Expansion still the ticket

[pansophy]

I played the French with 12 civs on a large map at Monarch level.

Success still depends on good land and the ability to get a quick start territory wise. I resigned to see what the ending looked like and on the reply I got to see how all the other civs were building cities as fast as they could while I still only had a couple.

Goody huts are about the same density as before unless they put more of them near expansionistic civs _ I'd like to hear how much "better" the stuff is. I got some advances and money, and only got barbarians once.

It's a little wierd early on, I found myself not sure what to do since I wasn't big enough to build settlers, I couldn't build any improvements to speak of, and all I had were warriors.

Oh, another thing is that cities other than your capital do not produce culture without any improvements so count on the temple being on the early list of things.

Also, send your settlers out with a warrior or better so that barbarians don't get them _ that hardly ever happened to me in Civ2 and it already happened to me once.

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

Your last quote is dead on. It's REALLY going to suck losing your first settler to barbarians now, after losing 2 PopPoints you have to waste 2 more just to get a second city

 

[Malys Faisent]

Yeah, guard those settlers! Barbs will bee-line towards them I've noticed, especially if they are on the way to a city they want to attack. I've found that fortifying a horseman on a mountain helps alot, you can watch for barbarian advances and quickly speed to where your workers are.

 

[zandar]

Expansion is still A+++ priority, especially now: The more land you control, the more chance you have at gaining critical resources when you have the tech ability to find them.

No longer can you afford to turtle up in Civ and count on rolling over your enemies with Knights, Calvary, or Armor...if you don't have the resources, your best units will pale in comparison to those who have them. With no resources your best unit is the Longbowman once you get Invention...but you may never get that far.

You could easily find yourself in a mess early on without resources.

 

[treadwin]

I have the game - In second place in the 1500s with the Germans - level 2 (after a few failed games)

some thoughts -

Expand North - South rather than East-West if you have a choice. You get a greater variety of terrain and therefore resources. Also pick the best spots for your city regardless of gaps etc. Fill those in later if you have to, but good cities with fast settler production is key. Anything else is a waste of a settler.

Build roads - they move your settlers out faster. One or two turns makes a big difference.

Build next to rivers if you can - the aqueduct savings are big.

Ancient/early wonders are very powerful due to the cumlative culture bonus, build them all (if you can) except maybe the lighthouse. You can get some enemy cities before they really get going.

Build the forbidden city thing early, it counts as an old wonder then for culture and if you need it somewhere else you can always move your palace - (not my idea - but so good I had to repeat it).

Before you go to war give away your spare luxuries to the other civs in any kind of deal. It seems to keep them out of the war.

 

[Diety]

Nice thoughts, especially the north-south thingy.

Only one comment : trade resources just for avoiding conflict ?
Mmmmm, I donno. It seems to me that resources are the key to the game... So I don't want to share them with anyone, they are mine, mine, mine !!!