Tips & Tricks for New Players

[ElephantU]

PONDEROUS PACHYDERM'S TIPS AND TRICKS FOR NEW CIV2 PLAYERS


1. PLAN AHEAd...

The first rule of any successful game - PLAN! You have the only human mind in the game (assuming you are playing Single Player...) - use it! Pick a "Strategic Objective": Spaceship Victory, Conquest Victory, High Score, Learning, Experimenting or Just For Fun - and stick to it! Think ahead about what techs you will be needing soon, what government you are preparing to switch to, which AI civ you are preparing to do away with. Before you settle, think about how a new city location will grow, what the corruption level will likely be, and whether it will need extra defenses. Before the key tech for that desired Wonder gets there, start gathering caravans or prebuilding another Wonder in the city you want it in.

Who was it who said: "Failure to plan is like planning to fail"? Wise words.

2. TRADE!

Trade is the single greatest advantage the human player has over the AI. Consider making the discovery of Trade your first priority after getting out of Despotism. Upon delivery of a caravan or freight there is both a one-time bonus payment (in gold AND beakers) and an ongoing trade route between the two cities.

The delivery bonus payment is doubled in that an equal number of research beakers are added to current research as well as gold to the treasury. The bonus payment is mostly based on distance between the cities, but there are a host of multipliers such as tech age, "critical-path" Road/Rail links, city improvements, demand for delivered commodity, domestic vs. import and home-island vs. off-island.

Trade routes are multiplied by "critical-path" Road/Rail links and some city improvements (SuperHighways and Airports), but are halved for domestic routes. A group of trade routes to a Super Science/Trade City (SSC/STC) with 3-4 trade special terrains and Colossus can be enough to reap more than one tech per turn from city research alone!

3. MULTIPURPOSE CARAVANS/FREIGHTS

Other uses for camels and trucks besides delivery for bonuses and trade routes: upon arrival at a city building a Wonder a caravan or freight can be "contributed" toward the building project, adding 50 shields each. This contrasts with disbanding any other unit, which will contribute only half of the build shields toward the current construction. Another trick is to use caravans or freights to build SpaceShip parts, as long as at least one Wonder is still unbuilt. Start a Wonder, add the camels or trucks, then switch directly to a SpaceShip part. This is the only type of production switch that is permitted without losing 50% of the accumulated shields.

4. BOOSTED DELIVERY BONUS

A trick to boost the bonus payment is to halt the caravan or freight just outside the destination city while you temporarily rearrange all the source city's workers to maximize the number of trade arrows. At the same time, make sure that the destination still demands the commodity you are about to deliver (things have a nasty habit of changing at the last minute...). Don't worry about having zero or negative food or production while you maximize trade arrows in the source city. Right after the delivery is made, go back to the source city and rearrange the workers back to their previous priorities. A quick way to do this is to click once on the center tile, which reorganizes the workers the way the AI assigns them: food first, then shields, then trade. Then just tweak them to maximize your current priority.

Another way of boosting the bonus applies to the situation where your government is not either Republic or Democracy. If you can adjust trade arrows and/or Luxuries rates to force the source city (or cities; this works best if several cities are delivering the same turn) into "We Love The King/HighPriest/Chairman Day" celebration (see next tip), the next turn the city/ies will have one extra trade arrow for each tile being worked that already has at least one trade arrow. Combined with the previous trick this can sometimes more than double the size of the bonus payment!

5. WE LOVE THE (current leader) DAY

When cities are especially happy they go into a state called "celebration" or "We Love..." which has extra benefits. Celebration requires at least three citizens, at least half or more of which are happy (dark blue rather than light blue), and no unhappy or really unhappy citizens (red or black). A celebrating city under Despotic government will get the full benefits from terrain specials (like Monarchy); under Monarchy, Fundy or Commy will get an extra trade arrow for each worked tile that has at least one (ie, trade arrows like Rep or Dem); and under Republic or Democracy, as long as there is at least one surplus food sheaf, will grow by one citizen each turn until the food is exhausted or unhappy citizens cancel the celebration. If your city is experiencing celebration growth under Rep/Dem, be sure to check it at the end of each turn to make sure none of your tweaking has left an unhappy citizen around to mess things up!

6. SUPER SCIENCE/TRADE CITY (SSC/STC)

These cities are so powerful because of the multiplicative effect of a combination of high-trade terrain and Wonders that benefit only one city. The idea is to use your other cities (if you have them; the One City Challenge is another way to play this) to help build up this one special city, which will then generate tons of beakers or gold. The key Wonders are Colossus, Copernicus, Shakespeare and Newtons; Hanging Gardens and King Richards are also valuable in certain situations. Quick growth of the city is vital - other cities (if present) contribute Settlers to improve the land and caravans to speed the building of Wonders. Three large Trade Routes are also important - try to trade with the largest AI city available, and if the AI is still on your "continent" consider building "critical path" Road/Rail connections to get extra trade.

7. UNBLOCKING COMMODITIES - THE "WONDER BREAD" TRICK

When you build a commodity (non-food) caravan or freight, the commodity is "blocked" (cannot be built again, denoted by parenthesis around it) unless it is Hides (which has unlimited resupply, but peters out as the city grows). If a trade route is established with another city the supply will stay blocked; sometimes even when the trade route is not established (already had 3 routes, or others are larger) it will still be blocked. On a regular cycle of every 16 turns (the "Solo Cycle") each city is "re-processed" to see if the Supply/Demand list might change or unblocked supplies can be released. If the list changes, the new commodities will not be blocked; same for if the delivery did not establish a route. You can force a re-processing of the list by starting a Wonder in the city and contributing a caravan or freight to it (using food preserves other commodities for delivery - hence the name...). If the supply is successfully unblocked, switch production to a caravan or freight and finish it as soon as possible.

8. "HIDDEN" TECHS

If you are not playing a "Scenario" game, each time you get a choice of tech to research approximately one third of the available techs are "hidden". This is why you cannot research Alphabet - CodeLaws - Ceremonial Burial - Monarchy from the start without having at least one "off-path" tech (assuming you start with no "freebie" techs, and get none from huts or exchange with AI). There is a pattern to the groups of techs that are "hidden", based on their alphabetical order in the RULES.TXT file. Every third tech is in the same group, and all but the first will be "hidden" once every three tech choice rounds. There are several lists and planning tools on-line to help you plan ahead for future tech choices. Note that techs from huts, trades, theft and capturing a city will count as "rounds" - everything except techs you start the game with.

9. TECH "COSTS"

Each time you get a tech, the cost (in "beakers") to research the next one will increase (subject to the "KeyCiv" rule explained next). The first research is usually 10 beakers; the second can be between 18 and 24; the third between 28 and 36; and so on. The variation is usually due to the size of the map, with larger maps requiring more beakers. A good rule of thumb is that the next research "cost" will be:

-First 10 techs: (Number of Techs You Have) times (10 to 12)
-Next 9 techs: (Number of Techs You Have) times (14 to 16)
-20th and following: (Number or Techs You Have) times (MapSizeFactor)
Standard Map Sizes: Small=20; Medium=23; Large=30

Note that there can be a LARGE jump in cost between tech number 19 and 20!

10. "KEY" CIV

There is a mechanism in the game called the KeyCiv that tries to adjust a player's beaker costs as the gap in techs between players grows larger. A brilliant player called Samson discovered that your KeyCiv is based on cross-referencing your PowerRating with the colors of the Player List.

Here are the two lists:
#1/White=Pathetic
#2/Green=Weak
#3/Blue(dark)=Inadequate
#4/Yellow=Moderate
#5/Cyan(light blue)=Strong
#6/Orange=Mighty
#7/Purple=Supreme

So if your PowerRating is Mighty (see top line of F3), your KeyCiv is whatever player is Orange. If that is not you, your beaker "cost" for the current research will be adjusted by a factor based on the difference in number of techs each of you has acquired since the beginning (starting techs don't count). If you have less than your KeyCiv your beaker cost will be lowered somewhat. If you have more, it will increase. Each "jump" in cost happens for every three techs difference, so you don't have to worry every time you get a tech, just every three.

11. ABUSING THE KEY CIV

Of course, what is a discovery without a way to abuse it! This trick is called "Tech Bombing", and requires a willingness to part with techs in order to (A) lower your own research costs, or (B) increase another player's research costs. The basic idea is that you "gift" a bunch of techs to another player. To achieve (A), gift your KeyCiv every tech you have. If absolutely necessary you can withhold 1 tech (NucFission is my favorite, followed by FusionPower!). Hopefully the KeyCiv has one or two techs that you do not (and are not interested in, otherwise do an exchange rather than a gift), and maybe one or two less starting techs than you. This has two benefits: your beaker cost for the current and future techs will be reduced, and your KeyCiv will start worshipping the ground you walk on (a good time to swap maps or ask for a gift, if you are so inclined)! To achieve (B), gift a player whose research you want to slow down (like if they are researching Communism and you have Marco Polo and want to keep it going a while longer, or they are researching NucFission...) as much tech as you can. Every three techs you give them will shift them another notch in the tech cost equation relative to whomever is their KeyCiv. Note that this does not work if you also gift THEIR KeyCiv!

12. TECH "SLAVERY"

Another trick you can play with techs and a little knowledge is "Tech Slavery". This requires an embassy with another player or ownership of Marco Polo's Embassy (or later, the UN). You need to know what techs they have and what they are working on. The general idea is to give them what they are working on if you have it, in order to steer them to research something else that you may need in the future. With some advanced knowledge of AI characteristics and preferences you might be able to determine what they will decide to switch their research to. The really good news is that when a player is given a tech they are researching, their beaker box is carried over to the next tech. The same works for you, by the way. Trading for or acquiring a tech from a hut preserves the number of beakers you have in the box for the next tech, although the tech "cost" will go up a bit.

Be careful not to turn "Slavery" into "Bombing", though...

13. TRACKING RESEARCH BEAKERS

This is more a "Good Habit" than a trick. At the beginning of each turn, hit F5 to see how many beakers you put into the box that turn, and add any beakers from caravans or freights you delivered last turn. If you discovered a tech that turn you may know roughly what city was the trigger; cities above that one on the list contribute toward the next tech. Record the number before you make any changes to worker arrangements or Tax/Lux/Sci rates, which will change the starting value.

Keeping a running total is one number you cannot get from any of the game's summary screens. Once the beaker box gets above 100 the beakers blend together so you cannot count them individually either. You can get a value for how much a full box represents by setting your Science to 0% and switching all Scientists to something else (temporarily). The "number of turns" for the next tech now represents the total number of beakers needed.

 

[ElephantU]

TIPS & TRICKS PART 2:


14. START A NEW GAME

Want to start your own randomized game? Here are the questions to consider:
- Size: Large gives you more room for a bigger empire, but takes longer to play and techs "cost" more research. Small means a faster game and quicker contact with the other players.
- Difficulty: The most "level" game is at King level, but new players should win a few games at the lower levels before moving up. As you move higher the AI gets more advantages, and your own citizen happiness issues increase too.
- Number of Civs: Minimum is 3, maximum at one time is 7 (includes yourself; the Barbarians are considered #8). However you can get more civs during the game by setting "Don't Restart Eliminated Players" to OFF on the Customize list.
- Barbarians: A random element in the game, they can crop up in undeveloped land areas or "spawn" pirate ships at sea. The higher levels mean more Barb units per occurance as the game goes on, but greater rewards if you "capture" their leader.
- Customize: The main choices are "Flat" (four hard edges) or "Round" (east and west overlap so you can sail round the world) map; choose exactly which civs will start as your Opponents, select "Bloodlust" to eliminate the Spaceship Victory option, and "Restart Eliminated Players" which allows new AI civs to take over a color when one of them is wiped out (Restarts usually ends at AD1500, but if you have wiped out all three civs of that color it may end prematurely).
- Select Tribes: There are seven rows, for the seven colors: White, Green, Blue (dark), Yellow, Cyan (light blue), Orange, and Purple (Red is reserved for the Barbarians). The row you choose determines your shield color. For AI players, the civ chosen determines some "national characteristics" such as Aggressive or Rational, Expansionist or Perfectionist, and Civilized or Militaristic.

The "Customize World" choice allows you to select terrain options such as proportion of land to sea, grouping of land into islands or continents, wetness of climate, average temperature, and "age" of the world (older has more evenly distributed terrain types), all in addition to the standard New Game choices explained above.

15. STARTING TECHS VERSUS LOCATION

When the game generator assigns locations and starting techs it begins with the White civ, assigning what it considers a good starting location. If there are few good starting locations it compensates by giving extra starting techs. The next civ is dealt with the same way, but obviously the number of "good" starting locations decreases with each civ. So playing the Purple civ, you may not get a very good location to start, but you will probably get the most starting techs. And if you start a game with a large number of starting techs, be suspicious that the land around your start is limited in potential.

16. THE CITY PROCESS

At the beginning of your turn each city is processed in order from the bottom of your City Summary list (F1) to the top, which roughly puts them in order from most recently founded to oldest. If the research box is full (from previous turn's research or deliveries), the contribution of the first city (from the bottom) with science beakers will trigger the discovery of the tech currently being researched. Excess beakers from that city are always lost, but if there are more cities in the list their contribution begins accumulating toward the next tech. This is how some players have achieved two or even three techs in one turn.

A few more quirks about city processing: city growth happens before any production, maintenance fees, or research is done. City disorder and WLTxD are checked before taxes, maintenance and research, but after production. And government change (on an Oedo year) happens after all the cities are processed but before you can move or change anything.

17. TURNS <> YEARS

Turns and years are not equal. At the beginning of the game each turn is 20 years in Chieftain and Warlord; 40 years in Prince, and 50 years in King, Emperor and Deity; depending on your Difficulty level and map size the year gaps will decrease at major points (1000BC, AD1, AD1750, etc) during the game. Things like Oedo turns and ceasefire expirations are based on turns, not years. Once the first player has launched a spaceship the year gaps will shift to one year per turn, which gives the others a last chance to finish their own ship or take out the capital of the launching civ.

18. WHO IS OEDO?

Oedo was a player at Apolyton.Net who first documented that government changes only take effect once every four turns from the beginning of the game. Thus the first turn a government change could take effect would be 3850BC (King thru Deity difficulty level), so if you stage a revolution at the end of your turn on 3900BC you will only suffer one round of "Anarchy" before the new government is instituted. This trick can save you up to three rounds of Anarchy when you want to change your government (but not when your government falls due to city disorder in Democracy). Later a further trick was found: if you discover or receive a new government during the processing part of the beginning of your turn during an Oedo round and you accept the immediate revolution, you will not suffer any Anarchy problems whatsoever. Using beaker tracking and T/S/L juggling this is possible to achieve, if you are careful and your KeyCiv doesn't suddenly change.

19. DIPLOMACY - IT'S ALL IN THE ATTITUDE

Diplomacy is vastly different between the Classic/2.42 version of Civ2 and the MultiPlayer Gold Edition (MPG/MGE/MPGE/Gold...). AI civs are far more hostile in the latter, and far less likely to maintain a steady relationship over any period of time. The Civ2 programming team must have felt that things were too easy in the original version, and decided to make it harder across the board in the MultiPlayer version. What they really accomplished was to make the AI civs unreasonably hostile, even when they are vastly overpowered by a benevolent human civ. A steady AI ally in Multiplayer is a rare miracle - and not to be trusted, as they will betray you eventually, even if it is bad for them.

That said, diplomatic negotiations are primarily influenced by AI attitude. Keeping a good Reputation is a good start - backstabbing one civ can cause others to mistrust you. Gifts of tech, gold or maps are other ways to improve their attitude. You only get a choice of two techs at a time for gifts, and the AI characteristics determine which ones they request, which is usually your most recent discoveries. On the other hand, gifting them to keep their attitude up can save you the cost and hassle of multiple wars, allowing you to concentrate on faster discoveries, and lowering your research rates if you are gifting your KeyCiv.

20. MAP TRADING

To trade maps, both you and the other civ must have the Map Making tech, you must have at least contact with them (they show up in F3), you must not be at war and their attitude must be at least Cordial if you have an embassy or Marco Polo (Enthusiastic works most of the time, while Worshipful works always - unless your Rep is bad). Map trading is a small "positive" action, like gifting a small amount of gold or a less-desired tech.

You may notice unusual patterns when you first see the other civ's maps. It is generally believed that AI civs know the whole map from the beginning, including the locations of all cities and wonders. Repeated patterns of long-range attacks indicate that they know where they are heading for, even without having prior "contact" or map exchange. If you want a truly level playing field, play a human.

21. ALLIANCES & "BLACKOUT"

On the turn you secure an alliance with an AI civ you can often ask for and receive a gift. But for the next 8 turns the AI will usually be "too busy" or express "sympathy". Be patient and do not bug them too much during this "blackout" period. After 8 turns ask them for something, after first making sure their Power Rating is higher than yours and their attitude is at least Cordial. If they deny you a gift, don't ask for two or three turns before trying again. A good pattern is often to ask only once every two or three turns, although periods of getting a gift every turn can happen (especially if you are playing OCC Size 1...). Keep their attitude at Cordial or above with occasional small gold or tech gifts, and give them anything they demand of you.

Aside from the gifts you can ask for, an alliance is valuable when you have a "critical-path" road multiplying the trade routes of your SSC/STC. Other civ's military units will block this road if they are using it or guarding it, but not if they are allied with you.

22. "COPYCAT" AI

An odd discovery relates to how the AI "players" set their Tax/Sci/Lux rates. A number of players have noticed that the AI tends to follow the human player in settings for Science rates. Combining this trait with the bonus beakers you get for delivering caravans or freights, you can trick the AI into lowering their research rates while still reaping discoveries from your trade bonuses. The KeyCiv factor will force your research "costs" way up if you get too far ahead in technology, however.

23. PRECHARGING SETTLERS AND ENGINEERS

When you set a Settler or Engineer to do a job, he stores up the "work" he does until the number of turns are elapsed to make the change you have ordered. Those work turns are stored with the unit, and can be transferred without penalty to a different job. You can stop a unit before the job is done, move it elsewhere and have it do "one-turn" jobs using the stored work. This is called "precharging" and allows instant forts outside enemy cities, instant RR links for invasions, instant airbases and a host of other neat tricks. Unfortunately you can only do one job with them - excess rounds of stored "work" are forfeited.

Note that when more than one unit is working on a job, the first one's work is "contributed" to the second unit for storage. There are several tricks involved in getting more than two workers to "add up" work to change a tile in one turn; the explanation is lengthy and is best documented in the "Settlers & Engineers Thread" in the Great Library at Apolyton.Net.

24. SHIP CHAINS

It is possible to transport a unit via ship further than a single ship can move in one turn. The process is called "ship chaining" and allows units moved by sea to go as far as a continuous chain of transport ships can reach, as long as they are on station at the beginning of the turn. The trick is to move the first transporting ship into the same tile as the second ship, to "wake up" the unit that you want to continue moving (click the stack, then click the "sleeping" unit once), then to move out the second ship before moving the first ship any further. The "awake" unit will go "back to sleep" aboard the second transporting ship (as long as there is room aboard it - getting something "out of the way" on the second ship can be very tricky). As long as no movement points are expended you can transfer units this way any number of times in the same turn.

Ship chains work only one way; if you need to move things in both directions at once you should set up a second chain parallel to the first. Another trick when dealing with large numbers of islands is to keep the transports in cities that are close enough to make a transit in one turn. Connect cities at either end of the island via rail and the ship can sail into the port, the units move at no cost to the other side of the island and reload in the second city to continue their "chain" journey with no loss of movement points.

25. BLACK CLICKING

Some players consider this a "cheat" rather than a "trick", but you can find out something about the terrain that you have not explored yet. When you right-click a "black" tile, the righthand info bar will show something like: "Loc (39,47) 8" with the word "Unexplored" right under it. The number 8 is the key here: if it were a 1, the tile would be Ocean, any other number up to 62 usually denotes an island or continent (they are numbered sequentially by the game generator, starting in the upper left corner of the map). Number 63 is reserved for small inland "lakes". There are exceptions to the general rule, primarily when the map generator is set for Large Land Mass, Continental Land Form, which creates one very large continent that usually gets the number 1. Also when large inland "seas" are totally cut off from the ocean, they can get assigned a separate "island number".

 

[ElephantU]

TIPS & TRICKS PART 3:


26. RUSH-BUYING

Above the Production Box in the City Screen are two buttons, Buy and Change. If you have gold in your treasury, you don't have to wait for a city to finish producing what you have assigned it to work on - you can Rush-Buy it. But there are things worth knowing about the process.

RushBuying anything from an empty Production Box costs at least twice as much as starting with even one shield in the box. For any City Improvement, once there is one shield in the box, every other shield costs two gold. For any land/sea/air unit, buying the whole thing costs more than buying it row by row. If you start with a few shields, switch to production of a Warrior (10 shields= 1 row), RB that, then switch to production of a Horse or Phalanx (2 rows, one already filled), RB that, then switch to an Archer or Diplomat (3 rows, 2 already filled), RB that, then switch to a Settler/Trireme and RB that. Each row costs a maximum of 25 gold, and if there are already a few shields in the row each extra shield costs less (but never less than 2 gold per shield). RBing any shields for a Wonder or SpaceShip part always costs 4 gold once you have at least one shield in the box.

Terms used: Rush-Buying (RB) is buying the whole thing at once; Partial Rush-Buying (PRB) is letting the city contribute the first shields (or disbanding a unit for half its shields) and then buying the rest; Incremental Rush-Buying (IRB) is buying a unit complete row by row, and Incremental Partial Rush-Buying (IPRB) is letting a small city contribute part of a row each turn, then buying the rest of the row. RB takes one turn; PRB and IRB takes two turns; IPRB takes as many turns as rows of shields the unit costs. For the last row, if the city is making at least 5 shields and you don't need the unit that turn you can skip the last RB and it will complete next turn.

Also worth knowing: early in the game, the Warrior is the cheapest unit you can buy from scratch, costing only 50 gold. It is also the ONLY unit that allows you to rush the first row of 10 shields. Two techs that "kill off" the Warriors are Feudalism and Gunpowder. In the late game, the cheapest item you can RB from scratch is a Temple or Barracks at 160 gold. Switching from that to a Spy (losing 20 of the 40 shields) and IRBing the third row adds only 25 gold for a total of 185 gold, compared to a straight RB of 210 gold. If you have the gold, start every RB with a Temple or Barracks and PRB the rest.

27. STOPPING SOMEONE'S SPACESHIP

Once a ship has been launched, there is only two ways to beat it: launch a faster ship (minus the extra turns to build it), or take the launching civ's capital city. If the launching civ has more than 1000 gold in their treasury and at least one other city they can shift their capital to another city (essentially, they RushBuy a Palace in that city). If you are trying to stop someone else, try to bribe away other cities before attacking the capital (you cannot bribe a capital, but you will decrease their treasury and options to transfer if you succeed). If you are the one with the spaceship, spare no expense in defending your capital (favorite AI trick: get close enough to nuke it and paradrop in) while sabotaging or attacking any civ that looks like it is building a faster one. If no one has launched up to 5 turns before your landing you are safe: the fastest ship takes 5.7 years.

28. BARBARIAN GRACE PERIOD

Barbs do not start appearing until after the 16th turn of the game, which is usually 3200BC on King, Emperor or Deity difficulty level. Unless you suspect there is another civ close by, ignore defending your first cities and focus on building settlers and exploring. Barbs also cannot stage an "uprising" in a tile that is within a city radius or covered by an "improvement" (road/rail/mine/irrigation/fort/airbase), so building cities with adjoining radii and roading uncovered tiles are ways to suppress Barb uprisings. Note that this does not help against Barb Pirates; in fact too many roads can make their landings even more dangerous. Keep a defender in critical port cities until after the first discovery of Mobile Warfare, after which Barb Pirates cease.

29. CAPTURE THE LEADER

Most (but not all) Barb groups are initially accompanied by a Barb Leader. If you attack him when he is alone you "capture" him and receive a "ransom" which depends on the Barb Level (Raging=150g, Restless=100g, Roving=50g). The trick is to get him alone, which usually means you need to allow his accompanying military unit to attack you. Take a strong defensive unit and fortify it in defensive terrain (Hills or Mountains are best). Keep a faster offensive unit nearby to chase him down after his protection dies.

30. PAY TRIBUTE OR BRIBE IT BACK?

When you cannot withstand a Barb attack on a city, it is often better (and cheaper) to give up the city and bribe it back rather than pay tribute. Bribing a Barb city is fairly cheap, and the capturing Barb unit(s) are usually still in there, costing less than if you tried to bribe them individually. Barbs will raze rather than capture a size 1 city, and some important improvements may be lost as well, so exercise judgment in using this tip.

31. THE BARB FARM

Once the Barbs have a city they start producing military units. If you do not recapture or destroy their city you can "farm" it for cheap units (keep a Dip or Spy nearby to bribe them as they come out), and if it is far enough away from your own cities these units will be unsupported. If you are trying to set up a farm deliberately, put a Barracks in the city before giving it to them. The resulting units will be Veterans, which does not increase the price but can greatly increase their military strength. You may need to protect your farm from AI civs, though: sometimes they make a bee-line for the Barb city and try to wipe it out.

32. TOO MANY CITIES?

Is there such a thing as too many cities? There are some built-in consequences of a lot of cities. There is an upper limit of 255 cities in the whole game, including AI and Barb. There is also an increasing unhappiness factor as you add cities. The rule of thumb seems to be:

Despotism=4
Monarchy=6
Republic=8
Communism & Democracy=10
(Fundy suppresses unhappiness, so this does not apply)

For each multiple of the unhappiness factor, another content citizen will become unhappy. This is why in large empires under Deity difficulty level, a new city may start out with its first citizen unhappy, or even very unhappy!

33. CORRUPTION AND WASTE

Civ2 has a built-in corruption factor that degrades the trade and production of cities under certain governments. Despotism is the most susceptible, followed by Monarchy and then Republic. The corruption factor is primarily based on distance from the capital city (obviously, there is no corruption in the capital), so early on in the game you want to site your cities near the capital to minimize the loss. Some of the trade loss can be mitigated by building "critical-path" roads to outlying cities, and building a Courthouse halves both trade and production loss, but the best way to decrease the losses is to switch to a better government.

34. THE HANGING GARDENS QUIRK

Early in the game the Hanging Gardens is often used to quell unhappiness. There is a quirk wherein it works better in conjunction with Luxuries than with martial law (a military unit in the city that causes a citizen to be content), as long as you have enough cities to cause "very unhappy" (black faces) to appear. Rather than the normal two goblets making an unhappy citizen content, they make a "very unhappy" happy instead, but if martial law is also affecting citizens they only make him content. Consider basing your defenders outside the cities rather than inside when you are using Luxuries in conjunction with HG and "very unhappy" citizens.

35. UNSUPPORTED UNITS

Every unit you build or bribe except caravan/freight and dip/spy normally requires one shield of production to "support" it. In Despotism a city supports for free a number of units equal to its size. In Monarchy and Communism each city supports up to 3 units for free. In Fundamentalism each city supports up to 10 units for free, and all Fanatics are free of support when in Fundamentalism.

At the beginning of the game your starting Settlers are unsupported (to the right of their icon in the righthand info panel it will say "NONE" rather than a supporting city name), and any Nomads you get from Huts will also be unsupported. If you get a unit from a hut or bribery that is closer to an AI city than one of yours, it will also be unsupported. The best deal is with Settlers/Engineers, since you also save the food they would eat if supported. This is why they cost twice as much gold to bribe.

One last NONE trick: drop a Settler/Engineer on an island far from your cities and build a new city. The next turn, RushBuy a Settler/Engineer. Rather than disbanding the city, a new Settler/Engineer will be produced, but it will be unsupported!

36. BRIBING UNITS

Bribing units is a way to increase your army or navy without producing them yourself, and if done in the right place can result in valuable unsupported (NONE) units. The primary multipliers in the cost of a bribe are distance from the unit's capital and size of the civ's treasury. For Settlers or Engineers, after those factors the price is doubled to reflect these unit's special nature. Barb units are much cheaper, since they have no capital and no treasury, usually costing just twice the production cost of the unit. To get an unsupported unit, initiate the bribe when the unit is closer to any other city than one of your own. Note also that units must be alone; a stack of two or more units cannot be bribed. Also any units of a civ in Democracy cannot be bribed. Bribing several units in a row seems to increase that civ's desire to discover, steal or trade for Democracy.

The other use for bribery is to forestall an invasion that you do not have the strength to withstand or counterattack. Since you are probably trying to protect key cities of your own, bribed units will usually require support after purchase, but if this is onerous you can expend them in counterattacks against other invading units or disband them after the threat is over. Disbanding them in the nearby cities at least recovers half their build shields toward the current production, and can help start a new round of RushBuying.

37. BRIBING CITIES

Bribing cities has several advantages to taking them by force. Bribed cities don't lose more than 1 citizen (unless they are size 1), they lose fewer improvements, and any enemy units within or adjacent to the city are purchased as well (at reduced cost). Tricks to remember when bribing a city: the distance to the enemy capital is measured from the location of your Dip or Spy, not the city, so bribe from the furthest away tile you can. Cities in disorder are half price, so see if you can send in a few saboteurs a turn before to take out happiness improvements, or sit on some high-trade tiles if they are relying on Luxuries. A Spy gets a 1/6 lower price than a Dip, and a Vet Spy is 1/3 lower. Watch out for large treasuries, as that will send the cost upward. Civs in Democracy cannot have their cities bribed at any time.

38. FORCING CIVS OUT OF DEMOCRACY

You've got tons of gold and Vet Spies, but all your opponents are in Democracy? It takes a few turns, but strong military pressure will usually force the AI to switch to either Commy or Fundy (or Monarchy, in desperation). If they don't have these techs, gift them to encourage a switch!

AI civs occasionally switch their government downward when they have too much city disorder, but it seems very hard to force this. Sitting on high-trade tiles and sabotaging happiness improvements have been tried before but are not reliable.

39. BATTLE MULTIPLIERS

For the attacker, Vet status is the primary multiplier (there are special cases, like ships attacking land units or Fighters "scrambling" to defend a city). For the defender, Vet status, terrain, and fortification can all multiply it's defensive strength, with special benefits if defending a city. Try to position units that may get attacked in good defensive terrain, and if they are going to be there for more than one turn tell them to Fortify. Being in a city does not increase defense strength alone, but City Walls triple defense strength against land units, Coastal Fortress doubles defense against ships, and SAM doubles defense against air units.

40. HP vs FP

Hit Points and FirePower cause some confusion. Hit Points are how much damage a unit can take before being eliminated (multiplied by 10). FirePower is how many damage "units" are inflicted for each hit. Each combat is a set of rounds where one or the other unit inflicts damage equal to their FP. The unit that runs out of HP first is the loser.

41. ATTACKING A STACK

When a stack of units is attacked, the unit with the best Defense Strength defends the stack alone. Should it lose, the stack is lost as well. Only in Cities and Fortresses does each unit defend in succession, from the strongest downward. HP and FP are not considered when deciding the order of defense.

42. BATTLE & MOVEMENT

Trying to move into a tile occupied by an enemy unit initiates combat. Upon success, the unit moves into the tile vacated by the unit (or stack), unless the unit did not have enough movement points to assure the move had the enemy not been there (example: 2nd movement point of Horse, going into Forest). During combat the movement points of the attacker may have dropped due to damage, but this does not affect whether the unit can move into the tile. It does affect whether it can move onward afterwards.

43. DROP THE FLAG

How do you know when the last unit in an enemy city has been vanquished? Watch the flag flying above the city icon. When it comes down, there are no more units in the city.

44. HAIL THE CONQUEROR

The first unit that moves into an empty enemy city does two things - it conquers it, and it gets healed in return. There is no opposition to it's entrance, so a partially damaged unit (with some movement points left) is the best one to use. Consider also the need to garrison the city against counterattack with a decent defender.

 

[ElephantU]

TIPS & TRICKS PART 4:


45. HOW TO START A WAR

Starting a war is easy - unless you need to keep your Reputation up, or you have a finicky Senate. Goad the other civs with demands for tribute or that they "remove their units" - even if there are no units near your cities. Take some sacrificial units (food caravans work well) and block their internal roads or railroads. Position a few sacrificial units right next to their cities, especially on valuable terrain. Ask an ally to go to war against them. Subvert a couple of their cities, paying double to avoid the Reputation hit. Act as obnoxious as you can within the rules and they will eventually lose their patience.

46. KEEPING THE WAR GOING

When in Democracy the Senate will seize on the least opportunity to conclude a cease-fire, even if the enemy is on the ropes or you have vulnerable units scattered around. Try not to give them the opportunity. Goad the AI into sneak attacking you - several sneak attacks will cause the Senate to give you full rein for "peacekeeping operations". On the offensive, try to prevent face-to-face situations between ground units, which allow the AI to initiate diplomatic dialogue. Kill enemy defenders with ships, aircraft, and Partisans, preserving other ground units for taking empty cities. Suppress enemy partisans completely, using aircraft next to cities and ground units further out. Wipe out all the ground units you can before taking the first empty cities, because the AI will attempt dialogue (to beg for peace!) at the first opportunity after losing a city.

There is also a trick called the Emissary's Ploy, which exploits the UN and "emissary badgering" to force the AI to refuse any contact with you. Make sure there are no AI units adjacent to the first city you take. Immediately after conquering it, close the city screen and attempt to contact the AI civ. They will refuse you ("enough endless chatter - begone!") and not contact you for the remainder of the turn.

47. SUPPRESSING PARTISANS

After Gunpowder and Communism are discovered, partisans begin to sprout up after cities are conquered. You can suppress these partisans, or at least influence where they will start, by scattering friendly units within the city radius tiles before taking the city. Start with the tiles that have the greatest defensive multipliers, as these are where the partisans are most likely to appear. If you can, cover the whole city radius to completely suppress them. Best units for this job are air units and units that ignore terrain (Explorer/Partisan & Alpine), but anything can do the job if running on a RailRoad.

One special note about Partisans: contact with an enemy land unit does NOT give the AI opportunity to initiate diplomatic dialogue, so bribe or build some of these to kill off the hard-to-get units, especially those with 0 defense.

48. DEATH TRAPS

This does not work against human opponents, but against the AI you can set up Death Traps that will work again and again. Take note of the path AI units use to get to you, and select a spot along the path that has good defensive terrain. A Mountain is always the best, and building a city with Walls makes it even more attractive. The AI will throw unit after unit against your fortress, never learning from it's mistake.

49. SUPPORTING LOSSES

When a city is lost, the units it supports are lost as well. On the offensive this can greatly help you, but beware of this effect on the defensive. Cities that support units that are vital to your defense should be well-garrisoned. Beware the surprise para-drop behind the lines.

50. STANDARD SPACESHIP CONFIGURATIONS

(#s: Structures-Propulsion-Fuel-Habitation-LifeSupport-SolarPower)

Smallest: 15-1-1-1-1-1 =36yrs, 79% (20 parts)
Basic: 15-3-3-1-1-1 =15.7yrs, 100% (24 parts)
Fastest: 33-8-8-1-1-1 =5.7yrs, 100% (52 parts)
Largest: 39-8-8-4-4-4 =6.9yrs, 100% (67 parts)

Note also that the percentage chance of success is misleading: as long as your capital is unharmed the spaceship will always make it. The percentage is really the ratio of victory points you will receive out of 100 per Habitation Module (up to 400), supposed to represent the numbers of colonists who complete the trek to Alpha Centauri.

51. GOODIE HUTS

The little huts scattered around the map are often called "goodie huts" because they tend to produce more beneficial results than negative ones. It is useful to know that before you settle your first city the chance of getting an unsupported "mercenary" unit is 60%, while the chance of gold or tech is 20% each (same for a hut 3 or less tiles from one of your existing cities, by the way). This means the chance of getting a free city ("Advanced Tribe") or Barbs is suppressed. There are several rules that restrict the outcomes, most notably that having an unsupported settler (a "Nomad") tends to suppress getting another one until you have more than 8 cities, and Advanced Tribes will appear only on Grass or Plains tiles (instead of Nomads). You will only get a tech that you have the pre-req techs for, and discovering Invention will stop huts from producing techs.

52. FUNDY'S HANDICAP

Fundy sounds like a great government - no unhappiness or corruption, extra supported military units, happiness improvements pay tithes, and less consequences when you commit diplomatic atrocities. The offset to these benefits is the poor rate of research under Fundy government. No matter what you set our Science slider, no more than half of your city trade will go to research beakers. And since you do not have the extra trade arrow like in Rep or Dem (unless your city is "celebrating" WLT(HP)D) your city research is greatly diminished. Consider minimizing your city research and relying on caravan/freight deliveries instead - they are not halved under Fundy. Make sure there is at least one Scientist or city doing research or you will not reap any tech discoveries no matter how many beakers you have in the research box!

53. LEONARDO'S HANDICAP

Leo's is a very powerful Wonder, but it does have a consequence: whenever a military unit is upgraded by Leo's, it loses any Veteran status it may have had. The only way to get it back is victory in combat (which SunTzu or Lighthouse could help along). For some units this is a bad deal: a 6-3-1 Vet Legion steps down to a 3-3-1 Musketeer, and a 6-3-2 Vet Knight steps down to a 5-2-2 Dragoon.

54. LEO'S UPGRADES

Here's what Leo's will upgrade, preceded by the tech:

Ground Units:
-Feudalism: Warriors/Phalanx to Pikemen
-Gunpowder: Warriors/Phalanx/Pikemen/Archers/Legion to Musketeers
-Conscription: Musketeers to Riflemen
-Guerrilla Warfare: Explorers to Partisans
-Metallurgy: Catapults to Cannon
-Machine Tools: Cannon to Artillery
-PolyTheism: Chariots to Elephants
-MonoTheism: Elephants to Crusaders
-Chivalry: Horsemen/Chariots/Elephants to Knights (but NOT Crusaders!)
-Leadership: Crusaders/Knights to Dragoons
-Tactics: Dragoons to Cavalry

Special Units:
-Explosives: Settlers to Engineers
-Espionage: Diplomats to Spies
-Corporation: Caravans to Freight

Ships:
-Navigation: Trireme to Caravel
-Magnetism: Caravel to Galleon
-Industrialization: Galleon to Transport
-Electricity: Ironclads to Destroyers
-Rocketry: Cruisers to AEGIS Cruisers

The upgrade is triggered when you discover or acquire one or more techs, but only one upgrade is permitted per turn, so if you bribe a Trireme when you have Industrialization it will first upgrade to a Galleon, then on the next turn that has a tech acquisition it will upgrade to a Transport.

55. TRANSITION TECHS

Some techs have special effects on the game:

Caravan/Freight Delivery Bonuses:
-Navigation or Invention: remove early doubling of bonus payment
-Railroad: 1/3 decrease of bonus payment
-Flight: 2/3 decrease of bonus payment

Training Barracks:
-Gunpowder: obsolete Barracks, new cost 2 upkeep per turn
(AND lose 10-shield Warriors unit, same as Feudalism)
-MobileWar: obsolete Barracks, new cost 3 upkeep per turn

Mercenary Units From Huts:
-PolyTheism permits Elephants from huts
-Chivalry permits Knights from huts
-Monotheism permits Crusaders from huts
-Leadership permits Dragoons from huts
-Conscription permits Riflemen from huts (and kills off 2-move units from huts)
-IronWorking permits Legions from huts
-Gunpowder permits Musketeers from huts
-Guerrilla Warfare permits Fanatics from huts

Food/Trade/Shields:
-Refrigeration+SuperMarkets+Farmland: 50% more food
-Railroad+Railroads: 50% more shields
-Automobile+SuperHighways+Road/Rail: 50%(plus!) more trade
(all rounded DOWN)

Pollution:
-Sanitation: decrease
-Industrialization: increase
-Automobile: increase
-MassProd: increase (but MassTransits remove city Population Pollution)
-Plastics: increase
-Environmentalism: decrease (and SolarPlants remove city Production Pollution)

Wonders:
-NucFission -->Manhattan: nukes for all (with Rocketry or Espionage)
-SpaceFlight -->Apollo: spaceship parts for all (with SpaceFlight, Plastics, or Superconductor)

-Railroad: obsoletes HangingGardens
-Flight: obsoletes Colossus
-Magnetism: obsoletes Lighthouse
-Theology: obsoletes Oracle
-Metallurgy: obsoletes GreatWall
-Electricity: obsoletes GreatLibrary
-Communism: obsoletes MarcoPolo
-Industrialization: obsoletes KingRichard's
-MobileWar: obsoletes SunTzu's
-Automobile: obsoletes Leonardo's
(and Darwin's is a one-time-only wonder)

Commodity Supply&Demand Changes by Tech Number:
-20th tech: Hides supply & demand decrease; Cloth & Coal supply increase
-32nd tech: wildcard change (lose Hides/Beads/Salt); Beads supply decrease
-48th tech: Hides supply & demand decrease; Beads demand decrease

Commodity Supply&Demand Changes by Tech:
-Pottery: Salt supply large increase
-IronWorking: Silver supply increase
-Chemistry: Dye demand decrease; Silver/Gems/Gold demand increase (depending on location)
-Economics: Silver/Gems/Gold demand decrease (depending on location)
-Electricity: Coal & Copper demand increase
-Refrig: Spice demand decrease
-Indust: enables Oil demand; special Oil wildcard; Hides demand decrease; Wool, Coal demand increase; Cloth supply increase
-Combustion: Oil supply large increase (for all)
-Automobile: Oil demand large increase
-MassProd: Hides demand zeroed; Dye demand decrease
-Computers: Copper demand large decrease; Silver/Gems/Gold demand decrease (depending on location)
-NucFission: enables Uranium supply&demand

56. YOUR CIV AFFECTS YOUR SUPPLY

Another odd discovery about the supply and demand of commodities: your choice of Civ can affect things too. Being the French doubles the chance of supplying Wine, and being the Chinese doubles the chance of supplying Silk. If you are the Spanish, your demand for Silver, Gems, and Gold (depending on city location) can also double.

57. HOW TO GET HIDES

Hides are a very valuable commodity, because when you make a Hides caravan the supply is never blocked. But how do you get it in your cities? Some rules of thumb from Samson's investigation of Supply&Demand formulas:

-Wildcard CityLocation: X coordinate multiple of 14, Y coordinate even numbered
-Terrain: lots of Forest, Tundra, Glaciers in city radius
-CitySize: 1-2 doubles, greater than 7 halves
-NumberOfTechs: 1-15 quadruples, 16-23 doubles, greater than 48 halves (and kills doubling for CitySize less than 3 too)

58. MERCENARIES TELL TALES?

The kind of mercenary unit you get from a hut can tell you something about what techs have been discovered by other civs. When you get an Elephant, someone has discovered PolyTheism, and when you get a Legion, someone has IronWorking. Check the Tech Transitions list and you will have advance warning about the tech progress of civs that you haven't met yet.

Another thing you can learn from a mercenary unit is how close the nearest AI city is. If the unit is supported by one of your cities, no AI cities are closer. If the unit is unsupported (NONE), there is at least one AI city closer to the hut location than your nearest city.

 

[ElephantU]

TIPS & TRICKS PART 5:


59. TERRAIN "SPECIALS"

Terrain is the land you have to settle on and work with, like Grass and Hills. Scattered around the map are "special" terrain tiles like Wine, Gems, and Oil. Their distribution is not random, and is related to the patterns of "huts" you also see scattered about.

The quickest way to view this is to start a blank map in Map Editor, the companion program that came with your copy of Civ2. A blank map is all Ocean, but scattered throughout you will see bands or clumps of Whales and Fish (if you do not see them, Zoom in a bit by hitting the Z key a couple times). These are the two basic Ocean "specials", and they form the basis for the land "specials" you will find. Note the shape of the patterns they form, then "draw" a large continent over them of any single land type except Grass (click a land type at the top to select it, then hold the left shift key down while you click on the map to "draw" it). You will see land "specials" appear each time you cover an ocean "special" with a land tile. If you cover an ocean "special" with Grass it is "hidden" beneath the Grass, but mining the Grass into Forest will turn the tile back into either a Silk or Pheasant Forest "special".

"Special" tiles come in two groups, which can be called "Whale specials" and "Fish specials". Here is a list of their relationships:

OCEAN     WHALE     FISH
Plains    Wheat     Buffalo
Forest    Silk      Pheasant("Game")
Hills     Wine      Coal
Mountain  Iron      Gold
Jungle    Fruit     Gems
Swamp     Spice     Peat
Desert    Oil       Oasis
Tundra    Furs      MuskOx
Glacier   Oil       Ivory("Walrus")

Note that just because you have a particular kind of "special" in a cities' working radius does not guarantee that city will supply that kind of commodity for trade. The relationships between city terrain and commodity supplies are quite complex and best left to another discussion.

The patterns of "specials" and huts are determined by a setting called the Resource Seed. Hitting the S key in Map Editor will pop up a box that allows you to change this number (you can NOT do this during a game - only when creating the map!). Although you can enter any number between -9999 and 32767, only the first 64 Seed numbers are unique (1-64). Higher numbers just repeat the same patterns as if you divided by 64 and kept the remainder. And the shape of the pattern stays the same for every set of 16 - it just shifts downward and over each time the Seed is incremented. Try this yourself by hitting S repeatedly and entering consecutive numbers between 1 and 20. When you reach 16 the pattern changes, as it does at 32, 48, and 64. Note also that the pattern of huts follows the pattern of specials as the Seed changes.

What can we learn from this? By studying the patterns of huts and specials that you have revealed through exploration, you should be able to recognize where "specials" are hiding beneath Grass, predict locations and types of "specials" and huts in nearby unexplored areas, and know what kind of "special" will appear when you transform your land with Settlers and Engineers.

60. TRANSFORMING TERRAIN

At the beginning of the game you can change and improve your land only with Settlers, who can irrigate, mine and build roads. Sometimes this work causes a transformation in the land, such as when you mine a Plains tile and it turns into a Forest. There is a progressive pattern in these transformations, and in most cases it is one-way. Here are the transformations you can accomplish:

Settlers can:
Irrigate Jungle and Swamp into Grass, or
Mine Jungle and Swamp into Forest;
Irrigate Forest into Plains;
Mine Plains and Grass into Forest.

Except for Forest and Plains, these are all one-way.

Engineers are more powerful than Settlers. Each Engineer does two Settler-turns of work each turn, and Engineers can transform land in ways that Settlers cannot. In addition to the above list, which Engineers can do in half the time, Engineers can:
Transform Glacier into Tundra;
Transform Tundra into Desert;
Transform Desert into Plains;
Transform Mountains into Hills;
Transform Hills into Plains;
Transform Plains into Grass, and
Transform Grass into Hills.

Note that except for the Plains-Grass-Hills loop, all the rest are one-way. Of course, you can shorten the loop by mining Grass into Forest and then irrigating it into Plains.

61. "WHITE" TECHS

When you view lists of your own or another civ's techs, you may notice that some techs are white while the rest are blue. There are two cases of these "white" techs:

1. When you hit F6 to view your own list of techs, the ones that you were the first to discover or aquire are listed in white. This stays throughout the game, and gives you an idea of whether you are ahead of other civs in tech development. It also may help you anticipate what techs other civs may be interested in acquiring from you through tech trade.

2. When you hit F3 and look at the Intel screen for another civ (which requires an embassy, Marco Polo, or the UN), you may see some techs listed in white which you have not discovered or aquired yet. This is a game aid to highlight those techs you do not have and thus might be interested in. As soon as you get a white tech from one civ it will turn blue on all the other civ's lists.

62. TLS MEMORY AID

Next to your Treasury amount is a series of numbers such as "4.0.6". These are your Taxes-Luxuries-Science settings, which you set with sliders found in a dropdown menu under Kingdom/TaxRate. Unfortunately, the sliders here are organized Taxes-Science-Luxuries. How to remember the right order? To the left of the number display is your Gold amount, and that corresponds with the leftmost Taxes number. To the right of the number display is a beaker,and that corresponds to the righthand setting for Science. The middle one is the Luxuries, which keep your empire happiness balanced. Make sense?

63. SPECIALISTS

There are three kinds of "specialist" citizen workers in your cities:
- Entertainers, which are available from size 1 and add Luxuries to your city;
- Taxmen, which are available from size 5 and add gold to your treasury; and
- Scientists, which are available from size 5 and add beakers to your research.

From size 1 to size 4 citizens taken off working the land can only be set to Entertainers. From size 5 to size 20 citizens can be switched to any of the "specialist" options. Once a city passes size 20, extra food can allow citizens who are dedicated to one of the three "specialties", up to size 36. Above that size, all extra citizens can only be Entertainers.

64. SIZE1 SETTLER TRICK

This trick works if you have only one city which has not reached size 2 yet. If you can complete a Settler before the city grows, the city will not be disbanded, the accumulated surplus in the food box will not disappear, and any surplus production will carry over to the next turn. The new Settler will require normal support for your current government type. Early hut results can help achieve a Size1 Settler: a supported mercenary unit can be disbanded for half its shields or gold can be used to rush-buy rows of shields towards completion.

65. STATION CITY

A powerful multiplier of Trade Routes between cities is the "critical path" road or rail connection between them. If the cities are far apart, however, this can take a long time to build, and if the other city is AI an alliance has to be secured and maintained or the opposing units will block the path. A quicker alternative is a "station city" on the critical path toward the destination city. A trick was discovered that once the road or rail path hits any city on the "critical path", the rest of the path is not checked for completion. So build a Station City just outside the radius of your SSC/STC, or on a bottleneck between a group of cities and another group, and the multiplier will go into effect without the whole path having to be roaded or railed.

66. SETTLERS CAN TRANSFORM (sort-of...)

Aside from doing things twice as fast, Engineers have a big advantage over Settlers because they are the only unit that can transform land (aside from the Plains-Forest-Plains swap). While a Settler cannot do the actual work, it can help speed an Engineer along. Put a Settler to work mining Plains into Forest and wake him after ten turns. Then restart the work and bring an Engineer along and start him mining the same tile. Then click the Settler off the job, followed by the Engineer. You have just transferred five turns of Engineer work from the Settler to the Engineer.

AND FINALLY -

HAVE FUN! Try not to get TOO lost in all these details - stick to your plan, learn a little each game, and see if you can do better than Ghengis Khan, Caesar, Alexander or Catherine the Great!

===================================

Corrections, comments, and suggestions for additions are warmly solicited for this list (since it is my list, though, I will be the final judge...).

Aside from my own play, primarily in GOTM and OCC Single-Player games, most of these tips come from discussion, criticism and game commentary from the great and small players of CivFanatics and Apolyton.Net. Two primary sources are the Strategy Forums of CFC and Apolyton, particularly the "Great Library" compilation at Apolyton.Net. Players worthy of mention by name include Starlifter, Smash, Andu Indorin, Oedo, Samson, Solo, SlowThinker, Lafayette, ScouseGits (both), Ribannah, Ming, Bloody Monk, Mercator, Xin Yu, and the Dukes (both).

This list is dedicated to:
- my beloved wife, who has endured my long obsession with Civ with quiet dignity ("at least I know where he is" and "keeps him out of trouble" are probably two of those quiet thoughts...), and to:
- SCLoopy, who asked many of the questions that prompted the beginning of this list in a thread at CFC entitled "Brand New Grandma to this game - Help Please?". Recommended reading for the new player.

 

[la fayette]

Very good work
IMO this is as short, simple and clear as it could be.
I'll post again tomorrow in order to mention the few points I don't completely agree with.

 

[sethos]

My trick to catch a barb leader is: Build a diplo in the concerning city, bribe the horseman and catch the barb leader (if there are four legged barbs). There are so called &amp;hot spots&amp where barbs appear again and again. The ransom will give your empire a great kick: use it to rush-build caravans!.<br>
My trick to get NONE vet units:
Let a city with a barracks be captured by barbs - and the city will produce vet units
Don't bribe that city back - have you ever seen barb armors?

 

[Gelion]

Amazing stuff! I might go to playing Civ 2 now .
Here's what I thought of..
Cheap settlers trick:
For that you need to a weak backward civilization(s) who are relatively far from you and accecible by sea, a moderate navy and a number of Spies (Diplomats I think disband after a mission so that is not good) and enough gold.
In short use whatever diplomatic means necessary to rid the weak civ of their gold. send Spies on ships and land them in the enemy territory. Bride settlers and engineers (if any). Use bribed units for cover not to get deported. As the country has few gold the units will be much cheaper. Send the slaves onto ships and continue bribing. After no settlers are left retreat for some turns. Then come back. The great thing about it is that if you are far away all settlers will be unsuported.
Its fun to be able to milk 2-3 countires at the same time. Fundamentalism is a good govt for that as it gives a lot of gold you'll need and a Spy bonus. Haven't tried it at most difficult levels though.

 

[sethos]

Try the <i>Celebrating Fundamentalism</i>: Build Michelangelo and Bach's Cathedral,
luxury rate 50%, science 50% - and rush temples (in Fundy, the bring youg gold!) and market places, later coliseums and banks. You don't need taxes. A celebrating fundy city has the same amount of trade arrows as a democratic city! And the caravan payoffs are the same as in Democracy!

 

[la fayette]

@ElephantU
Here are the main points I don't completely agree with:

14) AD1500 is not always the limit for respawning (and I have described a method that allows you to conquer the world, even when restarts are on).

24) Shipchains don't work one way. They work to and fro (but a double shipchain allows double capacity).

27) Carolus Rex seems to have found a method that provides a high level of protection against destruction of the SpaceShip by loss of the capital (but he is currently making use of the method against daveV and I, so I cannot give the details yet).

32) Your table is not a "rule of thumb". It is the max number of cities where you never have a red face as first citizen (with a tiny mistake: the limit of 10 under Communism doesn't exist). Details are to be found at Apolyton GL ("happiness quirk"). Most of the study performed by SlowThinker.

53) Musketeers and dragoons have FirePower = 2.
Therefore, the non-vet musketeer is about as strong as the vet legion when attacking, and about twice as strong when defending.
Same with the non-vet dragoon, stronger than the vet knight, both when attacking and defending.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

#27, I hope it doesn't spoil anyone's game, but it is already known that you can found a new city, rush buy your capital there, then raze it by rush buying it to an Engineer. Thus 'destroying' your own capital and making it so no one else can do it to you and recall your spaceship.

#53, I don't think EU was trying to say that the updated units were worse, just that he was pointing out that units lose their veteran status when being upgraded which can have a major impact on the outcome of battles.

Plus, a firepower of 2 does not equate to 'doubling' the units strength. The unit has to be able to actually 'hit' someone for that to be a factor. So, if You have a Vet Legion attacking a Phalanx in a fort, it normally wins (6 vs 4). A non vet Musketeer normally loses (3 vs 4). Attached are the results of a quick and dirty test I did. 4 vet Legions attacking, 4 non vet Muskets attacking. Blue dots were the ones the Legions attacked, red the Muskets.

 

[la fayette]

@DoM

27) I suppose that the trick Carolus Rex made use of is the one you describe.
I never heard of it before and I thought he was the author

53) Interesting
Too bad SlowThinker is away, otherwise I bet we would already have a test with 100 units, or something like that, available.
Anyway, Elephant was perfectly right to stress the frustrating "non-vet" effect which is fully true when your mighty vet ironclads turn to weak non-vet destroyers

 

[la fayette]

Edit = silly question removed

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Duke, I hope you realised that some of the units had extra def. from the hils and forests and jungles.

Great stuf Elephant U. It took forever to transfer to Word for printing, though.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

None of the defenders were on hills. And, you'll notice that one of each was used on the forest/jungle terrain. 3 open squares each, one defensive terrain each, so they were even comparisons.

 

[Specialist290]

Yet another set of papers to add to my stack of Civ2 strategies and tips that is about this thick. *Makes hand motion for about eight inches*

 

[ElephantU]

My trick to catch a barb leader is: Build a diplo in the concerning city, bribe the horseman and catch the barb leader

The trick there would be getting the Horse separated from the Barb Leader. You cannot bribe the Horse (or Archer, or any other unit) stacked with the Leader, and they rarely separate. That is why I warned that you will probably have to withstand at least one attack from the military unit before you can go after the leader. See #29.

My trick to get NONE vet units:
Let a city with a barracks be captured by barbs - and the city will produce vet units
Don't bribe that city back - have you ever seen barb armors?

Got that one already - see #31 The Barb Farm.

 

[ElephantU]

Cheap settlers trick:
For that you need to a weak backward civilization(s) who are relatively far from you and accecible by sea, a moderate navy and a number of Spies (Diplomats I think disband after a mission so that is not good) and enough gold. In short use whatever diplomatic means necessary to rid the weak civ of their gold. send Spies on ships and land them in the enemy territory. Bride settlers and engineers (if any). Use bribed units for cover not to get deported. As the country has few gold the units will be much cheaper. Send the slaves onto ships and continue bribing. After no settlers are left retreat for some turns. Then come back. The great thing about it is that if you are far away all settlers will be unsuported. Its fun to be able to milk 2-3 countires at the same time. Fundamentalism is a good govt for that as it gives a lot of gold you'll need and a Spy bonus. Haven't tried it at most difficult levels though.

Settlers and Engineers are double the bribe cost of other units. At the point where I have Spies, I am usually in a WLTPD growth spurt so I can afford to RushBuy Engineers and the city will recover in one turn. That said, I do like getting several NONE Engineers from AI civs, or building my own via the disband city trick. ESPECIALLY if I am playing One City Challenge! Two Engineers can clean a pollution skull in one turn.

Re: Fundy - yes, you get the gold, but you should be investing it in infrastructure to support a switch to Democracy ASAP, or waging major war as quickly as possible. Fundy does not give your Spies any bonus beyond lowering the other civ's displeasure at your attrocities. Communism gives you the automatic Vet Spies.

 

[The Person]

Wow. This is a just as comprehensible list as AnduIndorin's listing of Starlifter's PD strat. I know most of it from before, but this list is great for people who don't know how the "experts" play. Anyway, it's great to have it all in one thread.

 

[ElephantU]

Try the Celebrating Fundamentalism: Build Michelangelo and Bach's Cathedral,
luxury rate 50%, science 50% - and rush temples (in Fundy, the(y) bring you(g) gold!) and market places, later col(i)osseums and banks. You don't need taxes. A celebrating fundy city has the same amount of trade arrows as a democratic city! And the caravan payoffs are the same as in Democracy!

City science is crippled under Fundy - set it to 0 (with 1 Scientist somewhere to trigger discoveries) and put the trade into Lux or Tax. Get your beakers from caravans and freights.

Fundy is good for massive war, but you could be doing so much more by switching to Democracy and using WLTPD to grow your cities and produce piles of Engineers. Use Fundy to prepare the infrastructure before the switch, if you did not do it in Republic.