Jumping back into Civ II after a long layoff

Hey, I'm jumping back into Civ II after only playing Civ III and C3C for the past couple of years. I used to be okay at Civ II (I was playing around the King/Emporer level, IIRC) but I've discovered that I don't remember jack. I mean nothing. At all.

It's pretty scary, actually.

Anyway, I'll go back and read the manual and the stuff in the War Academy and the threads here and in the Strategy & Tips section, but I've got a few quick questions that I was hoping someone could answer.

BTW, I'm using Civ II Classic, so no ToT or FW options apply

1) What are the de facto "default rules"? I mean like how over in C3C, you've got to turn of CLSP, or you get the American Civ group every time. Is there anything like that over here in Civ II, or should I just stick with the Standard Rules? I know different people like different things, and I understand what the rules do, I'm just asking whether there is a "forum standard" like everybody turns off Respawn, for example

2) Gender, Tribe and City Style. These don't affect gameplay, right? I know there are no civ traits like with Civ III, but these three choices in Civ II are all just for flavor, IIRC. So . . . do I RC?

3) It seems like there was a third one, but I can't remember it now. I'll come back and put it in if I remember, or I'll start a new thread if somebody here answers it first.

Thanks!

Trying my best to answer, haven't actually played in a couple months.

1. There really aren't any special "house" rules, as you might say. Some people prefer playing w/ Bloodlust on (no Spaceship win option) or w/ Flat maps, but it really boils down to personal preference and what you feel like doing at the moment

2. I believe that the nations are placed on the map in order depending on what color they are (white placed first, purple placed last, w/ darker blue being in the exact middle). The civs that get placed first get better terrain but fewer starting techs, and vice-versa for those placed last. Other than that, custom tribe names, leader names, etc. don't affect gameplay.

BTW, glad to see anther Classic user around. I started getting lonely in my little niche...

Well, if answering lots of questions makes you less lonely you're in luck!

It'll probably be a while before I can be helpful for others, though.

Thanks for the answers, and just to be clear, among each color, tribe choice is insignificant, and city style has no effect? I had no idea about the color thing, I don't think I knew that even back when I used to play a lot of Civ II (I was almost always the Romans, so . . .)

City style definitely has no effect. The tribes, however, do have characteristics. These mainly effect the way they behave as your AI opponents, but there was a thread on apolyton which suggested that the tribe you choose effects the likelihood of certain techs being assigned as starting techs. Note that this is different then the issue of how many starting techs you get, which is supposed to be inversely proportional to the quality of your starting location.

Actually I was referring to the fact that I was the only one (that I knew of) who had Classic before you came around. But yes, helping other people is an enjoyable task

Okay. I asked over at Apolyton about the individual tribes (couldn't find an existing thread), and I'll post the answer here if anything turns up.

A variable to tribes is how the AI would play each tribe. So, if you want to be sure you don't have to face the Mongols then you can play the purple civ.

In addition to that each tribe color is correlated to your power level in the game to determine which tribe is your 'key civ'. If you and your key civ are at about the saem level in techs you will not have any modifiers to your science rate. if you are far ahead you will have a penalty added, far behind, a bonus.

I understand only one civ from each color is allowed, but this "key civ" thing is new to me. Are you saying you are only compared to one civ in Civ II, instead of all of them?

If so, is this determined by color or civ?

What I'm trying to figure out is if there is any difference between playing as for example, the Romans or Russians (both white, I think).

ummmm........ said:

What I'm trying to figure out is if there is any difference between playing as for example, the Romans or Russians (both white, I think).

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No difference other than the default leader and city names will be different.

This thread has lots of good info in it:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=96725

Item #10 discusses the 'key civ'

Excellent. Thanks for the link.

EDIT: Finally got an answer to my thread over at Apolyton, and it turns out both color and where a civ is on the civilized/militaristic axis come into play. So a blue civilized civ would be likely to get different techs than a blue neutral civ or a white civilized civ. Two blue civilized civs would be the same, though. I think. Lot of info to process. I'm still in the expansion phase of my first game back, and I didn't even remember that Settlers and workers were the same unit in Civ II. It's going to be a long road back, I can tell.

i,m back to playing civ2 after a 3 year haytus also i think we sould start awarness to get more people to play this great game to many don,t reallize they miss alot about this game when playing civ3

Yeah, it is pretty great. I guess all the research makes it less of a challenge or something, but it's still plenty challenging for me . . .

Civ II is still on my hard-drive... I love it and III. They're very different experiences, as is SMAC. Epic games are completely different, there are different possibilities for scenario-makers (and therefore different scenarios to play)...

It's on my hard-drive of my laptop, but my CD-ROM drive is busted so I can't play it there.

Quasar1011 said:

It's on my hard-drive of my laptop, but my CD-ROM drive is busted so I can't play it there.

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Well, I do know that if you have Classic/2.42 or before, you can play w/o the CD. Post-MGE you have to have the CD or a special patch. Not sure about FW.

No need for the CD with FW. That's why I've install it on every computer I've ever had.

I am too getting back to playing Civ2 after a long time of not playing it. Already I am planing on creating a mini graphic mod and a Civ2 Redux mod.

Yeah, I'm recently back into Civ II after about a year off, and a dabble with Civ III which just didn't excite me, and it is quite amazing how much you forget.

I have both Classic 2.42 and MGE, but tend to play Classic at least while concentrating on a spaceship victory as I get really p*ssed off with MGE's AI aggression levels.

Have seen lots of wonderful advice on this site, but trying to remember it all at once during a game is a real challenge. (I have the same problem trying to remember all the elements of a good golf swing too - bend your knees, get your balance right, etc etc )

Surtac said:

Have seen lots of wonderful advice on this site, but trying to remember it all at once during a game is a real challenge. (I have the same problem trying to remember all the elements of a good golf swing too - bend your knees, get your balance right, etc etc )

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Here is the Civ Fanatics equivalent of "Grip it and rip it." The title says it's for New Players, but there's a lot of really good stuff for everyone there.

Thanks Tim (and ElephantU),

That thread is truly awesome - an enormous amount of work (and game time I'm thinking) to put it together