Does anyone agree with me here?

Exsanguination

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I find that if I build 5-10 very good, solid productive cities, and STOP there, I am satisfied for the whole game. I've tried the expand and conquer method, but to me, its just no fun. I prefer to stay isolationist and pacifist, let the AI duel it out and kill itself. With those 5-10 productive cities, I find that often I can build temples/libs/univs in <10 turns, so producing military is a piece of cake. Usually, by the mid-middle ages, if anyone goes to war with me (usually cause they think I'm small and weak) get a little surprise, and I just raze their cities or keep the good ones for fun. This method works best if you're on an isolated island on your own. I find this results in a much more enjoyable game.

Anyone in agreement with me here?
 
Thats a good method. You should build to the optimal amount of cities on the map, and then one more city. Then build an FP for a really balanced civ.

Also, even though you won't have as many units as the AI, you aren't interested in conquering so you won't need hundreds of offensive units.

This would be good if you're aiming towards diplo victory. What usually happens in most people's games are that they are trying to get a high score so they do all that is needed such as conquering the world.

A good civ for this would be Egypt or Babylon.
 
Bah, anyone can do that! Also, it is much more interesting to have 25-30 productive cities, which is possible BTW, with that no one dares to attack you and you can produce more quicker than you can with only 5-10 cities.
 
Originally posted by Exsanguination
I find that if I build 5-10 very good, solid productive cities, and STOP there, I am satisfied for the whole game. . . .

Anyone in agreement with me here?

Absolutely. That is one of many different and successful strategies for playing Civ.
 
What is "fun" about building 5-10 productive cities and stopping??

If all I then do is push around workers and build this or that, or cut some trade deal, it gets tedious and repetitious real fast. The only real excitement comes from a good war, usually just before the Industrial period gets going when there are soon so many units it also can be tedious.

That doesn't mean the "5-10" deal doesn't work.

BTW, with 5-10 "productive", how many non-productive cities oir towns do you have??
 
Do you play on chieftain or warlord with this strat? I don't see a victory happening like this on any higher difficulty. You need to control at least 25% of the world's land mass to even be able to be a candidate, unless you build the U.N. yourself. But, an "empire" like that, I don't see how you could keep up in tech by being isolated and such. Sure the ai civs will pound each other, but one will eventually win. Believe me, you can't win by sitting around, doing pretty much nothing.

One more thing: all it takes is one nation to declare war on you and you're finished. You wouldn't have the production potential to withstand a sustained assault. The more aggressive civs like Zululand WILL attack you too.
 
Yeah, I like One City games myself. Good challenge, plus they don't take long. I rarely finish my full games because by the industrial ages I have so much stuff that it takes forever and there's too much micromanagement for it to be fun for me. The only games I finish these days are OCC's.
 
You can build the UN with pre palace build. The spaceship can be built easily as all your cities should be able to work on it. The conquest and domination victories would be impossible.

Lets say you play on a large map. The optimal city limit is 24. Build 25 cities, and you'll have a nation as large as most of the AI civs if you play with all 12 civs.
 
Enjoy it in this game, because in Call To Power II science victory is not that easy...
 
Originally posted by Zeromus
Do you play on chieftain or warlord with this strat? I don't see a victory happening like this on any higher difficulty. You need to control at least 25% of the world's land mass to even be able to be a candidate, unless you build the U.N. yourself. But, an "empire" like that, I don't see how you could keep up in tech by being isolated and such. Sure the ai civs will pound each other, but one will eventually win. Believe me, you can't win by sitting around, doing pretty much nothing.

Oh really? :lol: That's not true at all. Not even close. One of the beauties of Civ3 is that so many different strategies can be played successfully. I also tried a game like this, only I limited myself to 5 cities. This was a "5 city challenge" game, in other words. I played on Monarch, on a standard map, so I was nowhere near the optimal city number. And the result? I built almost every wonder, out-researched all of the other civs, never fought a war with anyone, and had over 50,000 gold in the bank at the time the game ended. The win was a diplomatic one, but only because there was no aluminum in my territory and no one had any surplus aluminum to trade me for the space race, which I easily could have won. The game was so much fun; believe me I wasn't "doing nothing" in my cities. I was micromanaging to my heart's content, playing the trading game as much as I could, deciding what to research and when to go what rate, and having to decide what wonder to build in what city in order to get it. I was hardly defenseless; anyone who attacked me would have seen everyone else in the world after them on the next turn. I had over 25 artillery, 20 bombers, and 20 tanks in case someone did attack, plus some 7 mechs in each city. My score was very low, but I wielded a disproportionate amount of influence on the game. And you don't even need 5 cities to win; a group of players won a game on Deity in a one city challenge game! Just goes to show that even the small guys can compete.

Final map from the game:

Greece5CC.jpg
 
Thanks Sullla :goodjob: !

BTW Zeromus, I have played about 5 games like this so far, a mostly at regent, now I'm trying my hand on one at monarch (I'm no too advanced!), and I have been successful each time. I could have won diplomatically, SS, or cultural (usually cultural/SS). In my first, I was beaten by one vote in the diplomatic race cause Alexander controlled most of the world and had the most power... arggggh.

Ah well, nice to see some people actually do agree with me. And Zouave, essentially I just don't have the patience for empires/wars. Wars are tedious and its no fun when you lose, which always happens to me, even if I outnumber the AI 5 to 1. I like peaceful coexistence, so to say ;).
 
What do you do abour resource? Sometimes the AI just will not trade with you.
 
I totally disagree with u:
1st can't win wiyh 1 city on deity (lol nice try...how can u expect to researc and be in the game when u w8 for military units and have 100 gold from you town?-u won't eben be able to support an army not with even 5 city)
2nd even when u have 5 towns on monarch + dificulty game u can't outresearch the ai, the ai won't trade with u couse your weak and not the list u won't even have money to build an embassy in every civ u know( probably u will be eliminated from the game by multiple aliance vs U before u even have an embassy in a civ
3d an optimal number of ctiy is the only alternative to a peacefull way through the games couse u will have a balanced civ
 
Originally posted by Gundam
I totally disagree with u:
1st can't win wiyh 1 city on deity (lol nice try...how can u expect to researc and be in the game when u w8 for military units and have 100 gold from you town?-u won't eben be able to support an army not with even 5 city)
2nd even when u have 5 towns on monarch + dificulty game u can't outresearch the ai, the ai won't trade with u couse your weak and not the list u won't even have money to build an embassy in every civ u know( probably u will be eliminated from the game by multiple aliance vs U before u even have an embassy in a civ
3d an optimal number of ctiy is the only alternative to a peacefull way through the games couse u will have a balanced civ

You are very sadly mistaken my friend. I can't speak for the first claim by Sullla, although I wholeheartedly belive it; but I can say you are horridly wrong on your last two claims. I HAVE accomplished OCC, two-city challenges, and my fav, five city (I don't consider them "challenges, just a regular game :)). The AI generally bullies you and taunts you, but just give em what they and be a wise diplomat, and not only can you make friends and keep up in tech, you can OUTRESEARCH the AI. Not hard. I'm seeing some difficulties on Monarch, but not many. I bet one of the seasoned vets could easily outdo the AI with five cities on Deity, even.

Anyways, I just started a new game and broke from my pacifist stance, building a large empire, so far of about 15 cities, and definetely gonna be more (once I destroy those Greeks). This one's gonna be fun!
 
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