How to Beat Humankind on the Hardest Difficulty - Tips and Guide

Beating the game Humankind on the hardest difficulty has never been easier! Learn the basics of empire management and an advanced step-by-step guide to crush your opponents!
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Learn the basics of economic management by maxing the amount of cities in your empire. Make sure to stay in each era for a long time to gain extra stars and get more fame score than your opponents. Learn how to quickly settle the new world to win by building over a dozen cities and plenty of manufactories. Maximize your Neolithic era gains with auto-scouting, and settle extra lands by embarking units. Lose less from war by becoming a vassal. Use Vikings or a Research affinity civilization to rush to settle the New World.
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[@pinegolem7323]

Some great additional info our viewing Golems have contributed in the comments: - The Lighthouse of Alexandria wonder gets you more naval movement to cross the ocean with your troops sooner -place your outposts and cities in defensible positions (high ground, choke points) and on rivers for the FIMS bonuses - trade for resources with the AI to avoid war - Trade expeditions is in era 2, not 1

[@helium-379]

Dont bother building improvements unless they work well in your cities or they are influence or stability improvements. Focus on getting the setler so you can raise your city and rebuild it and it will give all the improvements up to medival era. Its better to focus on building industry and science districts followed by another district of your choice in that build order. Once you get hamlets, place them down everywhere you can. They are great for free worker slots and lots of food. Also you can just prevent the AI from declaring war on you just from buying their resources. Once you get artilery it would be a good idea to take down your largest threat in terms of fame. If you picked a merchant culture at some point, build two stacks of artilery cannons and you can basically run around and destroy all their cities with bombardment given you have other units to protect them. You should have the industry and money to support the army along with outteching them by miles. An ideal first city would be on a tile with plenty of rivers, a big forest and a natural wonder on it. The priority is in that order. If you cant get it all then thats fine. Just settle for a nice river. Idealy it should also be a place that can be easily defended early game. Like wedged between mountains and high up. This isnt as important as settling on some nice area. If you decide to place down an outpost during the neolithic era then focus on tiles with the most food production. If you happen to do it later than focus on ones that have the most industry then attatch a territory with high food to your city. It can take up to 20 turns to settle and outpost if you make it to a classical era and havent settled yet. So go for tiles with industry to cut the timer down. I also fiddle around with the population between food and industry to cut down the timers for industry and pop. If the timer for a district or improvement is lower than pop then pool as much guys you can into that first. If the pop is lower then do that first. Then I skim extra pops that dont help bring down the timers and pool them into science. If there are pops in science that dont bring down the timer on that then I move them to money. I usually do that early to mid game then I just protitize industry and science late game and let extra pop fill the other areas. Late game I rush construction workers, raise all my cities and rebuild then for the improvements. Then I shoot for the Mars space race ending. This is where the new world is very useful since you need a lot of space for the space race. By the time you get to that point, the cities you have would be filled with improvements. Also if you decide to do the nukes then the new world would be very important. Other than that I usually do what they guy talks about in the video. Also space race ends the game early and if im right it makes you the defacto winner. Also if someone is ahead of you in the space race its a good idea to go the nuclear route.

[@pinegolem7323]

A ton of great advice! I'm guessing you've played a lot of Humankind Difficulty!

[@colinpastuch]

This guy knows the game! I reloaded an old save where I've got a great start but the Huns are about to start a war and smash me in only a few turns. I tried everything to fight them but their military might on Humankind difficulty is untouchable. I bought a couple things from them and boom, no war. It's pretty silly that a couple trades prevents the AI from attacking. I am literally zero threat!

[@colinpastuch]

I just won Humankind difficulty in 155 turns with 13000 fame. Production > all else. Egypt > Achaemenid > English > Joseon (Or whoever fits) > French or whoever fits> Japan Use scientific on all cities to win both Mars Colony or all research Build walls and barracks in classical to deal with early combat.

[@pinegolem7323]

Use of early walls is a great addition. You can use garrisons to great effect against the AI

[@aklm6146]

Now these are tips! Very well done 👏🏽

[@sidaraslanoglu5322]

Awesome video. No bullshit, clear strategy, and very nice diction! Keep it up!

[@jamesnemeth870]

Ideas are important, clear, well sequenced.

[@yabryzgalov]

Great guide! Thank you! Liked, subscribed.

[@drendelous]

please make more videos like this one. tips are what most of us beginners need to enjoy the game fully

[@pinegolem7323]

Great to hear! Any specific subject you would like more tips on?

[@Guilherme12345678987]

The BEST guide of humankind in all the KZbin. THANK YOU ! No shit talk , just excellent content.

[@pinegolem7323]

This means a lot! Thank you! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

[@Meinejambalaya]

I would also suggest to take Lighthouse of Alexandria - gives extra Naval vision and +2 Naval movement, really helpful when you try to find the New World

[@pinegolem7323]

Great point! I used this in my second test of this guide. You also sometimes get events that give you movement speed, so I always recommend being ready with 1 unit to cross the ocean in case you get just enough movement speed for a few turns!

[@Meinejambalaya]

​@@pinegolem7323 great! Btw, I just played another round and I did very interesting thing - I SKIPPED all the wonders (except the Lighthouse) and started to build only the cool ones starting from Era 3. They really nerfed the ones that I usually use, so now I usually go this way

[@pinegolem7323]

@@Meinejambalaya Yeah I think a lot of the wonders are weak, and I find that since I go slow for stars most are taken in the mid game

[@Le-Vel]

@@Meinejambalaya Unless they nerfed the hanging gardens they are very well worth considering early game, they give you the wondrous effect of all copies of the luxury resource you own that you place it on. Ex: I had a game where I spawned with 6 or 7 copies of dyes around me, so I gained 30-35% industry and 60-70 stability across all my cities for the rest of the game.

[@Justomgee]

You're my new favorite Humankind youtuber, no bullshit and straight to the point. How many attached outposts do you recommend per city?

[@pinegolem7323]

Thanks! Number of attached territories actually does not matter that much. First max your city cap (or go one over), then I would try to evenly attach territories to each city to spread out stability and influence costs. Also make sure each city has a terry that can give it food and industry. The only time your distribution of attachments really matters is if you have "+5 food per attached terry" on a eblematic district. If thats the case you want to attach as many of those together as possible to one mega city, because they give exponential yields. Does that make sense?

[@Justomgee]

Thank you!

[@jacquesmurdoch3599]

Some top tips here. Thanks bud. Going to start a new game, again.

[@ClanHawkins]

Well done guide mate! Thanks.

[@ganknujnal]

Great guide! Thank you!

[@dizon8629]

Amazing guide . I just finished metropolis gonna try your tips on the next difficulty .

[@pinegolem7323]

Good luck! Tell me how it goes!

[@iamisamu2776]

fantastic explanations, but, even more fantastic shirt. appreciate this insight.

[@KeyserTheRedBeard]

amazing content Pine Golem. I killed that thumbs up on your video. Keep on up the first-rate work.

[@pinegolem7323]

Thats awesome to hear! Thank you!

[@Wi1k]

Dude why you stopped making videos? This was the best guide for this game on KZbin ! You could’ve make this your job!

[@softcactus7122]

Hey - thanks for the video! Would love to see a full game.

[@pinegolem7323]

Sounds good! Would you like to see any special settings like faster speed or military vs turtling?

[@Inali097]

I spent literal weeks searching for this kind of strategy guide on here

[@pinegolem7323]

Glad I could help!

[@seanmedina1414]

Great guide! I'm still trying to get through the Nation difficulty level lol

[@pinegolem7323]

Thanks! Yeah the game definitely gets tougher around nation, how is your run going?

[@TheGroundskeeper]

Longest way to say “get to the new world ASAP and don’t quit if you’re a vassal” ever

[@pinegolem7323]

I put that info near the beginning, I think a lot of new players don't know the details of how to rush the new world, and may not know the power of the manufactures it gives you!

[@connorgrzechowiak2998]

good video keep up the work

[@pinegolem7323]

Thanks!

[@mikemalone2184]

What I like it how you break it down. I have sooo many questions. I’m a noob to this. Didn’t think I’d ever like these games, but I do it turns out! Who knew? So, I am playing on concole of course, which probably is a no no to computer players. I’ve heard PC gaming is worlds better. I have game pass and it was on game pass. I’m like why not. At first, I was lost. But I learned on my own, but I have all these questions. These videos always tell you stuff but damn you have to sit thru a lot just to hear what you want. You simplify it and quickly. I appreciate how you have a base idea. Lots of questions but a lot and quick here. For someone like me, ideal

[@frostfour668]

Really great video, some fresh tips here :) I would like to ask what your strategy on which cultures to take is? so far I've been rushing the cultures I think are best, but with the slower strategy that aims at lingering in eras means I'll be having last pick in which culture to take. Any advice who to go for? Maybe a future video even?

[@pinegolem7323]

I'm actually working on a tier list right now! Your choice varies if you're playing the hardest difficulty since the AI will usually get first pick for the first 2 eras. Assuming you are on Hardest I would say: Egyptians or Babylonians. Zhou if you have mountains to use their building. Classic: I think Persians are great because of their city cap (6-7 cities in era 2!). Maya building is strong. I like Aksumites if youre going for gold stars, but I think gold is a weak resource rn. From there do vikings or research in E3 and do your own thing after that!

[@Patrick462]

Based on my (one) play-through, the cultures I picked were important but not game-defining. For two reasons: 1) If you want a certain affinity, there are multiple cultures with that affinity; 2) If you don't get the affinity you want, the game is still more than playable (aesthete cultures can still build militaries, for example).

[@pinegolem7323]

@@Patrick462 I totally agree! And often the best culture is whichever one helps get you new kinds of stars you can't get with your current build. If you've already taken 2 science cultures, taking a third is usually not necessary to secure the science stars

[@fugitiveunknown7806]

Havent played hardest yet, but I love playing Harappans and Celts. You get an insane amount of free food.

[@pinegolem7323]

Yup! I made a culture tier list and Harrapans are one of the best!

[@philmiller3813]

Thanks! appreciate

[@imblackmagic1209]

trade expeditions is classical era tech btw, so era 2? normal ships spending a turn on high seas is ok, so if you're lucky, you can even go after building the lighthouse of alexandria very early 2 or 3 territories attached to a city helps the city grow, afterwards it only increases the district costs, so it may be detrimental overall for wars that you will win, ransack enemy admin centers and captured cities if you don't have a demand on them, that way it becomes neutral territory that you can build outposts on, increases their war support to prolong the war until you beat them to death

[@pinegolem7323]

Good catch, mis spoke about trade expeditions era. And the lighthouse is a great trick I used but did not mention!

[@fossar_]

Great guide, will def be using vassalisation trick hadn't thought of that. A little shame half the guide assumes play with new world enabled, I'm not particularly a fan of it as it feels a bit cheap. From my play on Pangaea mode, if you can get the Mughals their unit is so powerful you can pretty much ignore the bottom half of the tech tree for the rest of the game if you get a science culture like France next era and rush exosuits they're tough pushed to stop you.

[@pinegolem7323]

Thanks! Yeah if you're not using New World then using the top tier civs like Egypt, Khemer, France, Turkey will also be great!

[@boquanerwinchen5198]

Subscribed! How many outposts do you usually attach to each city? Any general guide on combining outposts?

[@pinegolem7323]

Thanks so much! First rule is that attached outposts are less important than more cities. Say I get +1 city cap, I would detach a territory and turn it into a city. When you're attaching outposts to a city, the goal is to give it access to FIMS that its lacking. Say you have a city with lots of industry land but no food, I would attach it to an outpost that has lots of food. Does that answer your question?

[@boquanerwinchen5198]

@@pinegolem7323 Yeah, it makes sense. Every city needs food and industry. I find that districts themselves make more food than the tile exploitation during late game and I always end up with too much food.

[@pinegolem7323]

@@boquanerwinchen5198 By too much food do you mean you get more pop than you have jobs for them? The hamlet district is great for that because it gives 4 jobs instead of 1

[@boquanerwinchen5198]

@@pinegolem7323 I keep getting 1k extra food in my capital with 70 population. Since population can only increase by 1 per turn, all the food is just wasted.

[@pinegolem7323]

Im guessing this in in the final era? I think the exponential growth at the end will make that happen no matter what. But I would suggest that you keep an eye on the star tracker, and if you notice you are getting the Agrarian (pop) starts way faster than every other star, consider making less food and more of other the other FIMS

[@Cristian-ff8hr]

I'd like to see a full game at max difficulty on fast speed, possibly an aggressive/military game, if you do it I'd be really thankful. Have a nice day.

[@pinegolem7323]

Sounds good! Working on a few other vids but Ill work on recording a play through from the start!

[@Litolic]

Thanks for the guide. I wish I could see the turn timer, though. I'd like some benchmarks to hit. Been trying to beat the game on pangea, normal map size, empire difficulty. And there's just too much war.

[@pinegolem7323]

By too much war, are you losing territories from the AI attacking you?

[@Litolic]

@@pinegolem7323 I basically run out of room and have to fight for more, which ends up with me fighting the whole world. But I like this vassalage tip, I'll try it out.

[@pinegolem7323]

And in terms of bench marks, I tested this on the fast speed, and around turn 75 Im settling the new world, by turn 130 (near end) I finally enter the final era with around 12k score If you want to know more checkpoints ask away!

[@jerryleistrum885]

I have been doing many of the things you said, but I never considered going vassal. If you do, how do you (decide when to) end it? I should add, this is a very well done guide. How much did you play to collect this info. It seems like I flounder around and do some good things, but haven't played enough to identify what I think are important items. One thing I identified was the Norsemen, jump to the new world, take over the continent, claim the resources, sell them and build manufactories. I think Helium mentioned buy resources, but selling resources is equally valuable in maintaining peace.

[@pinegolem7323]

Hey! I would vassal the moment you realize you can't win the war without crippling your economy. In some runs I surrender the turn they attack! In terms of time played I think I spent about 30-40 hours before making this vid. My #1 tip for learning faster is to guess outcomes before you do them, then take note on if your guess was right. For example, in my notes document Ill write "I think I can catch up on influence stars by picking the Japanese" then A few hours later ill add "turns out I was too far behind". You learn really fast when you take note of your expectations and outcomes!

[@jerryleistrum885]

Is exit from vassal passive at a certain point in development, or any criteria you must? Or is it whenever you decide? Should you expect leaving the liege to trigger a war?

[@pinegolem7323]

Once you go to war with your liege for any reason you break your vassalage, so build up your military and war support and strike when you're ahead!

[@centseighty5100]

hi,everytime when I was being attacked early, my war score isnt low enough to tick the to be the vassal of others option as your guides suggested. Any thing I have missed?

[@pinegolem7323]

In that case you can just check nothing and surrender a lot of money, which still is not that bad. In my run I let the war go on for a bit so they gained some extra rewards to vassal me. Either way, the more resources you trade, the less they will attack you!

[@ryancormier7346]

Thanks

[@NotMeButAnother]

When staying longer in an era to collect stars while the AI blitz through, how do you deal with them taking the cultures you might want? In a game with more than 3-4 players you can easily be forced into a weird build with little synergy.

[@pinegolem7323]

In short, I think the only goal of having a good culture build is to get more stars, so its not worth losing lots of stars to get the perfect culture. In terms of trying to pick synergies I actually find that in this game you do not want to take too many cultures that boost just one kind of star. If you pick too many agrarian cultures, you will get all your agrarian stars really quickly, but take forever to get 3 stars in other categories. So I actually pick cultures which speed up my weaker areas so that I get to 3 sets of 3 stars all at the same time

[@nathanputzeys1170]

Great guide. Quick question tho : I noticed that losing all your units in the neolithic era immediatly make a 4 stack of scouts pop the next turn. Do you think this might be a good idea to quickly kill your first unit to allow you to scout with 4 units immediatly? or is there a downside I have not yet seen?

[@pinegolem7323]

Thanks! The reason I could create 4 units instantly was because I used the Militaristic Affinity ability, which instantly turns 4 pops into 4 new units! It was not related to losing units

[@TheInzanami]

@@pinegolem7323 Thats not what hes talking about. Try losing your first guy in neolithic era, you get 4 units spawned right away if that happens.

[@pinegolem7323]

Ah I see, not something from my vid but something hes seen. Thats a cool trick! Ill have to try it out. Ive been wondering what happens if you lose everything in neolithic. Getting 4 units early would definitely be some insane tempo!

[@nathanputzeys1170]

@@pinegolem7323 I tried to recreate it but to no avail, seems like it's patched. It does give you a new unit a bit further away though, useful when you just set up a settlement and you want to discover more parts of the map.

[@pinegolem7323]

Make sense. I assume auto scout will be next, or maybe its already been chopped in the most recent patch.

[@TheInzanami]

So, I'm trying going vassal right away and it doesnt seem to be working. I dont have enough war support when I offer surrender? What is going on here?

[@pinegolem7323]

So that means they have not conquered you enough for vassalage. I would reccomend you just surrender and pay money. You will lose stability while you are in debt but its better than losing everything! If you think you can win at least a few battles you could farm some military stars

[@Alex47sd]

I just watched your video shortly after finishing a Slow game on Nation difficulty (which I narrowly won against another AI located on another continent), and I approached the game in many of the ways you advised. However, I did not realize until late game that the way I structured my cities may have hindered my efforts to win the game, and the only reason I won was because I conquered a city belonging to my strongest opponent that contained nothing but research quarters; later, I took away an adjacent territory of his that had nothing but money quarters (which I found out post-game was the empire's largest source of money). None of my cities were structured in those patterns, just adapting to the territory as I went, is that a mistake on my part?

[@pinegolem7323]

Hey! So districts of the same type next to each other each make +1 more of their resource. So a dense pack of 7 identical science districts in a circle shape will produce 24 extra science! Infrastructure will later double this to 48! Of course the drawback of densely packing identical districts is that they may pave over useful tiles. So look for patches of your land with poor natural food and industry, and pave that over with money or science! If an area of tiles has mostly industry, just build industry districts etc. Does that make sense?

[@Froomfrang]

Finally a video easy to listen and watch!

[@ekawatnandhabiwat9143]

Few questions, (I'm new player though). How do you bring armies to the new land? Do they have to board the ship? If you start without building a lot of army, then how can you get some big troops to invade new continent?

[@pinegolem7323]

To get your armies on water you need to research the right techs. "Trade Expeditions" lets them go into the water, but they will die if they stay in the deep ocean. The later "Three Masted Ships" tech lets your armies cross the ocean safely! If you want to cross the ocean before "Three Masted Ships" tech, pick the viking culture in era 3. Their special boat will let your armies cross the ocean! In terms of building armies, I start building a lot of troops about 5-10 turns before I know they can go to the new world, so I'm ready with an army of 8-16 units the moment I can cross the ocean!

[@ekawatnandhabiwat9143]

@@pinegolem7323 Thank you. 5-10 turns to get 8-16 troops are wicked fast. What culture do you use? I play science cultures (Babylonian/Greek). I wonder if I can build that fast. So you just need to research the 3-mast ship tech and the game assume your armies travel with those ships when they enter water, like Civ6?

[@pinegolem7323]

Sorry that was turn times for fast speed, double it for normal speed! I also upgrade any pre existing troops I have, and use the viking ability to insta create 4 peasents

[@mjolnirsthunder]

Noob here, so im very confused by the era 2 5 city thing. Just how are you getting the inflance for that? 510 just for 3rd city on normal speed, what im I missing here?

[@pinegolem7323]

They may have changed city pacing, but how many stars do you get in each era? And which cultures did you pick?

[@khanhmai5006]

Do you know how to reduce the cost of merging cities ? Does city with no infrastructure and district cheaper to absorb ? If I have 2 cities with exactly amount of infrastructures and districts, will the cost 0 ?

[@pinegolem7323]

From what I know, you want minimal districts and pop in the merged city, and you want their infrastructure to be as similar as possible. I doubt the cost would be 0 in that situation, but it should be lower!

[@khanhmai5006]

@@pinegolem7323 tks, i will try that

[@pinegolem7323]

@@khanhmai5006 great! Tell me how it works out!

[@saberpendragon271]

Any certain culture from era 1 or 2 that should be noted?

[@pinegolem7323]

Heres the best cultures that are easy to get on the hardest difficulty For Ancient: Egypt, Harrapans, Myceans, Babylonians Classical: Persians is my go-to but Huns, Aksumites, Carthaginians are also good Ive been using a mix of those and its worked great!

[@saberpendragon271]

@@pinegolem7323 Well I'm currently stuck at Zhao in my current playthrough. Hopefully I can get to the Persians first since they're also my go to pick

[@pinegolem7323]

Zhao are also A tier! Their builing is great if you have mountains and the stability is great long term

[@mikelav1528]

10. Cities ? How do u build purple influence to not go negative

[@pinegolem7323]

Hey! You want more city capacity so that cities cost you less influemce every turn Also, Every pop makes 1 purple influence, or 2 if they are very stable (pink). There are a few buildings, but getting more pop and city capacity is best!

[@casualgerman1949]

I am not sure if you still read comments on this video, as the video was created by the end of August and at the time I post this it's almost mit Novembre. But to my comments and questions: Comments: 1. I think the auto explore isn't an "exploit" anymore as it seems you caveman and troops waste moves while moving towards a the "colltectable" fields. 2. I think AI got a boost ore some stuff got nerfd. As I used the "megaditrict" exploit (thanks to the spiffing Brit) I got an advantage having this, but it seems it does not do as much bonus s it used to. Or I started to do something wrong I did right, and I am not aware of it. Questions: 1. The difficulty you play on is clear, but how many and which AI oponents do you select? 2. Can you provide a solution to win if you don't play a map with "the new world"?

[@pinegolem7323]

Hey! You're very right that they fixed the auto scout issue. I picked AI personas by randomly shuffling them around so that I would get a good mix, I also sometimes play with the most aggressive ones. Without the new world, your number one tool to beat the AI is to go slow and get those stars. Dont worry about getting certain cultures, you can easily outpace the AI by going for a lot of stars each era. Besides that, make sure youre investing in growth by gaining pop and districts, egypt and harrapqms are a great first culture for that, but you can invest in growth no matter who you play. If you're into number crunching, keep an eye on how much food it takes to make another population vs industry it takes to build another district. When another pop is much cheaper than a district, consider focusing on food instead of indistry. Food can be a really powerful resource below 10 pop! Did that answer your question?

[@casualgerman1949]

@@pinegolem7323 Thank you. Just how many oponents do you play against? I now know the difficulty you play and how/which oponents AI you choose, but not their numbers. Beside that your answer on food vs. Industry helped me.

[@pinegolem7323]

I usually play with 5 opponents, I find it keeps the game running smoothly in the late game, and beating 5 opponents is basically as tricky as beating 12

[@casualgerman1949]

I get what you say. But somehow I think the right mix could make the difference between a challenge and the situation where some are messing with you wihile 1 or 2 cultures just skyrocket away. Happened quite often that I started well but in the end the 2 top AI's had double to 3 times more points than I had and I was not even close to be 3rd.

[@casualgerman1949]

@@pinegolem7323 Edit: Managed to gain a hige victory. Key was your Info to take your time and not rush to the next Civ and to make use of trading. Another youtuber pointed out how important trading is and it was also key for growing and my economy. My setting was: World size: Normal Oponents 7 (pretty much a mix of their persomal level and focus) Map: All Island for each faction, but landmass is 30% However I have to point out that if you like to win by Mars Colony, you should not waste too long in the 2nd last Era as the Key techs are all in the last Era. But if you lead far ahead it doesn't matter if you miss some fame points. So this time I had almost as 3 times more fame points than the 2nd place. But I had to go to war against 2 civs.

[@charliecrc7383]

So you always choose a science civ or viking civ over the Khmer in era 3?

[@pinegolem7323]

I do it for the new world, but since this vid I've found that you can still rush the new world without them, which makes Khmer a really great choice

[@charliecrc7383]

@@pinegolem7323 Is that by using the lighthouse?

[@pinegolem7323]

That, plus some events that add naval MS, plus if youre lucky with island spawns! Otherwise I rush through e3 (only era I would rush) to get three masted ships in e4.

[@charliecrc7383]

@@pinegolem7323 okay nice, will try this strat for sure

[@pinegolem7323]

If youre rushing through e3 still make sure to get Barays in every territory!

[@Blate1]

How do you start conquering the new world rapidly if you have already maxed out your city cap at 5 in the old world?

[@pinegolem7323]

You want to start absorbing old cities once you start getting more land and cities. Also, I usually pick persians in the classical era which gives 2 more city cap!

[@Blate1]

@@pinegolem7323 Makes sense with the Persians, but how do you afford the price tags on those city mergers, especially when you are still spending influence on new outposts and cities in the new world? Even when I’m not actively expanding, I find city merging to usually be prohibitively expensive by the time I get the tech that lets you do it. But maybe I just need to focus influence production more.

[@pinegolem7323]

Once I'm getting close to the new world, I intentionally stop growing my weakest cities, because its much easier to absorb small cities. I usually put the pop out of food and build military units and disband them elsewhere to export pop

[@Blate1]

@@pinegolem7323 gotcha, thanks!

[@Mrpizzahere]

Nice guide; I learnt a lot. Personal preference though - please stop the shorter repeating actions on the right side of the screen; it gets annoying fast after the first showing. The longer the action, the more interesting.

[@pinegolem7323]

Sounds good! Thanks for the feedback

[@Ermakovis]

Do you have full playthrough?

[@pinegolem7323]

I don't have any posted, but I'm thinking about recording one if there's interest!

[@Benzi514]

Bit too focused on the New World. I would assume plenty of people play without a New World setup (Pangea).

[@pinegolem7323]

Thats very fair, I always try to master the game on default settings first, but pangea is equally important, especially for multiplayer!

[@Aeolus_000]

I have a hard time ever getting to become a vassal, I think I have too much war support at the start of the war? Not totally sure. Also a lot of times they want a city or region, which makes it even worse. Surviving early is the big roadblock of this difficulty for me.

[@pinegolem7323]

Yeah its likely that they dont have enough support lead when you are doing the surrender to become a vassal. In that case you could put no terms in a just pay their grievances + money! Also losing 1 or 2 territories or cities is unfortunate but you can still definitely win! Even just having 3 territories with 3 cities is a great place to be in the ancient era!

[@Aeolus_000]

@@pinegolem7323 This might be way too vague of a question, but how do you get the snowball rolling in this game? I can beat endless difficulty in the other games but, even if I survive wars or get to play SimCity, I never seem to go anywhere. Even going Egypt into Khmer for example, my industry isn't really THAT high.

[@pinegolem7323]

When you say you never seem to get anywhere, do you mean that you don't take the lead with your fame score? How many stars do you get in each era?

[@Aeolus_000]

@@pinegolem7323 I tend to get no fame at all. Like turn 150 i'll have 2000 fame. I understand that you can make a ton by end game, but in most of my HK difficulty games, one of the AI just pollutes so much that the game ends by turn 200~. Maybe my map generation settings are bad too but I usually get shoehorned by the AI into only 2-3 territories with no room to go. I can also see by turn 50 that the AI has over 18 units, so I can never be aggressive and conquer their stuff either. I'm just totally at a loss.

[@pinegolem7323]

Do you always try to max your city count? When you have just 3 territories, are they all cities?

[@godfreyofbouillon966]

5 outposts in neolithic? Where do you get that much influence from :|

[@DarthAssViolater]

How are your videos monetized with less than 1k subscribers? Genuinely curious

[@pinegolem7323]

They arn't, but youtube still runs ads on them :/

[@therealjonaswp602]

I was struggling with the game even on empire difficulty. Untill I saw this vid. First try after seeing this, I won with around 13.5k fame and 11 endgame stars. To celebratr it, I made 22 ICBM’s with thermonukes. Went out in a bang with nuking all my neighbours in one go. :D

[@pinegolem7323]

A perfect way to end a game!! I really like how powerful nukes are!

[@therealjonaswp602]

@@pinegolem7323 Oh yeah - I was surprised that they actually removed the entire city. Unlike civ, where it just harms a few units 😁

[@alphatucana]

Maybe I'd like to follow the example of our real-world leaders, and render the planet uninhabitable for humans.

[@pinegolem7323]

Thats always an option too🤣

[@user-ht3ie2lk6h]

currently playing hardest difficulty on endless.... its so much easier

[@pinegolem7323]

I've been playing fast mostly because I like getting to each stage of the game faster, but Endless sounds fun! Hows that playthrough been going?

[@user-ht3ie2lk6h]

@@pinegolem7323 i've been holding 1st place since neolithic erA

[@pinegolem7323]

Thats great, Ill have to try it out!

[@gregw515151]

Did not work at all people took all my land and did not care at all

[@fyr3st0rm65]

*looks at when video guide came out^ Well... this info is probably useless.

[@pinegolem7323]

Actually, all of this info still holds up! There's been a few patches since this vid, but the only thing that was removed is the auto scout exploit