Recent content by jpowers

The dynasty that built the Great Wall lasted 4 years after its completion, when some bribed guard let the whole Manchurian Army through. Fat lot of good this dam will do when some fish bribe the hyrdo-controller...

You mean besides Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, or Ukraine? True, some of these go all the way back 70 years or so into ancient history, but if you don't think any modern government could and would forcibly move 1.3 million people on a...

On Prince, I've been researching the minimum path to robotics, then turning off research for as long as I need to buy the Space Elevator, then turning research back on. I usually lose 4-5 turns of research but gain 8-10 turns of parts production.

ALWAYS - Leave 1-2 warriors guarding my cities until way too late into the game because I don't research archery because I want to get all the other cool stuff and who needs bows and arrows anyway which is why I can never win higher than Noble. - Wait until well into the 1700's before even...

The best offense is a good defense is the strategy the US used to 'win' the Cold War without ever sending a troop onto Soviet soil. By convincing the Russians that they had to keep up in the nuclear arms race - always characterized by both sides as defense against the other's first-strike...

I agree. The only thing better than an Indian Fast Worker is a captured Indian Fast Worker.

Neither of these statements are true. 1. The brute-force ability of a computer to process state space allows it to be undefeatable in a game of checkers, able to easily beat the humans that programmed it. Once memory and processors catch up, chess will be next. 2. The entire field of...

That's not true at all. Just check 'allow permanent alliances' when you start the game and after you have a mutual defense pact with someone you can build up your relations with them to the point they will be willing to accept a permanent alliance. It's not enabled by default for solo games...

Catapult Axeman w/ City Raider promotion Great Artist rinse, repeat, dominate...

The French didn't become more cultured after Napoleon captured Egypt and the Pyramids (some would say they became less so). The Pyramids' cultural value stayed with those who conceived and built them. This was brought into sharp relief when the Taliban destroyed the cultural heritage of...

The first settler blue circle is usually something I trust, since the AI does know the resource situation, and even if I use a scout for the first move, I can't always get the full 'fat-square' picture before settling.

I've played a few times like this just to see the earliest possible victory I could get. I used the Quechua (sp?) civ so I wouldn't need any metals, and I had my worker build a road to the enemy's door. A nice stack of 6 has finished the game on normal speed by 2340BC.

The reason I do diplomacy in the 'haphazard' way is that it is impossible to compile all the relevant information to a diplomatic situation once it has popped up on the screen. How do I know if I want to 'cancel all deals' with Cleopatra unless I know what the deals are and what she thinks...

Ideally, you should be constantly working the land and managing your city's utilization of the land depending on your goal for that city. This changes during the game, of course, so a city that started out producing $$ may need to be switched over to population/specialists, hence cottages may...