Best Earth 18 Start for SE?

[pmac5209]

I just recently became aware of the Specialist Economy strategy for the game and would like to practice employing it. Which civ in the Earth 18 scenario would give me the best chance of doing well with one considering that I'm terribly inexperienced when it comes to the SE? Thanks!

 

[Feyaria]

Egypt starts with stone and a lots of floodplains.
Stone for building the Pyramids (best wonder for a SE) and each floodplain farm can support a specialist.

But on Earth 18 its better to use a hybrid economy.

 

[JammerUno]

I would pick Freddy; he's philosophical, which is good, and you can rush the French, who have stone and marble I think.

 

[DMOC]

Egypt
England
France
Rome
Japan

 

[Kesshi]

pmac5209,

I like Rome.

 

[Gliese 581]

Isn't any strategy on Earth 18 pretty exclusive to that scenario? As long as you don't want to play randomized maps that's a good way to practice I suppose.

 

[mtr12]

Gliese-

Now you're gonna make me feel like an idiot for not thinking of that.

 

[Gliese 581]

Gliese-

Now you're gonna make me feel like an idiot for not thinking of that.

I'm sure some people only play earth maps, just an observation.

 

[Rotty]

I'm sure some people only play earth maps, just an observation.

Personally, 95% of my non-OCC games are either Earth or the Archipelago script. I find Civ 4's random continents come out as uninteresting blobs of land, which are deathly dull to conquer and only somewhat more fun to peacefully settle. It's so much more rewarding to measure my progress by what parts of the real world I control, or if I feel like being surprised, to measure it by islands. "I leverage being the first to Construction to build an army that puts me in control of approximately 20% of a potato-shaped landmass by 1 AD" just leaves me cold.

 

[sinergistic]

"I leverage being the first to Construction to build an army that puts me in control of approximately 20% of a potato-shaped landmass by 1 AD" just leaves me cold.

I kinda feel the same, and have been playing Earth maps a lot since I figured out how to start a custom scenario. I also like measuring my progress against what parts of the real world I control.

Also, @ Kesshi: Wow. That is impressive. I've got a new goal to shoot for now. What really blows my mind is how you TRIPLED your research from 500~(right?) to 1500~ in, what was it, 30 turns?

In my current game as Rome (among others) I had a research rate of about 550 at 1AD. It's now 460 AD (on marathon) and it's only gone up to 670 or so. Of course, I'm running a CE, since my last SE attempt failed horribly. Though now I'm tempted to give it another shot, seeing what you accomplished with it.

 

[Kesshi]

sinergistic,

That's something I've been working on for a long time. I used to play Civ 1 and to get a boost I'd use the "3 city trick." When you start as rome there was an approxmately 50% chance you'd start with two settlers instead of one. If you played on "Earth" map, you'd be a few steps away from France, which you could easily conquer with Settlers. Settlers were military units in Civ 1, they just had 0 attack and 1 defense, and you always had the option to keep a city, even at size 1. I've been doing this since the early 1990s... You could say that conquering Earth, starting as Rome, has been a past-time for me.

Anyways, I also used the Earth 34 civs mod, which makes Europe extremely crowded. When I turned off city razing, it permitted me to expand without building Settlers, which hastily speed up the process of taking over the world.

 

[sinergistic]

sinergistic,

That's something I've been working on for a long time. I used to play Civ 1 and to get a boost I'd use the "3 city trick." When you start as rome there was an approxmately 50% chance you'd start with two settlers instead of one. If you played on "Earth" map, you'd be a few steps away from France, which you could easily conquer with Settlers. Settlers were military units in Civ 1, they just had 0 attack and 1 defense, and you always had the option to keep a city, even at size 1. I've been doing this since the early 1990s... You could say that conquering Earth, starting as Rome, has been a past-time for me.

Anyways, I also used the Earth 34 civs mod, which makes Europe extremely crowded. When I turned off city razing, it permitted me to expand without building Settlers, which hastily speed up the process of taking over the world.

AH! You know, until I read your post just now, I didn't understand what 'no city razing' did. "Why bother with that when I can just decide whether I want to raze the city or not" I thought. But of course, you're talking about those pathetically small cities that just got placed right before you take them that get destroyed automagically.

I'll keep trying to improve, since Rome has also rapidly become one of my favorites, and try and use your game as a psudo-benchmark

 

[Kesshi]

sinergistic,

Well, if you want to do that, read VirusMonster's guide also. He has a LOT of incredible information in there. I learned a lot from him.

 

[Fetch]

"I leverage being the first to Construction to build an army that puts me in control of approximately 20% of a potato-shaped landmass by 1 AD"

That's almost signature worthy. And very true.