Civ questions

[James1]

Hello from London! I recently bought a copy of Civ1 for a penny off amazon having played abuot 15 years ago as a kid...and I'm absolutely loving it! Found this (great) forum on the internet and thought I would share my enthusiasm for the game and ask for some tips from like-minded people...

My style of play is to go nuts on sciences from the start and build as many cities as possible and rapidly expand to the borders of my continent - if its small, expand to a nearby island - do both these away from the presence of other civ's where possible. I am currently playing on medium level - Prince - which I find relatively easy. I can win with style, ease and enjoyment and am thinking of upping to a harder level for more of a challenge.

Can anyone answer/help with these points?

-What does a fortress do? Is there any point on making them?
-I rarely use barracks - are they recommended and why?
-Why is it recommended to move to Republic/Democracy? When I do this, the next turn I find half my cities are in revolt and subsequently can't support any units they've produced. Its frustrating when you're expanding quickly so whats the point?

thanks!

 

[SkyProf5]

Can anyone answer/help with these points?

-What does a fortress do? Is there any point on making them?
-I rarely use barracks - are they recommended and why?
-Why is it recommended to move to Republic/Democracy? When I do this, the next turn I find half my cities are in revolt and subsequently can't support any units they've produced. Its frustrating when you're expanding quickly so whats the point?

In Civ 1 combat, when a stacked unit loses a combat the entire stack is destroyed, except: in cities and in Fortresses, units die one at a time.

Units produced in a Barracks start as Veterans and have 50% greater Attack/Defense than a non-veteran unit. Just don't forget that all Barracks become obsolete (disappear) when the advances Gunpowder and Combustion are discovered. Remember to sell your old barracks before this happens.

Switch to Rep/Dem and watch your income soar. You can not use military units in the city to keep citizens content under Rep/Dem; you should build Temples/Cathedrals before switching to keep your citizens content.

 

[Theov]

watch out with barracks though, they cost you 1 GPT (gold per turn). So veteran units can be expensive in this way.
.
Fortresses can be nice to throw roadblocks... throw multiple units on a small passage to block enemies from entering your land.
And... as you might have guessed, fortresses give a fat defense bonus.
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ1/refcharts/civ1terchart.htm

 

[James1]

thanks for this! very helpful...
Think I'm gonna up the difficulty to King and see how I get on there - I have found that now I am older (and wiser!) and not playing as a 12 year old only interested in military, Prince is a little too easy and not as challenging as I'd like.

one more question though - how do you go about getting the most from caravans? I know you can move them into a city to help with WOW but do they have any other uses? I recall something about a trade route... how do you do this?
cheers

 

[Diviner]

You are right, there is the trade route option. Like the wonder help option, it pops up when you move a caravan unit to a city. Not all cities are possible destinations, there is a minimum distance from the caravan's birthplace to be eligible for this option. Basically the farther away the two city, the more gold you get for the trade route. Probably there are whole many other factors - this game never ceases to amaze me with its many hidden details. You can use the re-home option (H) if the ideal source city does not have enough production. You can also create foreign trade routes by using AI city as trade route destination. I am not sure of it, but I think foreign trade routes require no minimal distance and are always more valuable. However, you need a peaceful and developed enough AI for this (egypt, america is potential partners).

 

[Valen]

How do you go about getting the most from caravans?

The question is discussed at length here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=377541

 

[ATC1983]

With caravans your cities need to be at least 10 squares apart to have an internal trade network between your cities; you can make trade routes with foreign Civs at any map distance.

Republic and democracy are superior, by far, to monarchy and despotism, but communism is also something you should consider later on or if you build the pyramids. It is sometimes best to wait until republic rather than move straight to monarchy; and other times it is best to wait until democracy rather than republic. When you move to either, ensure your luxury slider is set high enough (20% usually at least) to cancel out unhappy citizens in your cities. You can check this with F1. Also combine republic and democracy with JS Bach and Womans Sufferage to reduce unhappiness caused by war and moving your military units from their cities.

 

[Theov]

In the middle of the city screen you can see what trade routes a city has and how much trade it gives per turn.

 

[Whelkman]

In my opinion, the costs of Barracks outweigh its benefits. Besides the $40 upfront, one needs to deal with obsolescence and eventual maintenance cost. Intuitively, I think an extra Chariot would obviate the Barracks' value long term.

 

[James1]

hey thanks for all your tips!

I have found out a quicker way of getting ahead early on is to build the first city and then sell the palace and use the money the money to buy a settler as soon as the first city reaches size 2... but this means there is no palace to update unless I build another later on...

I assume though that there is nothing wrong without having a palace...??

 

[Theov]

At the start of a game there won't be a big difference whether you have a palace or not since you don't have much trade. Or better said; you don't have much corruption. Later on, you could lose half your trade arrows if you don't have a palace.

See those little arrows in the city screen? That's your trade. With the tax slider you decide how many arrows are turned into gold per turn (GPT) and how many are turned into light bulbs, to get new technologies. See those black arrows? That's trade (money/light bulbs) you are not getting due to corruption.

The palace reduces corruption, the further you are from the palace, the more corruption. No palace means all cities have a considerate amount of corruption.

I just tested what the effect would be on my civ, here it is:
With palace: 156 gold per turn.
Without palace: 79 gold per turn.

So it could jump start you early on, but later in the game, you seriously need a palace again.

 

[enneagon]

... buy a settler as soon as the first city reaches size 2... but this means there is no palace...

You do not have to wait. You can't destroy the first city for the first few moves.
Experiment, and correct me if am wrong, but I remember doing so.

And, yes, rebuilding palace must be top priority as soon as you see no immediate needs (you always have).

 

[ATC1983]

I would never do this - unless you make pyramids and change government to communism.

 

[ZedGargantua]

Hi,
Years back, I spent night over night playing civ1 (red eyes and all) and after a while had to stop.
Recently I stumbled on it again and also came accross civfanatics.
I'm interrested in using Dack's CIV$ but I read that it doesn't work if using the DOSbox.
Does anyone have more infos about it or know of a way to go around this problem other then hacking the files by myself ?

 

[Whelkman]

CIV$ works fine in DOSBox. Be sure to raise cycles over the default 3000 else it will be sluggish.

 

[ZedGargantua]

A little late on the reply, many thanks for this advice Whelkman.

 

[Theov]

I would never do this - unless you make pyramids and change government to communism.

Hmmm I didn't know the effect disappeared in Commie. I thought with a palace the overall corruption would be lower, but I did a test just now and sold my palace... no changes. Same income.

 

[Boris27]

If anybody knows... Is it possible to increase # of players to 10, 15....?

 

[Valen]

There are only 8 tribe colors and one of those is the barbarian red. That leaves only 7 players.

 

[Murex003]

Does trade increase with high taxes? My strategy is just to go all-out science, so maybe this is why I never understood it.