Martin Alvito
Real men play SMAC
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2010
- Messages
- 2,332
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Settings: Standard Continents, standard rule set. Used Babylon. You could use the French and get the +50% GPP policy in Freedom if you don't have Babylon, but it will take longer. If you play flawlessly, the French probably can do it in under 200 turns. I botched several things in this game, and still finished on 196.
The approach:
1) Build cities three tiles apart, but don't go for pure ICS spacing. Plant where you can add Hills to the tiles you control. If that means 2 roads to hook up each city, too bad. In practice you'll probably run 1.7 to 1.8.
2) Don't build Settlers right out of the gate. Build four Warriors and rush your nearest neighbor. This gets you living space and a city. Annex the city and spam Settlers. Burn the captured city down when Happiness becomes a problem, replacing it with the last Settler it builds. Meanwhile, take the AI's peace deal. You should get any luxuries it has and all of its gold. Plan to run surplus luxuries as much as you can. You want to fill the Happy bucket for a Golden Age (GA) around turn 90-95.
3) ICS normally to Happiness cap, but save your SPs. You want to freeze your cities at size 2 early on. After Construction, get Writing and build a Library in the capital. Pick up Bronze and Iron if you need them to stay alive, and get anything you need to hook up luxuries. Then start teching Education. Once you max out your Happiness, build Colosseums everywhere. Buy two allies: a Maritime the moment it becomes available, and a Cultural ally.
4) Note that in the second wave of expansion it is highly desirable to have your cities that will end up producing spaceship parts NOT make Settlers. You only need to get to fifteen cities or so, then stop the expansion. Build Libraries everywhere. Bulb Education when it becomes available so you can start on the University in the capital, building them elsewhere as you can. Tech Compass.
5) If you used the Library optimally (staff when needed to speed up next tech), you should have a GS by the time you finish Compass. Bulb Astronomy for the Renaissance, and build a Caravel immediately (rush if you have the funds). Open Rationalism, Secularism and Freedom after your Happy bucket fills and the GA begins. Then buy another Maritime as soon as you can and grow to size 4.
6) Finding the other continent quickly does two things for you. You get Research Agreements free of the risk of a declaration of war, and you get cash. Take advantage of this for all it is worth.
7) As Universities finish up, fill the Library and the University with Scientists. This will get you through the Renaissance by the time the Research Agreements begin to complete. It will also get you the Great Scientists (GS) you need to unlock Apollo early and build it. Save each GS when you get it.
8) You can take the Scientists back out as each city produces a GS, and work on infrastructure. Since every city will be filled, each city will only produce a single GS. This is why it is desirable to have your production cities finish Universities first; they then produce the GS first.
9) What infrastructure? I build the following: Forbidden Palace (second Happy GA for building Apollo), Taj (complete it right after the GA bucket empties), Forges wherever possible (it works on Spaceship parts), Windmills, Factories. Permanent Science cities build Markets with the leftover population (you can get +2 Gold and Science with them under Secularism). You'll also want to build some siege to station in border cities. Mints are helpful in the cities that can build them (if possible, you want these cities as production cities).
If you have time, you can pop out Hagia Sophia and/or the Porcelain Tower as well. They're roughly equivalent for the Babs (+1 GS). The French definitely want Hagia Sophia.
10) Make sure that you time your research so that you can "select" not to take Metallurgy or Fertilizer with Research Agreements. To avoid unlocking those techs, you need to have completed a full turn of research on each in the turn before a Research Agreement ends. Switch away and research something you need after a single turn of researching one of those techs.
11) You should be clearing Steam Power and Biology around turn 140 if you manage your research carefully. Once you have enough Great Scientists, bulb to Apollo and start on it. The capital is usually the best spot. You will want to rush a Factory in the capital. Build them the hard way elsewhere. Connect your production cities to the capital with Railroads.
11) You now have 13 techs left (14 counting Railroads). Between Great Scientists, research the hard way and Research Agreements, you should burn through all of these by turn 175. As Apollo finishes, start on parts.
12) Use any Great Generals and any Great Scientists that pop after the tree is completed for Golden Ages to speed up spaceship construction. Build the Boosters in the three weakest production cities. Rush Spaceship Factories where needed, selling your gold per turn surplus if needed, and even your Science buildings if needed.
That's about all there is to it.
Settings: Standard Continents, standard rule set. Used Babylon. You could use the French and get the +50% GPP policy in Freedom if you don't have Babylon, but it will take longer. If you play flawlessly, the French probably can do it in under 200 turns. I botched several things in this game, and still finished on 196.
The approach:
1) Build cities three tiles apart, but don't go for pure ICS spacing. Plant where you can add Hills to the tiles you control. If that means 2 roads to hook up each city, too bad. In practice you'll probably run 1.7 to 1.8.
2) Don't build Settlers right out of the gate. Build four Warriors and rush your nearest neighbor. This gets you living space and a city. Annex the city and spam Settlers. Burn the captured city down when Happiness becomes a problem, replacing it with the last Settler it builds. Meanwhile, take the AI's peace deal. You should get any luxuries it has and all of its gold. Plan to run surplus luxuries as much as you can. You want to fill the Happy bucket for a Golden Age (GA) around turn 90-95.
3) ICS normally to Happiness cap, but save your SPs. You want to freeze your cities at size 2 early on. After Construction, get Writing and build a Library in the capital. Pick up Bronze and Iron if you need them to stay alive, and get anything you need to hook up luxuries. Then start teching Education. Once you max out your Happiness, build Colosseums everywhere. Buy two allies: a Maritime the moment it becomes available, and a Cultural ally.
4) Note that in the second wave of expansion it is highly desirable to have your cities that will end up producing spaceship parts NOT make Settlers. You only need to get to fifteen cities or so, then stop the expansion. Build Libraries everywhere. Bulb Education when it becomes available so you can start on the University in the capital, building them elsewhere as you can. Tech Compass.
5) If you used the Library optimally (staff when needed to speed up next tech), you should have a GS by the time you finish Compass. Bulb Astronomy for the Renaissance, and build a Caravel immediately (rush if you have the funds). Open Rationalism, Secularism and Freedom after your Happy bucket fills and the GA begins. Then buy another Maritime as soon as you can and grow to size 4.
6) Finding the other continent quickly does two things for you. You get Research Agreements free of the risk of a declaration of war, and you get cash. Take advantage of this for all it is worth.
7) As Universities finish up, fill the Library and the University with Scientists. This will get you through the Renaissance by the time the Research Agreements begin to complete. It will also get you the Great Scientists (GS) you need to unlock Apollo early and build it. Save each GS when you get it.
8) You can take the Scientists back out as each city produces a GS, and work on infrastructure. Since every city will be filled, each city will only produce a single GS. This is why it is desirable to have your production cities finish Universities first; they then produce the GS first.
9) What infrastructure? I build the following: Forbidden Palace (second Happy GA for building Apollo), Taj (complete it right after the GA bucket empties), Forges wherever possible (it works on Spaceship parts), Windmills, Factories. Permanent Science cities build Markets with the leftover population (you can get +2 Gold and Science with them under Secularism). You'll also want to build some siege to station in border cities. Mints are helpful in the cities that can build them (if possible, you want these cities as production cities).
If you have time, you can pop out Hagia Sophia and/or the Porcelain Tower as well. They're roughly equivalent for the Babs (+1 GS). The French definitely want Hagia Sophia.
10) Make sure that you time your research so that you can "select" not to take Metallurgy or Fertilizer with Research Agreements. To avoid unlocking those techs, you need to have completed a full turn of research on each in the turn before a Research Agreement ends. Switch away and research something you need after a single turn of researching one of those techs.
11) You should be clearing Steam Power and Biology around turn 140 if you manage your research carefully. Once you have enough Great Scientists, bulb to Apollo and start on it. The capital is usually the best spot. You will want to rush a Factory in the capital. Build them the hard way elsewhere. Connect your production cities to the capital with Railroads.
11) You now have 13 techs left (14 counting Railroads). Between Great Scientists, research the hard way and Research Agreements, you should burn through all of these by turn 175. As Apollo finishes, start on parts.
12) Use any Great Generals and any Great Scientists that pop after the tree is completed for Golden Ages to speed up spaceship construction. Build the Boosters in the three weakest production cities. Rush Spaceship Factories where needed, selling your gold per turn surplus if needed, and even your Science buildings if needed.
That's about all there is to it.
