Civ1 - Some ideas for jaded addicts

[peterval]

Stormerne mentioned recently that we should be innovative in our gameplay. I thought his suggestion might become a subject for a new thread so here are a couple of ideas that I hope are not too stupid.

The first is for Chieftain level. The rule is that in the year your spaceship blasts off there must be 6 other civs, each with a specified number of cities, say 4 for an easy start. You have to stay small and lean at first; a civ might be destroyed and then you must split someone. Civilization 1 only permits splits if you are smaller than they are. The greater the number of cities you specify the more difficult this exercise becomes. It is easy to cut civs down to size but it can be the devil to build them up, e.g. by irrigating or leaving empty towns around. You are acting, sort of, as a world policeman, like Gort? Klaatu barada nikto! Quite Civilized really.

My second idea is more controversial and perhaps is for Emperor, although I havn't tried it at that level. Increase the movement byte for caravans to 16, like nukes. This makes the world visible much earlier and revolutionizes Trade. OK OK I know this is cheating. I would say in defence that IMHO the programers cheated a bit in suddenly introducing (completely undocumented so far as I know) the concept of deeply unhappy people and put a cap on content births - is it 14? I think they should have introduced a new level for that - and called it Deity or something!

Anyway, has anyone got some new ideas. Or maybe we could list some oldies like the canal trick.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

I've got an obvious one. Why don't we all play Emporer and actually wait until modern times to kill everyone. Early chariot conquests are all that is really seen anymore.

 

[peterval]

I would go along with that. A chariot flood is OK by the rules but seems against the spirit of Civ1 somehow. I think maybe there are better games for a blitzkrieg.

I can recommend a go at the Chieftain game I have suggested though. The idea of creating a new AI civilization and then building it up maybe hasn't been explored before. I had real feelings of paternal pride recently when Elizabeth I bared her teeth at me. The English had been destroyed earlier, I recreated them by splitting the Romans, then they lost a city back to the Romans. So I retook it and then, successfully as it turned out, tried to entice Lizzie back in. She tried to bite my b****s off. Very satisfying.

 

[TTG]

I only have this to say:

E3:

Earth Map
English
Emperor

 

[Andy6474b]

I tend to enjoy the building part of the game most.
Recently Ive played a few games on Earth, where I start out as the Indians or Chinese, and immediately build a trireme and a settler. I then start a second city on one of the nearby islands, usually Java. I leave some defense in my original capital, but other than using it for producing settlers I dont develop it, but rather work on colonising the indonesia/australia islands. As soon as I can I build a new palace at which point I abandon my mainland city for the next convienient barbarian or other civ to erase for me.
I then happily potter away isolated on my islands building up my civ and leaving all the others to their own devices, occasionally sending some ships and units to scout out what they have done, and establish trade routes and embassies.

 

[Zwelgje]

I like building up a civilization too. Just not so many cities but with lots of buildings, trade routes and embassies. However I can only do that (unpunished) in the first three levels, in king and emperor the attacks by other civs are so frequent that lots of what you build up will be destroyed. So when playing in higher levels I will send loads of chariots and later knights on board of sails to kill everybody around.