Tactics and Objectives...

[simonnomis]

Does anyone else find they spend a lot of their time trying to preserve or boost their AI civ competitors (usually against you) and play balance of power politics? What are your usual gameplay tactics and objectives?

I find these days its so easy to defeat the AIs, even simultaneously and with inferior technology, that conquering the world is not a challenge. The hardest challange is preventing all out war against myself by becoming to big a power, so I usually limit myself to 2-3 cities and embark on a technological conquest. I then constantly cheat and edit the game using the various cheat programs to bolster the more feeble powers (usually Babylonians or Egyptians) as they get slaughtered by the pointless aggressors (usually Russians and Mongols).

Another tactic I sometimes play is to build a single city, keep it as primitive as possible, and wait until there is one huge dangerous power, desperate to blow my citizens to pieces. The challenge then is to survive and eventually destroy this power, against all odds. I haven't lost yet, as the AI isnt really very smart, but it presents much more of a problem than the usual game, especially when they have armors and you have phalanx to stop them with.

 

[trada]

I can't help but watch the AI get big and powerful in my games I'm not that a good of a player (at all) but I'm happy to get involved in late-tech inter-continental world wars.. so I can't complain.

 

[Ifrit9]

Likely I'll look much more conservative, but my usual objective is SCORE. Of course, scoring mechanisms in Civ1 (as well as in Civ2 and Civ3) are quite primitive, but trying to overrun yourself in destroying all enemies & civ development is still fun.

Also, I enjoy watching AI waging nuclear and naval wars. It's quite hard to "construct" the proper situation (mainly, to prevent all AIs from attacking me in the first hand), but the result creates a nice action-story (pity it cannot be recorded).

 

[simonnomis]

Its funny.. I dont think I ever tried to play for score.. I suppose the best way is to basically cover the map in your cities right?

I love the rare cases of nuclear war between the AI civs. Its quite exciting to watch lol. Its a shame they dont throw the bombs around more freely, it would make for a more challenging game, especially if they targeted naval fleets.

 

[Ifrit9]

Its funny.. I dont think I ever tried to play for score.. I suppose the best way is to basically cover the map in your cities right?

Nah, I personally consider such methods of winning or gaining score as cheating. The general goal in my games is something like: to develop my civ and conquer the world/build a spaceship as fast as it is possible. The point is - I compete with myself, not with someone else. So using tricks like covering the whole map with cities, artificially reducing city sizes, etc. just makes no sense for me.

 

[trada]

Amen brother! That's what I do too. And I I knew I'm not going to be the first to launch a spaceship.. I simply throw myself at whatever civ I hate the most.