I’ve been away from the game for over a year, but dropped the disc back in the computer last weekend. Due to my schedule, I play versus the computer, but rather than playing on hard or hardest I make a quick scenario. Here’s how it goes;
Go to Create Scenario, pick your own civ. with default settings. Choose Player Two. Give it 1300 food, 1200 wood, 600 stone and 600 gold. Then pick an enemy civ and, optionally, a “strategy” and “personality.” You can also leave strat. and pers. on random.
Then go to Map and select inland, large and random. Cover the mini map with your hand when you click “generate map.” Save as "A1" then exit to the main menu. Select Single Player; Scenario and pick your scenario (A1) at the top of the list. Hit start.
This will usually replicate a 3 minute Tool and a 14 minute Bronze for the computer. You can tweak the resources to increase and decrease AI speed. This is an excellent way to practice against the computer.
Of course, the computer’s management of its villagers is abysmal, but it is still the best way to practice.
R-Man
BTW, I’m from the old school (anyone remember Lakuma or NathanC?) and still play as Assyrian with a max. pop. of 50. I will Bronze in +/- 14 minutes with only 16 villagers and no boats. I’ll have a cav. in the enemy village by +15 minutes. However, in light of the other Bronze times and villager populations I’ve seen posted here, I’m seriously considering totally changing to a pop-boom strat. If you’re interested, I have an old A to Z strat. for the 14 minute bronze, and a “learning through practice” campaign that I developed to guide you through the process. Let me know if you’re interested. Although, if you’re already getting sub- 14 minute Bronzes on an inland map, you probably don’t need any help from me