Civ strategies you ALWAYS/NEVER do

[Gaspar~]

ALWAYS:
Beeline for pottery then BW then CoL
Try to build the Oracle
Debate whether or not to steal a worker from a nearby civ
Aim for an uber-commerce capital
Get maces asap
Debate too long whether or not to use them, and usually lose a good deal of my initiative
Get screwed up if I found one of the early religions and make too many friends
Get screwed up if I adopt Conf when I found it (90% of the time) and make too many enemies
Overestimate how quickly I can advance to a modern economy
Panic after I take out 1-2 nearby enemies and stop far too long to rebuild my economy losing my military tech advantage.
Remember to bring Garrisons for new cities

NEVER
Build Angor Wat, Spiral Minaret, Sistine Chapel, Parthenon
Build an Archer
Get Horseback Riding via my own discovery
Build mounted units unless its a UU or I have no metals
Play as the Greeks or Persians
Build enough military if my commercial start is too good or my neighbors are too close

 

[Guerra]

Always:
Build a strong navy.
Use amphibious upgrade
Build lots of grenadiers
Use Vassalage, Theocracy, free market
Build the pyramids and get representation
Found my own religion, preferably Christianity or Islam.
Build the hanging gardens where the pyramids are. (I love my Great Engineers)
Rush to Astronomy & gunpowder, ignore medieval era.
Play peaceful until some bastard tries to kill me, then I use my invincible galleons, frigates and amphibious grenadier/riflemen assault trick.
Open borders often, except with my next door neighbours.
Spread my religion

Never:
Build medieval units.
Start a war first.
Backstab an ally.
use mounted units unless its UU (I really love that Keshik)
give into demands.
quit multiplayer games before my last city is razed.
go the culture route.
play as the Chinese
chop rush

 

[Babobeebo]

Here's mine

Always
Secretly build my military untill I can make tanks
Be friendly to all civs, then attack one without warning
Automate workers to the nearest city
Hoard nukes
Be Germans...I like Panzers

Never
Build Ironclads or Explorers

 

[Ex-Cop]

For me
Always > goto bed 2 hours later than I should playing Civ or reading Civ fanatics strategy forums

Never > spend enough "quality time" with my girlfriend doing "boring" stuff

 

[LordOfTheDrinks]

Well... the "never" and "allways" varies a lot... in fact so much that it can become exactly the opposite, depending on difficulty, map size, game speed...
But... it's CIV, you know?
e.g.:
Normal speed: never built a musketman or ironclad
Marathon: build a lot of 'em...
Difficulty: prince and below: allways try to get an early religion, never care about politics...
Monarch and above: never intrested in early religions, allways pick allies with great care...

etc.

 

[Aldor]

Wow, so many of you never build certain wonders like Chichen, Angkor or others...why? They are useful, if you use them well

I don't have many "always" strategies, perhaps mainly that I try to play peaceful.

I have never used state property, because I consider it ugly, even somewhat of an exploit. Tiles giving more food, but when I go out of SP my population suddely starves? Nah, not with me.
More strategy, I never have "must get" wonders. I'm happy if I get one I like, but I don't rely on them.

 

[al_thor]

Always:
Play at least 4 hours of civ a day.

Never:
Play less than 4 hours of civ a day.

 

[SteveU]

Monarch, Normal speed, Standart size, Single player

Always:
Build Stonehenge if Im not Creative OR I have stone
Build Oracle if I have marble
Build the pyramids and get representation
Switch to Representation+Slavery, Free Religion + Free speech + Free markets, Emancipation + State Property, Universal Sufferage (if Im commercial OR/AND only 6-8 techs left undiscovered) + move science rate down
Replace in later game: river farms -> watermills (in production cities) , mines (no resources) -> windmills, not irrigated farms (and no way to irrigate) -> workshops (after Biology + State Property, in production cities). Of course where are exceptions for each case depending on food situation in a city.
Built a lot of Cavalry and Cannons (the first are pretty good to kill wounded units even in tank-era and promote them as Medics, the second are very useful in their time)


Never:
Build workshops until State Property
Build watermills & windmills before Repl.Parts
Switch civics more than listed before (if not Spiritual)

 

[Roibeárd]

ALWAYS
- Build early wonders if I'm industrious and have stone
- Get the urge to start a war in the middle ages, if I haven't had one already.
- Eliminate an adjacent civ as early as possible (especially if it's Monty, Toku or Alex)
- Found Buddhism if I start with Mysticism

NEVER
- Build early wonders if I'm not industrious and don't have stone
- Build enough catapults
- Build Explorers (I know -- they make great medics...)

 

[Nanzook]

Always..

There is nothing I always do. Depends on the map.

Infact I have used may of the wonders peeps say are worthless such (Chichen Itza)and it can be very usefull given the situation.

I love horse units of any type nothing like pillaging important rescourses and roads of enemies.

I have aswell had games wear iron clads and explorers where key componants to my victory.

Attacking from the ocean can be very good way to take enemy city, amphibias upgrade has its place as well.

Never say Never....

 

[Kalleyao]

Never achieve anything else than conquest or domination.

 

[aviator99_uk]

Monarch/Emperor SP

Always play sm islands/islands/archipelago (in that order of preference)
Never play pangea

Always play standard/small/tiny
Never play Huge/Large

Always invade a neighbour asap
Never wait till you have to have catapults for your first conquest

Always play marathon
Never play normal or quick

Always play a creative civ
Never bother playing an aggressive civ

Always look for first city site to be a high production site.
Never feel embarrased to 'regenerate map' if the start looks crappy

Always send a work boat out to circumnav the world (and meet neighbours)
Never forget the extra movement point from circumnav

Always get alpha and trade for early techs
Never trade techs post mid game when you should be ahead anyway.

Always create least 3 really good production citys.
Never worry about commerce citys, just invade and take.

Always use workers to hook up the resources and chop first
Never worry if you don't get round to building a cottage before 1AD

Always try for Great Lighthouse and Collosus in the same city
Never bother with Pyramids

Always get a score better than 20K
Never get a score better than 50K

But what the heck,, its only a game......

 

[anglosaxon]

I disagree with the statement that you should never build crossbowmen. They are really good units, have strength 6 + 50% versus melee units. My key strategy is to build The Pyramids early on which will give you a Great Engineer by 1AD. Use this person to discover 90% of the Machinery tech which gives you crossbowmen, build windmills and watermills, etc. If you can build crossbowmen by 1AD then you can build a horde of these guys to wipe out any barbarians and aggressive players/AI. Plus if you give them the Shock promotion they get a further +25% against melee units, giving them a total strength of 10.5, enough to deal with any almost any pre-gunpowder units. Greath for defending cities from melee units, since virtually nobody attacks with archers!

 

[anglosaxon]

Don't bother founding a religion if you build the pyramids. The happiness you get from using the representation civic outweighs any religous benefits.

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

Don't bother founding a religion if you build the pyramids. The happiness you get from using the representation civic outweighs any religous benefits.

I also take an "athiest" route sometimes, but what about the commerce from the holy city? or do you just go on a crusade ?

 

[cabert]

Nice thread.
Here you see how many different styles you can use.
Last week, i would have had a lot of "always" and "nevers", but i tried to improve my skill by using the GotM spoilers (thank you hendrickzoon), and now i'm confused (what i did for my last game is almost opposite to what i did before!).

Still a few :
ALWAYS
- go for music ASAP (free Great Artist)
- go for liberalism ASAP (free tech)
- go for physics ASAP (free scientist)
- whip a culture building first in conquered cities
- forget to garison anything else than an warrior and whip an archer/longbow at the very last moment when barbs have rampaged everything

NEVER
- build enough workers (most games I build 2 workers for the whole game)
- build enough cottages (usually i have in the end less than 10 towns for the whole map)
- build enough settlers (most games I build 2 settlers in the first 200 turns, sometimes i build a few in the end to get the domination ratio)

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Never: develop a specialist based economy. It's something I keep meaning to try at some point.

 

[Juardis]

Always:
-get liberalism first (or try to)
-save forests for later in game (probably why I don't win much at prince)
-land grab early and hope research doesn't get too low
-play everything random
-get whipped on prince level, win on noble level

Never:
-am never first at circumnavigating the world, usually I'm last to discover caravels
-try to win culturally
-build nukes
-research/build calvary (rather head for tanks)
-build castles (although I'm starting to like them on border towns)
-build forts
-build workshops
-build waterwheels

 

[Nials]

Always:
- Attempt to get techs that grant free Great People and discoveries such as Music, Physics and Liberalism.
- Chop every forest visible, preferably for workers / settlers / wonders
- Whip Granaries in new cities unless conquered and under cultural pressure in which case I whip a culture building, typically a Theatre
- Play standard size or smaller. Anything larger gets too boring and choppy during the mid / end game.
- Build Stonehenge if I am not playing a creative civ or I have stone
- Attempt to found an early religion and build a shrine ASAP if I build Stonehenge (Great Prophet points)
- Try to build other ancient wonders in different cities if I want a Great Prophet and build Stonehenge
- Beeline to BW pretty much right at the start except in certain circumstances (eg. Seafood in the capitol's fat cross, in which case I go for Fishing)
- Build Worker / Worker / Settler, unless I have Seafood nearby in which case I build a Work Boat and make the capitol grow.
- Make Alphabet a high priority after having BW and the crucial early worker techs that I need. Tech brokering rocks
- Attempt to circumnavigate the world (nearly always, I lost it to Washington last game )

Never:
- Win through culture
- Use mounted units (perhaps not never but rarely)
- Build Workshops and Watermills pre-SP
- Build Forts (I have NEVER made one )
- Build Walls / Castles (I probably should build some Walls in border cities if the air smells of early war)
- Build nukes (blech)
- Build enough Settlers (I only get a few cities out at the start and then let my neighbours grab all of the land)
- Automate workers other than for creating trade networks once ALL improvements in ALL cities are built

 

[autocon]

For me
Always > goto bed 2 hours later than I should playing Civ or reading Civ fanatics strategy forums

Never > spend enough "quality time" with my girlfriend doing "boring" stuff

same here