Did Carthage invade one of the other smaller civs and take all/most of their cities?

i think they did have a war with the scythians early on but it was on the other side of the mediterranean map so i didnt see much as my scouts couldnt get over there at the time, but when i did reveal it scythia still had lots of terrirtory, maybe it was that early war, i'll have to bear it in mind next time.

It can go either way, with a even rise or a run away point leader - but no, it's not out of the ordinary at all for one nation to run away with the game. Momentum builds momentum in this game so it's easy for one nation to become "the one to beat".

Originally posted by nessienewshine:

i think they did have a war with the scythians early on but it was on the other side of the mediterranean map so i didnt see much as my scouts couldnt get over there at the time

It's normal that you can't see what's going on in the FoW. The key is to keep a very close eye on the score card top left especially late game at the death. If they overtook you there would be three possible reasons:

1. They captured a bunch of cities (usually worth 2pts each after a few turns, one initially)
2. A number of their own cities have levelled up (worth one point per level)
3. They have built some wonders (worth two points each)

All of this information is listed on the scorecard if you hover over the civs entries.

A close competitor will try to beat you using all of these methods (e.g. they will invade a neighbour to grab some more cities as well as build a wonder etc). You've got two main options to counter them overtaking you:

1. Invade them and take some of their cities. Each one is basically a four-pointer (or more if it's a strong or legendary city) in your favour score-wise. Obviously this also discourages them from grabbing anybody else's cities.

2. Invade a convenient victim to grab yourself a few more cities to hopefully outmatch your rival's scoring rate.

The end game is frequently a nail-biter like this. The key is to keep a close eye on the score card and to remember that fortune favours the brave here. Waiting for a few city level ups and a couple of wonders is not always enough to see you home. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

One way to make sure the AI Carthage team does not beat you is to be Carthage. On Mediterranean-type maps, Carthage often does great in my games.

thanks for all the replies, i think i thought i thought i could cruise until victory like civ 6, just about to start a new campaign so i'll use this advice and try not to be so scared of a war with a nation and be ready to get aggressive, no more Mr. Nice Guy

Everyone might not view it as such, but in the end this is a war game.

Yeah I lost my first try at Noble difficulty as Egypt because I just sorta sat there building every wonder. Ended up where neighboring Hittites just going to barely win on points (like I literally needed an extra turn).

Only way to win was to fight them, then wow turns out I did not build near enough military units at all.

Then tried Rome next and immediately attacked my first neighbor (ironically Carthage) and ate all their city sites. Babylon was ahead on points by then (mostly wonders) so I attacked them too and ate up some tasty cities with free wonders and won eventually.

I'm learning by playing the Learn by Playing scenarios moving up the difficulty ladder rung by rung. I'm playing Persia now and am winning comfortably on points plus am getting ready to complete my 8th ambition around turn 125. Last game I won around turn 67 with a double point victory.

I'm learning to amass a large army and try to keep from allowing any AI's to think they can attack me with impunity like the Hittites did. I took a truce when offered so I could rebuild my army as well as assimilate a slew of new cities taken from the Numidians.

I never did play any of those Scenarios. I really should, that might stop Dale Kent from weeping when he sees me post. Or it might not: I have that effect on people. More to the point: there's also an excellent manual that you can pore through, and it offers very sound tactical and strategic advice.