Sid Q

Except for 20K, I've been beating DG on all fronts in what I consider a too easy fashion, considering the level. Thus, I just entertained the idea of skipping Deity and trying Sid, see how it goes and go back to momma. I'm not yet at the foetal position crying part though, mind you, so here I come with a query for advice.



I have had the luckiest start ever: alone on my island with 3 luxes to top it off. Year is 670BC, I've been a republic for a turn now and things look OK. The map is tiny and I'm leading territory with my 19 cities. I have iron and horses, but zero infra: corruption is a blasphemy. I don't think a culture win is thinkable, and I IMHO diplo wins aren't too grand as far as victory conditions go. So space or conquest, with an option for domination if I try conquest and see an opening. Both seem very doable to me.

My question is: what to do, with that horrid corruption? The map is tiny and my 2nd city is almost 50% corrupt, I barely have over 3 towns under 50% ... Will it eventually 'pass' as my pop grows up and the corruption count becomes more accurate? Should I buy a court in the FP city and hope it lowers total build time by a few turns?

I'm currently afraid I can't really plan on going to the stars because a) libs would take forever to build and b) corruption would eat the beakers. I'm on a shaky conquest position as well, having no barracks and only a handful of productive cities.

If anyone has any ideas on what to do/how to deal with it I'd welcome them with a very merry hum. QSC and 670BC saves attached.

I have never played a tiny map and only one small map, so I do not have any understanding of why you would be so corrupt.

I can't see from the pix, is there a reason why Sparta did not grab the river?

Anyway I am not a building type that tries for UN or Culture, I like to get any other wins by taking all the land. Making them too small to win by any means.

Culture can be done, but you would win by other means first. You would have to drop the AI down to a few cities on a tiny map to surpass them, unless you manage to get lots of wonders.

I build very few wonders on Sid, most will be modern age ones as I will be behind until then. Their researching gets them the tech first and their production does the rest.

By the time I can take enough land to stay in the research game it is very late IA or early MA. Even then I do not try to research as I can usually only match them. It is cheaper to steal the tech and take their cities.

The trick in this game will be to get an army early. I can't tell if there are two civs with similar colors or those are the same owner. So if there is only 1 or 2 other civs, the AI will be slowed on it research. I have no idea how much that will impact the race.

I would guess with a lot of cities, you may be on par with them.

IOW with zero experience on tiny maps, I have no advice.

Ah, just realized the tiny has a very small OCN and you hit it before you have time enough to build up some of the core towns.
If you were still in Despotism, you could do some pop rushing to get in some infrastructure.


Edit: delete line on comercial, could not remember Greeks are commercial. I just don't play as Greece.

vmxa said:

Ah, just realized the tiny has a very small OCN and you hit it before you have time enough to build up some of the core towns. Too bad you did not pick a commercial civ for the extra OCN.

Click to expand...

The Greeks ARE commercial, though indeed tiny + sid probably does not allow for uncorrupt cities. The FP may help a little, and you could convert some population to "corruption free" taxcollectors, using the income to buy courthouses even in core cities (CA II may be of help to see if it would make a substantial difference).

Also, Beorn, in case you did not know, COTM19 is a Sid game. I played it and lost the first time, but won it eventually the third time. Very valuable first Sid experience!

Thanks Crakie, I'll go and try my hand on it, see how I do - without a soup of course.

@VMXA: I built Sparta off the river because there was a cow to catch that was 3 tiles off of it, and couldn't afford a temple in there. I had hoped to pump settlers out of two towns with 3 irrigated grass cows but the 2nd city was all too corrupt in despotism.

What you see are 3 colors: India, Portugal and France. Portugal has to go down first before Lisbon 20K's on me. Right now I'm thinking along the lines of doing both advices: taxmen outside the core, court/rax/swords inside, SOD Portugal and hope I'll survive long enough to send muskets.

And I'm not a veteran tiny map player either, so that might very well be the cause of my bewilderment. I usually play somewhere from small to large, depending on what time I have at hand in the following day or 2.

Thanks a lot for input

Corruption is a problem because Athens is not in a central location and your cities are too small to have any uncorrupted shields. You might want to move your capital to the center of your island to alleviate this problem. Also, definately build the forbidden palace.

First you need to get your cities to max population and develope the terrain ASAP. That means workers, workers, graneries, irrigation, and more workers. You also have several city spots available that are close to your capital and other locations around the island. Also place a couple of units to cordon off the Portuguese at the North of your island. You don't want them running through your territory.

Then you need to build aquaducts in your non-river cities (Sparta screams for one) and build court houses where applicable. Once this is done, your might want to build a bunch of your cheap libraries. With your large population and scientific and commercial traits, you should be able to keep close in the tech race even on Sid.

The first military action I would take after a build up would be the Portuguese cities in the north part of your island. Not because of their strategic value (though they probably have some modern resources), but because they will be easy to take.

For a victory you could try to conquer most of the other island for a domination victory but I would go for the space race since republic makes big sid wars difficult. After you have developed your island and conquered the Portuguese cities on your island I would build a navy, a bunch of defenders, a lot of artillery units, and some attackers. I would then sail to whichever AI is ahead and raze costal cities and bring the slaves back home until war weariness becomes to much of a problem. Then I would make peace and go on to the next AI. This strategy should destroy the AIs research which will put you farther ahead.