgrades require a Science tech too, so make sure you have that as well. It's hard to stress the importance of these techs enough. They're the cheapest increase possible for your Knowledge income!
» Strategy Index
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