Hello all,

I want to play as England in the Civ18 map. I've gone through the game once but find the start of only having 3 cities (due to being stuck on a small island) narfs me a bit.

I did attempt to attack Spain (they declared war first!!) but as soon as I land troops they are dead.

So, as soon as could get the tech to make a ship that can go across the ocean I head to the USA! I get there and take the top three cities but then the civ south of USA declare war on me, along with the Romans. I have to beat back a mass of troops from the sea (America still have New York so the civ South cannot send troops that way).

Then roman invade so all my ships that are sending help to the US are getting blown up while Romans invade the UK.

Any advise for starting the game again?

Try for a Cultural or Space Race victory. I've done Cultural with three cities and Space Race with one.

Sorry I forgot to include,
I want to take over the world. :)

Sorry I forgot to include,
I want to take over the world. :)

Well, that's different then.

I'd say ignore North America. Expand into Western Europe and move outwards from there. That way maintenance costs don't cripple you and your army isn't half a world away if someone stabs you in the back.

Don't do a coastal invasion like the AI, though, where you land one stack just in time to have it slaughtered. Put some defenders on a hill or a forest and then land your main force away from them a turn or two later after the AI's moved his troops out of position. Take one city and then sue for peace as quickly as possible. Use this time to reinforce your new position on the continent and then strike out. It'd be best to start in the west with Spain and then move eastward, as that cuts down the number of fronts that you have to protect.

I usualy build axes or swords while researching sailing.. cross the english channel and hit paris. This gets rid of a cultural threat to London and its a very short trip for your galleys to ferry units across. By the time you get the invasion force togeather, the French have usualy built a second city to the north east of Paris. Taking that and Paris is usualy fairly quick work. If they have managed a 3rd city, declare peace that that point.. it's never in Europe.

Backfill your territory by hitting Madrid second. From there, Rome (it's usualy got two cities) is a tempting target, and you can immediately follow through by taking greece. Once there, your next logical target is Germany, but germany tends to expand rapidly east towards russia and sometimes north to scandinavia. If you can get catherine on your side though, you can generaly match and then take Berin and meet russia in the middle. At that point you will have to consolodate your holdings and repair your ecconomy, but afterwards you can double cross russia, declare on saladin and cyrus for the middle east, or make an attempt at northern africa or scandinavia.

Hope that gives you some idea of how to go.

How much of an army would you usually recommend? I find my self sometimes taking too few (6 units, maybe 2 siege units) per city.

Any advise for the first few turns? I'm gonna try worker then worker then settler but not sure on the research I should do. Once I have the first few turns out of the way it's pretty striaght forward.

for cross - water invasions I usually bring over-kill, often 6+ galleons loaded in first wave, for water borne sword rush id say minimum of 8 units to attack first city - hold there in defense till troops are healed and reinforcements can be brought in, then send stack on to next target. -After that, if your economy and logistics can support it you can have several stacks pillaging their way across europe. One thing to keep in mind tho - if you dont have amphibious promotion its not wise to attack from galley unless you can afford heavy losses.

Wow, glad I ran across this one...let me give you my standard strat.

First...discard the notion that you can only get three cities in great britain. You're wasting incredible oppurtunities by doing so.

The great part about western europe in the civ 18 map ( and england specifically ) is the incredible production capabilities of the cities there.

First...Settling London...DON'T ever move from the starting tile your settler pops out at. Even though it is close to Paris, plop it right down where you start. The Channel jump from London to Paris will be huge later, both when france owns it, and when you do.

Now for a starting tech and build...Start building a Warrior...and start researching agriculture...Theres wheat immediately north of london...agriculture will finish before the worker...start with animal husbandry next.

After the worker pops...start on settler number 1...have the worker farm the wheat, then move SW to the cow...then NW to the next cow...

Second city placement...Three tiles immediately west of London...

Now London builds....<wait for it>...ANOTHER SETTLER...York builds...YET ANOTHER SETTLER!!!

Wow, this is insane...you're not supposed to play a rapid expansion game in Civ4? right?...

The settler will finish in london 1 turn before it finishes in york...that one will be headed to the land tile east of the fish...the one due south of where the iron deposit is. The settler that comes out of york will go to the northern tip and settle due west of the furs ( this will allow you a total of 4 cities in england and a 5th later in ireland ).

OK now that you have the biggest empire city wise in the entire world it's time to use that production capability. First get a warrior in every city...AI's LOVE empty cities as do human opponents...and they should be getting sailing about now...you should have sailing as a priority, and after your warriors are done, all 4 cities should build a galley.

You're going to control the north atlantic with an early navy and continue to build on it throughout the game.

Now your attention should be fixed on france. His only metal is one square east of Paris..and it's iron.

You should have iron working long before him. You should have two of your cites working on barracks, and the other two pumping out axes...once you have your first two axes...you can declare on france...put two galleys in the water tile between london and paris. Those will stay there most if not all of the entire game...Paris is now landlocked and you have total flexibility of movement...drop your axemen and move them to the forrest tile with the iron...park them there

France will sporadically attack with chariots and archers...one of your axemen should upgrade with forrest defense, the other should upgrade with combat 1 and medic...now you should be cranking swords...

9 times out of 10, axes beat swords, but here is one of the rare examples you want swords...france has no metal...so sword will have advantage over both chariot and archer...make sure to throw in a few axes, don't want a frisky rome to roll over you with praes here in a bit...

basically beat the crap out of paris ( you're getting ) 4 to 1 production, and if doing it right, you won't be throwing half your units away like the AI will.

Next focus on spain...another 1 city civ, and a holy city (95 times out of 100 in an all AI game)...

from that point you have 6 cities ( 3 capitols )...you're the tech leader...point leader...should have the highest power in europe ( give or take a bit with ceaser ), and have the best concentration of land on the whole map...

if you cant take over the world from there...you may want to read a bunch more of the "basic" articles

Oh and don't go for wonders...especially in a MP game...pyramids will be popped in 2020 with egypt, america/china generally have the oracle in the same time period...

Use the theory of...if you want a wonder, go out and take it...

happy hunting

Joe

Thank you for that detailed strat! :)

I'll try it out now.

EDIT: I never discover iron or copper in good enough time. I have all my ships ready but cannot make axes because iron and copper hasn't been found.