Now I know that there are those of you out there that won't think of this as epic as I do, but this was an amazing game for me!
Okay, first off, the setup. I got stuck on an island to start (a fairly large one with some nice resources, but it was still an island), I'm playing as the Russians, and it's the King difficulty (yeah yeah, but it's where I have a nice balance between frustration and reward). So, I customized my folks to my two forests And churned out 3 warriors to explore in 3 different directions, followed by a warrior army to waste any capital I might be lucky enough to stumble upon. It was just after this that I realized I was alone on an island. So after a few minutes of cursing at the television, I set Moscow to whip out a Galley. Now remember, this is full-on production. No growth, no teching going on so far. I pulled my two armies back to Moscow and boarded the galley, hoping I could still get away with rushing someone.
So to skip some of the boring details, I get my first tech age change (where the game gives you the option of saving) at 500 AD. At this point, I think I only have Bronze Working and Masonry (which I somehow got first so I still got the free walls in Moscow
), the 50g and the free Cossack horseman I got from the two barb huts that were on my island, and Moscow was my only city with 6pop. I was lucky enough to find a "super goodie hut" that gave me the Pyramids Wonder in Moscow as well. I immediately switched to Democracy since I knew that my only chance was to try to catch up in tech and maybe sneak in the back door with an econ victory. Not lookin too pretty for me huh.
I knew I was in deep doogie doo so I quickly whipped out a settler and recalled my galley with my entire millitary of two warrior armies back to Moscow. I followed the settlers north with one and camped the other in Moscow. Now, as luck would have it, 4 squares north of Moscow was a square that was surrounded on three sides by river and to the south was a hill. It was a special river that I got to name too
In addition, within the initial one-space radius, there was 2 forests, and an oak resource! I quickly spat out another settler from this city, was lucky enough to get it to a nearby island with some Aluminum and a forest and set it for full-on growth to get back the pop I lost (still on Democracy remember). I also quickly whipped out a Library for Moscow (my learning centre) and then another Settler.
There was a chain of islands to the south of me so I would make a city, Whip out a Settler, full-on growth, and repeat until I had four or five cities. All of them except Moscow were set for gold. I never really did catch up on tech, but I wasn't too far behind since for the most part, everyone left me alone and some people traded periodically when I had something of interest. A couple of flipped cities via Great Artists and I had a pretty rocking civilization going into the Modern Age (about 1870 AD).
This is when things start turning ugly. The Romans were not-so-quietly developing massive amounts of culture, the Egyptians were staying out of everyone's way, but were hemmed in, the French were stockpiling arms, and the Spanish were teching like mad. The Romans are closing in fast on a Cultural Victory, even building the United Nations in about three or four cities when they finally get annoyed that I'm trying to sneak in the back door with an econ victory. So the AI stops what it's doing and declares war. I'm thanking God at this point since I'm still only at 8,000g. The French and Egyptians follow suit, with the Spaniards declaring war last.
Now this is my frustration with the "randomness" of Civ Rev. Through my own negligence, a city I had used a Great Person to flip from the Egyptians was 2 squares away from a Spanish city only had one Pikemen unit in it. Now, this city had walls and the unit was heavily fortified so it had a decent defence score. Spain attacked that city with a single tank (I''m pretty sure since this pikeman wasn't a vet or anything but still had like double the combat score as the tank) and lost! So, partly due to my own negligence (even a second unit would have helped) I lost that city. A couple of rounds later, the French attack my northern-most city (it's on it's own island too) with I think a cannon army. This time, I still have one defensive unit, with walls and all that, but it's a veteran Rifleman guarding this city. Once again, my Rifleman has at least double the combat score of the Cannon army and it loses. Two cities gone but I'm in panic mode at this point. Besides, my biggest offensive units are those two Warrior armies from the beginning. Remember them? I don't
So I just shrug and continue on.
Now, at this point, the Spanish eliminate the Egyptians, the French and the Spanish make truces with me to go after the Romans who are still trying to kick my ass. Quietly, I'm still stockpiling my gold, watching the Roman Fighters fall to the feet of my awesome Riflemen. Every once in a while, the Romans check to see if I want peace and I give them the one-finger salute. Then, I hit 20k! I go to my "factory" city (which now actually has a factory in it) and tell it to build the National Bank wonder. 15 turns with customized worker placement. In Moscow, I rush an ICBM
that I can't use (Democracy still) and a few other wonders and buildings all around my civ. Then I develop Communism (again first, I don't know how but hey. I'm not gonna complain). So that solves all my problems. I switch to Communism to speed up building of the World Bank without the one-turn production penalty and launch the ICBM (my first time ever! I'm usually in a Democracy in end-game) at Rome! Now that I have assured that Rome will be forever tweaked at me, I just sit back and watch my World Bank being built.
To sum up, I went from one city on an island in 500 AD to winning an Econ victory at 2080. Talk about cutting it close!
Now for the reason for the thread title.
I have heard of a lot of players that restart if they are placed on an island. Don't. Your game/life isn't over, it just means you're gonna haveta alter your early teching strategies is all.
And for those of you that don't like the Russians, give them another chance. I think their defensive capabilities are sorely underrated. There is something to be said for "turtling". I'm not sure about later, but at least up to King difficulty, 2 units in a city and there's no way you are going to lose them. Two Russian Riflemen armies can hold off tanks, planes, you name it. I haven't had the opportunity to face-off with artillery, but who wants to? And with 1/2 cost spies, your Great People aren't going anywhere.
I think the biggest thing that saved me was the mad rush of settlers and then going full-on growth. Replacing those POP points fast was a huge priority. I know more cities help, but not if they don't have the manpower. So I would put all my workers on food to grow the cities as fast as I could, and added other things when they became available. This is another good reason for deciding specialties for your cities. It makes it much easier to decide when to rush grow or rush produce. In this game, I also had a glitch. I didn't get Banking free when I was supposed to. By the time I figured this out though, it only took 2 turns to learn, but I was waiting on those Banks! So, I grew my cities while I waited for my gld to grow so I could get Banking for free.
Feel free to intelligently discuss anything I have mentioned here. This worked for me (after a couple of tries) so I thought I would post this long-winded story to help others. If you hve any suggestions on what I could have done better, by all means let me know too! Like I said, King is my limit atm, but would like to be better!
Okay, first off, the setup. I got stuck on an island to start (a fairly large one with some nice resources, but it was still an island), I'm playing as the Russians, and it's the King difficulty (yeah yeah, but it's where I have a nice balance between frustration and reward). So, I customized my folks to my two forests And churned out 3 warriors to explore in 3 different directions, followed by a warrior army to waste any capital I might be lucky enough to stumble upon. It was just after this that I realized I was alone on an island. So after a few minutes of cursing at the television, I set Moscow to whip out a Galley. Now remember, this is full-on production. No growth, no teching going on so far. I pulled my two armies back to Moscow and boarded the galley, hoping I could still get away with rushing someone.
So to skip some of the boring details, I get my first tech age change (where the game gives you the option of saving) at 500 AD. At this point, I think I only have Bronze Working and Masonry (which I somehow got first so I still got the free walls in Moscow
), the 50g and the free Cossack horseman I got from the two barb huts that were on my island, and Moscow was my only city with 6pop. I was lucky enough to find a "super goodie hut" that gave me the Pyramids Wonder in Moscow as well. I immediately switched to Democracy since I knew that my only chance was to try to catch up in tech and maybe sneak in the back door with an econ victory. Not lookin too pretty for me huh.I knew I was in deep doogie doo so I quickly whipped out a settler and recalled my galley with my entire millitary of two warrior armies back to Moscow. I followed the settlers north with one and camped the other in Moscow. Now, as luck would have it, 4 squares north of Moscow was a square that was surrounded on three sides by river and to the south was a hill. It was a special river that I got to name too
In addition, within the initial one-space radius, there was 2 forests, and an oak resource! I quickly spat out another settler from this city, was lucky enough to get it to a nearby island with some Aluminum and a forest and set it for full-on growth to get back the pop I lost (still on Democracy remember). I also quickly whipped out a Library for Moscow (my learning centre) and then another Settler. There was a chain of islands to the south of me so I would make a city, Whip out a Settler, full-on growth, and repeat until I had four or five cities. All of them except Moscow were set for gold. I never really did catch up on tech, but I wasn't too far behind since for the most part, everyone left me alone and some people traded periodically when I had something of interest. A couple of flipped cities via Great Artists and I had a pretty rocking civilization going into the Modern Age (about 1870 AD).
This is when things start turning ugly. The Romans were not-so-quietly developing massive amounts of culture, the Egyptians were staying out of everyone's way, but were hemmed in, the French were stockpiling arms, and the Spanish were teching like mad. The Romans are closing in fast on a Cultural Victory, even building the United Nations in about three or four cities when they finally get annoyed that I'm trying to sneak in the back door with an econ victory. So the AI stops what it's doing and declares war. I'm thanking God at this point since I'm still only at 8,000g. The French and Egyptians follow suit, with the Spaniards declaring war last.
Now this is my frustration with the "randomness" of Civ Rev. Through my own negligence, a city I had used a Great Person to flip from the Egyptians was 2 squares away from a Spanish city only had one Pikemen unit in it. Now, this city had walls and the unit was heavily fortified so it had a decent defence score. Spain attacked that city with a single tank (I''m pretty sure since this pikeman wasn't a vet or anything but still had like double the combat score as the tank) and lost! So, partly due to my own negligence (even a second unit would have helped) I lost that city. A couple of rounds later, the French attack my northern-most city (it's on it's own island too) with I think a cannon army. This time, I still have one defensive unit, with walls and all that, but it's a veteran Rifleman guarding this city. Once again, my Rifleman has at least double the combat score of the Cannon army and it loses. Two cities gone but I'm in panic mode at this point. Besides, my biggest offensive units are those two Warrior armies from the beginning. Remember them? I don't
So I just shrug and continue on.Now, at this point, the Spanish eliminate the Egyptians, the French and the Spanish make truces with me to go after the Romans who are still trying to kick my ass. Quietly, I'm still stockpiling my gold, watching the Roman Fighters fall to the feet of my awesome Riflemen. Every once in a while, the Romans check to see if I want peace and I give them the one-finger salute. Then, I hit 20k! I go to my "factory" city (which now actually has a factory in it) and tell it to build the National Bank wonder. 15 turns with customized worker placement. In Moscow, I rush an ICBM
that I can't use (Democracy still) and a few other wonders and buildings all around my civ. Then I develop Communism (again first, I don't know how but hey. I'm not gonna complain). So that solves all my problems. I switch to Communism to speed up building of the World Bank without the one-turn production penalty and launch the ICBM (my first time ever! I'm usually in a Democracy in end-game) at Rome! Now that I have assured that Rome will be forever tweaked at me, I just sit back and watch my World Bank being built. To sum up, I went from one city on an island in 500 AD to winning an Econ victory at 2080. Talk about cutting it close!
Now for the reason for the thread title.
I have heard of a lot of players that restart if they are placed on an island. Don't. Your game/life isn't over, it just means you're gonna haveta alter your early teching strategies is all.
And for those of you that don't like the Russians, give them another chance. I think their defensive capabilities are sorely underrated. There is something to be said for "turtling". I'm not sure about later, but at least up to King difficulty, 2 units in a city and there's no way you are going to lose them. Two Russian Riflemen armies can hold off tanks, planes, you name it. I haven't had the opportunity to face-off with artillery, but who wants to? And with 1/2 cost spies, your Great People aren't going anywhere.
I think the biggest thing that saved me was the mad rush of settlers and then going full-on growth. Replacing those POP points fast was a huge priority. I know more cities help, but not if they don't have the manpower. So I would put all my workers on food to grow the cities as fast as I could, and added other things when they became available. This is another good reason for deciding specialties for your cities. It makes it much easier to decide when to rush grow or rush produce. In this game, I also had a glitch. I didn't get Banking free when I was supposed to. By the time I figured this out though, it only took 2 turns to learn, but I was waiting on those Banks! So, I grew my cities while I waited for my gld to grow so I could get Banking for free.
Feel free to intelligently discuss anything I have mentioned here. This worked for me (after a couple of tries) so I thought I would post this long-winded story to help others. If you hve any suggestions on what I could have done better, by all means let me know too! Like I said, King is my limit atm, but would like to be better!
