Sisiutil's Strategy Guide for Beginners

Freidenker said:

Thank you very much for the guide Sisiutil.

I have a question about initial build orders. You seem to prefer Worker/Warrior/Settler. Hoever, the "Optimum Early Growth Strategy" by ohioastronomy favors Worker/Worker/Settler, and his arguments are quite good. Also I generally play without Barbarians.

What do you think about the Worker/Worker/Setter build order ?

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As with everything else in this game, it depends.

My actual preferred initial build order in most games is either a Scout (if I start with Hunting) or a Warrior, then a Worker once the city grows to size 2. My thinking there is to explore as much territory as possible (so I know where strategic resources like copper, iron, or horses are located) and to get to as many tribal villages as I can as well. Scouts and Warriors tend to die at the hands (or, in many cases, paws) of barbarians, too, so it's usually good to have more than one. Warriors also let you nab Workers if an opportunity arises, which can really cripple a nearby opponent and make them more vulnerable to an early rush of some type.

However, if I start with Fishing and have a coastal start with seafood, I'll often build a Work Boat first. If I have a precious metal in the capital's BFC, I'll build a Worker first (while researching Mining, if needed) to get that extra commerce for research on-line ASAP.

I could see that Worker/Worker/Settler makes sense in many regards, but... well, it doesn't sound like much fun. You're only exploring with one unit and at 1 pop those builds will take a long time, even with chopping, so it sounds like for the first 100 turns or so you're just sitting there hitting the Enter key over and over again. Especially on the turns where your exploring Scout or Warrior is healing--which is frequent. Bo-ring. That's why I haven't managed to play a game at Marathon speed yet.

But if it works for you and you enjoy it, do it!

I'll try it.

But I prefer to play with no barbarians/no tribal village. I feel they contribute little to the game and increase randomness too much. With those settings, the advantage of building a warrior/scout first is significantly reduced.

Freidenker said:

I'll try it.

But I prefer to play with no barbarians/no tribal village. I feel they contribute little to the game and increase randomness too much. With those settings, the advantage of building a warrior/scout first is significantly reduced.

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Yeah, with those settings off, that's definitely the case.

I kind of like randomness. I'm finding the random events in BtS to be a lot of fun (though admittedly frustrating sometimes). Guess you'll be turning that feature off, too?

I kind of like randomness. I'm finding the random events in BtS to be a lot of fun (though admittedly frustrating sometimes). Guess you'll be turning that feature off, too?

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Yep, in my 3rd game, I'll turn that off. I don't generally play video games, I'm a chess player and I don't like chaos. Now I just need to find good players willing to crush me a couple of times and I should improve

Check the file please, there is something different there..

jimcz said:

Check the file please, there is something different there..

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I just did, it looks fine to me.

Okay, this is embarrassing.

I accidentally overwrote the word document used for this article when I used it as a sort of template to create a new file. Clicked Save instead of Save As. Stupid, but not something most of us haven't done one time or another.

No problem, I have a backup! Er... of version "1.8" of the file, not "2.0". Hmmm, maybe if I wasn't so busy playing Civ all the time, I'd practice what I preach and back my stuff up more often.

So... I was going to update the article with Beyond the Sword tips (how's that for motivation), but I kind of need the most recent version. Would one of you kind souls help stupid ol' Uncle Sisuitil out of his fix aand convert the existing PDF file to a Word document for me? Thanks in advance.

If I'm correct, it's usually not possible to get a text file from a pdf. However, it seems that you have a previous version of your text (not pdf) and a pdf of the newest (available here), so if it's not too much changes, you can copy/paste the texts from the pdf onto your new text.

JujuLautre said:

If I'm correct, it's usually not possible to get a text file from a pdf. However, it seems that you have a previous version of your text (not pdf) and a pdf of the newest (available here), so if it's not too much changes, you can copy/paste the texts from the pdf onto your new text.

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Hmmm, yeah, I might have to resort to that.

Sisiutil said:

Hmmm, yeah, I might have to resort to that.

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You can convert pdf files to Word documents with Acrobat Professional. If you send me the file I will do it for you.

Bolkonsky.

Bolkonski said:

You can convert pdf files to Word documents with Acrobat Professional. If you send me the file I will do it for you.

Bolkonsky.

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Er, can't you download it from the first post in this thread?

Sisiutil said:

Er, can't you download it from the first post in this thread?

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Ah, yes... I subscribed to this thread a long time ago and was not paying much attention only I knew I could help out.

One problem though, uploading Word docs is prohibited. If you send me your email by PM I will send it to you.

Bolkonsky.

Just change the extension, or zip it, or something =)

hi there!

i have Version 2.0 - December 22, 2006 in pdf form if it's any use? should be attached.

wo hoo, first post

lovelyfunbags said:

hi there!

i have Version 2.0 - December 22, 2006 in pdf form if it's any use? should be attached.

wo hoo, first post

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Welcome to CFC!

I can download that from the 1st post myself, but thanks for tryin'.

Thanks to Bolkonski, I now have a Word version again. I'm gradually working in some Beyond the Sword pointers. But I'll want to play at least a couple more ALC games to get even more tips before publishing an updated guide. Stay tuned!

Hi, I am reading the guide now. The link on page 1 was bad, btw, I got it from 'lovelyfunbags' link.

I was looking in the cities section for the answer to a question I have. I didn't find it so will ask here.

What are the pros and cons of placing your city on top of a resource? Do they get the benefit of the resource right away?

Thanks

What are the pros and cons of placing your city on top of a resource? Do they get the benefit of the resource right away?

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Pros:
- you get access to the ressource right at the moment you get the tech to harvest that ressource (masonry for marble/stone, calendar for dye/sugar/...)
- the ressource is better protected than with just an improvement
- you get additional productivity sometimes (if the tile with the ressource produce more than 2 food, 1 hammer or 1 commerce, your city will have a production which matches this; basically, settling on top of rice/wheat... and you will have a 3F/1H/1C city, on top of a grassland hill marble you get a 2/2/1 city, and on top of a grassland river dye you get a 2/1/2 city).

Cons:
- the city will not get the extra productivity given by the improvement for that ressource (extra food for pigs pasture, extra commerce for gold mine, extra productivity for iron mine...)

JujuLautre said:

Pros:
- you get access to the ressource right at the moment you get the tech to harvest that ressource (masonry for marble/stone, calendar for dye/sugar/...)
- the ressource is better protected than with just an improvement
- you get additional productivity sometimes (if the tile with the ressource produce more than 2 food, 1 hammer or 1 commerce, your city will have a production which matches this; basically, settling on top of rice/wheat... and you will have a 3F/1H/1C city, on top of a grassland hill marble you get a 2/2/1 city, and on top of a grassland river dye you get a 2/1/2 city).

Cons:
- the city will not get the extra productivity given by the improvement for that ressource (extra food for pigs pasture, extra commerce for gold mine, extra productivity for iron mine...)

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So to follow up on that, it almost never makes sense to settle on top of a food resource. Food is huge in this game, more important even than hammers or commerce. The whole point of a food resource is to get its benefit for the city, so it can grow and so its citizens can work low-food but high hammer or commerce tiles. Settling on food just to get its benefit is .

Strategic resources are a toss-up. On the one hand you're deprived of several hammers. On the other hand it makes it nearly impossible for the AI to deprive you of that resource. Hammers are valuable in this game, so I avoid settling on things like copper, iron, and horses, but then again I don't play raging barbs or aggressive AI, where I think this tactic may make more sense. If it's your only source of the resource, and there's a legitimate likelihood it will get pillaged, and you doubt your ability to protect it, then settling on top of it may be the logical course to take.

Camp, Monarchy, Mined, and Calendar resources tend to depend on the resource. I don't like to settle on dye, silver, gold, gems, deer, bananas, or sugar, as their improved benefits are substantial. The other resources in these categories are a toss-up. Incense, wine, silk, spices, ivory, and fur don't provide huge benefits from their tiles, so I usually base my decision to settle on these on the dotmap.

Sisiutil said:

So to follow up on that, it almost never makes sense to settle on top of a food resource.

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I do it occasionally. If you have an unirrigated rice, then it's only really worth +1 food anyway, so +1 food in your city center is just as good as +1 food next to it (before Civil Service). Similarly, sometimes I'll settle on bananas to get the +1 food right away, before Calendar. These can make sense if that's the only way to get the placement that you want and get other resources into your fat cross.

Thanks for the tips! Sisiutil will you consider adding this topic to your guid please if you get to update it? Thanks!