ivj said:
You sure did!
ivj said:
It's pretty simple. The idea is to max out your capital's happiness level right away - after which you can halt growth and start expanding. So, here's the general game flow:
1) I almost NEVER build a city on the location where I start. Most of the time, 2-3 extra turns will yield me a location that is MUCH MORE desirable, with as much as 3 or 4 resources on it. I also try to aim for a place in between some hills, which will likely have iron or copper later on in the game.
I've gotten mixed results with Moving-the-Settler... Especially on Noble, the game almost NEVER starts you off in a "bad" place...no matter what you might think...
(One quick note---If your settler starts next to a goodie hut, DON'T build the city without going to the hut first--It disappears if it's in your cultural border) .... I like the extra 2-3 turns of research & production...Situationally, though, yeah, I'll move if I can get THREE working resource squares, especially cows or horses, which are good all game...
ivj said:
2) After I build the city, I set the "Emphasize Growth" option. I keep it that way for a while now.
I don't trust a machine to do a man's job. Almost NEVER. Especially when there's ONE city (and early on) only 1,2, or 3 population? You're asking for grief letting the machine pick what your city is doing.... My strategy is to get as many hammers AND food simultaneously ... get a (second) warrior in 5-8 turns
while growing...
ivj said:
3) I start pumping out warriors. One after another. Simultaneously, I'm watching my city's happiness level.
I'm familiar with your harrassment techniques... I don't agree that they work, but if I don't have an obelisk or other item to build, I can see pumping out some defense... But, if I may ask, why don't you build a barracks in there? or do you and you just didnt' mention it?
ivj said:
4) The point to stop pumping out warriors is when your unhappy faces = your happy faces. This is when I turn off "emphasize growth", turn on "emphasize production" and "avoid growth". By now, usually the city size is 6 or 7 (while most people don't even have a settler yet).
Without some rough data to back that up, I'll have to disagree... You will
NOT outgrow
my capital by more than one or, being very generous, two population... and I
will have a settler or worker by the time you make it to 7...
ivj said:
5) I should note that the warriors that I built I send out exploring, and probably doing a little early on harrasement. (see
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=137085). Note that when harrassement is used with this strategy, it's effect is amplified, because usually I'd have 5-6 warriors built by the time my city is size 6, and sending 3-4 of them onto one player who's bee building workers and settlers will scare the sh1t out of them. If you want, you can actually caputer their city often time.
Capture? I thought you didn't assault, only harrass? (If I had 4:1 odds, I'd attack, too, though
) But, especially if they built barracks, the warrior's city defense bonus will make your war one of attrition......effectively wasting all those turns you spent making the army, unless you actually capture the city. In that case, it wouldn't be wasted time...
ivj said:
6) Now that my capital's at max, I build a worker.
Well, you certainly have enough escorts for him
ivj said:
7) After worker I build settlers/warriors/archers. My capital is able to produce settlers MUCH faster than some other players' 2 cities with pop 3 each. And not only am I building settlers, I'm building warriors as well.
But while you built 5 warriors, I built stuff, too... And I wouldn't dream of sending a Settler anywhere without an escort...
ivj said:
That's about it. The good thing about this strategy is that it gives you a lot of early muscle. If you use it right (which I do), I usually have 4-5 woodsmen level 2 warriors and 1-2 hillsman (or whatever it's called) level 2 archers. With those units I can do some SERIOUS harrasement, barbarians are no longer a problem, I'm not scared of anyone attacking me, and I have well-trained units that I can soon make into spearmen and axemen.
Where are you getting two promotions from? Your enemy sure hasn't been providing you with XP, from your example, at least?
ivj said:
Like I mentioned earlier, this isn't an all around strategy, so use it wisely. If you start in a damn tundra or something, even at pop 6 your city won't do much good, so it's a good idea to expand early on (or even better idea to take 5-6 turns to get out of the tundra with your first settler).
"If you start in a damn tundra or something," why did I move 2-3 turns INTO a tundra? Oh, nm, I reread it...
ivj said:
This strategy consistently put me on top of the score (and when playing smaller maps, combined with some great harrasement, I'd be 1.5 times higher the next score). I know there are other strategies, but this works for me, and I suggest you give it a shot.
I'd really like to play against you, SuperPro
I really like getting the early techs from scavaging the huts.
I haven't seen a free settler yet...I've only gotten ONE tech, too... (all games so far Noble)
