Eager player, needing a psuh

[Xcercs]

Well me and friend of mine recently rediscovered the Civ2 game and are loving it ... previously we have been cheiftain players of odd occasion and never really played the higher difficulties till recently now were trying prince and such and so far its an enjoyable frustration as we do ok some of the time and fail epically in others.

What im looking for is advice on how to improve my play and not get left behind i seem to always have low income/gold in reserve and my research is flawed ( i know this since i often see size 30+ and im still waiting for 20 not to mention unless i race for spaceship and go full tax and buy it like mad my score is appauling) it seems when i try a different tactic i forgot something else and thus never have a solid gameplay.

typically i like to turtle my way through the game i will expand the size of my island and then just sit and produce city improvements and wait for the research to come through, my turns go very fast and i cant seem to think im missing the bigger picture.

I am a beginner ill readily admit that but im hoping that with some help from the pro's ill have scores that rate higher than 28% on the hall of fame.

as an idea of how i progress ... normally ill build a city then 2 units to defend it, then ill make a setler to go and make another city ... once i have filled the island ill make maybe 2 settlers and leave them automated to road irrigate ect as for city production its normally in favour of research, defence, production (factory ect) wonders are always a pain yes i can get them but unless i aim for something from the go can be touch and go to me getting the wonder done and often i miss the greats like shakespere, mike chaple, hoover dam, and a few others that i feel would be great benefit.


if anyone has some tips on how to make things easier please let me know ... i seem to never get my caravans to trade for more than 50 gold and find my diplomacy tricky at best.



i know it seems alot to ask but i really enjoy playing the game just feel im missing out on more that could be available .. i hit reublic and then kinda stop going espeicially cos fo the upset caused by units away.


I'd also love to join in other multiplay games the more human the better my timezone is UK but i can be flexible if its going to bea good sized game.

contact details are MSN : Xcercs@hotmail.com id be happy to talk thing through there over a mic if prefered even durign a game just really wanna get my teeth into something that i seem to never get board of.,

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I am a beginner ill readily admit that but im hoping that with some help from the pro's ill have scores that rate higher than 28% on the hall of fame.

I'm pretty sure that the aproval rating is dependent upon the difficulty level, so as you move up in difficulty level it will increase. I wouldn't pay too much attention to score until you have a good grasp of the game.

as an idea of how i progress ... normally ill build a city then 2 units to defend it, then ill make a setler to go and make another city ... once i have filled the island ill make maybe 2 settlers and leave them automated to road irrigate ect as for city production its normally in favour of research, defence, production (factory ect) wonders are always a pain yes i can get them but unless i aim for something from the go can be touch and go to me getting the wonder done and often i miss the greats like shakespere, mike chaple, hoover dam, and a few others that i feel would be great benefit.

Try expanding much more quickly in the early game; cut down on (or eliminate) defenders in the early game and focus on building settlers for cities. Build some improvements to the terrain in the middle of all this, especially a few roads on shield grassland (and be sure to work that grassland), and have lots of settlers working your land when the island is full.

Don't use the Automated Settler function. This may be a bit of a surprise, but the computer is actually highly inept and cheats a lot to be competative. Taking the in-game advice will usually result in poorer play. Choose for yourself where to improve the terrain, and make preference for squares that are actually being worked in a city.

Build wonders using caravans. If you move a caravan into a city building a wonder, you will get the option to put the 50 shields of the caravan into the production of the wonder.

i seem to never get my caravans to trade for more than 50 gold and find my diplomacy tricky at best.

Deliver caravans to foreign civs on other continents for better returns. Look for cities with high trade (lots of road, ocean, or trade specials in the radius) because caravan bonus calculations are based on the trade of the cities in question.

You sound like you are playing Multiplayer Gold Edition. They altered diplomacy from classic in that edition, making the computer unrealistically hostile; diplomacy is more or less a write-off in that version.

Try some of this advice to start with and see where it takes you.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Try these links for more information (they can be found in the Strategy and Tips forum):

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=96725

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=298489

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=284761

Also, there is a multiplayer forum if you are looking for players for multiplayer.

 

[Xcercs]

thanks ill give some of them a try although i was under the impression that lots of city was hard to look ater unless com or fund

 

[Prof. Garfield]

The fact of the matter is that playing more effectively at civilization requires more work. The nature of the game is that you are in charge of allocating your nation's resources, and effective allocation requires work.

 

[Xcercs]

i didnt mean i dont want to work at it i was under the inmpression that too much expantion would cause uproar of my cities

 

[Prof. Garfield]

At prince level, the first 4 citizens of your cities are automatically content. As you gain cities, the "riot factor" will diminish this number, depending on the map size and the government you have. By the time it kicks in significantly enough to cause trouble, however, you should have other mechanisms in place to deal with the unhappiness (improvements, wonders, luxuries).

If you want to grow your cities to a decent size anyway, you will have to overcome unhappiness regardless of how many cities you have.

 

[Xcercs]

indeed i tend to get a couple of upsets where i forget luxery ill give the wide expantion a test spent most the day reading the links you gave and finally understand why i dont need great library but love the marco idea of just getting the techs i need

 

[KevinRuddPM]

I've never really advanced from Chieftain level, I did Warlord a few times but got absolutely pwned. I doubt I'll try Warlord again >_>

 

[Xcercs]

hehe well i been playing using some of the strats on this forum and although not yet completed a game in a higher difficulty since i noticed much better improvement of the way i do things and expand ... still looking for online play but ill survive at the moment im just perfecting the start of the game ... diplomacy with AI is still tough and im loosing a few cities but ill get there

 

[Magic_gorter]

The start is the most important part for a good game. If you don't want to play a one city challenge (OCC) it's wise to start with settlers and no or very little defenders as Pr. Garfield mentioned. Try to get out of depotism as fast as possible (monarchy or republic...) and remember to find a good balance in growing fast (cities) and science. Perhaps reading some logs in the GOTM section might help also. You can even download some savefiles just to look at how somebody plays. And you can also try playing it and compare it to other players...this month is a chieftain game.....

 

[Xcercs]

where i find gotm and the logs ? i read about OCC and also the Early landing and was amazed that people actually beat the game in its highest difficulty with very little use of combat

 

[Magic_gorter]

The GOTM section is the lowest section of the civ2 forum

Or try this link:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30

The logs can you find in the threads with the word spoiler in it (eg. gotm 93 spoiler).
Combat is hardly necessary as long as you can stay "friends" with the ai (is harder with MGE). Most of the times the human player is way ahead with techs. So when the ai wants a fight it's easy to win a combat or to control the ai.

Did you also read the early landing guide of Solo. It's on an other site (apolyton), but perhaps you found a link to it.